Biographical Data

NAME: Salizhan Shakirovich Sharipov
GCTC Cosmonaut

PERSONAL DATA: Born August 24, 1964 in Uzgen, Oshsk region, Kirghizia. Married to Nadezhda Mavlyanovna Sharipova. They have one daughter and one son. He enjoys football, likes to read books. His father, Mr. Shakirzhan Sharipov, resides in Uzgen, Oshsk region, Kirghizia.

EDUCATION: Graduated from the Air Force Pilot School in 1987. In 1994, he graduated from Moscow State University with a degree in cartography.

EXPERIENCE: After graduation from the Air Force Pilot School in 1987, he worked as a pilot-instructor and taught 8 cadets. He has logged over 950 hours flying time. He has experience flying on MIG-21, L-39 aircraft.

Selected by the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center (GCTC) Sharipov became a cosmonaut-candidate in 1990. In 1992, he completed general space training and became a cosmonaut. As a member of the group he has completed a full course of training for OC MIR space flights as a crew commander.

Sharipov has flown one mission and has logged over 211 hours in space. He served as a mission specialist on the crew of STS-89 (January 22-31, 1998), the eighth Shuttle-Mir docking mission during which the crew transferred more than 8,000 pounds of scientific equipment, logistical hardware and water from Space Shuttle Endeavour to Mir. In the fifth and last exchange of a U.S. astronaut, STS-89 delivered Andy Thomas to Mir and returned with David Wolf. Mission duration was 8 days, 19 hours and 47 seconds, traveling 3.6 million miles in 138 orbits of the Earth.

Currently, he is assigned as flight engineer on ISS Expedition-10 scheduled for launch in 2004.

AUGUST 2002