Roman Romanenko

Roman Romanenko
Cosmonaut
Nationality	Russian
Status	Retried
Born	(1971-08-09) August 9, 1971 Shchyolkovo, Soviet Union
Other names	Roman Yurievich Romanenko
Other occupation	Pilot
Rank	Major, Russian Air Force
Time in space	333 days, 11 hours, 01 minute
Selection	1997 TsPK Cosmonaut Group
Missions	Soyuz TMA-15 (Expedition 20/21), Soyuz TMA-07M (Expedition 34/35)
Mission insignia
Awards

Roman Yurievich Romanenko (Major, Russian Air Force; Russian: Роман Юрьевич Романенко; born August 9, 1971) is a retried cosmonaut at the Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center.

Personal life

Romanenko was born in Shchyolkovo, near Moscow. His parents, Yuri Victorovich Romanenko and Aleftina Ivanovna Romanenko, live in Star City. He is married to Yulia Leonidovna Romanenko (Danilovskaya). They have one son. His hobbies include underwater hunting, tennis, car repairs, tourism, yachting, volleyball and music.

Education

After graduation from Star City high school in 1986, Romanenko entered the Leningrad Suvorov military school, from which he graduated in 1988. In 1988, he entered the Chernigov High Air Force School for pilots, from which he graduated in 1992 as a pilot-engineer.

Experience

Following graduation from pilot school Romanenko served as a second commander in the Air Force. He flew L-39 and Tu-134 aircraft. Romanenko has logged over 500 hours of flight time. He is a Class 3 Air Force pilot.

Awards

On May 6, 2010, Romanenko was awarded the Hero of the Russian Federation medal by the decree of the Russian President Dmitry Medvedev. He was also awarded the honorary title Pilot-Cosmonaut of the Russian Federation.

Cosmonaut career

File:Roman Romanenko1.jpg

Roman Romanenko inside the Zvezda module of the ISS.

Romanenko was selected as a cosmonaut candidate at the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center Cosmonaut Office in December 1997. From January 1998 to November 1999 he undertook his basic training course. In November 1999 he was qualified as a Test Cosmonaut.

He served as the backup to Oleg Kotov as the Commander of Soyuz TMA-10 and Fyodor Yurchikhin as Commander of Expedition 15.

Expedition 20/21

On May 27, 2009, Romanenko was launched into space as the commander of the Soyuz TMA-15 spacecraft from Site 1/5 at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. He was part of the Expedition 20 and Expedition 21 crews and was the third second-generation space traveller after Sergey Volkov and Richard Garriott. Romanenko served as a Flight Engineer aboard the ISS during the two long duration missions.

After spending 187 days and 20 hours in space, Romanenko returned to Earth along with astronauts, Robert Thirsk and Frank de Winne on December 1, 2009.

First Spacewalk

File:ISS-35 EVA 10 Roman Romanenko.jpg

Romanenko during the first spacewalk of the Expedition 35 mission on April 19, 2013.

On April 19, 2013 Romanenko completed his first spacewalk with fellow cosmonaut Pavel Vinogradov, a 6-hour 38 minute EVA to conduct repairs to the ISS.

References

 This article incorporates public domain material from websites or documents of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

External links

• NASA Bio
• Spacefacts biography of Roman Romanenko