TSIBLIYEV
Vassily Vassilyevich
Pilot-cosmonaut of the Russian Federation
 
CLASSIFICATION: 76/296.
NUMBER OF FLIGHTS: 2.
SPACEFLIGHT HOURS: 381 days 15 hours 53 min. 03 sec.
EVA OPERATIONS: 6.
TOTAL EVA TIME: 19 hours 14 min.
DATE AND PLACE OF BIRTH: February 20, 1956, the RSFSR (present Ukraine), the Crimea region, Kirovsky district, Orekhovka village.
NATIONALITY: Russian.
EDUCATION:
1971 – finished secondary school;
1975 – graduated from the Kharkov Higher Air Force School named after S.I. Gritsevets with the certificate of a military pilot-engineer in the field of “Command, tactical fighter aviation”;
1987 – graduated from the command faculty of the Yu.A. Gagarin Red Banner Air Force Academy with a first-class honours degree in the field of “Command-staff tactical aviation”;
1997 – graduated from the MIEGA&C.
OCCUPATION BEFORE JOINING COSMONAUT CORPS:
from December 1, 1975 – a pilot of Fighter attack air regiment 296, FAD 629, Guard’s FAC 61, Air Force Army 16 of the Soviet Forces Group in Germany;
from November 29, 1976 – a pilot and from August 30, 1979 – a section commander of Guard’s FAR 85, Guard’s FAC 61, Air Force Army 16 of the Soviet Forces Group in Germany;
November 17, 1980 – at the command of the Air Force Commander of Odessa Air District;
from November 28, 1980 – an air section commander, from November 28, 1983 – an air squadron deputy commander of FAR 161, FAD 119, Odessa AD, Odessa region, Limanskoye village.
DATE OF JOINING COSMONAUT CORPS (GROUP NUMBER, DATE):
March 26, 1987 – was recommended by the SIB to be included in the GCTC cosmonaut corps of Air Force (group 8);
July 23, 1987 – was enrolled as a test-cosmonaut candidate in the GCTC cosmonaut corps of Air Force by the Commander-in-Chief order;
from August 30, 1989 – a test-cosmonaut of group 1.
RATING: a first-class military pilot. He has mastered the aircraft of 5 types. He has logged over 1500 hours of flying time.
BACK-UP ACTIVITY:
May 20 – July 10, 1991 – a back-up crew commander of the Visiting Mission to the Mir orbital station with the participation of the cosmonaut of Kazakh nationality together with A. Laveykin and T. Musabayev;
October 1992 – January 10, 1993 – the second crew commander of the flight to the Mir orbital station on the Basic Expedition-3 program together with Yu. Usachev;
January 24, 1993 – a back-up man to the Soyuz TM-6 transport vehicle commander G. Manakov;
April 18, 1995 – January 31, 1996 – the second crew commander on the Basic Expedition-21 program together with A. Lazutkin, and from June 1995 - with J. Blaha ( USA);
February 21, 1996 – a back-up man to the Soyuz TM-23 commander Yu. Onufrienko.
SPACEFLIGHTS PERFORMED:
Flight 1 – July 1, 1993 – January 14, 1994 – a crew commander of the Soyuz TM-17 transport vehicle and the Mir orbital station on the Basic Expedition-14 program together with A. Serebrov as well as with Jean-Pierre Haignere, G. Manakov and A. Poleshchuk (BE-13), together with V. Afanasyev, Yu. Usachev and V. Polyakov (BE-15). The flight time was extended by two months. 5 space walks were performed during the flight, total duration of which is 14 hours and 15 minutes. Flight duration: 196 days 17 hours 45 min. 22 sec.Call sign: ”Sirius-1”
Flight 2 – from February 10 till August 14, 1997 – a crew commander of Soyuz TM-25 and the Mir orbital station on the BE-23 program together with A. Lazutkin, J. Linenger (the USA), M. Foale (the USA) and R. Ewald (Germany, during the first phase), together with the crew of STS-84 “Atlantis”– Ch. Precourt, A. Collins, J-F. Clervou, C. Noriega, E. Lu, Y. Kondakova. During the mission on February 23, 1997 the defective oxygen tablet caused the fire aboard. On June 25, 1997 during redocking the Progress M-34 transport cargo vehicle collided with the station structure that resulted in the Spectr module depressurization. The space walk with the duration of 4 hours 59 min. was performed. Flight duration: 184 days 22 hours 07 min. 41 sec. Call sign: ”Sirius-1”.
DISCHARGE FROM COSMONAUT CORPS: 1998 – was discharged from the cosmonaut corps due to the assignment to a new position.
OCCUPATION AT THE GCTC:
from April 6, 2000 - was assigned to the position of Deputy Chief of the Yu. A. Gagarin Russian State Scientific-Research and Test Center of Cosmonaut Training.
AWARDS:
Medal “Gold Star” of Hero of the Russian Federation (January 14, 1994),
Order of Merit to the Country (Third class),
Medal of Service-in-battle Merit,
Distinguished Service Medal (Second class),
8 commemorative medals,
Medal “For Weapon Fraternity Consolidation” (Bulgaria),
NASA Medal of Social Merit,
NASA Medal for Space Exploration.
CURRENT STATUS: September, 2003 - Chief of the GCTC; December 12, 2004 – an Air Force Lieutenant-General.