Viktor Mikhailovich Afanasyev
Viktor Mikhailovich Afanasyev is a retired Soviet and Russian Air Force colonel and cosmonaut whose four spaceflights span late Soviet Mir operations, post-Soviet station endurance, and the first years of Soyuz visits to the International . He logged more than 555 days in space and seven .
- Born
- December 31, 1948
- Died
- N/A
- Birthplace
- Bryansk,Soviet Union
Flights
4
Spacewalks
7
EVA time
38 hours, 4 minutes
In space
555 days, 18 hours, 33 minutes
Bio
Afanasyev came from military aviation and joined the cosmonaut corps in 1985. His first flight, Soyuz TM-11, launched in 1990 with Musa Manarov and Toyohiro Akiyama, placing him aboard Mir during a period when the station hosted both long-duration crews and international visitors.
He returned on Soyuz TM-18 in 1994 with Yuri Usachov and Valeri Polyakov, then on Soyuz TM-29 in 1999 with Jean-Pierre Haigneré and Ivan Bella. Those Mir missions placed Afanasyev in the core of Russia's long-duration station program through political and programmatic upheaval.
His final flight, Soyuz TM-33 / Soyuz TM-32 in 2001, was a short visiting mission to the ISS with Claudie Haigneré and Konstantin Kozeyev. That flight shifted his record from Mir veteran to early ISS visitor and closed a career built around station command, EVA work, and international crews.