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Gennady Ivanovich Padalka (Russian
language|Russian:
Геннади&
#1081;
Иванови&
#1095;
Падалка)
(born June 21, 1958, in Krasnodar, Russia) is a
Russian cosmonaut. He is married to Irina
Anatolievna Padalka (Ponomareva). They have three
daughters: Yulia, Ekaterina and Sonya. Gennady
enjoys the theater, parachute sport and diving.
Padalka is a recipient of the Hero of the Russian
Federation|Hero Star of the Russian Federation and
the title of Russian Federation Test-Cosmonaut. He
has logged 1500 flight hours in six types of
aircraft as a First Class Pilot in the Russian Air
Force. In addition, he has performed more than 300
parachute jumps as an Instructor of General
Parachute Training.

Padalka graduated from Eisk Military Aviation
College in 1979. After graduation, he served as a
pilot and later a senior pilot in the Russian Air
Force, eventually attaining the rank of colonel.
He was selected as a cosmonaut candidate to start
training at the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center
in 1989. From June 1989 to January 1991, he
attended basic space training. In 1991, Padalka
was qualified as a test-cosmonaut. He worked as an
engineer-ecologist at the UNESCO International
Center of Instruction Systems until 1994.

From August 28, 1996 to July 30, 1997, he trained
for space flight on the Soyuz-TM transport
vehicle/Mir orbital complex as a commander of the
backup crew for the Mir 24/NASA-5, 6
Russian-American program of the 24th primary
Expedition, Pegasus Russian–French program
and Euro-Mir program. From October 1997 to August
1998, Padalka attended training for a spaceflight
aboard the Soyuz-TM/Mir orbital complex as a
primary crew commander (Expedition 26 Program).
From August 13, 1998, to February 28, 1999, he
served aboard the Soyuz TM-28/Mir orbital complex
as the Expedition 26 crew commander, logging 198
days in space.

June 1999 through July 2000, Padalka attended
training for a space flight on a
“Soyuz-TM” transport vehicle as an ISS
contingency crew commander. August 2000 to
November 2001, he attended training for a space
flight as the Expedition 4|ISS-4 back-up crew
commander.

In March 2002, Padalka was assigned as station
commander of the ISS Expedition 9 crew. 
Expedition 9 was launched from the Baikonur
Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan aboard a Soyuz TMA-4
spacecraft, docking with the International Space
Station on April 21, 2004. Following a week of
joint operations and handover briefings, they
replaced the Expedition 8 crew who returned to
Earth. In a six-month tour of duty aboard the
station Padalka continued ISS science operations,
maintained Station systems, and performed four
spacewalks. The Expedition 9 mission concluded
after undocking and landing back in Kazakhstan on
October 23, 2004. In completing this mission,
Padalka logged an additional 187 days, 21 minutes
and 17 seconds in space, and 15 hours, 45 minutes
and 22 seconds of EVA time.

Source:
http://www.jsc.nasa.gov/Bios/htmlbios/padalka.html

NASA