Background
Aleksandr Nikolayevich Balandin was born on the 31th of December in Fryazino, Moscow Oblast, Russian SFSR (Russian Federation).
Aleksandr Nikolayevich Balandin was born on the 31th of December in Fryazino, Moscow Oblast, Russian SFSR (Russian Federation).
In 1970 Balandin completed secondary school №2 in Fryazino. In 1976 graduated from the Bauman Moscow State Technical University as a specialist in Aircraft Flight Dynamics and Control.
Before enrollment in Cosmonaut Corps Balandin worked as engineer. He dealt with flight management systems. Also he was developing simulators for training astronauts. Since 1978 he was test cosmonaut at PAO S. P. Korolev Rocket and Space Corporation Energia.
From 1979 to 1984 he trained in a team of cosmonaut under the program «Buran». He developed ergonomics, design of control panel for Buran cabin.
From March 1987 to November 1988 he trained for a flight on orbital station «Mir» at Cosmonaut Training Center.
From February 11 to August 9, 1990 he made a space flight as a flight engineer on Soyuz TM-9 and space station "Mir" together with A. Solovyev. During the flight he made two spacewalks, for a total of 10 hours 32 minutes. Total mission duration was 179 days 1 hour 17 minutes 57 seconds. Call sign: "Rodnik-2".
He is married, has a son and a daughter.
