Valeri Polyakov
Valeri Vladimirovich Polyakov (born Valeri Ivanovich Korshunov on April 27, 1942 in Tula) is a Russian former cosmonaut. He is the holder of the record for the longest single spaceflight in human history, staying aboard the Mir space station for more than 14 months (437 days 18 hours) during one trip. His combined space experience is more than 22 months. He enrolled in the I. M. Sechenov 1st Moscow Medical Institute, where he graduated with a doctoral degree. After, he enrolled in the Institute of Medical and Biological Problems, Ministry of Public Health, Moscow, where he specialized in astronautics medicine. Polyakov dedicated himself to the field of space medicine in 1964 after the flight of the first physician in space, Boris Yegorov, aboard Voskhod 1. Polyakov was selected as a cosmonaut in Medical Group 3 on March 22, 1972. His first flight into space occurred on Soyuz TM-6 in 1988. After staying aboard the Mir space station and conducting research for 240 days, Polyakov returned to Earth aboard Soyuz TM-7. Polyakov volunteered for his 437 day flight to learn how the human body would respond to the micro-gravity environment on long-duration missions to Mars. Upon returning from his second spaceflight, Polyakov held the record for the most total time in space. This record, however, was later broken by Sergei Avdeyev and is currently held by Sergei Krikalev. Data from Polyakov\'s flight has been used by researchers to determine that humans are able to maintain a healthy mental state during long-duration spaceflight just as they would on Earth.
Spaceflights:
No. Mission Position Time Duration
1 Soyuz TM-6 / MIR-3 / MIR-4 / Soyuz TM-7 Research Doctor 29.08.1988 - 27.04.1989 240d 22h 34m
2 Soyuz TM-18 / MIR-15 / MIR-16 / MIR-17 / Soyuz TM-20 Doctor Cosmonaut 08.01.1994 - 22.03.1995 437d 17h 58m
Total 678d 16h 32m
