Oleg Kotov

Roscosmos career

In 1996, the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center selected Kotov as a cosmonaut candidate. He underwent basic spaceflight training from June 1996 to March 1998, earning his test-cosmonaut qualification that March. Starting in July 1998, he worked as a cosmonaut-researcher and test-cosmonaut in the Cosmonaut Office. From May to August 1998, he trained as a backup crewmember for the Mir-26 mission.

Beginning in October 1998, he focused on advanced training for ISS flights, serving as a flight engineer and Soyuz commander on backup crews for ISS-6 and ISS-13. Between February and October 1999, he represented GCTC at the Johnson Space Center. During 2001–2002, he acted as a CAPCOM for Expedition 3 and 4 at mission control in Moscow and the Moscow Support Group in Houston. By 2004, he had become Chief of the CAPCOM Branch in the Cosmonaut Office.

Expedition 15

Kotov flew as a flight engineer on ISS Expedition 15, launching on 7 April 2007 aboard Soyuz TMA-10 with Fyodor Yurchikhin and space tourist Charles Simonyi. He returned to Earth on 21 October 2007 after 196 days and 17 hours in space; the Soyuz TMA-10 capsule experienced a ballistic reentry, landing west of Arkalyk, about 340 km northwest of the intended Kazakhstan landing site. Kotov commanded Soyuz TMA-17 and served as a flight engineer on Expedition 22 and as commander of Expedition 23.

Expedition 22/23

On 1 May 2010, he manually flew the final kilometer of Progress M-05M to the ISS using the TORU system after the spacecraft failed to achieve proper docking orientation; Russian Mission Control later announced that his work may have set a new record. He returned to Earth on 2 June 2010 aboard Soyuz TMA-17, touching down on the central steppes of Kazakhstan. Kotov launched on Soyuz TMA-10M on 25 September 2013 with Sergey Ryazansky and Michael Hopkins, joining Expedition 37 as a flight engineer.

Expedition 37/38

On 7 November 2013, new Expedition 38 flight engineers Mikhail Tyurin, Koichi Wakata, and Rick Mastracchio arrived, marking the first time since October 2009 that nine people resided on the station without a space shuttle. Kotov then became station commander for the second time since Expedition 23 in 2010. He and Ryazansky made history on 9 November 2013 by taking an Olympic torch for a spacewalk for the first time ever. Kotov returned to Earth on 11 March 2014 after 166 days on the ISS.

Did You Know?

• During his first spacewalk on 30 May 2007, Kotov and Fyodor Yurchikhin installed protective panels to shield the ISS from space debris.
• Kotov's sixth spacewalk on 27 January 2014 lasted 8 hours and 7 minutes, setting a record for the longest Russian spacewalk.
• Kotov graduated from the S. M. Kirov Military Medical Academy in 1988 and served as a lead test doctor at the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center.