Biographical Data

NAME: Yuri Ivanovich Onufrienko
Colonel, test cosmonaut. Resides in Star City.

PERSONAL DATA: Born February 6, 1961 in Ryasnoe, Zolochev district, Kharkov region, Ukraine. Married to Valentina Mikhailovna Onufrienko (nee Ryabovol). Two sons and one daughter. His parents are deceased. He has two older brothers. He enjoys tennis, cooking, fishing, chess, and flying.

EDUCATION: Graduated from the V.M. Komarov Eisk Higher Military Aviation School for Pilots in 1982 with a pilot-engineer�s diploma. Graduated from Moscow State University in 1994 with a degree in cartography.

HONORS: Hero of Russia. Awarded two Armed Forces medals. He was also named a Chevalier in the French Honor Legion.

EXPERIENCE: Upon graduation from aviation school, he served as a pilot and senior pilot in the Air Force. In 1989, he was appointed to the position of cosmonaut candidate at the Cosmonaut Training Center. From September 1989 to January 1991, he underwent a course of general space training. Starting April 1991, he underwent training as a member of a group of test cosmonauts. Starting March 1994, he entered flight training to be the commander of the stand-by crew of the Mir-18 expedition aboard the Soyuz-TM-21 transport vehicle and the Mir Station as part of the Mir-Shuttle program.

He has over 800 flight hours and has flown the L-29, SU-7, SU-17 (M1-4), and L-39.

From February 21 to September 2, 1996, he served as Commander on Mir-21. One month later, he and Yuri Usachev were joined by NASA�s Shannon Lucid. During Mir-21 he performed numerous research experiments, an participated in six EVAs. He and Yuri Usachev were joined by French cosmonaut Claudie Andre-Deshays after the departure of Shannon Lucid. Altogether, he has logged 193 days in space.

Since December 7, 2001 Onufrienko has been living and working aboard the International Space Station (ISS). He arrived aboard STS-108 Endeavour and will stay on the station for approximately 4-months. The Expedition-4 crew of three (two American astronauts and one Russian cosmonaut) will perform flight tests of the station hardware, conduct internal and external maintenance tasks, and develop the capability of the station to support the addition of science experiments. Onufrienko will return to earth on the Shuttle flight delivering the Expedition-5 crew.

JANUARY 2002