Background
Gennady Mikhailovich Strekalov was born on October 28, 1940, in Mytishchi, Moscow Oblast, then part of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic. He grew up in the industrial settlement of Kaliningrad near Moscow, now the city of Korolyov, where the Soviet space industry was developing around the experimental machine-building plant associated with Sergei Korolev's design bureau.
In 1957, after completing secondary school, Strekalov began work at the plant as a fourth-grade coppersmith. The facility was the production base of Okb-1, the design organization that developed major Soviet launch vehicles and spacecraft. His early work included participation in the manufacture of the first artificial Earth satellite, beginning a professional connection with space technology that continued throughout his life.
Education
Strekalov graduated from the Kaliningrad secondary school in 1957 and subsequently studied at the Bauman Moscow Higher Technical School, graduating in 1965 from its machine-building faculty with a qualification in machine engineering. The school, founded in the nineteenth century and later named for Nikolai Bauman, was one of the Soviet Union's principal institutions for engineering education and supplied specialists to the country's industrial and aerospace sectors.
In 1968, Strekalov completed studies at the University of Marxism and Leninism operated by the Kaliningrad CPSU city committee. In 1985, he defended a dissertation at the Central Research Institute for Engineering Technology on new materials under outer-space conditions and received the degree of Candidate of Technical Sciences. His advanced research reflected the materials and engineering problems created by prolonged exposure to the space environment.
Career
Strekalov worked at the experimental machine-building plant from 1957 to 1960 and returned to the space-design industry in 1964 as a trainee technician in the 23rd department of Okb-1. He became a design engineer in 1965 and worked on drawings for the RT-1 missile. Okb-1 was reorganized as the Central Design Bureau of Experimental Machine Building, or TsKBEM, in 1966; within that organization he served as an engineer and later a senior engineer in departments responsible for flight and design testing.
During the 1960s and early 1970s, Strekalov contributed to technical documentation, testing, and development associated with the N-1 launch vehicle, the LK lunar lander, the LOK lunar-orbital spacecraft, the RT-2 intercontinental ballistic missile, and several Soyuz spacecraft. He also participated in flight and design testing of the 7K-S spacecraft and the Salyut-Soyuz complex, including work with the Academy of Sciences research vessel Akademik Korolev and the Yevpatoria long-distance space communications center.
On March 21, 1973, Strekalov was appointed a test cosmonaut in the TsKBEM cosmonaut group. He completed flight training, jet-aircraft work, and parachute jumps, and served in backup and reserve crews before making his first spaceflight. From November 27 to December 10, 1980, he flew aboard Soyuz T-3 to the Salyut-6 station as a cosmonaut-researcher with Leonid Kizim and Oleg Makarov; the crew repaired the station's thermal-control system.
Strekalov's second flight, aboard Soyuz T-8 from April 20 to April 22, 1983, ended without docking with Salyut-7 because of a failure in the Igla rendezvous system. On September 26, 1983, he and Vladimir Titov survived the launch-pad fire of Soyuz T-10-1 when the launch-escape system pulled their spacecraft away from the failing rocket. From April 3 to April 11, 1984, Strekalov flew aboard Soyuz T-11 to Salyut-7 with Yuri Malyshev and India's Rakesh Sharma.
From August 1 to December 10, 1990, Strekalov served as flight engineer on Soyuz TM-10 and the Mir station with Gennady Manakov. He completed a spacewalk during the mission. His fifth flight took place from March 17 to July 7, 1995, aboard Soyuz TM-21 and Mir with Vladimir Dezhurov and Norman Thagard, linking the Russian station program with the American Space Shuttle mission STS-71. During that expedition he performed three spacewalks and two additional periods of work in an unpressurized transfer compartment. Across five flights, he spent approximately 268 days in space and completed six extravehicular activities.
Strekalov left the cosmonaut group in January 1995 but continued working for the Energia organization, where he served as an instructor-test cosmonaut, a first-class cosmonaut, and head of the 291st department. The enterprise evolved from the Soviet design organizations into the Energia aerospace corporation, a principal Russian center for the development and operation of launch vehicles, spacecraft, and orbital systems. Strekalov remained associated with the organization until his death in Moscow on December 25, 2004.
Views
Strekalov expressed a humanistic view of Earth as a shared home and emphasized the common destiny of people beyond national borders. His statements connected spaceflight with cooperation, responsibility, and the practical recognition of humanity's interdependence.
Quotations:
Earth is our common home. There are no borders and no colors visible from space; in essence, we are all members of one crew aboard the spacecraft called Earth.
Personality
Accounts by colleagues and biographical profiles describe Strekalov as approachable and willing to assist people. His public image included a strong commitment to helping individuals who appealed to him for support, a trait associated with his later civic activity.
Quotes from others about the person
Strekalov was associated with the view that Earth is humanity's common home and that people are, in a broad sense, members of one crew aboard a planetary spacecraft.
