Sergei Ryzhikov

Expedition 47 backup crew member, Russian cosmonaut Sergei Ryzhikov of Roscosmos answers a question from the press ahead of his Soyuz qualification exams with Russian cosmonaut Andre Borisenko, and NASA astronaut Shane Kimbrough, Wednesday, Feb. 24, 2016, at the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center in Star City, Russia.

Born on August 19, 1974, Sergei is a colonel of the Russian Air Force, and was selected as a cosmonaut in 2006. Sergei's first spaceflight will be on the Soyuz MS-02 spacecraft in 2016. He will spend around six months on the International space station taking part in Expedition 49/50 where he will be reunited with fellow cavenaut Thomas Pesquet for the second half of his mission.