Nikolay Nikolayevich Rukavishnikov (Russian: Никола́й Никола́евич Рукави́шников; September 18, 1932 – October 19, 2002) was a Soviet cosmonaut who flew three space missions of the Soyuz programme: Soyuz 10, Soyuz 16, and Soyuz 33. Two of these missions, Soyuz 10 and Soyuz 33 were intended to dock with Salyut space stations, but failed to do so.

Biography

Rukavishnikov studied at the Moscow Engineering and Physics Institute and after graduation worked for Sergey Korolev's design bureau. He was selected for cosmonaut training in 1967.

Rukavishnikov became the 50th human to fly in space on April 23, 1971, the launch date of Soyuz 10. He subsequently resigned from the space programme in 1987 and returned to work for the same bureau he started with, by then known as Energia.

He died of a heart attack on October 19, 2002.

He was awarded:

• Twice Hero of the Soviet Union
• Pilot-Cosmonaut of the USSR
• Four Orders of Lenin
• Hero of the Mongolian People's Republic
• Hero of the People's Republic of Bulgaria
• Order of Sukhbaatar (People's Republic of Mongolia)
• Order of Georgi Dimitrov (People's Republic of Bulgaria)