SU Air Force. Official NASA biography:

NAME: Salizhan Shakirovich Sharipov

GCTC Cosmonaut

PERSONAL DATA:

Born August 24, 1964 in Uzgen, Oshsk region, Kirghizia. Married to Nadezhda Mavlyanovna Sharipova. They have one daughter and one son. He enjoys football, likes to read books. His father, Mr. Shakirzhan Sharipov, resides in Uzgen, Oshsk region, Kirghizia.

EDUCATION:

Graduated from the Air Force Pilot School in 1987. In 1994, he graduated from Moscow State University with a degree in cartography.

EXPERIENCE:

After graduation from the Air Force Pilot School in 1987, he worked as a pilot-instructor and taught 8 cadets. He has logged over 950 hours flying time. He has experience flying on MIG-21, L-39 aircraft.

Selected by the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center (GCTC) Sharipov became a cosmonaut-candidate in 1990. In 1992, he completed general space training and became a cosmonaut. As a member of the group he has completed a full course of training for OC MIR space flights as a crew commander.

CURRENT ASSIGNMENT:

Sharipov is assigned to fly on the crew of STS-89, scheduled for a January 1998 launch on Space Shuttle Endeavour. STS-89 is the eighth of nine planned missions to dock the Space Shuttle with Russia�s Mir space station.

• STS-89 - - 1998 Jan 23 - Assignment: Prime Crew. Flight Time: 8.82 days. Flight details: STS-89.

  Penultimate Shuttle mission to Mir. Andy Thomas replaced David Wolf as the resident NASA astronaut. Endeavour docked with the SO module on Mir at 20:14 GMT on January 24, 1998.

  Payloads included:

  • Orbiter middeck: CEBAS (German/US biological module with fish and snails); dinosaur skull (part of a museum educational program)
  • Bay 1: Tunnel Adapter
  • Bay 3: Orbiter Docking System/External Airlock
  • Bay 4-7: Transfer Tunnel
  • Bay 8-12: Spacehab Double Module (payloads included supplies for Mir, X-ray crystallography detector planned for the International Space Station)
  • Bay 13P: Getaway Special GABA carrier with G-141, G-145 (German materials processing experiments)
  • Bay 13S: Getaway Special GABA carrier with G-093 (University of Michigan fluid dynamics experiment), G-432 (Chinese materials processing experiment)

  Despite fits problems with his Sokol emergency spacesuit, Andy Thomas replaced David Wolf as a Mir crew member on January 25. Endeavour undocked from Mir on January 29 at 16:57 GMT and made one flyaround of the station before departing and landing at Kennedy Space Center's runway 15 at 22:35 GMT on January 31.