Aleksandr Kaleri
- Soyuz TMA-01M commander
- Expeditions 25 and 26 flight engineer
A veteran of four long-duration spaceflights, Alexander Kaleri logged 610 days in space, including 23 hours in spacewalks. Kaleri was born in 1956 in Latvia and he loves collecting stamps and space logos.
He has always been facinated by spaceflight. When he was 28, he qualified as a Russian Space Corporation Energia cosmonaut-candidate.
He graduated in 1979 with a bachelor's degree in flight dynamics. Four years later he completed postgraduate work at the same Institute with specialisation in liquids, gas and plasma mechanics.
Kaleri was involved in the Salyut-7 and Mir space stations by participating in experiments and technical documentation. He performed his first spaceflight to the Mir station in 1992 and received the Hero of the Russian Federation award for his 145-day stay.
He flew to the Russian space station two more times, in 1997 and in 2000 for the last Mir mission.
On his fourth spaceflight during Expedition 8 (2003), Kaleri served as Flight Engineer. He participated in Expedition 26 as the Soyuz commander and was the most experienced person at the International Space Station.
