Background
Viktor Afanasyev was born on the 31 of December, 1948 in Bryansk, RSFSR (now Russia).
Viktor Afanasyev was born on the 31 of December, 1948 in Bryansk, RSFSR (now Russia).
From 1956 to 1966 Afanasyev studied at schools № 9 and № 8 in Bryansk. In 1977 he graduated from the Center for Testing Aviation Equipment and Training Test Pilots, Akhtubinsk, Astrakhan Region.
In 1976-1980 he studied at the Akhtubinsk branch of the Moscow Aviation Institute «Vzlet» at the faculty of aircraft construction (night school) and afterwards got the diploma of an engineer. In 1995 he graduated from the Humanitarian Academy of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation.
Before enrollment in Cosmonaut Corps Afanasyev worked as a pilot, then senior pilot and commander of the aviation section of the 85th Guards Fighter Aviation Regiment in the Group of Soviet Forces in Germany and in 31 aviation regiment.
On September 2, 1985 by decision of the State Interdepartmental Committee he was selected as a candidate for cosmonauts from the State Red Banned Research Institute of the Air Force and sent to the initial cosmonaut training at Cosmonaut training Center (9th group).
On January 8, 1988 by order of the Commander of the Air Force enlisted in the cosmonaut corps of the Air Force Cosmonaut Training Center for the post of test cosmonaut of the 2nd group.
February-September 1989 - commander of the backup crew for the flight ещ orbital station «Mir» together with V. Sevastyanov and R. Stankevičius;
September 1989 - February 1990 - commander of the backup crew of the spacecraft «SoyuzTM-9» under the EO-6 program together with V. Sevastyanov;
February-August 1990 - commander of the backup crew of the Soyuz TM-10 spacecraft, under the EO-7 program, to the orbital station «Mir», first with V. Sevastyanov, and from June - with M. Manarov;
August 1, 1990 - backup of commander of the spacecraft «SoyuzTM-10» G. Manakov;
February 8 - June 4, 1993 - commander of the backup crew of the spacecraft «Soyuz TM-17» under the EO-14 program together with Yu. Usachev and K.-A. Dehe (France);
July 1, 1993 - backup of the commander of the spacecraft «Soyuz TM-17» V. Tsibliev;
October 1, 1997 - January 1998 - the commander of the backup crew EO-25, along with S. Treschev and J.-P. Haignere (France);
January 29, 1998 - backup of the commander of the spacecraft «Soyuz TM-2», T. Musabaev;
2000 - April 2001 - commander of the backup crew of the spacecraft «Soyuz TM-32» under the ISS-T1 program together with K. Kozeev.
He was out from Cosmonaut Corps on May 20, 2006.
Afanasyev made 4 spase flights:
1st flight - December 2, 1990 - May 26, 1991, as a commander of the spacecraft «Soyuz TM-11» and orbital station «Mir» under the program of the 8th main expedition together with M. Manarov and T. Akiyama. Worked on board the "Mir" together with G. Manakov, G. Strekalov, A. Artsebarsky and S. Krikalev. He made landing with M. Manarov and H. Sharman. During the flight, he carried out 4 spacewalks with a total duration of 20 hours, 46 minutes. Mission duration: 175 days, 01 hours, 50 minutes, 42 seconds. Call sign: «Derbent-1».
2nd flight - from January 8 - July 9, 1994 as a commander of the spacecraft «Soyuz TM-18» and orbital station «Mir» under the program EO-15, along with Y. Usachev and V. Polyakov. He worked aboard the station with V. Tsibliev, A. Serebrov, Yu. Malenchenko and T. Musabaev. Mission duration: 182 days, 00 hours, 27 minutes, 02 seconds. Call sign: «Derbent-1";
3rd flight - from February 20 to August 28, 1999 as a commander of the 27th main expedition to the spacecraft «Soyuz TM-29» and orbital station «Mir» together with S. Avdeev (the flight engineer of the previous expedition). J.-P. Enrier (flight engineer-2, France, ESA) and I. Bella (cosmonaut-researcher, Slovakia). He performed 3 spacewalks with a total duration of 17 hours, 49 minutes. Mission duration: 188 days, 20 hours, 16 minutes, 19 seconds. Call sign: «Derbent-1»;
4th flight - from October 21 to October 31, 2001 as a commander of the 2nd visiting expedition on the ISS on the transport spacecraft «Soyuz TM-33» together with K.M. Kozev (flight engineer) and Eneré Clodi (flight engineer-2, France, ESA). Mission duration: 9 days, 18 hours, 59 min.
