Phạm Tuân

Phạm Tuân (born 14 February 1947 in Kiến Xương, Thái Bình province, northern Vietnam) is a retired Vietnamese Air Force fighter pilot and cosmonaut. He was the first Vietnamese person and the first person of Asian origin to travel to space, launching on the Soyuz 37 mission as an Interkosmos research cosmonaut. He also received the title Hero of the Soviet Union.

Tuân began his military service as an infantry soldier before joining the Vietnam People’s Air Force in 1965 as a radar mechanic trainee. Selected for officer pilot training, he graduated from the Krasnodar Flight School in the Soviet Union as a MiG-17 pilot in 1967, then trained on the MiG-21. He served in the 910th Air Training Regiment from 1968 to 1969, developing night interception techniques against U.S. raids, followed by assignments with the 923rd Fighter Regiment (1969–1970) and the 921st Fighter Regiment (1970–1973).

During Operation Linebacker II (the “Christmas Bombings”) from 18 to 27 December 1972, then-Major Tuân engaged U.S. Air Force B-52 Stratofortress bombers at least a dozen times. On 27 December, flying his MiG-21MF (#5121), he closed to within sub-4 km range at supersonic speed and fired two missiles. He reported seeing the missiles strike a B-52D, which went down in flames over the Hòa Bình–Vĩnh Phúc border. This claim—the only alleged air-to-air B-52 kill of the war—is disputed by U.S. records, which attribute the loss to a surface-to-air missile. In the book *Hà Nội - Điện Biên Phủ trên không* (published by the Vietnam People’s Army Publishing House), author Nguyễn Minh Tâm affirms that Tuân shot down the B-52 with two K-13 missiles within 4 kilometers. Tuân later explained that because the B-52 carried many infrared decoys, he had to close to 2–3 kilometers to ensure destruction, even though the minimum safe launch range was 8 kilometers. He noted that many VPAF air-to-air victory claims were counter-claimed as losses to SAMs or anti-aircraft fire, as losing to an enemy pilot was considered “less embarrassing.”

In 1973, Tuân was named Hero of the People’s Armed Forces in Vietnam. In 1980, he received the Vietnam Labor Hero distinction. He became Deputy Commander for Political Affairs of the Vietnam People’s Air Force in 1989, was promoted to Lieutenant General in 1999, and served as Director of the Vietnam Defence Industry from 2000 until his retirement at the end of 2007. His awards include the Order of Ho Chi Minh, the Order of Lenin, and the rare title Hero of the Soviet Union.

Tuân reached the rank of lieutenant colonel before training as a research cosmonaut in the joint USSR-Vietnamese space program. Initially sent to the USSR to train as a radar engineer, he was pressured into flight training due to a shortage of eligible Vietnamese pilots. He was one of three Vietnamese selected by the Soviet Union, and on 1 April 1979, he became a member of the sixth international Interkosmos crew, with Bùi Thanh Liêm as his backup. Launched from Baikonur Cosmodrome on 23 July 1980 aboard Soyuz 37 with Soviet cosmonaut Viktor Gorbatko, Tuân was told only three days before launch that he would be the main pilot. A previous Bulgarian-Soviet mission had been cancelled, and Tuân worried his would be too. During the flight, a technical issue with the engine system arose; Tuân shut down all systems as ordered, and command restored normal operation, allowing the mission to continue.

In orbit, Tuân conducted experiments on melting mineral samples in microgravity, grew azolla plants, and photographed Vietnam from space for mapping. He spent 7 days, 20 hours, and 42 minutes in space, completing 142 orbits, and returned to Earth on 31 July 1980.

Tuân brought aboard Soyuz 37 pictures of former President Hồ Chí Minh and General Secretary Lê Duẩn, along with Hồ Chí Minh’s will and Vietnamese flags, intending to stamp them at the space station and bring them back. He has said his personal relationships with his Russian friends have continued.