My second birthday is
returning back from space - F.B. said.
Farkas Bertalan, the first
Hungarian astronaut, was born 2nd August, 1949 in Gyulaháza. He took his final
examination in Grammar School of György Bessenyei in Kisvarda.
He first tried to fly in Nyíregyháza and he and three of his classmates decided to sit
for the Aviation Technical College. Three of them passed the exam with success. He
graduated from the Aviation Technical College named after György Kilián and later was
trained as an aviation officer in the Soviet Union.
. 
Between 1972 and 1978 he served as a fighter pilot at the Pápa
fighter aviation unit.
In 1976 the Soviet Union made an offer of flying to astronauts from different countries.
First 36 candidates were suitable from 95, but only 4 of them traveled to Star City near
Moscow, belonged to Bertalan Farkas and Béla Magyari. Between 1978-1980 he was trained as
an astronaut there. The Soyuz-36 spaceship left to space 20.20, 26 May 1980 in Hungarian
time.
In 1980, within the framework of the program entitled intercosmos, together with Soviet
astronauts, V. Kubasov, L Popov and V. Ryumin, he participated in an eight-day long space
journey between 26 May and 3 June 1980. Following this space journey he received the
awards of the Hero of Hungarian People's Republic and the Astronaut of Hungarian People's
Republic.
It is history for who wasn't alive in 1980, who was born, perhaps hard to believe more
than 20 years went by Bertalan Farkas, the first Hungarian cosmonaut flew in space.