Education
1978 - graduated from high school in Belogorsk, the Amur Region, RSFSR;
1984 — graduated from the Moscow Aviation Institute, «Aircraft» faculty, with a specializtion in «Aircraft design»
1978 - graduated from high school in Belogorsk, the Amur Region, RSFSR;
1984 — graduated from the Moscow Aviation Institute, «Aircraft» faculty, with a specializtion in «Aircraft design»
From July 10, 1984 to 1994 - worked as an engineer at the 292nd department of the Head Design Bureau of the RSC «Energy» where he worked on the development of the working methods for crews of the «Soyuz» spacecrafts. Participated many times in tests and researches related to the study of various aspects of cosmonauts' activities and to the improvement of the methods of their work and preparation, both as a tester and as an experimental director.
1992 - according to the decision of the Interdepartmental Commission for the Selection of cosmonauts (ICSC) was selected for the cosmonaut corps of the RSC «Energy»;
1994 - enlisted in the cosmonaut corps of the RSC «Energy»;
From 1994 to 1997 - received general cosmonaut training and training as a member of a group in the CTC named after Y.A. Gagarin;
April 25, 1996 - after passing the examinations according to the decision of the Interdepartmental Qualification Commission (IQC) he was given the qualification «cosmonaut-tester».
From May 1996 to July 1997 — received training as a member of the group of cosmonauts under the «Mir» program;
July 28, 1997 - by the decision of the State Interdepartmental Commission was appointed to the post of a flight engineer in the backup crew of the 1st expedition to the ISS and in the main crew of the 3rd expedition to the ISS;
From July, 1997 to October, 2000 - was trained for a space flight as a flight engineer of the backup crew of the ISS-1;
From November, 2000 to August, 2001 - was trained as a flight engineer of the ISS-3 main crew;
In September 2003 - was trained for a space flight to the ISS as a member of a group of cosmonauts and astronauts in the CTC named after Y.A. Gagarin (group «MKS-gr5»);
In December 2003 - was appointed yo the post of a commander of the backup crew of the 11th expedition to the ISS (ISS-11D crew) at first with Donald Pettit, and from January, 2004 - with Daniel Tani;
On April 15, 2005 during the launch of «Soyuz TMA-6» was the backup of the commander of the spacecraft;
In June, 2005 was considered the question of including him in the backup crew of the ISS-14 instead of the suspended at the request of NASA Konstantin Kozeev, but in August, 2005 replaced Alexander Lazutkin, who fell ill, in the backup crew of the 12th expedition to the ISS (ISS-12d) and in the main crew of the 14th expedition to the ISS (ISS-14);
August 18, 2005 - started training in the backup crew of the ISS-12, along with Jeffrey Williams and Sergey Kostenko;
September 14, 2005 - was approved as the commander of the backup crew of the 12th expedition to the ISS along with Jeffrey Williams;
From May to November, 2006 was trained as a member of the ISS-14 main crew as a flight engineer of the ISS and a flight engineer of «Soyuz TMA»;
From January, 2011 to July, 2013 was trained in the backup crew of ISS-36/37 as the ISS flight engineer and the commander of «Soyuz TMA-M» spacecraft;
Since July, 2013 he was trained in the ISS-38/39 main crew as the ISS flight engineer and the commander of the «Soyuz TMA-M».