Oleg Kotov

Oleg Valeriyevich Kotov (Олег Валериевич Котов) was born on 27 October 1965 in Simferopol, Crimean oblast in the Ukrainian SSR.

After a career as a physician assigned to the Soviet space program, he joined the Russian cosmonaut corps.

He has flown three long duration spaceflights on the International Space Station logging over 526 days in space.

Kotov finished high school in Moscow in 1982 and entered the S. M. Kirov Military Medical Academy, from which he graduated in 1988.

Kotov was awarded the Hero of the Russian Federation medal, The Combat Heroism Russian Federation Armed Forces Medal of I and II degrees and the Service Medal of I, II and III degrees.

After graduation from the Academy in 1988, Kotov served at the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center, where he held the positions of Deputy lead test-doctor and Lead test doctor.

He dealt with problems of altitude physiology and space flight effects on a human body.

He gained experience in practical training and medical support of spacewalks on Mir, and was a crew surgeon and instructor for biomedical training and science program training.

He is a certified scuba diver.

They have two children, Valeria Olegovna Kotova (daughter), born in 1994 and Dmitry Olegovich Kotov (son), born in 2002.

Kotov's parents, Valeri Efimovich Kotov and Elena Ivanovna Kotova, reside in Moscow.

He enjoys diving, computers, and photography.

In 1996 Kotov was selected as a cosmonaut candidate by the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center (GCTC).

From June 1996 to March 1998, he completed a course of basic training for spaceflight.

In March 1998, he received a test-cosmonaut qualification.

Since July 1998, he has been a cosmonaut-researcher and test-cosmonaut of the Cosmonaut Office.

From May–August 1998, he trained for a flight on the Soyuz and the Mir station as a backup crewmember to the Mir-26 mission.

Since October 1998, he participated in advanced training for ISS flights.

He served as a flight engineer and Soyuz commander on the ISS-6 and ISS-13 backup crews.

From February–October 1999, Kotov served as a Representative of GCTC at the Johnson Space Center.

During 2001–2002 he worked as a CAPCOM for Expedition-3 and 4 in mission control center, Moscow and Moscow Support Group in the Mission Control Center at Houston.

In 2004 he became Chief of the CAPCOM Branch in the Cosmonaut Office.

He was a member (Flight Engineer) of the ISS Expedition 15, that launched on 7 April 2007 from Baikonur Cosmodrome, aboard Soyuz TMA-10 spacecraft, together with Fyodor Yurchikhin and space tourist Charles Simonyi.

On October 21, Kotov returned to Earth inside the Soyuz TMA-10 capsule after spending 196 days and 17 hours in space.

The TMA-10 spacecraft undocked from the ISS at 07:14 UTC on October 21, and deorbit occurred at 09:47.

During atmospheric re-entry, the spacecraft transitioned to a ballistic reentry, resulting in it landing west of Arkalyk, approximately 340 km northwest of the intended Kazakhstan landing site.

Kotov commanded Soyuz TMA-17 and was assigned to Expedition 22 as a Flight Engineer and Expedition 23 as the Commander aboard the International Space Station.

This was first time since October 2009 that nine people resided on the space station without the presence of a space shuttle.

On 1 May 2010 Kotov manually flew the final 1 km of the incoming Progress M-05M spacecraft to the ISS after it failed to return to the proper docking orientation following a series of thruster firings.

Kotov using the station's Telerobotically Operated Rendezvous Unit (TORU) system took control and guided the spacecraft to successfully dock with the ISS.

Later Russian Mission Control announced that Kotov's Progress M-05M rendezvous work may have set a new record.

Kotov returned to Earth on 2 June 2010 aboard the Soyuz TMA-17 spacecraft.

The Soyuz capsule touched down at about 3:25 UTC on the central steppes of Kazakhstan.

Soon after Kotov became the station commander for the second time since Expedition 23 in 2010.

Most recently, Kotov flew on the Soyuz TMA-10M/Expedition 37/Expedition 38 long duration spaceflight, from September 2013 until March 2014.

Kotov is married to Svetlana Nikolayevna Kotova (previously, Bunyakina).

Kotov launched on Soyuz TMA-10M on 25 September 2013, with Russian cosmonaut Sergey Ryazansky and American astronaut Michael Hopkins joined Expedition 37 as a Flight Engineer.

On 7 November Kotov and rest of the five Expedition 37 crew members were joined by new Expedition 38 flight engineers, Mikhail Tyurin, Koichi Wakata and Rick Mastracchio.

Kotov and cosmonaut Ryazansky made history after they took an Olympic torch for a spacewalk for the first time ever on 9 November 2013.

Kotov returned to Earth on 11 March 2014 after staying at the ISS for 166 days.