Muslim Astronaut Who Took Quran to Space Dies at 67

IQNA – Abdul Ahad Momand, the first Afghan astronaut to travel to space and who took a copy of the Quran with him to space, has died in Germany after battling cancer.

Momand made history by carrying a copy of the Quran on his 1988 mission to the Soviet Mir space station. He recited verses from the Quran in space, a move that garnered widespread attention at the time.

During the same mission, he made a phone call to his mother from the space station, making Pashto the fourth language spoken in space. Abdul Ahad was 29 years old when he took part in that historic mission.

Former Afghan President Ashraf Ghani expressed his condolences over Momand’s death, praising his efforts and emphasizing that he represented Afghanistan to the world and carried its national flag and message into space.

Abdul Ahad Momand was born in 1959 in the village of Sardi in Ghazni province of Afghanistan. He received his primary education in his hometown and then moved to Kabul, the capital, to continue his studies.

After enrolling in the Polytechnic Institute in the capital, he traveled to the former Soviet Union, where he received specialized aviation training.

After returning to Afghanistan, he served as a pilot in the Air Force at Bagram Air Base between 1981 and 1984. He then pursued his higher education at the Kiev Institute of Aviation Engineers. During this period, he successfully passed the space flight qualification tests as part of a group of Afghan pilots.

On August 29, 1988, he flew to the Mir space station and returned to Earth on September 7 of the same year. Although the mission was supposed to last eight days, it was extended by another day due to a technical fault that was successfully resolved.

Immigration to Germany

After returning from space, Momand continued his scientific and professional activities. He studied in Moscow, worked at the Afghan Academy of Sciences, and served as Deputy Minister of Aviation and Tourism for Technical Affairs.

After the start of the Afghan civil war in 1992, the astronaut left the country with his family for Germany and settled in Stuttgart. There, in addition to his private sector activities, he worked at the Space Research Center of the University of Stuttgart.

Momand lived in Germany with his wife and three children until his death.

He left behind a scientific and historical legacy that has made him one of the most prominent Afghan figures in the field of space exploration.

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