Gennady Padalka: biography of the cosmonaut

Padalka Gennady Ivanovich is the eighty-ninth Russian cosmonaut. In the world ranking is ranked 384th. Gennady Ivanovich is commander of the Soyuz TM-28 spacecraft and the scientific space international complex of the ISS. Honored Pilot-Cosmonaut of Russia. He was awarded many medals and orders. Laureate of the RF Prize in the field of engineering and science. Member of the Board of Directors "Association of Space Explorers" and the Board of Trustees of the University (VAAU) in the city of Voronezh.

Where and when was Padalka born?

Gennady Padalka, whose biography is closely connected with space flights, was born on June 21, 1958 in the Kuban, in the city of Krasnodar. In the ordinary working family. His father, Ivan Vasilyevich Padalka (born in 1931), worked as a tractor driver. A mother, Valentina Mefodevna (born in 1931, in the maidenhood of Melenchenko), worked as a cashier in an ordinary store

Education of the cosmonaut

Gennady Padalka studied in Krasnodar, in secondary school number 57. He graduated from the 10 classes in 1975. Then he entered the Military Aviation School (briefly VVAUL) named after Komarov in the town of Yeysk. He graduated in 1979.

Then Gennady Ivanovich decided to continue his studies and entered the faculty of Aerospace Ecology of the State Academy of Gas and Oil. At the end of the university in 1994, Padalka became an environmental engineer and received a master's degree.

After a while, Gennady Ivanovich entered the Russian State Academy under the President of the Russian Federation. Graduated it successfully in 2007.

Military career

Since 1975, Gennady Padalka served in the Armed Forces of the Soviet Union. Since 1979 he was a pilot of the 559th regiment of fighter-bombers, 105th division, 61 guard air corps of the 16th Air Army of the Soviet troops, located on the territory of Germany.

In 1980, Gennady Ivanovich was transferred to the 116th Guards Air Regiment of the same division as a pilot. April 10, 1982 he was promoted to the rank of senior pilot. From 1984 to 1989 he served in the 277th Bomber Aviation Regiment, 83rd Division of the Far Eastern District.

During his military career, Padalka mastered many models of aircraft (L-29, MiGi and Su). Total flew from 1200 to 1300 hours and performed more than 300 parachute jumps. For 1989, Gennady was already in the rank of major. During the following years, he rose to the rank of colonel.

Preparation for space missions

In 1989, Padalka became a candidate in test cosmonauts at the Russian State Research Center for Training named after Gagarin. General training was held from 1989 to 1991. After that, he began training in the flight program at Mir orbital station.

In 1996, Padalka became her commander of the second backup crew. He also commanded the basic staff. From 1996 to 1997 Was prepared for space flights to Soyuz-TM and OK Mir as the head of the 2nd convoy under the program of the 24th expedition.

The debut flight into space

Gennady Padalka made his debut flight on the thirteenth of August 1998. He was in outer space on the twenty-eighth day of February 1999. For this period he was appointed commander of the expedition. Start made together with S. Avdeev and Yu. Baturin. Landing took place in tandem with Ivan Bella. Gennady's call sign is "Altair-1".

In flight, Gennady once went out into open space (duration - five hours 54 minutes) and "closed" (work in the module "Spectrum" for half an hour). The entire flight in general lasted 198 days 16 hours 31 minutes and 20 seconds.

In 1999, Gennady, along with Sergei Treschev, was appointed commander of the second crew of the twenty-ninth expedition to Mir. But after the transfer of the orbital station to the unmanned mode, the working crews disbanded.

In the same year, Gennady Padalka, whose photo can be seen in this article, began training at the CPC them. Gagarin as the commander of the main crew together with N. Budarin. The purpose of their subsequent work was to fly into orbit to conduct the docking manually, if there is a failure in the automation. Crew training lasted until 2000. But thanks to the successful automatic docking, no astronauts were needed.

In 1999, he was appointed commander of the backup crew of the fourth expedition to the International Space Station. Since 2000, Gennady started training as the commander of the ISS-4D. He worked with the Americans M. Finck and S. Robinson.

Over the next few years, Padalka was appointed several times as commander of duplicate and basic convoys. Participated in many trainings together with cosmonauts from other countries.

The second flight

His second flight, Gennady Padalka, an astronaut with excellent training, committed in 2004, being at the time commander of the crew of the ninth expedition of the ISS and the Soyuz TMA-4. Callsign Gennady remained the same.

During the flight, he four times went into open space. Duration:

• 13 minutes;
• 5 hours 40 minutes;
• 4 hours 30 minutes;
• 5 hours 21 minutes.

The total flight duration was 187 days 21 hours 16 minutes. And 9 seconds.

After the second space flight, Padalka was appointed several times as a preliminary commander of the backup and main crews of the various expeditions. Many times Gennady worked together with American astronaut Michael Barrath. In 2008, was included in the main crew of Soyuz TMA-14. In the training center, I took pre-flight exams for "excellent" for several years.

And again in space

The third flight of Gennady Padalka - cosmonaut, biography Which is closely connected with the cosmos, committed in March 2009. Then he was appointed commander of the Soyuz TMA-14 and two main expeditions. On March 28 of the same year, a successful docking with the ISS took place.

During the flight Gennady twice went out into space. The first time - at 4 hours 54 minutes. In this output, antennas were installed on the SM Zvezda. The second one - for 12 minutes for dismantling the flat cover of the docking assembly and installing a docking cone on it. The total flight duration is 198 days, 16 hours, 42 minutes.

In 2009, Gennady transferred his powers to the Belgian astronaut Frank de Winne. He landed on the eleventh of October of the same year, together with M. Bratt and the tourist Guy Laliberte, who participated in the flight.

Over the next few years, Padalka was appointed commander of the backup and main crews of several expeditions. The interdepartmental commission received the attestation of the cosmonaut of the FGBU detachment at the Gagarin Research Institute.

In 2011, the commission recognized Gennady as fit for flights and allowed to continue flights. And he was sent to the Training Center along with Revin and Aqaba. Gennady successfully passed all the exam training tasks and was appointed backup of the commander of the spacecraft. The following year he became the head of the main staff.

Fourth Flight

The fourth time Padalka flew into space on May 15, 2012 and was there on September 17, 2012. Gennady was appointed commander of the Soyuz TMA-04M, in combination with the flight engineer of the 31st main expedition and the head of the 32nd. On May 17, there was a docking to the "Search" module of the space international station.

During the flight Gennady Padalka went out into the open air together with Yuri Malenchenko at 5:51 AM. At that time the cargo arrow "Pirs" was transferred to the "Zarya" air adapter, the "Sphere-53" satellite was manually launched, and five additional panels and two struts were installed. The container and some equipment were dismantled. The total flight duration is 124 days, 23 hours, 51 minutes and 30 seconds.

The fifth time in space

The fifth flight Padalka made in the spring of 2015. He was appointed commander of the Soyuz TMA-16M spacecraft and a member of the 43rd and 44th expeditions. Together with M. Kornienko and S. Kelly. On March 28, the ship successfully docked with the research module "Search". On June 10, Gennadiy was given command of the station by American astronaut Terry Wertz.

Padalka during the expedition went out into open space at 5 hours 34 minutes. At that time, soft handrails were installed on the Zvezda module, some equipment was dismantled, and several planned device installations for the station systems were completed. On September 5, 2015, Padalka handed over the command to American Scott Kelly. The spacecraft landed on September 12, 2015 near the city of Dzhezkazgan. The total flight time is 168 days, 5 hours, 8 minutes and 37 seconds.

Personal life and family of the cosmonaut

Ros not parents have a future famous cosmonaut Gennady Padalka. They have a big family. He has two sisters. Olga (born in 1961) is a radio cellist. Tatyana (born in 1969) is a graduate of the technical college of light industry. Many people are interested in this question: "Cosmonaut Gennady Padalka where he lives?". All the same place where he was born: in the Kuban, in the city of Krasnodar.

Gennady married Irina Anatolyevna Ponomareva, born in 1959. She works as deputy director of an insurance company. Three daughters are brought up in the family: Julia (born in 1979), Ekaterina (born in 1985) and Sophia (born in 2000).