Editing Anatoly Solovyev (section)

==Cosmonaut==
He was selected for Cosmonaut training 23 August 1976 as a member of TsPK-6. Uniquely, this group was to train as pilots for the [[Buran programme]] (Soviet "space shuttle"), and as such had to also qualify as test pilots.<ref>{{cite book|title=World Manned Cosmonautics - History, Equipment, People (Russian language)|editor=Yuri M. Baturin |publisher=Moscow Publishing House|date=2005|page=600}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ebRNMq15k40|title=Cosmonauts' Encyclopedia, Anatoly Solovyev (Russian language)|publisher=Studio Roscosmos|accessdate=2018-03-26}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.astronautix.com/t/tspk-6astronautgroup1976.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170617055938/http://www.astronautix.com/t/tspk-6astronautgroup1976.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=June 17, 2017|title=TsPK-6 Astronaut Group, 1976|publisher=astronautix.com|date=|accessdate=2017-12-10}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://ru.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Соловьёв,_Анатолий_Яковлевич|title=Соловьёв, Анатолий Яковлевич (Solovyev, Anatoly Yakovlevich)|publisher=Wikipedia Russia|date=|accessdate=2017-10-31}}</ref>{{Circular reference|date=June 2018}} To do so the group first attended the 267th Centre for Testing Aviation Equipment and Training Test Pilots at [[Akhtubinsk]] where they passed as test pilots (third class). This was followed up by a year's training to qualify as Cosmonauts. They then returned to Akhtubinsk for further training as test pilots (second class). In addition he qualified as a parachutist and diver. In January 1979 he was appointed as a Test Cosmonaut in OK CPC (aerospace vehicles) working on Buran.

Delays with Buran and increased need for space station crews resulted in his transferring to training for the [[Interkosmos]] programme in January 1982. The following year he was designated as a reserve crew commander for missions to Salyut 7, with [[Aleksandr Serebrov]] and Nikolai Moskalenko. In 1985 he was assigned as reserve crew commander of Soyuz T-15 with [[Viktor Savinykh]]. The following year he was assigned as back up commander of the Soyuz TM-3 mission to Mir with Savinykh and Munir Habib (Syria).<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.spacefacts.de/mission/english/soyuz-tm3.htm|title=Soyuz TM-3|publisher=spacefacts.de|date=|accessdate=2017-12-10}}</ref>

He was commander for the 9-day [[Mir EP-2]] visiting ("lifeboat" swap) crew June 1988 launched aboard [[Soyuz TM-5]] and returned aboard [[Soyuz TM-4]]. His crew were [[Viktor Savinykh]] and [[Aleksandr Panayotov Aleksandrov|Aleksandr Aleksandrov]] (of Bulgaria). He thus became the 65th Soviet Cosmonaut with the personal callsign "Spring".<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.astronautix.com/s/solovyov.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161227215120/http://astronautix.com/s/solovyov.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=December 27, 2016|title=Solovyov, Anatoly Yakovlevich|publisher=astronautix.com|date=|accessdate=2017-12-10}}</ref>

He then served as the back up commander for [[Soyuz TM-8]]. Commander 179 day [[Soyuz TM-9]]/[[Mir EO-6]] long-duration mission February to August 1990, with [[Aleksandr Nikolayevich Balandin|Aleksandr Balandin]]. This included an EVA to repair thermal blankets on Soyuz TM-9, and a second EVA when repairs to the [[Kvant-2]] module hatch were unsuccessfully attempted.

He served as reserve crew commander with Andrei Zaytsev for Mir EO-10 but the crew was disbanded after flight programme changes. He was back up commander [[Mir EO-11]]/[[Soyuz TM-14]].

He was commander for the 188-day [[Mir EO-12]]/[[Soyuz TM-15]] with [[Sergei Avdeyev]], from July 1992 until February 1993. He conducted four more EVAs during the mission. Launching only with them was [[Michel Tognini]] of France.

He served as back up commander of [[Mir EO-18]], and then as commander of [[Mir EO-19]] with [[Nikolai Budarin]]. They launched as passengers aboard [[Space Shuttle Atlantis|Space Shuttle ''Atlantis'']] on the [[STS-71]] mission in June 1995. This was at the first Orbiter docking with Mir, and the EO-19 crew undocked [[Soyuz TM-21]] briefly to observe and photograph the departure of ''Atlantis''.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/shuttle/shuttlemissions/archives/sts-71.html|title=Shuttle Missions, Archives, STS-71|publisher=NASA|date=|accessdate=2017-12-10}}</ref> Solovyev also performed three EVAs. They returned to Earth aboard [[Soyuz TM-21]] in September after 75 days.

[[File:Christmas 1997 on the Mir Space Station2.jpg|thumb|[[Pavel Vinogradov]] (left) and Solovyev (right) celebrate Christmas in 1997 during [[Mir EO-24]] ]]

His final space mission was as commander of [[Mir EO-24]]/[[Soyuz TM-26]] for 197 days from August 1997 until February 1998 with [[Pavel Vinogradov]]. After an automatic [[Kurs (docking navigation system)|Kurs]] approach, Solovyev performed the final docking manually when he was unable to verify the accuracy of the automatic targeting. They joined NASA astronaut [[Michael Foale]] who transferred from [[EO-23]] until his departure aboard ''Atlantis''. He was replaced by [[David Wolf (astronaut)|David Wolf]] and then [[Andy Thomas|Andrew Thomas]] who remained to join [[EO-25]]. His first EVA on 22 August 1997 was an unusual "internal spacewalk"<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.spacefacts.de/mir/english/mir-24.htm|title=Resident Crews of the Mir: Expedition 24 (EO-24)|publisher=spacefacts.de|date=|accessdate=2017-11-01}}</ref>  to connect power and survey damage to the depressurised Spektr module. This had been holed in the collision with [[Progress M-34]] on 25 June.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://history.nasa.gov/SP-4225.pdf|title=Shuttle-Mir NASA SP-2001-4225 (page 109)|author=C. Morgan|date=|accessdate=2017-11-01}}</ref> Solovyev performed six more EVAs to set a world record total of 16, with a world record combined duration of 82 hours 21 minutes. He commented:

"It just came about. I never referred to my numbers as a record, nor did I ever think about beating someone else's accomplishments before going out on a walk."<ref>{{cite web|url=https://russkiymir.ru/en/publications/223915/|title=Cosmonaut Anatoly Solovyev: Studying space is costly, but it has to be done|publisher=Russkiy Mir Foundation|author=S. Vinogradov|date=|accessdate=2017-11-01}}</ref>

He was tapped to be on the crew of the first expedition to occupy the International Space Station. However he declined to serve under an American commander for the long-duration mission, since his experience of long duration spaceflight far exceeded that of any American astronaut.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Anatoly-Yakovlevich-Solovyov|title=Anatoly Yakovlevich Solovyov|author=A.A. Siddiqi|date=|accessdate=2017-11-01}}</ref>

Solovyev left the Cosmonaut Detachment in 1999 having reached compulsory retirement age and became the president of "For the Good of the Fatherland", a national organisation recognising the work of Russians devoted to cultural and social development.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Anatoly-Yakovlevich-Solovyov|title=Anatoly Yakovlevich Solovyov|author=A.A. Siddiqi|date=|accessdate=2017-11-01}}</ref>