Spaceship designer Konstantin Feoktistov, the only non-Communist space traveler in the Soviet space program, died Saturday at the age of 83.
The Russian Space Agency said in a statement Sunday that Feoktistov died of unspecified causes in Moscow. In 1964, he traveled aboard the Voskhod spaceship as part of the first group space flight in history.
Feoktistov played a key role in the development of the Voskhod, but approval of his flight met resistance from the Politburo, since Feoktistov was not a Party member at the time. Until 1990, Feoktistov helped design Soviet spaceships and stations such as Soyuz, Progress and Mir.
(AP)
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