Happy birthday, Space Shuttle astronaut Thomas Marshburn!

Thomas Marshburn, born August 29, 1960 in Statesville, North Carolina, is a veteran of two space flights and has spent over 161 days in space. 

His first flight was aboard Endeavour (STS-127) as mission specialist to the International Space Station.  He participated in three EVAs during the mission for a total of about 19 hours.

His second flight was aboard Soyuz TMA-07M as flight engineer to the ISS in December 2012 with birthday twin Chris Hadfield.  He participated in Expeditions 34 and 35.  He returned to Earth in May 2013. 

Happy birthday, cosmonaut Evgeny Tarelkin!

Cosmonaut Evgeny Tarelkin, born December 29, 1974, went into space aboard Soyuz TMA-06M to the International Space Station.  He was part of the crew for Expeditions 33 and 34.  He stayed in space for over 143 days.

Happy birthday, cosmonaut Oleg Novitskiy!

Oleg Novitskiy, born October 12, 1971 in Belarus, has been in space twice.

 His first trip into space was as commander of Soyuz TMA-06M in October 2012 to the International Space Station.  He remained on board for Expeditions 33 and 34.  He returned to Earth in March 2013.

His second trip was aboard Soyuz MS-03 as commander in November 2016 to the ISS.  He was part of the crews of Expeditions 50 and 51, returning to Earth in June 2017.

He has spent over 340 days in space.

Happy birthday, cosmonaut Roman Romanenko!

Roman Romanenko, born August 9, 1971 in the former Soviet Union, is a cosmonaut and a veteran of two expeditions on the International Space Station.  His father is cosmonaut Yuri Romanenko, a Soyuz and Mir cosmonaut.

Romanenko's first trip into space was aboard Soyuz TMA-15 to the ISS in May 2009, where he became part of Expeditions 20 and 21.  He was the third second-generation astronaut after Sergey Volkov and Richard Garriott. 

His second trip into space was aboard Soyuz TMA-07M in December 2012.  He was a member of Expeditions 34 and 35.  He conducted his first space walk during this mission.

He has since retired from Roscosmos.

Happy birthday, Space Shuttle astronaut Kevin Ford!

Kevin Ford, born July 7, 1960 in Montpelier, Indiana, has made two trips to the International Space Station, once via the Space Shuttle, the other via Soyuz.

His first flight to the ISS was on Discovery (STS-128) as pilot August-September 2009.  It was the final space shuttle flight used  for  ISS crew rotation.

Ford's second trip was as Flight Engineer aboard Soyuz TMA-06M in October 2012 as part  of Expeditions 33-34.  He returned to Earth March 2013.

Soyuz TMA-07M launched 2012

L-R: Thomas Marshburn, Roman Romanenko, Chris Hadfield 

Mission patch

Soyuz TMA-07M, launched December 19, 2012, carried the three members of Expedition 34 to the International Space Station.  The crew was Commander Roman Romanenko (Roscosmos), Chris Hadfield (Canadian Space Agency) and Thomas Marshburn (NASA).

They remained on the ISS until May 13, 2013 when they returned to Earth landing in Kazakhstan May 14.