Poland’s Only Cosmonaut, Who Circled Earth in 1978, Has Died

Poland’s Only Cosmonaut, Who Circled Earth in 1978, Has Died
Miroslaw Hermaszewski, Polish astronaut, Association of Space Explorers, attends a discussion on "The influence of Space Technologies on our lives" during XXII Economic Forum in Krynica Zdroj, Poland, on Sept. 5, 2012. Bartek Wrzesniowski/AFP/GettyImages
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WARSAW, Poland—Poland’s only cosmonaut, Gen. Miroslaw Hermaszewski, who circled the Earth in a Soviet spacecraft in 1978, has died. He was 81.

The retired air force pilot’s death on Monday was announced via Twitter by his son-in-law, European Parliament member Ryszard Czarnecki. He later told Polish media outlets that Hermaszewski died at a hospital in Warsaw of complications from a surgery he had undergone in the morning.