 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
Educated LMI. Total EVA Time: 1.71 days. Number of EVAs: 8.
Official NASA Biography - 1997
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 EVA's (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 Krikalev as flight engineer, Commander Alexander Volkov, and French Astronaut Jean-Loup Chretien. The previous crew (Vladimir Titov, Musa Manarov, and Valeri Polyakov) remained on MIR for another twenty-five 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 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, Krikalev began preparing for his second flight as a member of the backup crew for the eighth long-duration MIR mission, which also included 5 EVA's and a week of Soviet-Japanese operations. In December 1990, Krikalev began training for the ninth MIR mission which included training for 10 EVA's. Soyuz TM-12 launched on May 19, 1991, with Krikalev as flight engineer, Commander Anatoly Artsebarsky, and British astronaut Helen Sharman. Sharman returned to Earth with the previous crew after one week, while Krikalev and Artsebarsky remained on MIR. During the summer, they conducted six EVA's 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 engineer slot on the Soyuz-13 flight on October 2, 1991, was filled by Toctar Aubakirov, an astronaut from the Soviet republic of Kazakhstan, who had not been trained for a long-duration mission. Both he and Franz Viehbok, the first Austrian astronaut, returned with Artsebarsky on October 10, 1991. Commander 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 March 25, 1992.
In completing his second mission, Krikalev logged more than 1 year and 3 months in space, including seven EVA's.
In October 1992, NASA announced that an experienced cosmonaut would fly aboard a future Space Shuttle mission. Krikalev 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 Krikalev training as his back-up.
Krikalev 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 8-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. Krikalev conducted significant portions of the Remote Manipulator System (RMS) operations during the flight. Following 130 orbits of the Earth in 3,439,705 miles, STS-60 landed at Kennedy Space Center, Florida, on February 11, 1994. With the completion of this flight, Krikalev logged an additional 8 days, 7 hours, 9 minutes in space.
Krikalev returned to duty in Russia following his American experience on STS-60. He periodically returns 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 has supported STS-63, STS-71, STS-74 and STS-76. Krikalev is assigned to the first International Space Station crew. A three person crew will be launched to the Space Station aboard a Soyuz rocket from the Baikonur launch site in Kazakhstan in January 1999.
Birth Place: Leningrad, Leningrad.
Status: Inactive.
Born: 1958.08.27.
Spaceflights: 6 .
Total time in space: 803.40 days.
On December 5 at 22:25 GMT Nancy Currie unberthed the Unity space station node from the payload bay using the RMS arm. She then moved the Unity to a position docked to the Orbiter Docking System in the payload bay in readiness for assembly with the Russian-launched Zarya FGB ISS component. After rendezvous with the Zarya FGB module, on December 6 at 23:47 GMT Endeavour grappled Zarya with the robot arm, and at 02:07 GMT on December 7 it was soft docked to the PMA-1 port on Unity. After some problems hard dock was achieved at 02:48 GMT. Unity and Zarya then formed the core of the future International Space Station. Ross and Newman made three space walks to connect cables between Zarya and Unity, on December 7, 9 and 12. On the last EVA a canvas tool bag was attached to the exterior of Unity to provide tools for future station assembly workers. Docking cables were disconnected to prevent Unity and Zarya from inadvertently undocking. Following an internal examination of the embryonic space station, Endeavour undocked at 20:30 GMT on December 13. The SAC-A and Mightysat satellites were ejected from the payload bay on December 14 and 15. Deorbit burn was December 16 at 03:48 GMT, and Endeavour landed at 04:53:29 GMT, on Runway 15 at the Kennedy Space Center.
Payloads included:
