Aleksandr Aleksandrovich Volkov (russian: Алекса́ндр Алекса́ндрович Во́лков; born 27 May 1948) is a retired Russian

cosmonaut An astronaut (from the Ancient Greek (), meaning 'star', and (), meaning 'sailor') is a person trained, equipped, and deployed by a human spaceflight program to serve as a commander or crew member aboard a spacecraft. Although generally r ...

. He is a veteran of 3 space flights, including twice to the Mir Soviet space station, and is the father of cosmonaut Sergey Volkov.

Biography and career

Volkov was born in

Ukrainian SSR The Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic ( uk, Украї́нська Радя́нська Соціалісти́чна Респу́бліка, ; russian: Украи́нская Сове́тская Социалисти́ческая Респ ...

in a family of

Russian Russian(s) refers to anything related to Russia, including: *Russians (, ''russkiye''), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *Rossiyane (), Russian language term for all citizens and peo ...

ethnicity. At the age of 13, Volkov witnessed

Yuri Gagarin Yuri Alekseyevich Gagarin; Gagarin's first name is sometimes transliterated as ''Yuriy'', ''Youri'', or ''Yury''. (9 March 1934 – 27 March 1968) was a Soviet pilot and cosmonaut who became the first human to journey into outer space. T ...

become the first man in space and this inspired him to become a cosmonaut. He joined the Soviet space programme and became a test pilot before realising his dream. He flew into space three times. His first spaceflight was a trip to Salyut 7 in 1985 (64 days in space), followed by two flights to the

Mir ''Mir'' (russian: Мир, ; ) was a space station that operated in low Earth orbit from 1986 to 2001, operated by the Soviet Union and later by Russia. ''Mir'' was the first modular space station and was assembled in orbit from 1986 to&n ...

space station, in 1988–1989 (151 days) and again in 1991–1992 (175 days) as commander of flight

Soyuz TM-13 Soyuz TM-13 was the 13th expedition to Mir space station. Lasting from October 1991 to March 1992, the mission included cosmonauts from Austria and the soon-to-be independent region of Kazakhstan, as the Soviet Union collapsed in December 1991. ...

. On board the Mir space station, he controlled the docking procedures among other things. The

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

broke up in 1991 during his second stay on board Mir. At the time Volkov was orbiting Earth on

with Sergei K. Krikalev, "the last citizens of the USSR". Having gone into orbit as Soviet citizens, they returned to Earth as Russian citizens. He worked as Commander of the Cosmonaut Team at the Cosmonauts Training Centre from January 1991 until August 1998. His work was to prepare Russian and foreign cosmonauts for future flights to space stations to Mir and the

International Space Station The International Space Station (ISS) is the largest modular space station currently in low Earth orbit. It is a multinational collaborative project involving five participating space agencies: NASA (United States), Roscosmos (Russia), JAXA ( ...

. He is the father of Sergey Volkov. The younger Volkov became the first second-generation cosmonaut when he was launched aboard

Soyuz TMA-12 Soyuz TMA-12 was a Soyuz mission to the International Space Station (ISS) which was launched by a Soyuz FG rocket at 11:16 UTC on 8 April 2008. It docked to the Pirs module of the station on 10 April 2008. Landing occurred at 03:37 on 24 October ...

on 8 April 2008, his first of three flights; in total he spent over a year aboard the

Awards

Aleksandr Volkov was awarded: *

Hero of the Soviet Union The title Hero of the Soviet Union (russian: Герой Советского Союза, translit=Geroy Sovietskogo Soyuza) was the highest distinction in the Soviet Union, awarded together with the Order of Lenin personally or collectively for ...

(1985) *

Order of Lenin The Order of Lenin (russian: Орден Ленина, Orden Lenina, ), named after the leader of the Russian October Revolution, was established by the Central Executive Committee on April 6, 1930. The order was the highest civilian decoration ...

(1985) *

Order of the October Revolution The Order of the October Revolution (russian: Орден Октябрьской Революции, ''Orden Oktyabr'skoy Revolyutsii'') was instituted on October 31, 1967, in time for the 50th anniversary of the October Revolution. It was conferr ...

(1989) *

Order of Friendship of Peoples The Order of Friendship of Peoples (russian: oрден Дружбы народов, translit=orden Druzhby narodov) was an order of the Soviet Union, and was awarded to persons (including non-citizens), organizations, enterprises, military unit ...

(1992) * Medal 2nd class of the Order of Merit for the Fatherland (1996) *

Medal "For Merit in Space Exploration" The Medal "For Merit in Space Exploration" (russian: Медаль "За заслуги в освоении космоса") is a state decoration of the Russian Federation aimed at recognising achievements in the space program. It was established ...

(2011) * Officer of the

Legion of Honour The National Order of the Legion of Honour (french: Ordre national de la Légion d'honneur), formerly the Royal Order of the Legion of Honour ('), is the highest French order of merit, both military and civil. Established in 1802 by Napoleon ...

(France) * Order of Merit 3rd class (Ukraine, 2011)Указ Президента України № 450/2011 від 12 квітня 2011 року "Про відзначення державними нагородами України"
. Ukrainian President Decree No. 450. 12 April 2011

References

External links

1948 births Living people People from Horlivka Soviet cosmonauts Russian cosmonauts Heroes of the Soviet Union Recipients of the Order of Lenin Recipients of the Order of Friendship of Peoples Recipients of the Order "For Merit to the Fatherland", 2nd class Recipients of the Order of Merit (Ukraine), 3rd class Officiers of the Légion d'honneur Recipients of the Medal "For Merit in Space Exploration" Salyut program cosmonauts Spacewalkers Mir crew members {{Astronaut-stub