Abdul Ahad Momand, an Afghan air force pilot who served on the Mir space station, dies at 67

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — Abdul Ahad Momand, Afghanistan ’s first citizen in space, has died at age 67, his family and friends said.

A national hero, Momand died from cancer on June 21 in a hospital in Stuttgart, Germany, where he had lived since leaving Afghanistan in 1992 during the civil war.

“I am deeply saddened by the sudden death of Afghanistan’s first and only astronaut, Abdul Ahad Momand,” former President Ashraf Ghani wrote on X. “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.”

In 1988, Momand — then a 29‑year‑old air force pilot — was selected to join a Soviet space program designed to send representatives from aligned nations into orbit, at a time when Afghanistan was under Soviet control.

After months of training, he 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. His return aboard another spacecraft, the 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.

An Associated Press report at the time noted that Momand, whose surname was then spelled Mohmand, highlighted his prior role in a joint Soviet‑Afghan military effort to end an insurgency in his homel...