Abdul Ahad Momand, Afghanistan's first astronaut and the first person to recite the Holy Quran in space, has died in Germany at the age of 67 after a prolonged illness, according to EurAsian Times.
Momand passed away on June 21 in Stuttgart, where he had lived with his family since fleeing Afghanistan in 1992. A family member said he had been battling cancer.
A former Afghan Air Force fighter pilot, Momand made history in August 1988 when he travelled to the Soviet Union's Mir space station aboard a Soyuz spacecraft, becoming the first Afghan in space. During the nine-day mission, he carried a copy of the Quran, becoming the first person to recite the Islamic holy book in orbit. He was also the first to speak Pashto from space, said the report.
Born in Ghazni Province in 1959, Momand studied aviation and aerospace in the former Soviet Union before joining the Afghan Air Force. He later trained at the Gagarin Air Force Academy and was selected for the Soviet space program.
Momand's mission came as the Soviet Union was withdrawing its forces from Afghanistan and was widely viewed as part of Moscow's efforts to showcase continued support for the Soviet-backed government in Kabul. The publication said the flight reflected the Cold War-era use of space missions as instruments of diplomacy and political messaging.
The mission was also marked by a critical in-flight emergency. During the return journey, Momand reportedly detected a computer malfunction that would have caused the spacecraft to discard its fuel and batteries. He stopped the sequence, averting what space historian James Oberg later described as a potentially fatal outcome, added the report.
After returning to Earth, Momand was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union and later served as Afghanistan's deputy minister of aviation and tourism.
Following the collapse of the Soviet-backed government in 1992, he left Afghanistan and settled in Germany with his family. He initially worked at the University of Stuttgart's Institute for Cosmological Research before later taking jobs in the private sector, including as an accountant.
Despite his historic achievements, Momand lived a largely private life in exile and remained little known in his homeland, the report concluded.
