Official NASA Biography - 1997

NAME: Nikolai Mikhailovich Budarin

Test cosmonaut of NPO "Energiya." Resides in Kaliningrad. Moscow region.

BIRTHPLACE AND DATE:

Born April 29, 1953, at Kirya settlement, Chuvashia, Russia.

PARENTS:

Mikhail Romanovich Budarin, father, deceased in 1984. Alexandra Mikhailovna Budarin, mother, deceased in 1986.

PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION:

Black hair; gray eyes; 5 feet 8 inches; 164 pounds.

EDUCATION:

Graduated from the S. Ordzhonikidze Moscow Aviation Institute in 1979, with a mechanical engineering diploma.

MARITAL STATUS:

Married to Marina Lvovna Budalina, (nee Sidorenko).

CHILDREN:

Two sons, Dmitri, 1977, and Vladislav, 1983.

EXPERIENCE:

After graduation from the S. Ordzhonikidze Moscow Aviation Institute, he occupied various engineering positions at NPO "Energiya," where he was involved in experimental investigations and testing of space technology. In February 1989, N.M. Budarin was enrolled in a cosmonaut detachment as a candidate test cosmonaut. In the period from September 1989 to January 1991, he underwent a complete course of general space training and passed a State examination. He is qualified as a test cosmonaut. From February 1991 until December 1993, he prepared for a flight aboard the Soyuz-TM transport vehicle and the Mir Station as a member of a group. He has experience working in the primary operations group for space mission control. In January 1991, he began training to be the flight engineer of the back-up crew for the Soyuz-TM-21 transport vehicle.

• Soyuz TM-20 - - 1994 Oct 3 - Assignment: Backup Crew. Flight details: Soyuz TM-20.

  Mir Expedition EO-17. Docked at the Mir forward port at 00:28 on 1994 October 6. The Mir crew of Viktorenko, Kondakova and Polyakov boarded Soyuz TM-20 on January 11, and undocked from Mir's front port at 09:00 GMT. The spacecraft withdrew to about two hundred metres from Mir and then redocked in a test of the automatic Kurs system, which had failed in Progress M-24's attempted docking. Redocking came at 09:25 GMT. Soyuz TM-20 landed 22 km northeast of Arkalyk in Kazakhstan at 04:04 GMT on March 22, 1995.

• STS-71 - - 1995 Jun 27 - Assignment: Prime Crew. Flight Time: 75.47 days. Flight details: STS-71.

  Mir Expedition EO-19. Transferred Budarin, Solovyov to Mir, returned Soyuz TM-21 crew to Earth. After undocking from Mir on July 4, Atlantis spent several days on orbit, carrying out medical research work with the Spacelab-Mir module in the cargo bay. Payloads: Shuttle/Mir Mission 1, Spacelab-Mir, IMAX camera, Shuttle Amateur Radio Experiment (SAREX).

• EVA STS-71-1 - - 1995 Jul 14 - Assignment: EVA Crew. EVA Duration: 5.57 hours.

  Repaired solar array. Inspected exterior of station.

• EVA STS-71-2 - - 1995 Jul 19 - Assignment: EVA Crew. EVA Duration: 3.13 hours.

  Retrieved TREK detector.

• EVA STS-71-3 - - 1995 Jul 21 - Assignment: EVA Crew. EVA Duration: 5.58 hours.

  Installed Miras spectrometer.

• Soyuz TM-27 - - 1998 Jan 29 - Assignment: Prime Crew. Flight Time: 207.53 days. Flight details: Soyuz TM-27.

  Soyuz TM-27 carried the Mir EO-25 crew and French astronaut Leopold Eyharts. NASA and the Russian Space Agency had hoped Soyuz TM-27 could dock with Mir while Endeavour was still there, resulting in an on-board crew of 13, a record which would have stood for years or decades. But the French vetoed this, saying the commotion and time wasted would ruin Eyharts Pegase experimental programme. Soyuz TM-27 docked at the Kvant module port at 17:54 GMT on January 31, 1998, less than five hours before Endeavour landed in Florida.

  Solovyov handed over command of Mir to EO-25 commander Musabayev, and the Mir EO-24 crew and Eyharts undocked from the forward port of Mir at 05:52 GMT on February 19 aboard the Soyuz TM-26 for their return home. On February 20, the EO-25 crew and Andy Thomas of the NASA-7 mission boarded Soyuz TM-27 and undocked from the Kvant port at 08:48 GMT. They redocked with the forward port on Mir at 09:32 GMT. This freed up the Kvant port for a test redocking of the Progress M-37 cargo ship, parked in a following orbit with Mir during the crew transfer.

  Soyuz TM-27 undocked from Mir at 02:05 GMT on August 25, with Musabayev, Budarin and Baturin aboard. They landed on August 25 at 05:23 UTC near Arkalyk in Kazakstan.

• EVA Soyuz TM-27-1 - - 1998 Mar 3 - Assignment: EVA Crew. EVA Duration: 1.58 hours.

  Inner and outer airlocks of Kvant-2 module were depressurised for EVA. However the crew could not open the outer hatch, repaired on 2 January 1998 by Solovyov and Vinogradov. The planned EVA was cancelled.

• EVA Soyuz TM-27-2 - - 1998 Apr 1 - Assignment: EVA Crew. EVA Duration: 6.67 hours.

  The Kvant-2 hatch had been fixed from within and was used for the EVA. Objective was to repair the damaged Spektr solar panel. Handrails were installed near the panel but the crew could not complete the work before the scheduled time ran out.

• EVA Soyuz TM-27-3 - - 1998 Apr 6 - Assignment: EVA Crew. EVA Duration: 4.25 hours.

  The crew succeeded in completing repair of the damaged Spektr solar panel. However the EVA was cut short when Mission Control in error commanded the Mir to drift. This was then misdiagnosed as a depletion of fuel of the VDU orientation engine, and the crew was ordered back into the station.

• EVA Soyuz TM-27-4 - - 1998 Apr 11 - Assignment: EVA Crew. EVA Duration: 6.42 hours.

  The cosmonauts began a series of three EVA's to install the new VDU station orientation engine (delivered by Progress M-38) into the Sofora boom. On this first spacewalk they disconnected the old engine (in use for six years) and pushed it into space.

• EVA Soyuz TM-27-5 - - 1998 Apr 17 - Assignment: EVA Crew. EVA Duration: 6.50 hours.

  Installation of the new VDU station orientation engine assembly was completed at the end of the Sofora boom.

• EVA Soyuz TM-27-6 - - 1998 Apr 22 - Assignment: EVA Crew. EVA Duration: 6.53 hours.

  Two truss structures on the Kvant module and the new Sofora VDU station orientation engine assembly was unlatched from Progress M-38.