Afghanistan on Monday bid farewell to its first and only cosmonaut, Abdul Ahad Momand, whose body was returned from Germany and laid to rest in Kabul with full state honors.

Momand died on June 21 in Stuttgart, Germany, following a battle with cancer. He was 67 years old.

Funeral prayers were held at Kabul’s historic Eidgah Mosque, attended by his family, members of the public and senior officials of the Islamic Emirate.

Following the prayers, his body was taken to Maranjan Hill, where he was buried during an official ceremony honoring one of Afghanistan’s most celebrated national figures.

Officials paid tribute to Momand as a pioneering scientist and national hero, describing his achievements as a source of pride for Afghanistan and encouraging young Afghans to follow his example in the fields of science, education and exploration.

Momand made history on August 29, 1988, when he became the first – and to date the only – Afghan to travel into space. Selected from hundreds of candidates, the former Afghan Air Force pilot joined the then Soviet Intercosmos programme and launched aboard the Soyuz TM-6 spacecraft to the Mir space station alongside Soviet cosmonauts Vladimir Lyakhov and Valery Polyakov.

During the mission, Momand spent nearly nine days in orbit, conducting scientific experiments and Earth observation activities.

He also made history by speaking in Pashto from space during a live conversation with Afghanistan’s then-president, Mohammad Najibullah, becoming the first Afghan – and one of the first people – to use the language beyond Earth.

The mission nearly ended in tragedy when a malfunction delayed the Soyuz spacecraft’s return to Earth, leaving the crew stranded in orbit for an extra day while engineers worked to restore the landing system. The spacecraft eventually landed safely in Kazakhstan, and Momand returned to Kabul to a hero’s welcome.

Following his spaceflight, he served as Afghanistan’s deputy minister of civil aviation. However, after the collapse of the Soviet-backed government in 1992 and the outbreak of civil war, Momand left the country and eventually settled in Germany, where he lived with his family for more than three decades.

Although he built a new life abroad, Momand continued to express hope for Afghanistan’s future and remained an enduring symbol of what Afghans could achieve in science and technology.

His death has also renewed discussion about Afghanistan’s dormant space ambitions. Despite producing the country’s only cosmonaut, Afghanistan’s national space institute has remained largely inactive for years, with many observers calling for renewed investment in science, education and technological development to build on Momand’s historic legacy.

For many Afghans, Abdul Ahad Momand’s journey from a young boy fascinated by the skies to the nation’s first cosmonaut remains one of the country’s greatest scientific achievements and a lasting source of national pride.