Alexander Misurkin

On February 2, 2018 Misurkin along with flight engineer Anton Shkaplerov participated in an 8-hour 13 minutes spacewalk outside of the ISS to replace an old electronics box for a high-gain communications antenna. At completion, the two cosmonauts set a new record for the longest Russian spacewalk to date.

Alexander Alexanderovich Misurkin (Russian: Aлександр Aлександрович Мисуркин ) (born September 23, 1977), a major in the Russian Air Force, is a Russian cosmonaut, selected in 2006. He flew aboard Soyuz TMA-08M on 28 March 2013 as his first space mission, and launched on Soyuz MS-06 as his second flight, in 2017. He was Commander of the International Space Station for Expedition 54.

Misurkin flew on Soyuz TMA-08M which launched at 20:43:20 on 28 March 2013. This was the first manned flight to use the fast rendezvous approach to the International Space Station, reaching the space station in less than 6 hours. Previous flights had required two days to dock with the station. Misurkin joined the crew of ISS Expedition 35.

In October 2006 Misurkin was approved as a cosmonaut candidate and enlisted in the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center Cosmonaut (GCTC) Corps. He took the basic training at GCTC from February 2007 to June 2009, which he completed on 2 June 2009. Misurkin was qualified as a test-cosmonaut 9 June 2009.

From August 2009 to February 2011 he took advanced training specializing in the International Space Station (ISS) program. From January 2011 he trained as the Expedition 33/34 and Soyuz TMA-M backup crew flight engineer.

In 1994, Misurkin graduated from vocational school #1 in Oryol. He then entered the Kacha High Air Force Pilot School, where he studied to September 1998. He continued pilot training at the Armavir Military Aviation Institute, and graduated in October 1999 with a gold medal as a pilot-engineer.