1. Yury Valentinovich Lonchakov is a Russian former cosmonaut and a veteran of three space missions.
22 Facts About Yury Lonchakov
1. 2.
Yury Lonchakov has spent 200 days in space and has conducted two spacewalks.
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From 2014 to 2017, Lonchakov served as head of the Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center.
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Yury Lonchakov was born on 4 March 1965, in Balkhash, Dzhezkazkansk Region, Kazakhstan.
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Yury Lonchakov considers Aktyubinsk as his native city since he had spent his childhood and youth there.
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Yury Lonchakov's hobbies include books, tourism, auto-tourism, downhill skiing, sport games.
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In 1995, Yury Lonchakov entered the Zhukovski Air Force Academy from which he graduated with honors in 1998 as pilot-engineer-researcher.
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Yury Lonchakov was awarded the Hero of the Russian Federation medal and the honorary title Pilot-Cosmonaut of the Russian Federation.
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Yury Lonchakov was decorated with the Order For Merit to the Fatherland IV class, the Medal "For Merit in Space Exploration", and the NASA Space Flight Medal.
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Yury Lonchakov is an "Honoured Man of the Aktubinsk region".
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Yury Lonchakov has logged over 1400 hours of flight time, is a Class 1 Air Force pilot, and a paratroop training instructor with 526 jumps.
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Yury Lonchakov was selected as a test-cosmonaut candidate of the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center Cosmonaut Office in December 1997.
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On 25 March 2002, Yury Lonchakov passed training for a spaceflight as the backup crew commander of the Soyuz-TM, Soyuz-TMA spacecraft, 4th visiting crew under the ISS program.
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Yury Lonchakov returned to the ISS in October 2002 as a crewmember of the Soyuz taxi flight Soyuz TMA-1.
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Yury Lonchakov was originally selected to be a flight engineer on Expedition 19, but was transferred to the Expedition 18 crew as a flight engineer and Soyuz commander, after Salizhan Sharipov was removed from the crew.
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Yury Lonchakov joined the ISS Expedition 18 crew as a flight engineer.
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Yury Lonchakov returned to Earth with NASA astronaut Michael Fincke and spaceflight participant Charles Simonyi.
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Yury Lonchakov has performed two career spacewalks totalling 10 hours and 27 minutes.
19.
On 23 December 2008, Yury Lonchakov performed his first career spacewalk with NASA astronaut Michael Fincke.
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On 10 March 2009, Yury Lonchakov performed his second career spacewalk, again with Fincke.
21.
Yury Lonchakov had been scheduled to fly on Expedition 44 to the International Space Station, and at the time of announcement, no replacement had been named.
22.
Yury Lonchakov resigned from the cosmonaut corps and took up a position at Gazprom.