Oleg Ivanovich Skripochka

The Russian cosmonaut is a regular on board the ISS, due to finish his third visit this year

If you happen to be looking up at the night sky this month and catch a glimpse of the International Space Station (ISS) hurtling through the stars, take a second to comprehend that there are six astronauts on there doing incomparable work.

One of these heroes is Russian cosmonaut Oleg Skripochka, a veteran of two ISS expeditions currently in the process of finishing a third – a feat which has only been completed by a handful of people in the entire world.

Skripochka was born on 24 December 1969 in Nevinnomyssk, Russia, formerly a part of the

Soviet Union before its dissolution. He graduated from Bauman

Moscow State Technical

University in 1993 with a diploma in mechanical engineering, specialising in rocket construction. While studying to gain his diploma he was also working at the spacecraft manufacturer Energia as a test-metal worker, technician and eventually an engineer.

1997 was the year that Skripochka went to the Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center, qualifying as a cosmonaut two years later and first serving as part of the backup crew to ISS Expedition 17. Eventually his time to shrine arrived on 7 October 2010. On this day he was launched to the ISS with fellow cosmonaut Aleksandr Kaleri and NASA astronaut Scott Kelly to undertake Expedition 25/26. Their five-month expedition included a plethora of research experiments for a range of subjects including physics and biometrics, even dabbling in a bit of public outreach.

A rather frightening scenario was recently revealed in Scott Kelly’s book Endurance: A Year in Space, a Lifetime of Discovery, in which

Kelly recalls an extravehicular activity (EVA) conducted by Skripochka which could have ended in disaster. During this spacewalk, Skripochka became untethered and began drifting away from the space station. If it wasn’t for an antenna that bounced him back to safety, Skripochka could have been lost to space!

Luckily, he made it back safely, and even Kelly didn’t learn about the incident until five years later. That certainly didn’t scare off Skripochka, who made a return to space in March 2016 as part of Expedition 47/48. This stay lasted for six months, crossing paths with European Space Agency astronaut Tim Peake on Expedition 46.

Now, as Skripochka orbits above us at an altitude of 400 kilometres (250 miles), he continues to maintain the historic and unique microgravity laboratory along with cosmonaut Aleksandr Skvortsov, NASA astronauts Christina Koch, Drew Morgan and Jessica Meir and ESA astronaut Luca Parmitano. This is where he will remain until spring 2020, but at the time of writing he has completed three EVAs totalling almost 17 hours. Skripochka has also been awarded the titles of

Hero of the Russian Federation and Pilot-Cosmonaut of the Russian Federation, which again are only held by a select few.

“If it wasn’t for an antenna that bounced him back to safety, Skripochka could have been lost to space”