Valeri Fyodorovich Bykovsky (2 August 1934, Pavlovsky Posad – 27 March 2019, Leonikha) was a Soviet cosmonaut. A jet fighter pilot from 1959, he was selected into the first Soviet cosmonaut group in March 1960. His flight aboard Vostok 5 (14–19 June 1963, 81 orbits, 4 days 23 hours) set a world record for the longest solo spaceflight at the time. He also flew aboard Soyuz 22 (1976) and Soyuz 31 (1978), alongside East German cosmonaut Sigmund Jähn. He wrote Bonjour Cosmos! immediately after his historic flight.