Gennady Padalka facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Gennady Padalka
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Padalka at the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center in March 2015
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Gennady Ivanovich Padalka
21 June 1958 Krasnodar, Russian SFSR, USSR
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| Status | Retired |
| Alma mater | Yeysk Military Aviation College |
| Occupation | Pilot |
| Awards |
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| Space career | |
| Roscosmos cosmonaut | |
| Rank | Colonel, Russian Air Force |
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Time in space
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878 days, 11 hours, and 29 minutes |
| Selection | TsPK-10 Cosmonaut Group (1989) |
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Total EVAs
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10 |
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Total EVA time
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38 hours and 40 minutes |
| Missions |
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Mission insignia
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| Retirement | 28 April 2017 |
Gennady Ivanovich Padalka is a famous Russian cosmonaut and a former officer in the Russian Air Force. He was born on June 21, 1958, in Krasnodar, which was then part of the Soviet Union.
Gennady Padalka holds an amazing record: he is the only person to have commanded the International Space Station (ISS) four times! For a long time, he also held the record for the most time spent in space, with a total of 878 days, 11 hours, and 29 minutes. This record was broken by another cosmonaut, Oleg Kononenko, on February 4, 2024. Padalka worked on both the old Russian space station Mir and the International Space Station.
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About Gennady Padalka
Gennady Padalka is married to Irina Anatoliyevna Padalka. They have three daughters named Yuliya, Yekaterina, and Sonya. When he's not flying in space, he enjoys going to the theater, skydiving, and diving underwater.
Education and Early Career
Gennady Padalka finished his studies at the Yeysk Military Aviation College in 1979. After that, he became a pilot in the Russian Air Force. He flew many different types of aircraft and spent about 1500 hours in the air. He also became an expert at parachute jumping, completing over 300 jumps. Before becoming a cosmonaut, he even worked as an engineer helping with environmental studies.
Awards and Honors
Gennady Padalka has received many important awards for his work as a cosmonaut. One of the highest honors he received is the title of Hero of the Russian Federation. He was also named a Test-Cosmonaut of the Russian Federation. These awards show how much he contributed to space exploration.
Space Adventures
Gennady Padalka began his training to become a cosmonaut in 1989 at the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center. He trained for several years and officially became a test-cosmonaut in 1991.
Mission to Mir Space Station
Gennady Padalka's first trip to space was on August 13, 1998. He launched aboard a Soyuz TM-28 spacecraft to the Mir space station. His main job on Mir was to help fix important life support systems and get the station ready for its final journey back to Earth. He spent 198 days and 16 hours in space on this mission, returning to Earth on February 28, 1999.
Missions to the International Space Station
After his time on Mir, Padalka trained for missions to the International Space Station (ISS). He became a commander for several long-duration missions.
Expedition 9 Commander
In March 2002, Gennady Padalka was chosen to command Expedition 9 on the ISS. He launched from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on April 21, 2004, aboard the Soyuz TMA-4 spacecraft. During his six months on the station, he continued important science experiments, kept the station running smoothly, and performed four spacewalks. He returned to Earth on October 23, 2004, after spending 187 days in space on this mission.
Expeditions 19 and 20
Padalka returned to the ISS in 2009, again as a commander, for Expedition 19 and Expedition 20. He launched on the Soyuz TMA-14 spacecraft on March 26, 2009. He also commanded the first-ever six-person crew on the space station during Expedition 20. He came back to Earth on October 11, 2009.
Expeditions 31 and 32
In May 2012, Gennady Padalka went to the ISS for a third time. He started as a flight engineer for Expedition 31 and then took command of Expedition 32. He launched on Soyuz TMA-04M on May 15, 2012, and arrived at the station two days later. He returned to Earth on September 17, 2012.
Expeditions 43 and 44
Padalka's final trip to the ISS was during Expedition 43 and Expedition 44. He launched on Soyuz TMA-16M with Mikhail Korniyenko and Scott Kelly. He landed back on Earth on September 12, 2015. It was during this mission that he set the record for the most time spent in space, which stood until February 2024.
Retirement from Space
In April 2017, Gennady Padalka announced that he was retiring from the cosmonaut team. He explained that he wanted to fly more missions but there were no opportunities for him in the near future. He said he was "tired of doing nothing" and wanted to move on.
Spacewalks
Gennady Padalka is also known for his many spacewalks, where astronauts go outside the spacecraft to work. He completed 10 spacewalks during his career, spending a total of 38 hours and 40 minutes outside!
- First Spacewalk (Mir, 1998): On September 15, 1998, Padalka did his first spacewalk with Sergei Avdeyev outside the Mir station. They went into a damaged module to reconnect cables and fix things. This spacewalk lasted 30 minutes.
- Second Spacewalk (Mir, 1998): On November 10, 1998, Padalka and Avdeyev went outside Mir again. They installed a special detector for meteoroids and even launched a small satellite called Sputnik-41. This spacewalk lasted almost 6 hours.
- ISS Spacewalks (2004): Padalka performed several spacewalks from the ISS in 2004 with NASA astronaut Michael Fincke.
- One spacewalk on June 24, 2004, was cut short after only 14 minutes because of a problem with Fincke's spacesuit.
- On June 30, 2004, they successfully fixed a broken electrical device on the station. This spacewalk lasted 5 hours and 40 minutes.
- On August 3, 2004, they installed new communication equipment and replaced old experiments on the outside of the Zvezda module. This spacewalk was 4 hours and 20 minutes long.
- On September 3, 2004, they worked outside the Zvezda module again, replacing a pump control panel and installing antennas. This spacewalk lasted 5 hours and 21 minutes.
- ISS Spacewalks (2009):
- On June 5, 2009, Padalka and Michael Barratt installed antennas and cables to prepare for a new module called MRM-2. This spacewalk lasted almost 5 hours.
- On June 10, 2009, they did an "internal spacewalk" inside the Zvezda module. They wore spacesuits even though they weren't in open space, to move a docking part for the new MRM-2 module. This short spacewalk was 12 minutes long.
- ISS Spacewalk (2012):
- On August 20, 2012, Padalka and Yuri Malenchenko performed a spacewalk that lasted almost 6 hours. They moved a large cargo boom, deployed a small satellite, and installed shields to protect the station from space debris. They also retrieved an experiment to bring back to Earth.
See also
In Spanish: Guennadi Pádalka para niños
- List of Heroes of the Russian Federation
