Sergey Ryzhikov (cosmonaut)

Cosmonaut career

Ryzhikov was selected as a cosmonaut by Roscosmos in October 2006 and began training at the Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center in Star City, Russia in February 2007. He completed training in June 2009 and became eligible for a future flight to the International Space Station. In 2011, he served as a cavenaut in the ESA CAVES training in Sardinia alongside Thomas Pesquet, Tim Peake, Norishige Kanai, and Randolph Bresnik. In 2016, Ryzhikov served as backup commander of the Soyuz TMA-20M mission, backing up Russian cosmonaut Aleksey Ovchinin as flight engineer for ISS Expedition 47/48.

After the launch of Soyuz TMA-20M on 19 March 2016, he was assigned to the prime crew of ISS Expedition 49/50 as a flight engineer. Ryzhikov was assigned as commander of the Soyuz MS-02 spacecraft. He and his crewmates, Roscosmos cosmonaut Andrei Borisenko and NASA astronaut Shane Kimbrough, were originally scheduled to launch on 23 September 2016, but the launch was delayed indefinitely due to technical issues. They finally launched on 19 October 2016 and docked with the ISS two days later, joining Expedition 49.

Due to the delay, Expedition 49 spent only about one week as a six-person increment before three crew members returned to Earth on 30 October 2016. Following the landing of Soyuz MS-01, Ryzhikov, Borisenko, and Kimbrough transferred to Expedition 50, with Kimbrough taking command of the station. During Expedition 50, Ryzhikov was on board for four US spacewalks and observed the arrival of three uncrewed resupply spacecraft. Expedition 50 lasted until 10 April 2017, when the trio departed the station onboard Soyuz MS-02, landing in Kazakhstan hours later after 173 days in space.

Did You Know?

• Ryzhikov graduated from the Kachinsky Higher Military Aviation School of Pilots in 1996 with a degree in command tactical fighter aviation.
• He was assigned as a pilot in the 76th Air Army, based out of Andreapol, in 1997.
• He holds a parachute instructor qualification and has over 350 parachute jumps.