Aleksandr Nikolayevich Balandin

Aleksandr Nikolayevich Balandin, born on July 30, 1953, in Fryazino, Moscow Oblast, is a Russian cosmonaut and engineer. He graduated from the Bauman Moscow State Technical University in 1976 with a specialty in Flight Dynamics and Control. Balandin was selected as a cosmonaut on December 1, 1978, and served as a flight engineer on Soyuz TM-9, spending over 179 days in space on the Mir space station. During this mission, he performed two spacewalks totaling 10 hours and 32 minutes. For his contributions to space exploration, he was awarded the Hero of the Soviet Union, the Order of Lenin, and the Medal 'For Merit in Space Exploration.' He retired from the cosmonaut corps on October 17, 1994, and later worked at NPO Energia and served as President of Lendint-Association.