Everything about Sergei Krikalev totally explained
Sergei Konstantinovich Krikalyov (Сергей Константинович Крикалёв, born
August 27 1958) is a
Russian
cosmonaut and veteran of six space flights. He has been dubbed by many "the last Citizen of the
USSR " as in 1991–1992 he spent 311 days, 20 hours and 1 minute aboard the
Mir space station whilst back on Earth the
Soviet Union collapsed. Krikalyov has spent more time in space than any other human being. On
August 16,
2005 at 1:44 a.m. EDT he passed the record of 748 days held by
Sergei Avdeyev. He now has spent a total of 803 days and 9 hours and 39 minutes in space.
Krikalyov was born in
Leningrad (now
St. Petersburg),
Russia. He enjoys swimming, skiing, cycling, aerobatic flying, and
amateur radio operations, particularly from space (callsigns U5MIR and X75M1K).
On
February 15,
2007, Krikalyov was appointed Vice President of the
S.P. Korolev Rocket and Space Corporation Energia (Russian: Ракетно-космическая корпорация "Энергия" им. С.П.Королева) in charge of manned space flights.
Education
Graduated from high school in 1975; in 1981, received
mechanical engineering degree from the
Leningrad Mechanical Institute, now called
Saint Petersburg Technical University.
Special honors
He was a member of the Russian and
Soviet national aerobatic flying teams, and was Champion of
Moscow in 1983, and Champion of the
Soviet Union in 1986. For his space flight experience, he was awarded the title of
Hero of the Soviet Union, the
Order of Lenin, the
French title of
Officier de la Légion d’Honneur, and the new title of
Hero of the Russian Federation. He also has been awarded the
NASA Space Flight Medal (1994, 1998).
He overtook
Sergei Avdeyev's previous record for the career total time spent in space (747.59 days) during
Expedition 11 to the
International Space Station. Krikalev has logged a total 803 days and 9 hours and 39 minutes in space.
On
23 May 2007 Sergei Krikalyov was selected as a honorable citizen of Saint Petersburg together with conductor
Valery Gergiev.
Experience
Energia
After graduation in 1981, he joined
NPO Energia, the Russian industrial organization responsible for manned space flight activities. He tested space flight equipment, developed space operations methods, and participated in ground control operations. When the
Salyut 7 space station failed in 1985, he worked on the rescue mission team, developing procedures for docking with the uncontrolled station and repairing the station’s on-board system.
Mir
Krikalyov was selected as a cosmonaut in 1985, completed his basic training in 1986, and, for a time, was assigned to the
Buran Shuttle program. In early 1988, he began training for his first long-duration flight aboard the
Mir space station. This training included preparations for at least six
EVAs (space walks), installation of a new module, the first test of the new
Manned Maneuvering Unit (MMU), and the second joint Soviet-French science mission.
Soyuz TM-7 was launched on
November 26,
1988, with Krikalyov as flight engineer, Commander
Alexander Volkov, and French astronaut
Jean-Loup Chrétien. The previous crew (
Vladimir Titov,
Musa Manarov, and
Valeri Polyakov) remained on Mir for another 25 days, marking the longest period a six-person crew had been in orbit. After the previous crew returned to Earth, Krikalyov, Polyakov, and Volkov continued to conduct experiments aboard the Mir station. Because arrival of the next crew had been delayed, they prepared the Mir for a period of unmanned operations before returning to Earth on
April 27,
1989.
In April 1990, Krikalyov began preparing for his second flight as a member of the backup crew for the eighth long-duration Mir mission, which also included five EVAs and a week of Soviet-Japanese operations. In December 1990, Krikalyov began training for the ninth Mir mission which included training for ten EVAs.
Soyuz TM-12 launched on
May 19,
1991, with Krikalyov as flight engineer, Commander
Anatoly Artsebarsky, and British astronaut
Helen Sharman. Sharman returned to Earth with the following crew after one week, while Krikalyov and Artsebarsky remained on Mir. During the summer, they conducted six EVAs to perform a variety of experiments and some station maintenance tasks.
In July 1991, Krikalyov agreed to stay on Mir as flight engineer for the next crew, scheduled to arrive in October because the next two planned flights had been reduced to one. The engineer slot on the
Soyuz TM-13 flight on
October 2,
1991, was filled by
Toktar Aubakirov, an astronaut from the Soviet republic of
Kazakhstan, who hadn't been trained for a long-duration mission. Both he and
Franz Viehböck, the first Austrian astronaut, returned with Artsebarsky on
10 October 1991. Commander
Alexander Volkov remained on board with Krikalyov. After the crew replacement in October, Volkov and Krikalyov continued Mir experiment operations and conducted another EVA before returning to Earth on
March 25, 1992.
Space Shuttle
In October 1992, NASA announced that an experienced cosmonaut would fly aboard a future
Space Shuttle mission. Krikalyov was one of two candidates named by the
Russian Space Agency for mission specialist training with the crew of
STS-60. In April 1993, he was assigned as prime mission specialist. In September 1993, Vladimir Titov was selected to fly on
STS-63 with Krikalyov training as his back-up.
Krikalyov flew on STS-60, the first joint U.S./Russian Space Shuttle Mission. Launched on February 3, 1994, STS-60 was the second flight of the
Space Habitation Module-2 (Spacehab-2), and the first flight of the
Wake Shield Facility (WSF-1). During the eight-day flight, the crew of
Discovery conducted a wide variety of materials science experiments, both on the Wake Shield Facility and in the Spacehab, earth observation, and life science experiments. Krikalyov conducted significant portions of the
Remote Manipulator System (RMS) operations during the flight. Following 130 orbits of the Earth in, STS-60 landed at
Kennedy Space Center,
Florida, on
11 February 1994. With the completion of this flight, Krikalyov logged an additional eight days, seven hours, nine minutes in space.
Krikalyov returned to duty in Russia following his American experience on STS-60. Periodically he returned to the
Johnson Space Center in
Houston to work with
CAPCOM in
Mission Control and ground controllers in Russia supporting joint U.S./Russian Missions. To date he's supported
STS-63,
STS-71,
STS-74 and
STS-76.
Krikalyov and
Robert Cabana become the first people to enter the
ISS in December, 1998, when they turned on the lights in the US module
Unity.
Krikalyov flew on
STS-88 Endeavour (4-15 December 1998), the first International Space Station assembly mission. During the 12-day mission the Unity Module was mated with
Zarya module. Two crew members performed three space walks to connect umbilicals and attach tools/hardware for use in future EVAs. The crew also performed
IMAX Cargo Bay Camera (ICBC) operations, and deployed two satellites, Mighty Sat 1 and SAC-A. The mission was accomplished in 185 orbits of the Earth in 283 hours and 18 minutes.
International Space Station
Krikalyov was a member of the
Expedition 1 crew. They launched
October 31,
2000, on a Soyuz rocket from the
Baikonur launch site in Kazakhstan, successfully docking with the station on
November 2,
2000. During their stay on the station they prepared the inside of the orbital outpost for future crews. They also saw the station grow in size with the installation of the U.S. solar array structure and the U.S.
Destiny Laboratory Module. They left the station with the
STS-102 crew, undocking from the station on 18 March with landing at the Kennedy Space Center, Florida, on
21 March 2001.
Krikalyov was also the Commander of
Expedition 11. He lived and worked aboard the
International Space Station on a six-month tour of duty. This was the third time he'd flown to the
International Space Station. Expedition 11 launched from
Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on
14 April 2005 aboard a Soyuz spacecraft and docked with the ISS on
16 April 2005. Following 8 days of joint operations and handover briefings, they replaced the
Expedition 10 crew who returned to earth aboard Soyuz. Expedition 11 plans called for two spacewalks, the first in August from the US
Quest Airlock in US spacesuits, and the second, in September, in Russian spacesuits from the
Pirs airlock.
Expedition 11 undocked from the ISS on
10 October 2005 at 5:49 p.m. EDT and landed in Kazakhstan on
10 October 2005 at 9:09 p.m. EDT. They were replaced by
William S. McArthur and
Valery Tokarev, the crew of
Expedition 12.
In completing his sixth space flight, Krikalyov has logged 803 days and 9 hours and 39 minutes in space, including eight EVAs. He currently holds the record for the
most time spent in space, at just over 804 days.
Krikalyov's contributions to the ISS were not limited to his on-orbit time. On
June 15,
2007, it was Krikalyov himself who was brought into the Russian
Mission Control center to instruct
Expedition 15 Flight Engineer
Oleg Kotov in how he and ISS Commander
Fyodor Yurchikhin could jump-start the Russian segment's crippled computer systems.
Missions
Further Information
Get more info on 'Sergei Krikalev'.
|
External Link Exchanges
Do you know how hard it is to get a link from a large encyclopaedia? Well we're different and will prove it. To get a link from us just add the following HTML to your site on a relevant page:
<a href="http://sergei_krikalev.totallyexplained.com">Sergei Krikalev Totally Explained</a>
Then simply click through this link from your web page. Our crawlers will verify your link, extract the title of your web page and instantly add a link back to it. If you like you can remove the words Totally Explained and embed the link in article text.
As long as your link remains in place, we'll keep our link to you right here. Please play fair - our crawlers are watching. Your site must be closely related to this one's topic. Any kind of spamming, dubious practises or removing the link will result in your link from us being dropped and, potentially, your whole site being banned. |
