Gennady Padalka

Gennady Ivanovich Padalka (Гeннадий Иванович Падалка; born 21 June 1958 in Krasnodar, Soviet Union) is a Russian Air Force officer and Roscosmos cosmonaut.

Padalka held the world record for the most time spent in space at 878 days until Oleg Kononenko broke this record on February 4, 2024 at 07:30:08 UTC and is currently at 2nd position.

He worked on both Mir and the International Space Station.

Padalka is married to Irina Anatoliyevna Padalka (Ponomareva).

They have three daughters: Yuliya, Yekaterina, and Sonya.

He enjoys the theater, parachute sport and diving.

Padalka graduated from Yeysk Military Aviation College in 1979.

After graduation, he served as a pilot and later a senior pilot in the Russian Air Force, eventually attaining the rank of colonel.

He has logged 1500 flight hours in six types of aircraft as a First Class Pilot in the Russian Air Force.

In addition, he has performed more than 300 parachute jumps as an Instructor of General Parachute Training.

Gennady Padalka was selected as a cosmonaut candidate to start training at the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center in 1989.

From June 1989 to January 1991, he attended basic space training and in 1991 was qualified as a test-cosmonaut.

Padalka also worked as an engineer-ecologist at the UNESCO International Center of Instruction Systems until 1994.

He is an investigator for the Advanced Diagnostic Ultrasound in Microgravity Project, a US Government funded study investigating strategies for applying diagnostic telemedicine to space.

Padalka is a recipient of the Hero Star of the Russian Federation and the title of Russian Federation Test-Cosmonaut.

He is decorated with Fatherland Service Medal fourth class, Medals of the Russian Federation and also Medal of the International Fund of Cosmonautics support for Service to Cosmonautics.

Padalka is a prize winner of the Russian Federation Government in the field of science and technology.

On 13 August 1998 Gennady launched with Sergei Avdeyev aboard Soyuz TM-28 to become the crew of Mir Expedition 26, whose primary mission was to make repairs to life support systems and prepare the station for deorbit, which was to take place after Expedition 27.

On 8 February 1999 at 11:23 GMT Padalka and Avdeyev undocked from Mir's -X port in Soyuz TM-28, and redocked at the +X Kvant port at 11:39 GMT, freeing up the front port for the Soyuz TM-29 docking.

He returned to Earth on board the Soyuz TM-28 capsule on 28 February 1999.

The Soyuz TM-28 undocked from the Kvant rear docking port on 27 February at 22:52 GMT and landed in Kazakhstan on 28 February at 02:14 GMT.

Padalka accumulated 198 days and 16 hours of space travel during the mission.

From June 1999 to July 2000, Padalka trained for a space flight on a Soyuz-TM transport vehicle as an ISS contingency crew commander.

From August 2000 to November 2001, he trained for a space flight as the Expedition 4 back-up crew commander.

In March 2002 Padalka was assigned as commander of the ISS Expedition 9 crew.

Expedition 9 was launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan aboard the Soyuz TMA-4 spacecraft, and docked with the ISS on 21 April 2004.

Following a week of joint operations and handover briefings, they replaced the Expedition 8 crew who returned to Earth.

In a six-month tour of duty aboard the station Padalka continued ISS science operations, maintained Station systems, and performed four spacewalks.

The Expedition 9 mission concluded after undocking and landed back in Kazakhstan on 23 October 2004.

In completing this mission, Padalka logged an additional 187 days, 21 minutes and 17 seconds in space, and 15 hours, 45 minutes and 22 seconds of EVA time.

Padalka returned to the ISS in 2009 to serve as commander of Expeditions 19 and 20.

He commanded the Soyuz TMA-14 spacecraft which was launched from Baikonur on 26 March 2009 and docked with the ISS two days later.

Padalka also commanded the first six-person space station crew (Expedition 20), returning to Earth on 11 October 2009.

In May 2012 Padalka returned to the ISS for a third time.

He served as a flight engineer as part of Expedition 31 before graduating to command Expedition 32.

He launched to the ISS aboard Soyuz TMA-04M on 15 May 2012, along with fellow crew members Sergei Revin and Joseph Acaba and arrived at the space station on 17 May at 4:36 UTC.

He, along with Revin and Acaba, returned to Earth on 17 September 2012.

Padalka returned to the ISS aboard Soyuz TMA-16M during Expedition 43 and Expedition 44, along with Mikhail Korniyenko and Scott Kelly.

He landed on Soyuz TMA-16M on 12 September 2015.

Padalka set the record for most time in space of anyone in history, that stayed until Oleg Kononenko broke this record on February 4, 2024 at 07:30:08 UTC and is currently at 2nd position.