Spaceflight Now | Space Station Mission Report

The Mission

		Mission: Expedition 9 Spacecraft: Soyuz TMA-4 Launch: April 19, 2004 Time: 0318:47 GMT (11:18:47 p.m. EDT on 18th) Site: Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan Satellite feed: AMC 9, Transponder 9, C-band Launch events timeline Flight Day 1 schedule Flight Day 2 schedule Flight Day 3 schedule Expedition 9 science plan European DELTA mission

The Crew

		Russia's Gennady Padalka and NASA's Mike Fincke will live aboard the International Space Station for a half-year as Expedition 9 while Europe's Andre Kuipers will stay for a week before returning to Earth. Exp. 9 commander Gennady Padalka Exp. 9 science officer Mike Fincke Visiting crewmember Andre Kuipers

The Launcher

		The venerable Russian Soyuz rocket will deliver the Soyuz TMA-4 capsule into Earth orbit to dock with the International Space Station. Rocket fact sheet Soyuz spacecraft info

NewsAlert

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Gennady Ivanovich Padalka
Colonel, Russian Air Force
NASA BIOGRAPHY
Posted: April 15, 2004

Gennady Padalka. Credit: NASA

PERSONAL DATA: Born June 21, 1958, in Krasnodar, Russia. Married to Irina Anatolievna Padalka (Ponomareva). They have three daughters, Yulia, Ekaterina and Sonya. Gennady enjoys the theater, parachute sport and diving.

EDUCATION: Graduated from Eisk Military Aviation College in 1979; in 1994 he left UNESCO International Center of Instruction Systems, where he was an engineerecologist.

SPECIAL HONORS: Awarded the Star of Russian Federation Hero, and the title of Russian Federation Test-Cosmonaut.

EXPERIENCE: After graduation from the Military College in 1979, Gennady Padalka served as a pilot and a senior pilot in the Air Force.

He was selected as a cosmonaut candidate to start training at the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center in 1989. From June 1989 to January 1991 he attended basic space training. In 1991 Padalka was qualified as a test-cosmonaut.

Gennady Padalka is a First Class Pilot, has flown 6 types of aircraft, and has logged 1500 hours. He is an Instructor of General Parachute Training, and has performed more than 300 parachute jumps.

From August 28, 1996 to July 30, 1997, he trained for space flight on the Soyuz-TM transport vehicle/Mir orbital complex as a commander of the back up crew for Mir 24/NASA-5, 6 Russian-American program of the 24th primary Expedition, Pegasus RussianFrench program and Euro-Mir program).

October 1997 to August 1998 Padalka attended training for a space a flight aboard the Soyuz-TM/Mir orbital complex as a primary crew commander (Expedition 26 Program).

August 13, 1998, to February 28, 1999, he served aboard the Soyuz-TM-28/Mir orbital complex as the Expedition 26 crew commander, and logged 198 days in space.

June 1999 through July 2000, Padalka attended training for a space flight on ³Soyuz-TM² transport vehicle as an ISS contingency crew commander.

August 2000 to November 2001, Gennady Padalka attended training for a space flight as the ISS-4 back-up crew commander.

In March 2002, Padalka was assigned as station commander of the ISS Expedition-9 crew.

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MISSION STATUS CENTER

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