Alexander Alexanderovich Misurkin () (born 23 September 1977), a major in the

Russian Air Force The Russian Air Force () is a branch of the Russian Aerospace Forces, the latter being formed on 1 August 2015 with the merging of the Russian Air Force and the Russian Aerospace Defence Forces. After the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the reb ...

, is a Russian

cosmonaut An astronaut (from the Ancient Greek (), meaning 'star', and (), meaning 'sailor') is a person trained, equipped, and deployed by a List of human spaceflight programs, human spaceflight program to serve as a commander or crew member of a spa ...

, selected in 2006. He flew aboard Soyuz TMA-08M on 28 March 2013 as his first space mission, and launched on

Soyuz MS-06 Soyuz MS-06 was a Soyuz spaceflight which launched on 13 September 2017. It transported three members of the Expedition 53 crew to the International Space Station. Soyuz MS-06 was the 135th flight of a Soyuz spacecraft. The crew consisted of a ...

as his second flight, in 2017. He was commander of the

International Space Station The International Space Station (ISS) is a large space station that was Assembly of the International Space Station, assembled and is maintained in low Earth orbit by a collaboration of five space agencies and their contractors: NASA (United ...

for

Expedition 54 Expedition 54 was the 54th expedition to the International Space Station, which began upon the departure of Soyuz MS-05 on December 14, 2017 and concluded upon the departure of Soyuz MS-06 on February 27, 2018. Alexander Misurkin, Mark Vande He ...

Personal

Misurkin is married to Olga Anatolievna Misurkina. The couple has two children. His parents, Lyudmila Georgievna and Alexander Mikhailovich Misurkin, reside in

Oryol Oryol ( rus, Орёл, , ɐˈrʲɵl, a=ru-Орёл.ogg, links=y, ), also transliterated as Orel or Oriol, is a Classification of inhabited localities in Russia, city and the administrative center of Oryol Oblast, Russia, situated on the Oka Rive ...

, Russia.

Education

In 1994, Misurkin graduated from vocational school #1 in Oryol. He then entered the Kacha High Air Force Pilot School, where he studied to September 1998. He continued pilot training at the Armavir Military Aviation Institute, and graduated in October 1999 with a gold medal as a pilot-engineer.

Cosmonaut career

In October 2006, Misurkin was approved as a cosmonaut candidate and enlisted in the

Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center The Yuri A. Gagarin State Scientific Research-and-Testing Cosmonaut Training Center (GCTC; Russian: Центр подготовки космонавтов имени Ю. А. Гагарина) is a Russian training facility responsible for tra ...

(GCTC) cosmonaut corps. He took the basic training at GCTC from February 2007 to June 2009, which he completed on 2 June 2009. Misurkin was qualified as a test-cosmonaut 9 June 2009. From August 2009 to February 2011 he took advanced training specializing in the

(ISS) program. From January 2011 he trained as the Expedition 33/ 34 and Soyuz TMA-M backup crew flight engineer. In 2014, he participated in the ESA CAVES mission of the

European Space Agency The European Space Agency (ESA) is a 23-member International organization, international organization devoted to space exploration. With its headquarters in Paris and a staff of around 2,547 people globally as of 2023, ESA was founded in 1975 ...

alongside Scott Tingle,

Luca Parmitano Luca Parmitano (born 27 September 1976 in Paternò, Sicily) is an Italian astronaut in the European Astronaut Corps for the European Space Agency (ESA). He was selected as an ESA astronaut in May 2009. Parmitano is also a colonel and test pilot ...

, Sergey Kud-Sverchkov and

Matthias Maurer Matthias Josef Maurer (born 18 March 1970) is a German European Space Agency, ESA astronaut and Materials science, materials scientist, who was selected in 2015 to take part in space training. Biography Maurer graduated from in Sankt Wendel, S ...

Soyuz TMA-08M / Expedition 35/36

Misurkin flew on Soyuz TMA-08M which launched at 20:43:20 on 28 March 2013. This was the first crewed flight to use the fast rendezvous approach to the International Space Station, reaching the space station in less than 6 hours. Previous flights had required two days to dock with the station. Misurkin joined the crew of ISS

Expedition 35 Expedition 35 was the 35th long-duration mission to the International Space Station (ISS). The expedition started 13 March 2013, and marked the first time a Canadian astronaut – Colonel Chris Hadfield – was in command of the station. Expedi ...

Soyuz MS-06 / Expedition 53/54

On 2 February 2018, Misurkin along with flight engineer

Anton Shkaplerov Anton Nikolaevich Shkaplerov (; born 20 February 1972) is a former Russian cosmonaut. He is a veteran of four spaceflights. Early life Shkaplerov was born 20 February 1972, in Sevastopol, Crimea. He is married to Tatyana Petrovna, and they hav ...

participated in an 8-hour 13 minutes spacewalk outside of the ISS to replace an old electronics box for a high-gain communications antenna. At completion, the two cosmonauts set a new record for the longest Russian spacewalk to date.

Soyuz MS-20

In December 2021, Misurkin commanded

Soyuz MS-20 Soyuz MS-20 was a Russian Soyuz (spacecraft), Soyuz spaceflight to the International Space Station (ISS) on 8–20 December 2021. Unlike previous Soyuz flights to the ISS, Soyuz MS-20 did not deliver any crew members for an ISS List of Internat ...

to the ISS. Unlike previous spaceflights which carried ISS Expedition members, this carried two space tourists,

Yusaku Maezawa is a Japanese billionaire entrepreneur and art collector. He founded Start Today in 1998 and launched the online fashion retail website Zozotown in 2004, now Japan's largest. Maezawa introduced a custom-fit apparel brand Zozo and at-home meas ...

and

Yozo Hirano is a Japanese space tourist. He flew to the International Space Station on Soyuz MS-20 in December 2021. He flew with Yusaku Maezawa, who paid for both seats; his function was that as a production assistant to Maezawa and to document the flight ...

, to space for 12 days. The three landed successfully on 20 December. ;Statistics

References

External links

Official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Misurkin, Alexander 1977 births Living people Commanders of the International Space Station Russian cosmonauts Heroes of the Russian Federation Spacewalkers