Oleg Skripochka

Oleg Ivanovich Skripochka (Оле́г Ива́нович Скри́почка; born 24 December 1969 in Nevinnomyssk, Stavropol Krai, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union) is a Russian engineer and cosmonaut.

Skripochka entered the Bauman Moscow State Technical University after graduating from high school in Zaporizhia in 1987.

Skripochka worked as a test-metal worker between 1987 and 1991 and as a Technician between 1991 and 1993 in the scientific-industrial association project bureau at Energia.

He graduated in 1993 from the university with a diploma of mechanical engineer in rocket construction.

After graduating from the Bauman Moscow State Technical University, from August 1993 to August 1997 he worked as an engineer in Energia RSC project bureau on the development of transport and cargo vehicles.

In 1997, Skripochka was selected as a test cosmonaut and from January 1998 to November 1999, he studied the advanced space training course.

From April 2007 to April 2008, he trained as an ISS Expedition 17 backup crewmember (Soyuz TMA and ISS flight engineer).

From August 2008 he trained as an ISS Expedition 25/26 and Soyuz TMA-M flight engineer.

Skripochka was a member (Flight Engineer) of the ISS Expedition 25/26, that was launched on 7 October 2010 from Baikonur Cosmodrome, aboard Soyuz TMA-01M spacecraft, together with cosmonaut Aleksandr Kaleri and NASA astronaut Scott Kelly.

Skripochka arrived at the ISS after the Soyuz spacecraft linked up with the space station at 00:01 UTC on 10 October 2010.

On 15 November 2010, Skripochka participated in a spacewalk with fellow Russian cosmonaut and Expedition 25 Flight Engineer Fyodor Yurchikhin.

At 13:25 UTC, he and Yurchikhin ventured into space outside the ISS from the Pirs airlock to conduct Russian EVA #26.

The spacewalk lasted six hours and 27 minutes.

It was the first for Skripochka, who was in the spacesuit marked with blue stripes (Orlan-MK #5).

The two cosmonauts removed Kontur and Expose-R scientific experiments.

The Kontur experiment studied remote object control capability for robotic arms and the Expose-R experiment is a European Space Agency experiment designed to expose organic material to the extreme environment of space.

During the spacewalk, Skripochka and Yurchikhin also installed a portable multipurpose workstation on the Zvezda service module and installed handrail extensions between

the Poisk Module and both Zvezda and Zarya modules.

They performed an experiment called Test, which is aimed at verifying the existence

of micro organisms or contamination underneath insulation on the Russian segment of the ISS.

Skripochka and Yurchikhin removed a television camera from the Rassvet module, however they were not able to relocate the camera due to interference with insulation where it was to be installed.

In 2011 he was in space serving as an Expedition 25/26 crewmember.

On 12 April 2011, Skripochka was awarded the titles of Hero of the Russian Federation and Pilot-Cosmonaut of the Russian Federation for courage and heroism in the implementation of long-duration space flight on the International Space Station.

He was born into a soldier's family and lived in Nevinnomyssk in the North Caucasus, in Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky in the Russian Far East and in Zaporizhia in Soviet Ukraine.

He stayed on board the ISS till March 2011.

During their mission, Skripochka and the rest of the Expedition 25/26 crew participated in a wide array of research, including fundamental physics, biometric experiments and investigations of crystal growth in space, as well as education outreach.

After spending 159 days in space, Skripochka returned to Earth on 16 March 2011.

The Soyuz TMA-01M spacecraft carrying Skripochka, Kaleri and Kelly undocked from the Poisk module at 4:27 GMT.

Following a nominal re-entry, the Soyuz capsule touched down on its side at 7:54 GMT near Arkalyk in north central Kazakhstan.

A few minutes later, Skripochka and his two crew members were pulled from the capsule and placed in reclining chairs.

The weather at the landing side was harsh with high winds and viciously cold temperatures.

At one point in his live landing commentary, NASA spokesman Rob Navias said "You would think that was a scene out of the North Pole," to explain the extreme climatic conditions.

Skripochka participated in three spacewalks during his stay aboard the space station as an Expedition 25 and 26 Flight Engineer.

During the second spacewalk (Russian EVA #27), conducted on 21 January 2011, Skripochka and cosmonaut Dmitri Kondratyev focused to complete installation of a new high-speed data transmission system.

Skripochka was designated as Extravehicular 2, and had a blue stripe on his spacesuit.

Skripochka also wore a NASA-provided wireless television camera system and helmet lights to provide live point-of-view video to Mission Control-Moscow.

Kondratyev and Skripochka began the five-hour, 23-minute spacewalk at 9:29 a.m. EST when the two cosmonauts opened the Pirs hatch and began exiting the Russian segment of the space station.

The spacewalk ended at 2:52 p.m EST. They deployed the antenna for the Radio Technical System for Information Transfer, an experimental system designed to enable large data files to be downlinked using radio technology at a speed of about 100 MB/s from space station's Russian segment.

During the spacewalk, Kondratyev and Skripochka also removed the plasma pulse generator on the port side of the Zvezda module that was part of an experiment to investigate disturbances and changes in the ionosphere from space station impulse plasma flow.

The generator, was covered, removed and returned inside the Pirs airlock.