Miguel Diaz-Canel Bermudez, first secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba and president of the country, congratulated today the Hero of the Republic Arnaldo Tamayo on the occasion of his 82nd birthday.

On X, the President sent a big hug to the legendary Cuban cosmonaut, the first in Latin America.

He receives all our admiration and affection, Diaz-Canel wrote in his message on the social network.

A graduate of the Antonio Maceo Grajales Higher School of the Revolutionary Armed Forces, Tamayo reached the rank of first class pilot during his service in the Cuban Air Force and later became an instructor pilot.

In 1975 he was chief of staff of the Santa Clara Aviation Brigade and in 1976 he was promoted to lieutenant colonel, and then in March 1978, he was selected to participate in the Soviet Union's Intercosmos space program.

On September 18, 1980, Tamayo took off together with Yuri Romanenko in the Soyuz 38 spacecraft in a historic flight to the cosmos. He returned to Earth on September 26, after several days of research on the Saliut 6 space station.

Tamayo was the first non-U.S. American to fly into space, the first Cuban and Latin American cosmonaut, as well as the first native Spanish speaker and the first person of African descent to fly into space.