Spaceflight Now Home




Spaceflight Now +



Premium video content for our Spaceflight Now Plus subscribers.

Soyuz moved to pad
The Russian Soyuz rocket that will launch the Expedition 15 crew of Fyodor Yurchikhin and Oleg Kotov, along with tourist Charles Simonyi, is rolled out to the pad at Baikonur Cosmodrome.

 Play

Expedition 15 briefing
In advance of launching the Expedition 15 mission to the International Space Station, NASA officials preview the flight's objectives and challenges in this news briefing held March 27 at Johnson Space Center.

 Play

Expedition 14 recap
As the International Space Station's Expedition 14 winds down, officials managing the flight from Mission Control in Houston hold this retrospective briefing to talk about the mission.

 Play

Running the Boston Marathon in space
NASA astronaut Suni Williams will run the Boston Marathon on a treadmill aboard the International Space Station. To preview the event, Williams, an accomplished marathoner, and Expedition 14 commander Michael Lopez-Alegria talk with The Boston Globe and the New England Sports Network.

 Play

Exercising on ISS
International Space Station Expedition 14 commander Michael Lopez-Alegria and flight engineer Suni Williams give a show-and-tell about the exercise equipment and routines aboard the orbiting complex.

 Play

Become a subscriber
More video



Meet the Soyuz crew
NASA BIOGRAPHIES
Posted: April 6, 2007


Left to right: Charles Simonyi, Oleg Kotov and Fyodor Yurchikhin. Credit: Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center
 

Fyodor Nikolayevich Yurchikhin
(Ph.D.)

RSC Energia Test-Cosmonaut

PERSONAL DATA: Born January 3, 1959, in Batumi, Autonomous Republic of Ajara in Georgia. Married to Larisa Anatolievna Yurshikina, born in Shyolkovo, Moscow region. They have two daughters. His father, Nikolai Fyodorovich Yurchikhin, and mother, Mikrula Sofoklevna Yurchikhina, reside in Sindos, Greece. He also has a brother, 2 years younger. Hobbies include collecting stamps and space logos, sports, history of cosmonautics, and promotion of space. He also enjoys reading history, science fiction and the classics.

EDUCATION: After graduation from high school in Batumi in 1976, he entered the Moscow Aviation Institute named after Sergey Ordzhonikidze. He finished studying in 1983, and is qualified as a mechanical engineer, specializing in airspace vehicles. In 2001, he graduated from the Moscow Service State University with a Ph.D. in economics.

EXPERIENCE: Since graduating from the S. Ordzhonikidze Moscow Aviation Institute in 1983, Yurchikhin has worked at the Russian Space Corporation Energia. He began working as a controller in the Russian Mission Control Center, and held the positions of engineer, senior engineer, and lead engineer, eventually becoming a lead engineer for Shuttle-Mir and NASA-Mir Programs.

In August 1997, he was enrolled in the RSC Energia cosmonaut detachment as a cosmonaut-candidate.

From January 1998 to November 1999, he completed his basic training course. In November 1999, he was qualified as a test cosmonaut. In January 2000, he started training in the test-cosmonaut group for the ISS program.

In October 2002, Fyodor Yurchikhin flew aboard STS-112. In completing his first space flight he has logged a total of 10 days, 19 hours, and 58 minutes in space.

Fyodor Yurchikhin is assigned to command the Expedition-15 mission to the International Space Station, arriving at the complex aboard a Soyuz spacecraft scheduled to launch in April 2007, for a six month tour of duty aboard the Station.

SPACE FLIGHT EXPERIENCE: STS-112 Atlantis (October 7-18, 2002) launched from and returned to land at the Kennedy Space Center, Florida. STS-112 was an International Space Station assembly mission during which the crew conducted joint operations with the Expedition-5 by delivering and installing the S-One Truss (the third piece of the station's 11-piece Integrated Truss Structure). Three spacewalks were required to outfit and activate the new component. The crew also transferred cargo between the two vehicles and used the shuttle's thruster jets during two maneuvers to raise the station's orbit. STS-112 was the first shuttle mission to use a camera on the External Tank, providing a live view of the launch to flight controllers and NASA TV viewers. The STS-112 mission was accomplished in 170 orbits, traveling 4.5 million miles in 10 days, 19 hours, and 58 minutes.

Oleg Valerievich Kotov, M.D.
(Colonel, Russian Air Force)

Test-cosmonaut of Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center

PERSONAL DATA: Born October 27, 1965, in Simferopol. His parents, Valeri Efimovich and Elena Ivanovna Kotov, reside in Moscow. Married to Svetlana Nikolayevna Kotova (previously, Bunyakina). They have two children. He enjoys diving, computers, and photography.

EDUCATION: In 1982 Dr. Kotov finished high school in Moscow and entered the Kirov Military Medical Academy, from which he graduated in 1988.

EXPERIENCE : After graduation from the Academy in 1988, Dr. Kotov served at the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center, where he held the positions of Deputy lead test-doctor and Lead test doctor.

During his service he dealt with problems of altitude physiology and space flight effects on a human body. He gained experience in practical training and medical support of EVAs on the Mir station, and was a crew surgeon and instructor for biomedical training and science program training. He is a certified SCUBA diver.

He was selected as a cosmonaut candidate by GCTC in 1996. From June 1996 to March 1998, he completed a course of basic training for spaceflight. In March 1998, he received a test-cosmonaut qualification.

Since July 1998, Dr. Kotov has been a cosmonaut-researcher and test-cosmonaut of the GCTC Cosmonaut Office. From May-August 1998, Dr. Kotov trained for a flight on the Soyuz and the Mir station as a backup crewmember to the Mir-26 mission.

Since October 1998, he has been undergoing advanced training for ISS flights. He served as a flight engineer and Soyuz commander on the ISS-6 and ISS-13 backup crews.

From February-October 1999 he served as a Representative of GCTC (DOH) at JSC. During 2001-2002 he worked as a CAPCOM for Expedition-3 and 4 in MCC-M and Moscow Support Group in MCC-H. In 2004 he became Chief of the CAPCOM Branch in the Cosmonaut Office.

Dr. Kotov is assigned as flight engineer and Soyuz commander on the Expedition-15 mission to the International Space Station, arriving at the complex aboard a Soyuz spacecraft scheduled to launch in April 2007, for a six month tour of duty aboard the Station.

Charles Simonyi
Spaceflight Participant

Charles Simonyi was born in Budapest, Hungary. He left his homeland at 17 to work as a computer programmer in Copenhagen, Denmark. He moved to the United States in 1968 and earned his B.S. in engineering and mathematics from the University of California at Berkeley and his doctorate in computer science from Stanford University. From 1972 to 1980, he worked at Xerox Corp.'s Palo Alto Research Center (PARC), where he created the first WYSIWYG (what-you-see-is-what-you-get) text editor, called Bravo.

In 1981, Simonyi joined a start-up company called Microsoft where he developed software. In his 20 years there, Simonyi held the titles of director of application development, chief architect, and distinguished engineer. He led the teams that developed Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, and other successful software applications.

Simonyi left Microsoft in August 2002 to found Intentional Software Corp., a software engineering firm. The company is based in Bellevue, Wash.

Simonyi gained his American citizenship in 1982.

His boyhood interest in space resulted in his selection as Hungary's Jr. Astronaut at age 13, for which he won a trip to Moscow and met one of the first cosmonauts, Pavel Popovich. He is a trained pilot in multiengine aircraft with current licenses in jets and helicopters and more than 2,000 hours of flying time.

As a software pioneer and aviator, Simonyi brings his passion for flight and engineering to the upcoming 2007 Orbital Spaceflight Scientific Mission. His goals for his mission are to advance civilian space flight, assist space station research, and involve the world's youth in the science of space travel. He is convinced that one day, humans will travel and live comfortably in space.