Mukhtar Aymakhanov

Mukhtar Rabatuly Aymakhanov (Kazakh: Мұхтар Рабатұлы Аймаханов, Muhtar Rabatuly Aımahanov; born January 1, 1967 in Zhosaly, Kazakhstan) is a Russian cosmonaut; he was originally a Kazakhstani cosmonaut.

Aimakhanov and Aidyn Aimbetov were selected as the first class of Kazakh cosmonauts in 2002, for the Kazakhstan National Space Agency, KazCosmos. They trained at Star City as cosmonauts from 2003 to 2009, until the world financial crisis indefinitely postponed the prospective Kazakhstan mission.

The Kazakh mission finally took place in September 2015 aboard Soyuz TMA-18M after prospective Space tourist Sarah Brightman pulled out from the flight. Aimbetov flew with Russian cosmonaut Sergey Prokopiev as his backup since Aymakhanov had already left KazCosmos and joined Roscosmos by the time of the flight.

In 2012, to pursue his cosmonaut dreams, Aymakhanov became a Russian citizen, and gave up his Kazakhstani citizenship.