Fyodor Yurchikhin

Yurchikhin launched aboard Soyuz MS-04 for his fifth spaceflight to the ISS on 20 April 2017, with his crew member Jack Fischer. MS-04 was the first of the Soyuz-MS series to rendezvous and dock with the ISS using the 6 hour profile, as opposed to the previous 2 day rendezvous procedure. He served as a Flight Engineer for Expedition 51, and on June 1, 2017, assumed command of the ISS over from crewmember Peggy Whitson.

Yurchikhin handed over the station command to Randy Bresnik on September 2, 2017., and returned to Earth along with Peggy Whitson and Jack Fischer aboard Soyuz MS-04 on September 3, 2017. The overall duration of his stay in space during Expedition 51/52 was 135 days, 18 hours and 8 minutes.

On 17 August 2017, Yurchikhin performed his ninth spacewalk with cosmonaut Sergey Ryazansky. The cosmonauts tested a new version of the Orlan space suit, deploying five nano-satellites and installing external experiments. Spacewalk lasted of 7 hours, 34 minutes.

Yurchikhin was one of five cosmonauts selected to raise the Russian flag at the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics opening ceremony.

Yurchikhin served as Soyuz Commander aboard TMA-09M which launched to the ISS on 28 May 2013, docking some six hours later, with fellow crewmembers NASA astronaut Karen Nyberg and ESA astronaut Luca Parmitano. He served as Flight Engineer for Expedition 36, and as ISS Commander for Expedition 37. For a short time Yurchikhin was commander to a crew of nine, after the docking of Soyuz TMA-11M on 7 November 2013, with four astronaut corps represented between the nine crewmembers (RSA, NASA, ESA, JAXA).

The three returned to Earth aboard their Soyuz on 11 November 2013.

On 24 June 2013, Yurchikhin performed a spacewalk with cosmonaut Alexander Misurkin. The two spacewalkers exited the Space Station's Pirs docking compartment with the primary goal of preparing for the addition of a new Russian module. The Orlan-MK spacesuits of Yurchikhin and Misurkin were equipped with NASA helmet cameras to provide close-up views of their work. During the spacewalk, Yurchikhin and Misurkin replaced a fluid flow control panel on the Zarya module. They also installed clamps for future power cables as an early step toward swapping the Pirs airlock with the new Nauka module planned to launch in 2017. The two cosmonauts also retrieved two science experiments and installed one new one. The spacewalk lasted six hours and 34 minutes.

On 16 August 2013, Yurchikhin performed his seventh spacewalk with cosmonaut Alexander Misurkin. They first set up a Strela cargo boom on the Poisk module. Misurkin used the Strela boom to maneuver Yurchikhin with cables and Yurchikhin rerouted a cable connector and installed cables on the Zarya module. The cable work outside the station was to prepare the ISS for the planned arrival of the Multipurpose Laboratory Module (MLM) – Nauka. The spacewalk ended at seven hours, 29 minutes when the cosmonauts closed the Pirs docking compartment hatch and re-entered the space station. The spacewalk set a new Russian spacewalk record, eclipsing the old mark of seven hours and 16 minutes set by two cosmonauts outside the Mir space station in July 1990. However, the record held by Yurchikhin and Misurkin was soon eclipsed by cosmonauts Oleg Kotov and Sergey Ryazansky when they performed an eight hours, seven minutes spacewalk on 27 December 2013.

On 22 August 2013, Yurchikhin performed his eight spacewalk with cosmonaut Alexander Misurkin. The cosmonauts exited the Pirs docking compartment and moved out to the first worksite on the Zvezda service module. Yurchikhin and Misurkin removed an External Onboard Laser Communications System, installed on the Zvezda module during an earlier spacewalk in August 2011. Next the spacewalkers successfully installed a camera platform on the starboard side of Zvezda module. Initially, Russian mission controllers advised Yurchikhin and Misurkin to stand down on the installation operations, due to a misaligned base plate issue in the camera platform. However, upon discovering that the problem could be fixed after its installation, the mission controllers gave the go ahead for the installation. Misurkin and Yurchikhin also headed to various sites on the Zvezda module to inspect the antenna covers and tighten screws on six antennas used for providing navigation data during ATV cargo ship rendezvous and docking operations. Yurchikhin also completed the installation of some devices called gap spanners used to help spacewalkers in their movements between the space station modules. The spacewalk lasted five hours and 58 minutes.

Yurchikhin served as a Flight Engineer for the Expedition 24/25 long duration missions to the ISS. On June 16, 2010, Yurchikhin along with NASA astronauts Douglas Wheelock and Shannon Walker lifted off aboard the Soyuz TMA-19 spacecraft from the Baikonur Cosmodrome. He also served as the commander of the Soyuz TMA-19 spacecraft.

During his second long stay aboard the ISS, Yurhikhin participated in two spacewalks in support of station's maintenance and staging new experiments in the exterior of the orbiting complex. On 26 July 2010, Yurchikhin and fellow Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Korniyenko performed a spacewalk outside the space station. On 15 November 2010, Yurchikhin again participated in a spacewalk with cosmonaut and Expedition 25/26 flight engineer Oleg Skripochka.

On 18 October 2010, Yurchikhin took part in the all-Russian census from space. He answered questions for the census collectors during a linkup with the Mission Control Center outside Moscow.

Yurchikhin returned to Earth on 26 November 2010 after spending 163 days aboard the ISS. Soyuz TMA-19 carrying the trio of Yurchikhin, Wheelock and Walker undocked from the space station at 01:23:13 GMT After a nominal descent, the Soyuz TMA-19 descent module landed on the central steppes of Kazakhstan at 04:46 GMT After the successful landing, Yurchikhin headed for Star City – the home of the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center in Russia.

On 26 July 2010, Yurchikhin and fellow Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Korniyenko performed a spacewalk outside the space station. The two cosmonauts on July 23 put on their Orlan spacesuits and performed a dry run of the spacewalk activities. From inside the Pirs docking compartment they checked out the Orlan systems, practiced translation movements and tested their mobility. During the spacewalk (Russian EVA #25), Yurchikhin and Kornienko outfitted the Rassvet module's (MRM1) Kurs automated rendezvous system, installed cables and remove and replaced a video camera. The spacewalk lasted six hours and 42 minutes.

On 15 November 2010, Yurchikhin participated in a spacewalk with cosmonaut and Expedition 25 Flight Engineer Oleg Skripochka. At 13:25 UTC, he and Skripochka ventured into space outside the ISS from the Pirs airlock to conduct Russian EVA #26. The spacewalk lasted six hours and 27 minutes. It was the fifth for Yurchikhin, who was in the spacesuit marked with red stripes. The two cosmonauts removed Kontur and Expose-R scientific experiments. The Kontur experiment studied remote object control capability for robotic arms and the Expose-R experiment is a European Space Agency experiment designed to expose organic material to the extreme environment of space. During the spacewalk, Yurchikhin and Skripochka also installed a portable multipurpose workstation on the Zvezda service module and installed handrail extensions between the Poisk Module and both Zvezda and Zarya modules. They performed an experiment called Test, which is aimed at verifying the existence of micro organisms or contamination underneath insulation on the Russian segment of the ISS. Yurchikhin and Skripochka removed a television camera from the Rassvet module, however they were not able to relocate the camera due to interference with insulation where it was to be installed.

In 2007, he became a member of the Expedition 15 on the ISS. His flight began on April 7, when he launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome, aboard Soyuz TMA-10 spacecraft, together with Oleg Kotov and space tourist Charles Simonyi. Yurchikhin was aboard when Simonyi gave a live telebridge conversation on Tuesday, April 17, 2007. He served as the commander of the Expedition 15 mission.

On 30 May 2007, at 19:05 UTC Yurchikhin began his first spacewalk from the Pirs docking compartment airlock. He and fellow cosmonaut Oleg Kotov performed a five-hour and 25 minute spacewalk, during which they installed protective panels to shield ISS from space debris.

On 6 June 2007, Yurchikhin performed his second spacewalk from the Pirs docking compartment airlock. The two spacewalkers installed a section of Ethernet cable on the Zarya module, installed additional Service Module Debris Protection (SMDP) panels on Zvezda, and deployed a Russian scientific experiment. Yurchikhin and Kotov returned to the ISS at 4:00 p.m. EDT to wound up the five hours, 37 minutes spacewalk.

On 23 July 2007, Yurchikhin participated in his third spacewalk along with NASA astronaut Clayton Anderson. He emerged from the US Quest airlock at 10:24 UTC, to officially begin the spacewalk. During the spacewalk, Yurchikhin and Anderson removed and jettisoned the Early Ammonia Servicer (EAS), installed a television camera stanchion, reconfigured a power supply for an antenna assembly, and performed several get-ahead tasks. The spacewalk lasted seven hours and 41 minutes.

Yurchikhin was awarded the Hero of the Russian Federation medal, the Order of Friendship medal (2003), the Order of the Phoenix (Greece), the NASA Space Flight Medal (2003), medals of the Federation of Cosmonautics and the title of Russian Federation Test-Cosmonaut (2003).

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 International Space Station (ISS) program.

After graduating from the S. Ordzhonikidze Moscow Aviation Institute, Yurchikhin worked at the Russian Space Corporation Energia from September 1983 until August 1997. 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.

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.

Fyodor Nikolayevich Yurchikhin (Russian: Фёдор Николаевич Юрчихин, Greek: Θεόδωρος Γιουρτσίχιν του Νικόλαου; born 3 January 1959 ) is a Russian cosmonaut of Greek descent, engineer and RSC Energia test-pilot who has flown on five spaceflights. His first spaceflight was a 10-day Space Shuttle mission STS-112. His second was a long-duration stay aboard the International Space Station (ISS) as a Flight Engineer for Expedition 15; for this mission he was launched in the Soyuz TMA-10 spacecraft. He has undertaken two further long-duration stays aboard the ISS, as a crew member of Expedition 24 / 25. For this mission he was launched with the spacecraft Soyuz TMA-19, and he landed in November 2010, also with the TMA-19 spacecraft. He served as Soyuz Commander for his fourth mission aboard Soyuz TMA-09M, as Flight Engineer for Expedition 36 and ISS Commander for Expedition 37. In April 2017, Yurchikhin launched on Soyuz MS-04 for the fifth spaceflight of his career, a six-month mission to the ISS as part of Expedition 51 and 52, for which he was the Commander.

Yurchikhin was born in Batumi, Adjar ASSR, Georgian SSR (now Adjara the autonomous republic of Georgia) on 3 January 1959 to Pontic Greek parents Nikolai Fyodorovich Yurchikhin and Mikrula Sofoklevna Yurchikhina (born Heleni Grammatikopoulou) (both now reside in Sindos, Greece). Yurchikhin is married to Larisa Anatolievna Yurchikhina (born in Shchyolkovo) and has two daughters. His 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.