CLASSIFICATION: 84/342.
NUMBER OF MISSIONS: 2.
SPACE FLIGHT HOURS: 389 days 14 hours 45 min.
EVA OPERATIONS: 8.
TOTAL EVA TIME: 42 hours 33 min.
PLACE AND DATE OF BIRTH: February 6,1961, Ryasnoe village, Zolocheyvsk district, Kharkov region, UkSSR (Ukraine).
NATIONALITY: Ukrainian.
EDUCATION:
1978 – graduated from Zolocheyvsk secondary school No.1, Kharkov region;
1982 - graduated from the Yeisk Komarov Pilots Military school with the pilot-engineer diploma;
February 1, 1992 – April 7, 1994 studied at the international center for the training systems at the aerospace ecology department, gained a major of the system-aerospace methods of the ecological balanced nature management. He was given a qualification of engineer-ecologist and received certificate of the master for the ecological monitoring.
OCCUPATION BEFORE JOINING COSMONAUT CORPS:
from December 7, 1982 – a pilot, from May 22, 1983 – a senior pilot of fighter bomber air regiment 229 of the Far East Military Command;
from November 21, 1984 – a senior pilot of fighter bomber air regiment 209 of fighter bomber air regiment 33, Khabarovsk region.
DATE OF JOINING COSMONAUT CORPS (GROUP NUMBER, DATE):
January 25, 1989 – by the State Interdepartmental Board decision recommended for the enrollment in the cosmonauts corps of the Air Force Cosmonaut training center (the tenth group);
April 22, 1989 – a cosmonaut-tester candidate of the sixth group;
April 6, 1990 – transferred to the fourth group to the same position;
from April 6,1991 – a cosmonaut-tester of the first group.
RATING:
a third-class military pilot;
an Air Force airborne regiment instructor (1994);
a second-class cosmonaut (1997).
BACK-UP ACTIVITY:
May 1994 to February 1995 – a commander of the third crew (the backup one) on the Primary Expedition-18 to the Mir space station along with A. Poleshchuk;
February to May 1995 – a commander of the Primary Expedition-19 backup crew along with A. Poleshchuk and beginning from April 1995 – with Yu. Usachev;
June 27, 1995 – a backup for A. Solovyev the commander of the Primary Expedition-19 who had the launch aboard the Atlantis reusable space vehicle;
2000 – March 2001 – a commander of the ISS Expedition 2 backup crew. His crewmembers were D. Bursch and K. Waltz.
SPACE FLIGHTS PERFORMED:
The first mission from February 21 to September 2, 1996 – a commander of the Soyuz TM-23 and Mir Primary Expedition-21 crew along with Yu. Usachev. Also worked with S. Lucid (USA, March 24 to September 2, 1996) on the NASA-2 program. Took part in the Cassiopeia program along with V. Korzun, A. Kaleri and Andre-Deshays-Claudie (August 19 through September 2). Worked with the Primary Expedition-20 crew (Yu. Gidzenko, S.Avdeyev and T. Reiter) during the crew rotation phase. During the mission had six EVA operations lasted for 30 hours 31 min. on total. Flight duration: 193 days 19 hours 07 min. 35 sec. Call sign: Skif-1.
The second mission from December 6, 2001 to June 19, 2002 – a commander of the ISS Expediotion-4 primary crew along with K. Bursch (flight-engineer) and D. Waltz (flight-engineer). Performed two EVA operations totaling 12 hours 02 min. Flight duration: 195 days 19 hours 38 min.
AWARDS:
Medal “Gold Star” of the Russian Hero (October 16, 1996),
Two commemorative medals,
Legion of Honor officer (France, 1997),
NASA Medal of Space mission,
NASA Medal of Social Merits.
CURRENT STATUS: June 1, 1997 – an Air Force colonel, the commander of the first cosmonaut group, instructor-cosmonaut-tester

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