Gennady Strekalov facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Gennady Mikhailovich Strekalov
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| Born | 26 October 1940 Mytishchi, Soviet Union
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| Died | 25 December 2004 (aged 64) Moscow, Russia
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| Nationality | Soviet |
| Occupation | Flight Engineer |
| Space career | |
| Roscosmos cosmonaut | |
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Time in space
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268 days 22 hours 22 minutes |
| Selection | Civilian Specialist Group 5 |
| Missions | Soyuz T-3, Soyuz T-8, Soyuz 7K-ST No.16L, Soyuz T-11/Soyuz T-10, Soyuz TM-10, Soyuz TM-21/STS-71 |
Gennady Mikhailovich Strekalov (Russian: Генна́дий Миха́йлович Стрека́лов; 26 October 1940 – 25 December 2004) was a brave Soviet and Russian cosmonaut and engineer. He flew into space five times and spent over 268 days living on different space stations, like Salyut 6, Salyut 7, and Mir. He was one of only four people to ever use a special launch escape system during a rocket emergency. This happened in 1983 when his rocket exploded just before launch. Gennady Strekalov was honored twice as a Hero of the Soviet Union.
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Early Life
Gennady Strekalov was born on October 26, 1940, in Mytishchi, a town near Moscow. His father, Mikhail Strekalov, sadly died in 1945 while fighting in Poland during World War II.
Gennady studied hard and graduated from the Bauman Moscow State Technical University in 1965. He earned a diploma to become an engineer. Later, he married Lydia Anatolievna Telezhina, and they had two daughters, Tatiana and Natalia. Gennady Strekalov passed away in Moscow on December 25, 2004, at the age of 64, due to cancer.
Becoming a Cosmonaut
After finishing school, Gennady Strekalov started working at a famous aerospace company called OKB-1. This was the same place where the first artificial satellite, Sputnik 1, was put together. He helped build parts for spacecraft.
After getting his engineering degree, he returned to OKB-1 (which later became RSC Energia). He worked there for the rest of his life, helping with many space missions. In January 1974, he began training to become a cosmonaut. He learned how to be a flight engineer for missions on the Soyuz spacecraft. By 1976, he was a backup crew member for the Soyuz 22 mission.
Space Missions
First Flights
Gennady Strekalov's first trip to space was from November 27 to December 10, 1980. He was a research engineer on the Soyuz T-3 mission. They flew to the Salyut 6 space station.
His next mission was planned for the new Salyut 7 space station. In April 1983, he launched with Vladimir Titov and Aleksandr Serebrov on Soyuz T-8. During launch, a part of their docking system was damaged. The crew tried to dock manually, but it was too risky. They had to return to Earth on April 22, 1983, without reaching the station.
A Narrow Escape
Gennady Strekalov and Vladimir Titov were scheduled to fly to Salyut 7 again on September 26, 1983. Minutes before their Soyuz-U rocket was supposed to launch, it developed a serious fuel leak. The ground control team quickly tried to activate the launch escape system. This system is designed to pull the spacecraft away from the rocket in an emergency.
At first, it didn't work. But then, just 20 seconds before the rocket exploded, the escape system fired! Strekalov and Titov's capsule was pulled away very quickly, experiencing strong forces (more than 10 times the force of gravity). Their capsule landed safely about 4 kilometers (2.5 miles) away from the launch pad. They were bruised but not seriously hurt. This was the first time in history that a launch escape system was used in a real emergency with people inside. Strekalov and Titov later called this day their "second birthday."
More Space Adventures
Gennady Strekalov's next successful spaceflight was on Soyuz T-11. He flew with Yuri Malyshev and the first Indian cosmonaut, Rakesh Sharma. They launched on April 3, 1984, and successfully docked with Salyut-7. The crew stayed on the space station until April 11, 1984. They returned to Earth in a different spacecraft, the reentry module of Soyuz T-10, which was already docked at the station.
From August 1 to December 10, 1990, he was the flight engineer on Soyuz TM-10. He flew to the Mir space station with Gennady Manakov and a Japanese reporter-cosmonaut, Toyohiro Akiyama. This was his longest spaceflight, lasting 130 days.
Even after formally retiring, Gennady Strekalov returned to space for the Shuttle–Mir Program. On March 14, 1995, he flew on Soyuz TM-21 to the Mir space station. His crewmates were Vladimir Dezhurov and American astronaut Norman Thagard. This was the first time an American astronaut launched into space on a non-U.S. rocket.
During this mission, Strekalov and his crew had to do several difficult spacewalks to fix the station. At one point, mission control asked them to do an unplanned spacewalk to fix a solar panel. Strekalov felt it was too dangerous and refused. He argued with the ground control team for several days until they agreed with him. On July 7, 1995, the Soyuz TM-21 crew returned to Earth. They didn't come back in their Soyuz spacecraft, but on the US Space Shuttle Atlantis (STS-71). This mission lasted 115 days.
Gennady Strekalov continued to work for RSC Energia until he passed away.
Awards and Recognition
Gennady Strekalov received many important awards for his bravery and service:
- Hero of the Soviet Union, twice (December 10, 1980, and April 11, 1984)
- Order of Merit for the Fatherland, 3rd class (September 7, 1995)
- Three Orders of Lenin (December 10, 1980, 1983, and April 11, 1984)
- Order of the October Revolution (December 10, 1990)
- Medal "Veteran of Labour"
- Ashoka Chakra, Class I from India (1984)
- NASA Space Flight Medal (1995)
- Honored Master of Sports (1981)
- Honorary Citizen of Queens (United States) and Mytischi (Russia)
- Pilot-Cosmonaut of the USSR
