Sergei Krikalev

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Sergei Krikalev
Сергей Крикалёв
Krikalev posing in a space suit in front of the Russian flag
Krikalev in 2005
Born (1958-08-27) 27 August 1958 (age 65)
StatusRetired
Nationality
  • Soviet (1958–1991)
  • Russian (1991-present)
Occupation
Mission insignia

Sergei Konstantinovich Krikalev (

cosmonaut and former head of the Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center
.

As a prominent

most time spent in space: a total of 803 days, 9 hours, and 39 minutes.[1]

Krikalev was stranded on board the Mir during the dissolution of the Soviet Union. As the country that had sent him into space no longer existed, his return was delayed and he stayed in space for 311 consecutive days, twice as long as the mission had originally called for.[2]

He retired as a cosmonaut in 2007 and was working[when?] as vice president of Space Corporation Energia. From 2009 to 2014, he headed the Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center.

Biography

Krikalev was born in

Leningrad in the Soviet Union (now Saint Petersburg, Russia). He enjoyed swimming, skiing, cycling, aerobatic flying, and amateur radio operations, particularly from space (callsign U5MIR). He graduated from high school in 1975. In 1981, he received a mechanical engineering degree from the Leningrad Mechanical Institute, now called Baltic State Technical University
.

After graduation in 1981, he joined NPO Energia, the Russian industrial organization responsible for crewed 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

Krikalev 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

) 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, Krikalev, Polyakov, and Volkov continued to conduct experiments aboard the Mir station. Because the arrival of the next crew had been delayed, they prepared the Mir for a period of uncrewed operations before returning to Earth on 27 April 1989.

In April 1990, Krikalev 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, Krikalev began training for the ninth Mir mission which included training for ten EVAs. Soyuz TM-12 launched on 19 May 1991, with Krikalev as flight engineer, Commander Anatoly Artsebarsky, and British astronaut Helen Sharman. Sharman returned to Earth with the following crew after one week, while Krikalev 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, Krikalev 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

Alexander Volkov
remained on board with Krikalev. After the crew replacement in October, Volkov and Krikalev continued Mir experiment operations and conducted another EVA before returning to Earth on 25 March 1992.

Throughout his various missions aboard Mir, Krikalev regularly communicated with various amateur radio operators (hams) across the globe. A particularly lengthy relationship was formed between Krikalev and amateur radio operator Margaret Iaquinto. At one point during one of his stays in space, he contacted her once a day for an entire year. Krikalev and Iaquinto successfully communicated via packet radio for the first time in history between an orbiting space station and an amateur radio operator. They communicated about personal matters, as well as political ones. Iaquinto set up a makeshift digital bulletin board that the Mir cosmonauts would often use to obtain uncensored western news and information regarding the state of the collapsing Soviet Union.[3]

Krikalev was in space when

Sergio & Sergei, directed by Ernesto Daranas.[10]

Space Shuttle

Expedition 11 Commander Sergei Krikalev dons a training space suit.

In October 1992, NASA announced that an experienced cosmonaut would fly aboard a future

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 Krikalev training as his backup.

Krikalev flew on STS-60, the first joint U.S./Russian Space Shuttle Mission. Launched on 3 February 1994, STS-60 was the second flight of the

Remote Manipulator System (RMS) operations during the flight. Following 130 orbits of the Earth in 3,439,705 nautical miles (6,370,334 km), STS-60 landed at Kennedy Space Center, Florida
, on 11 February 1994. With the completion of this flight, Krikalev logged an additional eight days, seven hours, nine minutes in space.

Krikalev returned to duty in Russia following his American experience on STS-60. Periodically he returned to the

Mission Control and ground controllers in Russia supporting joint U.S./Russian Missions STS-63, STS-71, STS-74 and STS-76
.

Krikalev and

Unity
.

Sergei Krikalev with James H. Newman on the left during STS-88

Krikalev 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 and 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

Krikalev was a member of the Expedition 1 crew. They launched 31 October 2000, on a Soyuz rocket from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, successfully docking with the station on 2 November 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.

Krikalev was also the commander of

Sergei Avdeyev.[1]

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 Valeri Tokarev, the crew of Expedition 12.[1]

In completing his sixth space flight, Krikalev logged 803 days and 9 hours and 39 minutes in space, including eight EVAs. He is currently fourth to

most time spent in space
.

Krikalev's contributions to the ISS were not limited to his on-orbit time. On 15 June 2007, Krikalev was brought to the Russian

Mission Control center to instruct Expedition 15 Flight Engineer Oleg Kotov on how he and ISS Commander Fyodor Yurchikhin
could jump-start the Russian segment's crippled computer systems.

Later career

On 15 February 2007, Krikalev 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 crewed space flights.[citation needed] In that office, he was the administrator of the Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center from 2009 to 2014.[11]

In popular culture

A character based on Krikalev features in the 2017 Cuban film drama Sergio and Sergei, in which a professor and amateur radio enthusiast in Havana contacts a cosmonaut named Sergei aboard the Mir space station. The film draws parallels between economic hardships in Cuba at the time and the fall of the Soviet Union, which occurred as the real-life Krikalev was aboard Mir.[12]

Chilean rock band Fulano composed a song after him, named Krikalev, included in their 1997 album "Trabajos Inútiles" (Useless works).

Public activities

From 1999 to 2007, Krikalev was President of the Russian Gliding Federation.

On 14 February 2012, Krikalev was approved as a member of the Public Chamber of the Central Federal District and a confidant of the Prime Minister and presidential candidate Vladimir Putin,[13] and at the first plenary meeting on 14 September of the same year, he was elected Secretary of the Chamber.[14]

On 12 April 2014, Krikalev was appointed Plenipotentiary Representative of the

St. Petersburg.[15][16]

In September 2016, Krikalev became a confidant of the United Russia party in the elections to the State Duma of the 7th Convocation.

Since 2017, Krikalev has been the President of the Aircraft Sports Federation of Russia. On 16 December 2017, at the Baikonur Cosmodrome, he became the Ambassador of the WorldSkills Kazan 2019 Championship.

In January 2018, Krikalev became a confidant of Vladimir Putin in the upcoming presidential elections on 18 March 2018.[17]

Krikalev is a member of the Expert Council of the National Prize "Crystal Compass"[18] and President of the International Environmental Foundation "Clean Seas" (since 2009).[19]

Missions

Awards

He was a member of the Russian and

aerobatic flying teams, and was Champion of Moscow in 1983, and Champion of the Soviet Union
in 1986.

For his contributions to the Russian space program, he was the very first person awarded with the title of Hero of the Russian Federation.

For his space flight experience, he was awarded:

Foreign awards:

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 of 803 days and 9 hours and 39 minutes in space.

On 23 May 2007 Sergei Krikalev was selected as an

.

Krikalev was one of five cosmonauts selected to raise the Russian flag at the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics opening ceremony.[20]

See also

References

Public Domain This article incorporates public domain material from websites or documents of the

National Aeronautics and Space Administration
.

  1. ^ a b c d "Cosmonaut biography: Sergei Krikalyov". spacefacts.de.
  2. ^ a b c Sinelschikova, Yekaterina (28 May 2019). "The last Soviet citizen: The cosmonaut who was left behind in space". www.rbth.com. Retrieved 1 May 2020.
  3. ^ "Paper Radio : The Cosmic Frequency". www.paperradio.net.
  4. ^ "Clocks, gravity and the limits of relativity | Human World | EarthSky". earthsky.org. 29 May 2019. Retrieved 18 January 2024.
  5. ^ McCall, Isaiah (18 April 2021). "Sergei Krikalev Is the Only Man to Ever Time Travel". History of Yesterday. Archived from the original on 17 February 2022. Retrieved 17 February 2021.
  6. ^ "The Last Soviet Citizen". Discover Magazine. Retrieved 1 May 2020.
  7. ^ Dobbs, Michael (7 February 1992). "Junked in Space : Soviet Breakup Means an Orbiting Cosmonaut Is Delayed in Getting Back to Earth". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2 January 2024.
  8. ISSN 0362-4331
    . Retrieved 2 January 2024.
  9. ^ "Andrei Ujica «Out of the Present» 1995. | Φrbit° sφaceφlace :: art in the age øf Φrbitizatiøn". www.orbit.zkm.de.
  10. ^ "Il cosmonauta sovietico rimasto nello spazio mentre non c'era più l'URSS" (in Italian). il Post. 24 May 2018. Retrieved 31 May 2018.
  11. ^ "В "Роскосмосе" сменили куратора пилотируемых программ". РИА Новости (in Russian). 6 November 2021. Retrieved 6 February 2022.
  12. ^ "Sergio and Sergei".
  13. ^ "ЦФО / Новости Общественной палаты ЦФО /Состоялось заседание членов Общественной палаты Центрального федерального округа, утверждённых полномочным представителем Президента Российской Федерации в Центральном федеральном округе". Archived from the original on 14 December 2013. Retrieved 8 June 2023.
  14. ^ "В Рязани состоялось первое пленарное заседание Общественной палаты Центрального федерального округа". Полномочный представитель Президента России в Центральном федеральном округе.
  15. ^ "Летчик-космонавт Крикалев назначен представителем губернатора Севастополя в Москве". meridian.in.ua.
  16. ^ "Космонавт Сергей Крикалёв стал представителем Севастополя в Москве" [Cosmonaut Sergei Krikalev became the representative of Sevastopol in Moscow]. Rossiyskaya Gazeta. 12 April 2014. Archived from the original on 12 May 2014. Retrieved 11 May 2014.
  17. ^ "ЦИК зарегистрировал 259 доверенных лиц Путина на выборах президента - ТАСС". TACC. Retrieved 2 January 2024.
  18. ^ "Экспертный совет" [Expert Council]. Archived from the original on 6 March 2019. Retrieved 22 April 2020.
  19. ^ "О фонде" [About the foundation]. Clean Seas Foundation. Archived from the original on 24 July 2015. Retrieved 24 July 2015.
  20. ^ "The XXII Olympic Winter Games in Sochi in 2014 has opened with a grand show". www.Sochi2014.com. 8 February 2014. Archived from the original on 6 July 2014. Retrieved 11 February 2014.

External links

Preceded by ISS Expedition Commander
17 April 2005 to 10 October 2006
Succeeded by