Valery Korzun

Korzun and Kaleri became the 22nd resident crew, first together with NASA astronaut Shannon Lucid, later with astronauts John Blaha and Jerry Linenger.

Valery Grigoryevich Korzun (Валерий Григорьевич Корзун, born 5 March 1953) is a former Russian cosmonaut.

He has been in space twice totalling 381 days.

He has also conducted four career spacewalks.

He is a Russian Air Force Colonel and cosmonaut of Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center, and was born on 5 March 1953 in Krasny Sulin.

Korzun and his wife Elana have one son, Nikita.

His father is Korzun Grigori Andreyevich, and his mother is Korzun Maria Arsentievna.

His hobbies include tennis, badminton and theater.

In 1974, Korzun graduated from the Kachinsk higher military aviation pilot school.

After graduation from the Kachinsk Military College in 1974, Korzun served as a pilot, a senior pilot, a flight section leader, and ultimately as a commander of a Soviet Air Force squadron.

Korzun is a 1st class military pilot and has logged 1473 hours, primarily in 4 aircraft types.

He is also an Instructor of Parachute Training, and has completed 377 parachute jumps.

In 1987 he graduated from the Gagarin Military Aviation Academy.

Korzun was awarded:

He has also been awarded with Russian and NASA medals.

In 1987, after a successful tour as commander of the Gagarin Military Air-Force Academy, he was selected as a cosmonaut for training at the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center.

In December 1987 he began cosmonaut training and was certified as a Test-Cosmonaut in June 1989.

From September 1989 through September 1992, he trained for space flight as part of the test-cosmonauts group and from October 1992 to March 1994 he underwent extensive training as commander of the Soyuz-TM rescue spacecraft.

He also trained as a group member for flight on board the orbital complex Mir from March 1994 to June 1995.

Korzun also served as deputy Director of the 27KC crew flight training complex as crew communication supervisor from March 1994 to January 1995.

In August 1996 Korzun completed training as commander for the Mir-22/ NASA-3 and "Cassiopia" (sponsored by CNES) programs.

Korzun made his first trip to space on board the Soyuz TM-24 with cosmonaut Alexander Kaleri, and the first French woman in space, Claudie André-Deshays on 17 August 1996.

The Soyuz spacecraft lifted off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome at 13:18:03 UTC.

After two days of solo flight, the Soyuz docked with the Mir station on 19 August at 14:50:23 UTC.

On 2 March 1997 Soyuz TM-24 carrying Korzun, Kaleri and ESA astronaut Reinhold Ewald returned to Earth.

The Soyuz capsule landed landing 128 km east of Jezkazgan at 06:44 UTC.

Korzun spent 196 days, 17 hours and 26 minutes on board Soyuz TM-24 and Mir.

The Expedition 5 crew was launched on 5 June 2002 aboard STS-111.

lifted off from the Kennedy Space Center LC-39A at 21:22:49 UTC.

After two days Endeavour docked with the International Space Station (ISS) on 7 June 2002 at 16:25 UTC.

Korzun joined the Expedition 5 crew as the commander.

Expedition 5 crew carried out approximately 25 new investigations on board the ISS, as well as continued with various science investigations begun before their stay.

The scientific investigations aimed at studying cold plasma, crystal growth, radiation effects in the space and the human body.

Some medical experiments involved blood, muscles, bones while the crew also conducted psychological experiments.

Korzun also participated in ecological experiments and monitored the Earth's surface from space.

Earth observation from outer space has many useful applications including informing the ground of disaster situations such as fires and floods as quickly as they occur.

The Expedition 5 crew returned to Earth on December 7, 2002, aboard Space Shuttle Endeavour's STS-113 mission.

The shuttle touched down at KSC Runway 33 at 19:38:25 UTC.

Completing his second long duration spaceflight, Korzun logged 184 days and 22 hours in space.

Korzun has performed four career spacewalks.