Happy birthday, astronaut Tim Kopra!

Timothy Kopra, born April 9, 1963 in Austin, Texas, has traveled twice into space. 

His first flight into space was aboard space shuttle Endeavour (STS-127) as mission specialist to the International Space Station in July 2009.  He remained aboard the ISS as part of Expedition 20 and returned to Earth on Discovery (STS-128) in September 2009.

His second and final flight was aboard Soyuz TMA-19M om December 2015.  He participated in Expeditions 46 and 47, returning to Earth in June 2016.

He spent 244 days in space, and conducted 3 EVAs.

In 2006, he participated as an aquanaut in the Aquarius underwater laboratory during the NEEMO 11 mission.

Happy birthday, British astronaut Tim Peake!

ESA astronaut Timothy Peake, born April 7, 1972 in Chichester, Sussex, England, went into space aboard Soyuz TMA-19M as flight engineer to the International Space Station in December 2015.  He participated in Expeditions 46 and 47.  He returned to Earth after almost 186 days in space in June 2016.

Soyuz TMA-19M launched 2015

Soyuz TMA-19M crew (L-R): Timothy Kopra, Yuri Malenchenko, Timothy Peake

Mission patch

Soyuz TMA-19M, launched December 15, 2015, carried the members of Expedition 46 to the International Space Station.  Its crew consisted of Commander Yuri Malenchenko (Roscosmos), Timothy Kopra (NASA) and Timothy Peake (ESA)

They returned to Earth 186 days later in June 2016.

Happy birthday, cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko!

Yuri Ivanovich Malenchenko, born December 22, 1951 in the Ukraine, has spent more time in space than anybody, except for fellow cosmonaut Gennady Padalka.  He is a veteran of 5 Soyuz missions and one Space Shuttle flight.  He has been aboard Mir and the International Space Station.  As of June 2016, he has spent a little over 827 days in space.

His first flight was as commander aboard Soyuz TM-19 to Mir in July 1994, where he spent 4 months. 

His next mission was aboard Atlantis (STS-106) in September 2000 as mission specialist.

His third flight was on Soyuz TMA-2 in April 2003 to the ISS.  While on board, he got married got married to Ekaterina Dmitrieva August 10, 2003. She was in Texas and he was 240 miles over New Zealand.  He is the first person to get married while in space.


Malenchenko's fourth flight was on Soyuz TMA-11 as commander in October 2007 to the International Space Station.  His fellow astronauts were Peggy Whitson, Sheikh Muszaphar Shukor (first Malaysian astronaut) and Yi So-yeon (the first Korean astronaut).

On the 37th anniversary of the Apollo-Soyuz Test Program, he blasted off on Soyuz TMA-05M July 2012.

His final flight was on Soyuz TMA-19M in December 2015.