Muhammad Faris, the first and only cosmonaut from Syria, died on 19 April at the age of 72. Faris reportedly died as a result of long illness in Turkey, where he has lived as a refugee since 2012.
Faris was selected in 1985 as part of the Soviet Union’s Interkosmos program, according to sources. He launched on his first and only spaceflight on July 22, 1987 on Soyuz ™-3 with cosmonauts Aleksandr Viktorenko and Aleksandr Pavlovich Aleksandrov. At the time, he became the first foreign national to fly on a Russian spaceflight and the first one to visit the space station Mir.
There was one arab in space before him Sultan Bin Salman Al Saud, part of the Saudi royal family but Faris was the first professional Arab astronaut.
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