Aleksandr Aleksandrovich Volkov (; born 27 May 1948) is a retired Soviet

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 ...

. He is a veteran of 3 space flights, including twice to the Mir Soviet space station, and is the father of cosmonaut Sergey Volkov.

Biography and career

Volkov was born in

Ukrainian SSR The Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, abbreviated as the Ukrainian SSR, UkrSSR, and also known as Soviet Ukraine or just Ukraine, was one of the Republics of the Soviet Union, constituent republics of the Soviet Union from 1922 until 1991. ...

in a family of

Russian Russian(s) may refer to: *Russians (), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *A citizen of Russia *Russian language, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages *''The Russians'', a b ...

ethnicity. At the age of 13, Volkov witnessed

Yuri Gagarin Yuri Alekseyevich Gagarin; Gagarin's first name is sometimes transliterated as ''Yuriy'', ''Youri'', or ''Yury''. (9 March 1934 – 27 March 1968) was a Soviet pilot and cosmonaut who, aboard the first successful Human spaceflight, crewed sp ...

become the first man in space and this inspired him to become a cosmonaut. He joined the Soviet space programme and became a test pilot before realising his dream. He flew into space three times. His first spaceflight was a trip to

Salyut 7 Salyut 7 (), also known as DOS-6 (Durable Orbital Station 6) was a space station in low Earth orbit from April 1982 to February 1991. It was first crewed in May 1982 with two crew via Soyuz T-5, and last visited in June 1986, by Soyuz T-15. Va ...

in 1985 (64 days in space), followed by two flights to the

Mir ''Mir'' (, ; ) was a space station operated in low Earth orbit from 1986 to 2001, first by the Soviet Union and later by the Russia, Russian Federation. ''Mir'' was the first modular space station and was assembled in orbit from 1986 to ...

space station, in 1988–1989 (151 days) and again in 1991–1992 (175 days) as commander of flight

Soyuz TM-13 Soyuz TM-13 was the 13th expedition to the Mir space station. Launched from the Soviet Union in October 1991 and lasting until March 1992, the mission included cosmonauts from Austria and the Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic (Kazakh SSR), the lat ...

. On board the Mir space station, he controlled the docking procedures among other things. The

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

broke up in 1991 during his second stay on board Mir. At the time Volkov was orbiting Earth on

with

Sergei K. Krikalev Sergei Konstantinovich Krikalev (, also transliterated as Sergei Krikalyov; born 27 August 1958) is a Russian mechanical engineer and former cosmonaut and head of the Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center. As a prominent rocket scientist, he ...

, "the last citizens of the USSR". Having gone into orbit as Soviet citizens, they returned to Earth as Russian citizens. He worked as Commander of the Cosmonaut Team at the Cosmonauts Training Centre from January 1991 until August 1998. His work was to prepare Russian and foreign cosmonauts for future flights to space stations to Mir and 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 ...

. He is the father of Sergey Volkov. The younger Volkov became the first second-generation cosmonaut when he was launched aboard

Soyuz TMA-12 Soyuz TMA-12 was a Soyuz mission to the International Space Station (ISS) which was launched by a Soyuz FG rocket at 11:16 UTC on 8 April 2008. It docked to the Pirs module of the station on 10 April 2008. Landing occurred at 03:37 on 24 October ...

on 8 April 2008, his first of three flights; in total he spent over a year aboard the

Awards

Aleksandr Volkov was awarded: *

Hero of the Soviet Union The title Hero of the Soviet Union () was the highest distinction in the Soviet Union, awarded together with the Order of Lenin personally or collectively for heroic feats in service to the Soviet state and society. The title was awarded both ...

(1985) *

Order of Lenin The Order of Lenin (, ) was an award named after Vladimir Lenin, the leader of the October Revolution. It was established by the Central Executive Committee on 6 April 1930. The order was the highest civilian decoration bestowed by the Soviet ...

(1985) *

Order of the October Revolution The Order of the October Revolution (, ''Orden Oktyabr'skoy Revolyutsii'') was instituted on 31 October 1967, in time for the 50th anniversary of the October Revolution. It was conferred upon individuals or groups for services furthering communis ...

(1989) *

Order of Friendship of Peoples The Order of Friendship of Peoples () was an order of the Soviet Union, and was awarded to persons (including non-citizens), organizations, enterprises, military units, as well as administrative subdivisions of the USSR for accomplishments in s ...

(1992) * Medal 2nd class of the Order of Merit for the Fatherland (1996) *

Medal "For Merit in Space Exploration" The Medal "For Merit in Space Exploration" () is a state decoration of the Russian Federation aimed at recognising achievements in the space program. It was established by Decree of the President of Russia, presidential decree №1099 of September ...

(2011) * Officer of the

Legion of Honour The National Order of the Legion of Honour ( ), formerly the Imperial Order of the Legion of Honour (), is the highest and most prestigious French national order of merit, both military and Civil society, civil. Currently consisting of five cl ...

(France) * Order of Merit 3rd class (Ukraine, 2011)Указ Президента України № 450/2011 від 12 квітня 2011 року "Про відзначення державними нагородами України"
. Ukrainian President Decree No. 450. 12 April 2011

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Volkov, Aleksandr A. 1948 births Living people People from Horlivka Soviet cosmonauts Russian cosmonauts Heroes of the Soviet Union Recipients of the Order of Lenin Recipients of the Order of Friendship of Peoples Recipients of the Order "For Merit to the Fatherland", 2nd class Recipients of the Order of Merit (Ukraine), 3rd class Officers of the Legion of Honour Recipients of the Medal "For Merit in Space Exploration" Salyut program cosmonauts Spacewalkers Mir crew members