Happy birthday, cosmonaut Aleksandr Balandin!

Aleksandr Nikolayevich Balandin, born July 30, 1953 is a Russian cosmonaut who made one trip into space.  It was aboard Soyuz TM-9  as a flight engineer to space station Mir.  It launched February 11, 1990 and returned to Earth August 9, after 179 days in space. 

Soyuz TM-9 launched 1990

Crew of Soyuz TM-9

Soyuz TM-9, the ninth mission to the Mir space station, was launched February 11, 1990. Its crew consisted of Commander Anatoly Solovyev and Flight Engineer Aleksandr Balandin.  It experienced so many problems that the Soviets considered sending Soyuz TM-10 with a single cosmonaut as a rescue mission.  However, Solovyev and Balandin managed to fix the problems such that they returned safely to Earth August 9.