Strekalov, Gennady Mikhailovich

Gennady Mikhailovich Strekalov, (born Oct. 28, 1940, Mytishchi, U.S.S.R. [now Russia]—died Dec. 25, 2004, Moscow), Soviet and Russian cosmonaut who flew five times in space over a period of 15 years and who participated in the first joint Russian-American flight to the Mir space station.

From 1957 Strekalov was a mechanic at the OKB-1 design organization (now known as RKK Energia) and worked on the first Sputnik satellite. In 1973 he formally joined the organization’s engineer cosmonaut squad. He flew his first mission in 1980 as a cosmonaut-researcher on Soyuz T-3, a short repair flight to the Salyut 6 station lasting 13 days.

His two attempts to reach the Salyut 7 space station in 1983 ended in failure. In April the three-man Soyuz T-8 crew failed to dock with the station and returned to Earth after a two-day flight. In September the booster rocket for his Soyuz exploded on the pad prior to liftoff. Strekalov and his crewmate were saved by a rescue system. In 1984 he finally reached Salyut 7 as part of a visiting crew (on Soyuz T-11) that included an Indian guest-cosmonaut, Rakesh Sharma. The mission lasted eight days.

Strekalov flew two long-duration missions to the Mir space station, the first in 1990 and the second in 1995. During the first flight (Soyuz TM-10), lasting 131 days, he carried out one space walk. On his second trip (Soyuz TM-21), Strekalov flew with astronaut Norm Thagard, the first American to fly on a Russian space station. Strekalov and his crewmates spent 115 days in orbit, gaining valuable experience on joint flights between two vastly different technological cultures.

He formally retired as a cosmonaut in 1995, although he remained a senior cosmonaut training official at RKK Energia.