Abdul Ahad Momand, the first Afghan astronaut and a national symbol of scientific achievement, died on June 21 at the age of 67. He passed away in a hospital in Stuttgart, Germany, where he had lived since fleeing Afghanistan in 1992 amid the country’s civil war.

Momand was widely mourned within Afghanistan as a pioneering figure. Former President Ashraf Ghani expressed his condolences on social media, praising Momand’s historic contributions and extending sympathies to his family.

Born in the Andar district of Ghazni province in southeastern Afghanistan, Momand trained in military academies both in his home country and in the Soviet Union. In 1988, at age 29, he was selected to participate in a Soviet space program aimed at sending representatives from allied nations into orbit during the era of Soviet control over Afghanistan.

Following months of training, Momand flew aboard the Soyuz TM-6 spacecraft alongside Russian cosmonauts Vladimir Lyakhov and Valery Polyakov. During the nine-day mission, he conducted scientific research aboard the Mir space station. His scheduled return flight aboard Soyuz TM-5 was delayed by a day due to technical issues, resulting in a tense period in cramped, oxygen- and food-limited conditions.

At the time of the mission, Momand highlighted the scientific goals of his flight, which included studying Afghanistan’s mineral resources, hydroelectric potential, glaciers, and earthquake risks. While in orbit, he delivered a televised message emphasizing the futility of violence, stating that conflict could not be seen from space and expressing hope for peace on Earth, particularly in Afghanistan.

Momand also became notable for carrying and reading from the Quran during his mission, a gesture that former President Ghani said introduced Afghanistan’s cultural and Islamic identity to the world beyond its borders. Ghani remarked that his time on space station Mir offered a moment of national pride that helped Afghans momentarily forget the turmoil of the civil wars that plagued the country in the late 1980s.

His legacy resonates among Afghan scientists and citizens. Zahir Ammar, a Jalalabad-based blogger who writes about cosmology, recognized Momand’s mission as a milestone in Afghanistan’s scientific history and noted that he was the first to bring the Pashto language into space. Ammar also lamented that Momand spent his final years in exile rather than in Afghanistan, where his experiences could have inspired younger generations.

Momand is survived by his wife, two daughters, and a son. Details regarding his funeral and memorial services have not yet been released.