Happy birthday, cosmonaut Yury Usachov!

Yury Usachov, born October 9, 1957 in the former Soviet Union, is a veteran of four space flights, including two on Soyuz spacecraft and two on space shuttles.

Usachov's first trip into space was aboard Soyuz TM-18 in January 1994 as part of the Mir EO-15 crew.  He performed EVAs to assess potential damage done to Mir when Soyuz TM-17 hit the space station twice while leaving.  They found no damage.  He returned to Earth in July 1994.

His second trip to space was aboard the Soyuz TM-23 spacecraft in February 1996 as part of the Mir EO-21 crew.  Shannon Lucid joined him for part of his stay.  He returned to Earth September 1996.

Usachov's third mission was on Atlantis (STS-101) in May 2000 as mission specialist to the International Space Station.  The mission lasted almost 10 days.

His fourth and final trip into space was aboard Discovery (STS-102) in March 2001 to the ISS.  He was the commander of Expedition 2, which lasted until August, when he returned to Earth on Discovery (STS-105).

Over the course of his career, he has performed seven EVA and has spent 553 days in space.

Soyuz TM-24 launched 1996

Soyuz TM-24 crew (L-R): Claudie Andre-Deshays, Valery Korzun, Aleksandr Kaleri

Mission patch

Soyuz TM-24, launched August 17, 1996, was the 27th expedition to Mir.  Its crew consisted of Commander Valery Korzun, Aleksandr Kaleri and Claudie Andre-Deshays, first French woman in space.

Andre-Deshays spent 16 days on Mir conducting biological and medical experiments before returning to Earth on Soyuz TM-23 in September 1996.

Korzun and Kaleri stayed for over 196 days and returned to Earth in March 1997.

Soyuz TM-23 launched 1996

Soyuz TM-23 crew: Yuri Onufrienko, Yury Usachov

Soyuz TM-23, launched February 21, 1996, was the 25th manned mission to the space station Mir.  Its crew consisted of Commander Yuri Onufrienko and Flight Engineer Yury Usachov.  It docked with Mir on February 23, and joined expedition EO-21 which included Shannon Lucid.

They performed an EVA on March 15, the second on May 20, a third May 24, the fourth on May 30, the fifth on June 6 and the final one on June 13. 

Soyuz TM-23 undocked from Mir on September 2 and returned to Earth with Claudie Andre-Deshays on board.

Happy birthday, cosmonaut Yuri Onufriyenko!

Yuri Onufriyenko, born February 6, 1961 in Ukraine, is a veteran of three space flights (one Soyuz, two space shuttles), which included extended stays aboard Mir and the International Space Station.

His first trip into space was aboard Soyuz TM-23 in February 1996 to Mir as commander of the Mir EO-21 expedition.  He returned to Earth September 2.

His next mission was to the International Space Station aboard Endeavour (STS-108) December 2001 where he would serve as commander of Expedition 4.

He returned to Earth on Endeavour (STS-111) June 2002.