Nikolai Budarin
Overview
 
Nikolai Mikhailovich Budarin (born April 29, 1953 in Kirya
Kirya
Kirya was Ofra Haza's 1992 follow-up to the internationally successful Shaday and Desert Wind . Building on her successful blend of European pop and traditional Middle Eastern sounds, the album was a logical next step for Haza...

, Chuvashia) is a Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...

n cosmonaut, a veteran of three extended space missions aboard the Mir
Mir
Mir was a space station operated in low Earth orbit from 1986 to 2001, at first by the Soviet Union and then by Russia. Assembled in orbit from 1986 to 1996, Mir was the first modular space station and had a greater mass than that of any previous spacecraft, holding the record for the...

 Space Station and the International Space Station
International Space Station
The International Space Station is a habitable, artificial satellite in low Earth orbit. The ISS follows the Salyut, Almaz, Cosmos, Skylab, and Mir space stations, as the 11th space station launched, not including the Genesis I and II prototypes...

. He has also performed eight career spacewalks with a total time of 44 hours.

Named a cosmonaut candidate in 1989, Budarin's first space mission was a long-term assignment aboard the space station Mir
Mir
Mir was a space station operated in low Earth orbit from 1986 to 2001, at first by the Soviet Union and then by Russia. Assembled in orbit from 1986 to 1996, Mir was the first modular space station and had a greater mass than that of any previous spacecraft, holding the record for the...

 in 1995. Since then, he again made extended stays on Mir in 1998 and the International Space Station
International Space Station
The International Space Station is a habitable, artificial satellite in low Earth orbit. The ISS follows the Salyut, Almaz, Cosmos, Skylab, and Mir space stations, as the 11th space station launched, not including the Genesis I and II prototypes...

 Expedition 6
Expedition 6
Expedition 6 was the sixth expedition to the International Space Station. It was the last three man crew to reside on the station until the arrival of STS-121...

 from 2002 to 2003.
Nikolai Budarin is married to Marina Lvovna Budarina (née Sidorenko).
 
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