Abdul Ahad Momand Dies At 67 After Cancer Battle In Stuttgart, Germany

Abdul Ahad Momand, Afghanistan’s first and only astronaut, died at 67 on June 21 after battling cancer at a hospital in Stuttgart, Germany, where he had been living since leaving Afghanistan in 1992 during the civil war.

“Abdul Ahad Momand, first Afghan in space, dies at 67 in Germany Cosmonaut Abdul Ahad Momand, Afghanistan’s first citizen in space, has died at age 67 KABUL, Afghanistan -- Abdul Ahad Momand, Afghanistan ’s first citizen in space, has died at age 67, his family and friends said”

ABC News

In 1988, the 29-year-old former Afghan Air Force pilot was selected to participate in the Soviet Union’s Intercosmos programme, and after months of training he launched aboard Soyuz TM-6 with Soviet cosmonauts Vladimir Lyakhov and Valery Polyakov.

ABC News

Momand spent nine days aboard the Mir space station carrying out scientific experiments and research, and his return to Earth aboard Soyuz TM-5 was delayed by a day due to technical issues.

Before the mission, Momand said the spaceflight would help study Afghanistan’s mineral resources, hydroelectric potential, glaciers and earthquake risks, and while in orbit he delivered a televised message expressing hope for peace in his war-torn homeland.

He also carried a copy of the Quran during his historic mission, and former Afghan President Ashraf Ghani paid tribute on social media, describing him as Afghanistan’s first and only astronaut.

Former President Ashraf Ghani wrote on X, “I am deeply saddened by the sudden death of Afghanistan's first and only astronaut, Abdul Ahad Momand,” and he added, “I pray to God to grant Momand a high place in heaven, and I extend my deepest condolences to his wife, children, and other family members.”

The ABC News account says Momand flew aboard Soyuz TM-6 with Russian cosmonauts Vladimir Lyakhov and Valery Polyakov, spending nine days in space and conducting scientific research on the Mir space station.

collectSPACE

ABC News also says his return aboard Soyuz TM-5 was delayed by a day due to technical problems, leaving him and Lyakhov stranded in cramped conditions and at risk of being left without food and oxygen.

In the same ABC News report, an Associated Press account from that time said Momand highlighted his earlier role in a joint Soviet-Afghan military effort to end an insurgency in his homeland and cited him as saying he had flown hundreds of attack missions.

A Jalalabad-based blogger on cosmology, Zahir Ammar, paid tribute in ABC News, writing, “Abdul Ahad Momand is the first Afghan astronaut in the entire scientific history of the country to go into space” and adding that he “took the Holy Quran with him into space.”

Before launching, Momand told Sovietskaya Rossiya that his mission would help identify Afghanistan’s mineral resources, assess hydroelectric potential and study glaciers and earthquake risks, according to the Associated Press report cited by ABC News.

“Abdul Ahad Momand, first Afghan in space, dies at 67 Abdul Ahad Momand, Afghanistan's first and only astronaut, has died at the age of 67 after battling cancer”

Daily Pioneer

ABC News says the AP report also described a televised message from orbit in which Momand said, “I would like to believe that such will be the situation on the land inhabited by my brothers and sisters, on the land of our fathers and mothers who have suffered so much during the years of the war,” he was quoted as saying.

The Daily Pioneer account adds that Momand’s televised message expressed hope for peace and that violence could not be seen from space.

In the same Daily Pioneer report, Momand’s Quran gesture is described as a gesture “that was widely remembered in Afghanistan,” and it notes he was born in the Andar district of Ghazni province.

After his death, funeral and memorial arrangements were not announced, and he is survived by his wife, two daughters and a son.