Gennady Padalka

Did You Know?

• He held the record for most time in space at 878 days until Oleg Kononenko broke it on February 4, 2024 at 07:30:08 UTC.
• He explained his resignation in April 2017 by saying, 'I had to resign. I am tired of doing nothing. There are no prospects that I will fly.'

Education and training

Padalka graduated from Yeysk Military Aviation College in 1979 and served as a pilot and senior pilot in the Russian Air Force, attaining the rank of colonel. He logged 1500 flight hours in six aircraft types as a First Class Pilot and performed over 300 parachute jumps as an Instructor of General Parachute Training. He also worked as an engineer-ecologist at the UNESCO International Center of Instruction Systems until 1994 and is an investigator for the Advanced Diagnostic Ultrasound in Microgravity Project.

Cosmonaut career

Padalka was selected as a cosmonaut candidate in 1989 and qualified as a test-cosmonaut in 1991. On 13 August 1998, he launched with Sergei Avdeyev aboard Soyuz TM-28 for Mir Expedition 26, whose primary mission was to repair life support systems and prepare the station for deorbit. On 8 February 1999, Padalka and Avdeyev undocked from Mir's -X port and redocked at the +X Kvant port. He returned to Earth on 28 February 1999, accumulating 198 days and 16 hours of space travel.

From June 1999 to July 2000, he trained as an ISS contingency crew commander, and from August 2000 to November 2001 as Expedition 4 back-up crew commander. In March 2002, he was assigned commander of ISS Expedition 9, launched on Soyuz TMA-4 on 21 April 2004.

During the six-month tour, he performed four spacewalks and logged 187 days, 21 minutes and 17 seconds in space. He returned to the ISS in 2009 as commander of Expeditions 19 and 20, commanding Soyuz TMA-14 and the first six-person station crew. In May 2012, he returned for a third time, serving as flight engineer on Expedition 31 and commander of Expedition 32.

Spacewalks

Padalka's first spacewalk occurred on 15 September 1998 aboard Mir with Sergei Avdeyev. After depressurizing the PKhO compartment, they entered the dead Spektr module, reconnected cables for a solar panel steering mechanism, and closed the hatch after 30 minutes. On 10 November 1998, Padalka and Avdeyev exited from the Kvant-2 airlock, installed a meteoroid detector for the Leonid shower, and hand-launched the Sputnik-41 satellite; the spacewalk lasted 5 hours 54 minutes.

His third spacewalk, on 24 June 2004 from the ISS Pirs Docking Compartment, was cut to 14 minutes due to a pressure drop in partner Michael Fincke's oxygen tank. On 30 June 2004, Padalka and Fincke repaired a faulty remote power control module in 5 hours 40 minutes. On 3 August 2004, they installed communications gear and replaced experiments on Zvezda, removing six laser reflectors and installing four new ones plus two ATV antennas, in 4 hours 20 minutes.

On 3 September 2004, Padalka and Fincke replaced a pump control panel on Zarya and installed three antennas on Zvezda in 5 hours 21 minutes. His seventh spacewalk, on 5 June 2009 with Michael Barratt, installed docking antennas and cabling for the Mini Research Module 2.