Volkov, Sergey

Sergey Volkov, in full Sergey Aleksandrovich Volkov, (born April 1, 1973, Chuguyev, Kharkov oblast, Ukraine, U.S.S.R. [now in Ukraine]), Russian military pilot and cosmonaut—the first second-generation cosmonaut, following his father, Aleksandr Volkov, into space.

Volkov graduated from the Tambov Marina Raskova Air Force Academy for Pilots in Tambov, Russia, with a piloting and engineering degree in 1995. After completing his studies, Volkov entered the Russian air force and served as an assistant aircraft commander in military transport aviation.

In 1997 Volkov was selected as a cosmonaut candidate, and he received basic cosmonaut training until he qualified as a test cosmonaut in 1999. Beginning in January 2000 Volkov trained with the Russian Federal Space Agency as a Soyuz TMA commander and International Space Station (ISS) flight engineer, and he served as a member of the backup crew for several ISS missions. Volkov flew into space aboard Soyuz TMA-12 on April 8, 2008, with Russian flight engineer Oleg Kononenko and South Korean spaceflight participant Yi So-Yeon as part of Expedition 17 to the ISS. With that flight he became the first second-generation cosmonaut in history. His father had spent 391 days in space on three missions (in 1985, 1988, and 1991) and directed the Russian cosmonaut training program. Though sons had followed their fathers into the cosmonaut corps before, the Volkovs were the first father-and-son cosmonaut duo to fly into space.

Volkov spent 198 days in space, performing scientific and technical experiments and carrying out maintenance, service, and repair projects on the ISS and on Soyuz TMA-12. He also conducted two space walks, during which he and Kononenko inspected the Soyuz TMA-12 spacecraft, removed and installed scientific experiments, and installed a docking target for a Russian module scheduled for launch in 2009. As the ISS commander for Expedition 17, Volkov earned the distinction of being the youngest ISS commander to date. He returned to Earth aboard Soyuz TMA-12 on October 24, 2008. After his flight Volkov continued to serve in the Russian air force (with the rank of lieutenant colonel) and remained an active cosmonaut.

Volkov returned to the ISS in Soyuz TMA-02M, which launched on June 7, 2011, with American astronaut Michael Fossum and Japanese astronaut Furukawa Satoshi. He and Russian cosmonaut Aleksandr Samokutyayev performed a space walk in which they moved a small crane onto the station’s exterior. He returned to Earth on November 22, 2011.

For his final spaceflight, Volkov launched to the ISS on September 2, 2015, on Soyuz TMA-18M with Kazakh cosmonaut Aydyn Aimbetov and Danish astronaut Andreas Mogensen. He and Russian cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko did a space walk in which they replaced experiments that were attached to the Russian modules of the station. He returned to Earth on March 2, 2016, with American astronaut Scott Kelly and Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Korniyenko, both of whom had spent 340 days in space to study the health effects of long-term spaceflight.

Volkov retired from the cosmonaut corps in February 2017. On his three spaceflights, he spent a total of nearly 548 days in space.