Nikolai Budarin

Musabayev and Budarin together with NASA astronaut Andy Thomas became the 25th resident crew of Mir.

First in the focus of the crew was the French mission PEGASE which was mainly dedicated to the life sciences, physical sciences physiques and space technology.

They also worked on common scientific experiments.

Nikolai Mikhailovich Budarin (Николай Михайлович Бударин) (born April 29, 1953 in Kirya, Chuvashia) is a retired Russian cosmonaut, a veteran of three extended space missions aboard the Mir Space Station and the International Space Station.

He has also performed eight career spacewalks with a total time of 44 hours.

From 1971 to 1973 Budarin was serving the Soviet Army in Czechoslovakia.

Budarin occupied various engineering positions at NPO Energia where he was involved in experimental investigations and testing of space technology.

From 1976 he was employed as an electrician, from 1978 as an electrical foreman, from 1982 as a test engineer, from 1986 as the head of a group, from 1988 until joining the cosmonauts corps as the lead specialist, head of a group at the NPO Energia check-out and testing facility.

They have two sons, Dmitry born in 1977 and Vladislav, born in 1983.

His hobbies include fishing, skiing, picking mushrooms, tourism and cycling.

Specializing in aircraft manufacturing, Budarin graduated from the night-time education department of Ordzhonikidze Moscow Aviation Institute in 1979 with a mechanical engineering diploma.

His father, Mikhail Romanovich Budarin, died in 1984.

His mother, Alexandra Mikhailovna Budarina, died in 1986.

Named a cosmonaut candidate in 1989, Budarin's first space mission was a long-term assignment aboard the space station Mir in 1995.

In February 1989 he was enrolled in the Energia cosmonaut detachment as a candidate test cosmonaut.

From September 1989 to January 1991, he underwent a complete basic space training course at the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center and passed a State examination and was qualified as a Test Cosmonaut.

From February 1991 to December 1993, he took an advanced training course for the Soyuz-TM transport vehicle and the Mir Station flight.

From May 1994 till February 1995 he completed training as the flight engineer of the backup crew of Soyuz TM-21 under Expedition-18/NASA-1 program, and, simultaneously, as the flight engineer of the main crew of Mir under Expedition-19 (Mir EO-19) program.

From March 27 till May 1995, Budarin was trained for a mission under Mir EO-19 program as the flight engineer of the first crew, and from May 15 to June 26, he trained for the STS-71 mission in the United States.

From June 27 to September 11, 1995, Budarin participated in a space mission as a board engineer of the 19th long-term Mir expedition.

He was launched into space by on the STS-71 mission.

Atlantis lifted off from the Kennedy Space Center at 19:32:19 UTC on June 27, 1995.

After 2 days of solo flight the space shuttle docked with the Mir station on June 29, 1995, at 13:00:16 UTC.

Budarin spent 75 days, 11 hours and 20minutes in space and landed on the Soyuz TM-21 spacecraft.

The Soyuz capsule carrying Budarin and cosmonaut Anatoly Solovyev landed on September 11, 1995 at 06:52:40 UTC, 108 km north east of Arkalyk.

Since then, he again made extended stays on Mir in 1998 and the International Space Station Expedition 6 from 2002 to 2003.

Nikolai Budarin is married to Marina Lvovna Budarina (née Sidorenko).

From January 28 to August 25, 1998, he participated in a space mission as a board engineer of the 25th long-term expedition aboard the Mir orbital station.

The Soyuz TM-27 spacecraft with Budarin, cosmonaut Talgat Musabayev and ESA astronaut Léopold Eyharts lifted off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome on January 29, 1998, at 16:33:42 UTC.

Following a two-day autonomous flight the Soyuz spacecraft docked with the Mir station on January 31, 1998.

Soyuz TM-27 carrying Budarin, Musabayev and Yuri Baturin landed near Dzhezkazgan on August 25, 1998 at 05:24:44 UTC.

During the Soyuz and Mir missions Budarin spent 207 days, 12 hours and 51 minutes in space.

From November 23, 2002 to May 3, 2003, Budarin logged 161 days, 1 hour and 14 minutes in space as Expedition 6 Flight Engineer aboard the International Space Station.

The Expedition 6 crew was launched by Space Shuttle on the STS-113 mission.

Endeavour launched into space from the KSC LC-39A on November 24, 2002, at 00:49:47 UTC and docked with the International Space Station (ISS) on 25 November 2002 at 21:59 UTC.

During the stay aboard the ISS, Budrain spent time between several Russian science and medical experiments.

One experiment called Diatomeya involved observation of ocean surface in order to determine regions best suited for fishing.

Another was to monitor glacier dynamics from space to better understand the effects of global warming.

The medical research he conducted studied the effects of microgravity on the human body.

Since 2007 he is a member of the Russian parliament, the State Duma, representing the pro-Kremlin United Russia party.