Momand was then sent to the
Soviet Union for pilot training. There, he studied at the
Krasnodar Higher Military Aviation School of Pilots and the Kiev Higher Air Force Engineering School before returning to Afghanistan in 1981, where he rose through the ranks, becoming a chief navigator at
Bagram Air Base. Lyakhov and Momand returned to Earth aboard
Soyuz TM-5. The 6 September planned landing of
Soyuz TM-5 was delayed because of mechanical complications on the Mir.
Radio Moscow reassured listeners that Lyakhov and Momand were fine and in touch with Mission Control. However, their sanitation facilities were on board the jettisoned
orbital module and consequently they soiled themselves during the delay. A recording, colloquially called the der’mo tape, was played of them laughing about this. A day later, the retro-fire was successful, and at 00:50 GMT Soyuz TM-5 landed near
Dzhezkazgan. During touchdown, there was no live radio coverage, but only live
television pictures of Mission Control. As Momand returned to
Afghanistan, he was greeted by a large crowd that threw flowers at him, as the
Mujahideen fired a barrage of rockets towards the city of
Kabul. The city was the site of 25 separate rocket attacks in a single day, resulting in 35 dead and 165 injured. Momand was awarded the title of
Hero of the Soviet Union on 7 September 1988 as well as the
Hero of the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan and the
Order of Lenin. During his flight to space, his mother was extremely distraught over the safety of her son. President Najibullah called Momand's mother into the President's office and arranged an audio/video conference between Momand and her. By this event,
Pashto became the fourth language spoken in space. Momand was in India sorting out a complaint regarding
Ariana Airlines during the collapse of Najibullah's government in 1992. Momand decided to emigrate to
Germany, and applied for asylum there, becoming a German citizen via naturalisation in 2003. He received the
Russian
Medal "For Merit in Space Exploration" in 2010. He returned to Afghanistan in 2013, at the request of then-President
Hamid Karzai, for the occasion of the twenty-fifth anniversary of his space mission == Personal life ==