PERSONAL DATA: Born July 30, 1962, Yavas settlement, Zubovo-Polyansk district, Mordovia, Russia. Married to Elena Valentinovna Dezhurova (nee Suprina). Two daughters. Nikolai Serafimovich Dezhurov, father, and Anna Vasilevna Dezhurova, mother, reside in Yavas settlement, Zubovo-Polyansk district, Mordovia, Russia.

EDUCATION: Graduated from the S.I. Gritsevits Kharkov Higher Military Aviation School in 1983 with a pilot-engineer's diploma.

HONORS: Awarded three Armed Forces medals.

EXPERIENCE: After graduating from the aviation military school in 1983, he served as a pilot and senior pilot in the Air Force.

In 1987, he was assigned to the Cosmonaut Training Center. From December 1987 to June 1989, he underwent a course of general space training. Since September 1989, he has continued training as a member of a group of test cosmonauts. Since 1991, he has been a correspondence student at the Yuri A. Gagarin Air Force Academy.

In March 1994, Dezhurov began flight training as commander of the prime crew of the Mir-18 mission. The crew launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakstan on March 14, 1995 aboard a Soyuz-TM-21 transport vehicle. Following a 115 day flight the mission concluded with landing at the Kennedy Space Center, Florida, aboard Space Shuttle Atlantis on July 7, 1995. Dezhurov is assigned as back-up for the first ISS mission and is also in training for the third ISS mission.