Sergey Volkov

Sergey Aleksandrovich Volkov (Сергей Александрович Волков; born 1 April 1973) is a retired Russian cosmonaut and engineer.

He was a member of three missions to the International Space Station, spending more than a year in total in space.

During his missions he did four spacewalks lasting more than 23 hours in total.

He was born on 1 April 1973 in Chuhuiv, Kharkiv Oblast, Ukraine.

Volkov graduated from Star City high school in 1990 and entered the Tambov Air Force Academy for Pilots.

He graduated in 1995 with a degree of pilot/engineer.

Volkov was awarded the Hero of the Russian Federation medal and Russian Federation Armed Forces medals.

After graduating from Tambov Air Force Academy, Volkov served in the air force as an assistant aircraft commander.

He has mastered the Aero L-29 and L-39, the Ilyushin Il-22, and the Tupolev Tu-134, and has also accumulated 450 flight hours.

He is a Class 3 military pilot.

From December 1997 to November 1999, Volkov underwent general cosmonaut training, and in November 1999, was qualified as a test cosmonaut.

Since January 2000, he has been part of a group of test cosmonauts training for missions to the International Space Station (ISS).

Volkov and his wife Natalia have a son who was born in 2001.

His recreational activities include tennis, windsurfing, reading, and visiting museums.

From August 2001 to February 2003, Volkov trained as part of the Expedition 7 backup crew as a Soyuz-TMA Commander and ISS Flight Engineer.

From March 2003 to December 2004, he trained as part of the Expedition 11 primary crew for launch on the Space Shuttle.

From January 2005 to February 2006, he trained as part of a group of test cosmonauts for missions to the ISS.

In February 2006, he was appointed as a member of the Expedition 13 backup crew and Visiting Crew 10 as a Soyuz TMA Flight Engineer 2 and an ISS Visiting Crew Flight Engineer.

In June 2006, he was appointed a member of the Expedition 17 prime crew as Soyuz TMA Commander and ISS Commander.

The Soyuz TMA-12 spacecraft carrying Volkov along with fellow cosmonaut Oleg Kononenko and South Korean spaceflight participant Yi So-yeon blasted into space on 8 April 2008.

Volkov served as the commander of the ISS expedition 17.

He is the youngest ISS commander to date.

His mission lasted from April to October 2008.

Volkov, Kononeko and space tourist Richard Garriott, the son of astronaut Owen K. Garriott returned to Earth aboard Soyuz TMA-12 on 24 October 2008.

Garriott is the first second-generation American space explorer.

The spacecraft landed at 03:36 GMT 55 miles north of Arkalyk, Kazakhstan.

Later they were lifted to the Kazakhstan Baikonur Cosmodrome by helicopter and then flown to Zvezdny Gorodok (Star City) in Moscow.

Volkov conducted his first spacewalk on 10 July 2008 when he ventured into space from the Pirs docking compartment airlock of the ISS.

On 7 June 2011 (UTC) Volkov returned to space aboard Soyuz TMA-02M to join the crew of Expedition 28.

Expedition 28 crews worked with 111 experiments involving approximately 200 researchers across a variety of fields, including human life sciences, physical sciences and Earth observation, and conduct technology demonstrations ranging from recycling to robotics.

Seventy-three of these experiments are sponsored by NASA, including 22 under the auspices of the U.S. National Laboratory program, and 38 are sponsored by international partners.

More than 540 hours of research are planned.

As with prior expeditions, many experiments are designed to gather information about the effects of long-duration spaceflight on the human body, which will help us understand complicated processes such as immune systems with a plan for future exploration missions.

The station command changed from US astronaut Michael Fossum to US astronaut Daniel Burbank.

With undocking of Soyuz TMA-02M, carrying Volkov, Fossum and Satoshi Furukawa on 21 November 2011 at 23:00 UTC the Expedition 29 concluded and the new ISS Expedition 30 began.

An EVA by Volkov and crewmate Aleksandr Samokutyayev occurred on 3 August 2011 to move a small crane, install a communications terminal and remove and inspect antennas.

Other tasks included installing a materials science experiment and deploying a micro-satellite.

The duration of the spacewalk was 6 hours 23 minutes.

Volkov retired from the Cosmonaut group in February 2017.

Volkov is the first second-generation cosmonaut (and space walker), the son of cosmonaut Aleksandr Volkov.