Aleksandr Nikolaevich Balandin (born 1953 ) - Russian cosmonaut , Hero of the Soviet Union . He made the only long (179 days) flight to Soyuz TM-9 and the Mir orbital station . The call sign in flight is Rodnik-2.
| Alexander Nikolaevich Balandin | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| A country |  USSR →  Russia | |||||
| Specialty | flight engineer | |||||
| Expeditions | Soyuz TM-9 | |||||
| Time in space | 179 days 1 h. 17 min. 57 sec | |||||
| Date of Birth | July 30, 1953 (66 years old) | |||||
| Place of Birth | Fryazino , Moscow region , RSFSR , USSR | |||||
| Awards |
Foreign awards;
| |||||
Content
Biography
Born July 30, 1953 in the city of Fryazino . In 1970 he graduated from high school in Fryazino, in 1976 MVTU specialty "Flight dynamics and control." He worked as an engineer in the NPO Energia near Moscow.
On December 8, 1978, he was enrolled in the cosmonaut corps (the 5th set of civilian specialists of NPO Energia), preparing for flights on the Buran reusable ship (1979-1984), Soyuz-TM spacecraft , and Mir orbital station. In September 1989, flight engineer of the Soyuz TM-8 backup crew. On September 5, 1989, the Soyuz TM-8 entered orbit with the main crew ( A. A. Serebrov and A. S. Viktorenko ).
Soyuz TM-9
On February 11, 1990, Soyuz TM-9 spacecraft commander A. Ya. Solovyov and flight engineer A. N. Balandin entered orbit to complete the sixth long expedition to the Mir, replacing Serebrov and Viktorenko [1] .
Among the many goals of the expedition was the installation and commissioning of Crystal , the new Mir module, but it began with an alarm: after docking with Mir on February 13, Soloviev and Balandin found serious damage to the thermal insulation of the Soyuz descent vehicle . Probable violations of the station’s thermal regime, in addition to crew discomfort, could lead to unwanted moisture condensation on the devices and electrical equipment failures. In addition, scraps of insulation could block optical navigation devices. As a result, the state of the Union TM-9 was found to be satisfactory for return; February 19, Serebrov and Viktorenko left Mir on Soyuz TM-8 and safely returned to Earth.
On March 3, freight Progress M-3 arrived at the station; replacement and installation of delivered equipment took all of March. On May 7, Progress-42 arrived at the station - the 43rd in a row [2] and the last in a series; on board, among other things, was a repair kit for the damaged Soyuz. The need to accept the “Progress” of the old series delayed the commissioning of a new on-board computer, which, in turn, delayed the launch of the “ Crystal ”. After debugging the new MIR systems, Kristall entered orbit on May 31. The first docking attempt (June 6) was unsuccessful; on the second attempt, on June 10, Kristall docked with Mir, and on June 11 it was moved to the side docking station opposite Kvant-2, balancing the configuration of the station.
Before returning to Earth, the crew still had to repair the thermal insulation of the Soyuz and the Quanta-2 lock. Neither Balandin nor Solovyov prepared specially for repair exits into space. On July 17, 1990, Balandin and Solovyov made their first spacewalk, which took 7 hours 16 minutes - with the standard suit of the spacesuit no more than 6.5 hours. The second exit took 3 hours 31 minutes.
On August 3, a shift arrived at the station - G. M. Manakov and G. M. Strekalov . On August 9, after 179 days in space, Balandin and Solovyov landed safely 70 km from Arkalyk .
- Statistics [3]
| # | Launch ship | Start, UTC | Expedition | Landing ship | Landing, UTC | Raid | EVA | Time in outer space |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| one | Soyuz TM-9 | 11.02 . 1990 , 06:16 | Soyuz TM-9, Mir-6 | Soyuz TM-9 | 08/09 . 1990 , 07:33 | 179 days 01 hour 17 minutes | 2 | 10 hours 45 minutes |
| 179 days 01 hour 17 minutes | 2 | 10 hours 45 minutes | ||||||
By a decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of August 11, 1990, for the successful implementation of the flight program and the courage and heroism shown at the same time, Balandin was awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union.
On June 26, 1992, he was removed from preparation for flights; he left the cosmonaut corps on October 17, 1994.
Has a daughter and son (born in 1984, 1990).
Rewards
- Hero of the Soviet Union (Decree of the President of the USSR of 08/11/1990 No. 551)
- The order of Lenin
- Medal "For Merit in Space Exploration" ( April 12, 2011 ) - for great merits in the field of research, development and use of outer space, many years of conscientious work, active social activity [4]
- Order of Bernardo O'Higgins ( La Orden de Bernardo O'Higgins , Chile , 2006).
Sources
- ↑ This section is based on astronautix.com materials. Archived on April 11, 2007. , in turn referring to DSF Portree's Mir Hardware Heritage, NASA RP-1357, 1995.
- ↑ 42 actually “Progress” of the first series and “zero” Cosmos-1669.
- ↑ Statistics - Balandin Aleksandr Nikolayevich (English) . spacefacts.de. Date of treatment March 10, 2019.
- ↑ Decree of the President of the Russian Federation of April 12, 2011 No. 436 “On awarding the medal“ For Merits in Space Exploration “”
Literature
- I. A. Marinin, S. Kh. Shamsutdinov, A. V. Glushko (compilers). Soviet and Russian astronauts. 1960-2000 / Edited by Yu. M. Baturin . - M .: LLC Information and Publishing House "Cosmonautics News", 2001. - ISBN 5-93345-003-0 .
Links
- Balandin, Alexander Nikolaevich . Site " Heroes of the country ".
- Space encyclopedia
- Cosmonaut Alexander Balandin . Video Encyclopedia "Cosmonauts". Roscosmos TV Studio