Mir-20 Biographies
| Gidzenko | Avdeyev | Reiter |
Yuri Gidzenko, Commander - Biography
Name: Yuri Pavlovich Gidzenko (Lieutenant Colonel, Air Force Russia) Cosmonaut of the Y.A. Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center
Personal Data: Born March 26, 1962 in the village Elanets, Elanetsky district, Nikolayev region. Resides in Star City. Married to Olga Vladimirovna (Shapovalova), born December 21, 1961. They have two sons. Gidzenko enjoys team sports, swimming, tennis and football. Gidzenko's parents, Pavel Vasilievich and Galina Mikhailovna, reside in the settlement of Berezovka, Odessa region.
Education: Graduated from Kharkov Military Aviation College of Pilots in 1983. Graduated from Moscow State University of land-surveying and cartography in 1994. SPECIAL HONORS: Awarded three Armed Forces medals.
Experience: After graduation from Aviation College in 1983, served as a pilot and senior pilot in the Air Force. 3rd class military pilot.
December 1987 through June 1989, took the course of general space training.
Starting September 1989 continued training in the group of test-cosmonauts.
Instructor of paradrop training. Fulfilled 145 parachute jumps.
From March through October 1994 trained for the 17th main mission and Euromir-94 flight as a commander of the backup crew.
From September 3, 1995 through February 29, 1996, Gidzenko was the commander of the Euromir-95 mission on the Russian Space Station Mir. Gidzenko was a member of the Expedition-1 crew, launching October 31, 2000 on a Soyuz rocket from the Baikonur launch site in Kazakhstan, and successfully docking with the station on November 2, 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 March 18, and landing at the Kennedy Space Center, Florida, on March 21, 2001.
In completing his first mission, Gidzenko logged over 141 days in space.
NASA-1
| Gidzenko | Avdeyev | Reiter |
Sergei Avdeyev, Flight Engineer - Biography
Sergei Avdeyev was the flight engineer of the Mir 20 mission, which lasted from September 3, 1995, until February 29, 1996. He and Mir 20 Commander Yuri Ghidzhenko were aboard Mir when Commander Ken Cameron and the crew of STS-74 linked with the station, bringing the Russian-built docking module for shuttles to use on future Shuttle-Mir missions. The crew of STS-74 launched on the Space Shuttle Atlantis on November 12, 1995 and landed November 20, 1995.
Avdeyev was born January 1, 1956 in Chapayevsk, Kuybyshev Oblast, Russia. He is married with two children.
He was selected as a cosmonaut March 26, 1987. Avdeyev graduated from Moscow Physic-Engineering Institute in 1979 as an engineer-physicist.
| Gidzenko | Avdyev | Reiter |
Thomas Reiter, Cosmonaut - Biography
Personal Data: Born May 23, 1958, in Frankfurt/Main, Germany. He is married and has two sons. Enjoys fencing, badminton, cooking, and playing guitar.
Education: Thomas Reiter has a Masters Degree in Aerospace Technology. He graduated from Goethe-High School in Neu-Isenburg in June 1977, from the Armed Forces University in Neubiberg in December 1982 and from the Empire Test Pilots School (ETPS) in Boscombe Down, England, in December 1992.
Experience: After completion of military jet training at Sheppard Air Force Base, Texas, Thomas Reiter flew the Alpha-Jet in a fighter-bomber squadron based in Oldenburg, Germany. He was involved in the development of computerized mission planning systems and became a flight-operations officer and deputy squadron commander. After completing the test-pilot training Class 2 at the German flight test center in Manching during 1990, Reiter was involved in several flight test projects and conversion training on the Tornado the following year. Reiter attended the Class 1 test pilot training at ETPS, Boscombe Down, in 1992. His flight experience includes more than 2000 hours in military combat jet aircraft of more than 15 types.
Thomas Reiter was also involved in European Space Agency (ESA) studies of a manned space vehicle (Hermes) and development of equipment for the Columbus module, one of EuropeÆs main contributions to the International Space Station.
In 1992, he was selected to join ESAÆs Astronaut Corps, based at the European Astronaut Center (EAC) in Cologne, Germany. After completing basic training, Reiter was selected for the Euromir 95 mission and started training at TsPK (Cosmonauts Training Center) in Star City near Moscow in August 1993, preparing for onboard-engineer tasks, extra-vehicular activities and operations of the Soyuz transportation system. The Euromir 95 experiment training was organized and mainly carried out at the EAC.
In March 1995, he was assigned on-board engineer for the Euromir 95 mission, a record-breaking 179 days on ESA's Euromir 95 mission ( September 3, 1995 until February 29, 1996) with 2 spacewalks (EVAs).
Between October 1996 and July 1997, Reiter underwent training on Soyuz-TM spacecraft operations for de-docking, atmospheric re-entry and landing.
He was awarded the Russian æSoyuz Return CommanderÆ certificate, which qualifies him to command a three-person Soyuz capsule during its return from space.
Furthermore, he performed collateral duties in the ERA-team of ESA, which is developing the European Robotic Arm and its ground based test- and mission control equipment.
From September 1997 to March 1999, Reiter was detached to the German Air Force as Operational Group Commander of a Tornado fighterbomber wing.
Spaceflight Experience: ESA-Russian Euromir 95 mission to the MIR Space Station, along with Russian colleagues Yuri Gidzenko and Sergei Avdeyev. Reiter was assigned on-board engineer for the record-breaking 179 days mission (September 3, 1995 until February 29, 1996). He performed some 40 European scientific experiments and participated in the maintenance of the Mir Space Station. He performed two spacewalks (EVAs) to install and later retrieve cassettes of the European Space Exposure Facility experiments (ESEF).
On April 1, 1999 he resumed his activities at the European Astronaut Center, Cologne, Germany.