Name: Sergei Konstantinovich Krikalev
Moniker: Special K
Personal data: 42 years old, married, one daughter, Olga, who is 10.
Past life: champion aerobatic pilot
Previous spaceflights: two long-duration missions on Mir; two shuttle missions for a total of more than 15 months in orbit.
Orbital oddity: Krikalev was aboard Mir when the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991. After an extended 10-month mission, he landed in the newly independent country of Kazakstan, wearing an obsolete CCCP insignia on his flight suit.
Claim to fame: first Russian to fly on the U.S. space shuttle.
International exposure: Crew mates in space have included French astronaut Jean-Loup Chretien and British candy-maker Helen Sharmon, who won a contest to fly on Mir.
No need for: English translator. “I’m still struggling with language,” he says, modestly. “Sometimes I don’t have enough words to express exactly what I want.”
Taking along: Pictures of family and friends, but plans to read and listen to whatever is aboard.
Works well independently: “Sometimes mission control in Russia and in Houston — not because they want to control every step, but because they want to be informed — asks about every small detail. They’re kind of interfering with our jobs. Even if we have continuous comm. (communications), we have to limit when we talk to the ground and then they have to let us go and do our job.”
Wish for space partnership: Better mutual understanding. “Sometimes people are pointing to each other and making simple mistakes. For me, being in the middle, I see that we have problems on both U.S. and Russian sides, but very frequently one side only wants to see only one point of view.”
Affiliation: humanity. “The farther you travel, the more you feel kind of part of a big group of people, and traveling outside of Earth I remember this feeling, being part of mankind. We represent not only our hometown, or even our countries in space. It's more like an international adventure.”
