Mikhail Kornienko
A spacefarer with a collective 516 days spent above Earth
Mikhail Kornienko recently celebrated his 60th birthday in the comfort of his home planet, as opposed to his 50th and 55th, which were spent in low-Earth orbit. He has been an instrumental figure in modern Russian spaceflight and is a veteran of several expeditions.
Kornienko was born on 15 April 1960 in Syzran, Kuibyshev – now Samara – Oblast, Russia, and completed his basic military service between
1978 and 1980. Afterwards he spent six years as a militiaman in Moscow, and his evenings between 1981 and 1987 were spent gaining a qualification in mechanical engineering.
His journey into space began in February 1998 when he was selected as a cosmonaut candidate, qualifying as a test cosmonaut in December 1999 from the Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center in Moscow. He began his International Space Station (ISS) exploits by serving as a backup flight engineer on Expeditions 8 and 15. His time to fly finally came on 2 April 2010 when he blasted off to the ISS for Expeditions 23 and 24, also referred to as Soyuz TMA-18, with fellow cosmonaut Alexander Svortsov and NASA astronaut Tracy Caldwell Dyson. Here he celebrated his golden jubilee in the rarest venue there is. This mission was just a warm up for his main event though, as he and NASA astronaut Scott Kelly would prepare themselves for an incredibly long stay on board the orbiting space station.
The ISS is a high-tech laboratory where scientists take advantage of the microgravity environment, and an experiment that Kornienko and Kelly both partook in was this year-long stay in space. This was in order to determine the longterm effects of microgravity on the male human body. The results from these experiments have been shaping how humanity plans its journey towards Mars and its colonisation. This almostyear-long experiment began on 27 March 2015 and carried on through to 2 March 2016. Kelly and Kornienko were an ideal pair of candidates because of their similarity, since they were both Caucasian males in their early to mid-50s. They had both already developed a bit of a rapport too, as Kelly was part of the backup crew to Expeditions 23 and 24.
The results from this experiment, creatively titled the ‘One-Year Mission’, are still being understood four years later from NASA’s point of view. Russia had already had astronauts undertake 300-day stints on board the nowdefunct Mir space station, but the country has not shared the data. Before long-duration spaceflight to other planets can commence, space agencies need to conduct more studies, much like the one Kornienko participated in.
During his time in space, Kornienko conducted two extravehicular activities (EVAs), totalling over 12 hours experiencing the harsh environment of nothingness. For all his amazing displays of heroism and bravery, venturing to a place where only a minute fraction of the entire population have dared to go, he has received Russia’s most prestigious honorary title, the Hero of the
Russian Federation.