Phạm Tuân is a Vietnamese pilot and cosmonaut. He was born on February 14, 1947, in Quôc Tuc. He was the first Vietnamese person to go into space.
As a pilot and engineer, Tuân joined the Vietnam People's Air Force in 1965, where he learned how to fly and build planes. After the Vietnam War, his government said that he had become the first person in the world to shoot down an American B-52 bomber. The U.S. government said that B-52s were only brought down by surface-to-air missiles. During the Soviet Union's Intercosmos programme, the Vietnamese government chose Tuân to represent his country. This was four years after Vietnam had been reunited and the US had left. In this programme, non-Soviet cosmonauts flew with experienced Soviet crews on missions that were meant to show solidarity with the Warsaw Pact and other countries that were supportive of the Soviet Union. Tuân was in space for 7 days, 20 hours, and 42 minutes, completing 142 orbits, and returned to Earth on 31 July 1980.
Tuân was a hero of the Soviet Union and a hero in Vietnam when he came back. As an air force lieutenant general, he went back to the military and served there for a long time. In the end, he became a member of the National Assembly and was named head of the General Department for Defense Industry. In 2008, he left the air force and retired.
What was his last position in the army?
Head of Vietnam People's Army
Director of the National Assembly
Director of the General Department for Defense Industry
Head of Intercosmos program