Twice Hero of the Soviet Union. The duration of his three flights was 78 days and 18 hours 18 minutes and 42 seconds. He has the status of a pilot-cosmonaut of the USSR of the third set of the Air Force.
The first Belarusian cosmonaut was born on July 10, 1942 in the village of Komarovka, Brest region, in a peasant family. His father, Ilya Fedorovich, died in 1944 and his mother, Marfa Pavlovna, raised three children alone. After graduating from Tomashivska secondary school in 1959, Pyotr enrolled at the school for the initial training of pilots in the city of Kremenchug. Then he became a cadet at Chernihiv Higher Military School of Pilots named after Lenin's Komsomol. He graduated from it with honors in 1964, majoring in "Combat Application and Operation of Aircraft.
Petr Klimuk made his first flight to the stars as crew chief of Soyuz-13 together with Valentin Lebedev. He stayed in orbit around the Earth for 7 days, 20 hours 55 minutes and 35 seconds.
He graduated from Gagarin Air Force Academy by correspondence and without leaving his main job. In 1978 Pyotr passed to work at Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center as the Head of Political Department. From 1979 to 1984 he was the deputy of the USSR Supreme Soviet of the 10th convocation and from 1989 to 1991 - the People's Deputy of the USSR.
Since July 21, 2004, Colonel-General in the reserve, but continues to be active in one of the committees of the Union State of Russia and Belarus.
Twice Hero of the Soviet Union, Pyotr Klimuk is awarded three Orders of Lenin, Orders "For Service to the Motherland" III and IV degrees, Order "For Service to the Motherland" II degree, Order "For Service to the Motherland in the Armed Forces of the USSR" III degree. He was also awarded with Order of Friendship of Nations, Order "Cross of Grunvald" of I class, Order of Legion of Honor of II class, Order of Nobility and a number of medals. For a series of works on the effects of weightlessness on the human body, Klimuk was awarded the USSR State Prize in 1978 and the Lenin Komsomol Prize for the script of the documentary film Ordinary Space. He is a laureate of the national award "In the Glory of the Motherland" in the category "The Glory of Russia" (2008).
Peter Ilyich shares his memories and impressions in the books "Near the Stars: A Book of One Flight" and "Attack on Zero Gravity.
In the home town of the cosmonaut a cosmonaut museum was opened in the local high school, where he left his personal belongings, and a bronze bust of Pyotr Klimuk was installed in Brest.
