Abdul Ahad Mohmand

Abdul Ahad Mohmand, born on January 1, 1959, in Sadrkhel, Afghanistan, is the first Afghan to travel to space. He flew on the Soviet spacecraft Soyuz TM-6 on August 29, 1988, spending 9 days aboard the Mir space station. As a flight engineer, he conducted scientific experiments and took photographs of Afghanistan from space. He was also the first Muslim from a non-Arab country to travel to space. Mohmand trained at the Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center in Russia. After returning to Earth, he settled in Germany following the Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan.