Krikalev was born in
Leningrad in the Soviet Union (now
Saint Petersburg, Russia). He enjoys swimming, skiing, cycling, aerobatic flying, and
amateur radio operations, particularly from space (callsign U5MIR). He graduated from high school in 1975. In 1981, he received a
mechanical engineering degree from the
Leningrad Mechanical Institute, now called
Baltic State Technical University. After graduation in 1981, he joined
NPO Energia, the Russian industrial organization responsible for crewed space flight activities. He tested space flight equipment, developed space operations methods, and participated in ground control operations. When the
Salyut 7 space station failed in 1985, he worked on the rescue mission team, developing procedures for docking with the uncontrolled station and repairing the station's on-board system.
Mir Krikalev was selected as a
cosmonaut in 1985, completed his basic training in 1986, and, for a time, was assigned to the
Buran Shuttle program. In early 1988, he began training for his first long-duration flight aboard the
Mir space station. This training included preparations for at least six
EVAs (space walks), installation of a new module, the first test of the new
Manned Maneuvering Unit (MMU), and the second joint Soviet-French science mission.
Soyuz TM-7 was launched on 26 November 1988, with Krikalev as flight engineer, Commander
Aleksandr Volkov, and French astronaut
Jean-Loup Chrétien. The previous crew (
Vladimir Titov,
Musa Manarov, and
Valeri Polyakov) remained on Mir for another 25 days, marking the longest period a six-person crew had been in orbit. After the previous crew returned to Earth, Krikalev, Polyakov, and Volkov continued to conduct experiments aboard the Mir station. Because the arrival of the next crew had been delayed, they prepared the Mir for a period of uncrewed operations before returning to Earth on 27 April 1989. In April 1990, Krikalev began preparing for his second flight as a member of the backup crew for the eighth long-duration Mir mission, which also included five EVAs and a week of Soviet-Japanese operations. In December 1990, Krikalev began training for the ninth Mir mission which included training for ten EVAs.
Soyuz TM-12 launched on 19 May 1991, with Krikalev as flight engineer, Commander
Anatoly Artsebarsky, and British astronaut
Helen Sharman. Sharman returned to Earth with the previous crew after one week, while Krikalev and Artsebarsky remained on Mir. During the summer, they conducted six EVAs to perform a variety of experiments and some station maintenance tasks. In July 1991, Krikalev agreed to stay on Mir as flight engineer for the next crew, scheduled to arrive in October because the next two planned flights had been reduced to one. The
engineer slot on the
Soyuz TM-13 flight on 2 October 1991, was filled by
Toktar Aubakirov, an astronaut from the
Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic, who had not been trained for a long-duration mission. Both Aubakirov and
Franz Viehböck, the first Austrian astronaut, returned with Artsebarsky on 10 October 1991. Commander
Alexander Volkov remained on board with Krikalev. After the crew replacement in October, Volkov and Krikalev continued Mir experiment operations and conducted another EVA before returning to Earth on 25 March 1992. Throughout his various missions aboard Mir, Krikalev regularly communicated with various
amateur radio operators (hams) across the globe. A particularly lengthy relationship was formed between Krikalev and Australian amateur radio operator
Margaret Iaquinto. At one point during one of his stays in space, he contacted her once a day for an entire year. Krikalev and Iaquinto successfully communicated via
packet radio for the first time in history between an orbiting space station and an amateur radio operator. They communicated about personal matters, as well as political ones. Iaquinto set up a makeshift digital bulletin board that the Mir cosmonauts would often use to obtain western news and information regarding the state of the collapsing Soviet Union. Krikalev was in space when
the Soviet Union was dissolved on 26 December 1991. With the
Baikonur Cosmodrome and the landing area both being located in the newly independent Kazakhstan, there was a great deal of uncertainty about the fate of his mission. He remained in space twice as long as originally planned, spending a total of 311 days in space. Because Krikalev spent so much time in space traveling at high velocities,
time dilation (or the slowing down of clocks) caused him to be 0.02 seconds younger than other people born at the same time as him. He returned to Earth on 25 March and is sometimes referred to as the "last Soviet citizen". These events are documented and contextualized in Romanian filmmaker
Andrei Ujică's 1995
documentary Out of the Present. Krikalev's story inspired the 2017 film
Sergio and Sergei, directed by
Ernesto Daranas.
Space Shuttle In October 1992, NASA announced that an experienced cosmonaut would fly aboard a future
Space Shuttle mission. Krikalev was one of two candidates named by the
Russian Space Agency for mission specialist training with the crew of
STS-60. In April 1993, he was assigned as prime mission specialist. In September 1993, Vladimir Titov was selected to fly on
STS-63 with Krikalev training as his backup. Krikalev flew on STS-60, the first joint U.S./Russian Space Shuttle Mission. Launched on 3 February 1994, STS-60 was the second flight of the
Space Habitation Module-2 (Spacehab-2), and the first flight of the
Wake Shield Facility (WSF-1). During the eight-day flight, the crew of
Discovery conducted a wide variety of materials science experiments, both on the Wake Shield Facility and in the Spacehab, Earth observation, and life science experiments. Krikalev conducted significant portions of the
Remote Manipulator System (RMS) operations during the flight. Following 130 orbits of the Earth in , STS-60 landed at
Kennedy Space Center,
Florida, on 11 February 1994. With the completion of this flight, Krikalev logged an additional eight days, seven hours, nine minutes in space. Krikalev returned to duty in Russia following his American experience on STS-60. Periodically he returned to the
Johnson Space Center in
Houston to work with
CAPCOM in
Mission Control and ground controllers in Russia supporting joint U.S./Russian Missions
STS-63,
STS-71,
STS-74 and
STS-76. (left) during STS-88 Krikalev flew on
STS-88 Endeavour (4–15 December 1998), the first
International Space Station (ISS) assembly mission. During the 12-day mission the
Unity module was mated with
Zarya module. To reflect the international cooperation required to build the station Krikalev and the mission commander
Robert Cabana became the first to enter the new station together on 10 December 1998. The crew also performed
IMAX Cargo Bay Camera (ICBC) operations, and deployed two satellites, Mighty Sat 1 and SAC-A. The mission was accomplished in 185 orbits of the Earth in 283 hours and 18 minutes.
International Space Station Krikalev was a member of the
Expedition 1 crew. They launched 31 October 2000, on a Soyuz rocket from
Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, successfully docking with the station on 2 November 2000. During their stay on the station, they prepared the inside of the orbital outpost for future crews. They also saw the station grow in size with the installation of the U.S. solar array structure and the U.S.
Destiny Laboratory Module. They left the station with the
STS-102 crew, undocking from the station on 18 March with landing at the Kennedy Space Center, Florida, on 21 March 2001. Krikalev was also the commander of
Expedition 11. He lived and worked aboard the
International Space Station on a six-month tour of duty. This was the third time he had flown to the
International Space Station. Expedition 11 launched from
Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on 14 April 2005 aboard a Soyuz spacecraft and docked with the ISS on 16 April 2005. Following eight days of joint operations and handover briefings, they replaced the
Expedition 10 crew who returned to earth aboard Soyuz. Expedition 11 plans called for two spacewalks, the first in August from the US
Quest airlock in US spacesuits, and the second, in September, in Russian spacesuits from the
Pirs airlock. On 16 August 2005 at 1:44 a.m. EDT he passed the record of 748 days in space held by
Sergei Avdeyev. In completing his sixth space flight, Krikalev logged 803 days and 9 hours and 39 minutes in space, including eight EVAs. He is currently fourth to
Gennady Padalka,
Oleg Kononenko and
Yuri Malenchenko in the record for the
most time spent in space. Krikalev's contributions to the ISS were not limited to his on-orbit time. On 15 June 2007, Krikalev was brought to the Russian
Mission Control center to instruct
Expedition 15 Flight Engineer
Oleg Kotov on how he and ISS Commander
Fyodor Yurchikhin could jump-start the Russian segment's crippled computer systems.
Later career On 15 February 2007, Krikalev was appointed Vice President of the
S.P. Korolev Rocket and Space Corporation Energia (Russian: Ракетно-космическая корпорация "Энергия" им. С.П.Королева) in charge of crewed space flights. In that office, he was the administrator of the
Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center from 2009 to 2014.
In popular culture A character based on Krikalev features in the 2017 Cuban film drama
Sergio and Sergei, in which a professor and amateur radio enthusiast in Havana contacts a cosmonaut named Sergei aboard the
Mir space station. The film draws parallels between economic hardships in Cuba at the time and the fall of the Soviet Union, which occurred as the real-life Krikalev was aboard
Mir. == Public activities==