Three decades after their historic space flight, Lieutenant General Pham Tuan and Russian cosmonaut Victor Gorbatko met again in HCM City on July 27.

Lieutenant General Pham Tuan and Russian cosmonaut Victor Gorbatko (first and second from the left) met HCM City Chairman Le Hoang Quan (right).

At the meeting, General Pham Tuan recalled his first visit to HCM City after the historic Vietnam-USSR space flight (July 23, 1980). At that time, HCM City Party Secretary Vo Van Kiet (who later became PM) warmly welcomed Pham Tuan and Victor Gorbatko.

Gorbatko expressed his gladness to return to HCM City on the occasion of the 30^th anniversary of Vietnam-USSR space flight. Last year he went to Cam Ranh, Khanh Hoa to attend the ceremony for Vietnamese-USSR fallen soldiers.

Hero Pham Tuan, 63, was the first Vietnamese astronaut and also the first Asian in space. He, along with Soviet cosmonaut Viktor Gorbatko, was launched from Baikonur Cosmodrome on July 23, 1980, onboard the Soyuz 37. They were to service the Salyut 6 station.

During his time in orbit, Pham Tuan performed experiments on melting mineral samples in microgravity. He also carried out plant experiments on azolla and photographed Vietnam from orbit for mapping purposes.

He was in space for 7 days, 20 hours and 42 minutes. He completed 142 orbits and returned to earth on July 31, 1980.

He is now a retired Lieutenant General, director of the General Department of Defense Industry of the Ministry of Defense, and is a non-elected member of the Vietnam National Assembly.