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, cosmonaut Yuri Romanenko!

Yuri (Yury? Whatever.) Romanenko, born August 1, 1944 in the former Soviet Union, is a cosmonaut and a veteran of three missions to space. 

His first trip was aboard Soyuz 26 to Salyut 6 in December 1977.  During this mission, he performed an EVA, lasting one and a half hours.

His second trip was with Cuban cosmonaut Arnaldo Tamayo Mendez on Soyuz 38 in December 1980, to Salyut 6, but remained on board for only 7 days.

His third and final mission was on Soyuz TM-2 in February 1987 to the Mir space station.  He spent 326 days aboard Mir, which was a record back then.  He also conducted 3 EVA for a total of 8 hours, 48 minutes.   He returned to Earth on Soyuz TM-3 in December 1987.

He retired from flights in 1988 to become the director of the Buran program, which was cancelled in 1993.

His son Roman, born August 9, 1971, is also a cosmonaut and commanded Soyuz TMA-15.

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.