The Temirtau city Museum opened the exhibition "Book "Tungysh Kazakh Gharyshkeri Toktar Aubakirov" by T. Suyinbay" online as part of the "Exhibit of the Month" project on April 10, 2025.
Honorary Citizen of the City of Temirtau - how wonderful it sounds! Such a high title is awarded to persons for special merits and personal courage in the performance of professional duties or civic duty, a worthy contribution to the socio-economic development of the region. One of the Honorary Citizens of our city is Tokhtar Aubakirov - the first Kazakhstani cosmonaut, test pilot, professor and doctor of technical sciences.
In 2005, Tokhtar Aubakirov visited our museum and donated a book with the autograph "To the museum of my native city of Temirtau, with gratitude! Always yours, T. Aubakirov." This book is a documentary-artistic essay about Tokhtar Aubakirov, this book contains many interesting facts about the life of the cosmonaut, the content of the book includes the first flight in space, returning to his homeland. The author of the book, Talgat Suyinbay, throughout the work sought to reveal the unique and steppe character of the Hero of the Soviet Union. We recommend that everyone read this book.
Tokhtar Aubakirov was born on July 27, 1946 in the Karkaraly district of the Karaganda region. In Kazakh, the name Toktar means "to stop", he received this name because he was the first son in the family after two girls. Tokhtar's father Ongarbai-ata passed away early, Tokhtar was not even a year old when his mother brought the younger children to Temirtau, to the family of her eldest daughter Biken and son-in-law Nygmettin. The sister's husband replaced Tokhtar's father. Here he went to the first grade of school No. 3. Since childhood, Tokhtar Aubakirov dreamed of becoming a pilot. When he saw an airplane, he fell in love for life: "If they ask me who or what I love most of all, it will be an airplane," he said.
He began his career after finishing 8 grades of secondary school, from 1962 to 1965 he worked as a turner at the foundry and mechanical plant in the city of Temirtau. During his years as a turner, he made triple the norm per shift, without sacrificing quality, for this he was the only one at the entire plant to receive his own mark: "Made by Aubakirov." If such a "brand" was on a part, it went without quality control. For his worthy work at the age of 17, he received his first apartment here in the house at 66, on Dimitrov Street. But young Tokhtar did not betray his dream, and left for the Armavir School. In one of his interviews, Aubakirov said, “I am infinitely grateful to Temirtau, the city that believed in me and gave me a referral to the Armavir School.”
Going towards his goal, he graduated from the Higher Military Flight School of the Air Defense, the school of fighter pilots and the Moscow Aviation Institute. He wanted to test the new generation of aircraft - MiGs.
In June 1976, he became a test pilot at the Ulan-Ude Aviation Plant. Tokhtar Aubakirov took direct part in the creation of the MiG-29K aircraft. In November 1989, T. Aubakirov carried out a life-threatening landing of the MiG-29K aircraft on the heavy aircraft carrier Tbilisi and was the first in the USSR to take off from an aircraft carrier's ski-jump. This was a bright historical event in his life, for this feat he was awarded the highest title - Hero of the Soviet Union. His name was entered into the Guinness Book of Records.
On October 2, 1991, Tokhtar Aubakirov launched into space from Baikonur on the Soyuz TM spacecraft and the Mir orbital complex.
In 1995, for courage and heroism, he was awarded the title of "Halyk Kaharmany" and awarded the "Golden Star" medal. In 2001, he received the title of "Gasyr Sanlagy".
