Nikolai Tikhonov (cosmonaut) explained

Nikolay Tikhonov
Type:RSA Cosmonaut
Status:Retired (Jul 2020)
Nationality:Russian
Birth Date:23 May 1982
Birth Place:Novomoskovsk, Russia SFSR
Selection:2006 RSA Group
Space Time:None

Nikolay Vladimirovich Tikhonov (Russian Cyrillic: Николай Владимирович Тихонов; born May 23, 1982) is a retired Russian cosmonaut, selected in 2006. He was scheduled to make his first space flight in 2020, onboard Soyuz MS-16, but was removed for medical reasons.

Cosmonaut career

After working as an engineer for RKKE, he was selected for cosmonaut training in 2006.

In 2013, Tikhonov served as cavenaut into the ESA CAVES[1] training in Sardinia, alongside Soichi Noguchi, Andreas Mogensen, David Saint-Jacques, Andrew Feustel and Michael Fincke.

He was selected as a backup flight engineer for Soyuz MS-02. He was made a prime crew member of Soyuz MS-04 but, due to Russian budget cuts, the crews were changed and Tikhonov was then slated to make his first spaceflight on the Soyuz MS-10 spacecraft. He was again removed from the manifest due to delays in launching the Russian Nauka module.[2] [3] He was scheduled to fly into space as commander of the Soyuz MS-15 mission, although he was removed for a third time following the aborted launch of Soyuz MS-10, and the subsequent crew changes that followed. He was scheduled to finally make his first flight onboard Soyuz MS-16 in 2020, but ended up replaced for medical reasons.[4]

In July 2020 it was reported he had left the cosmonaut corps "in connection with new data on his state of health".[5]

References

Notes and References

  1. 2021-07-01. Speleology as an analogue to space exploration: The ESA CAVES training programme. Acta Astronautica. en. 184. 150–166. 10.1016/j.actaastro.2021.04.003. 0094-5765. Sauro . Francesco . De Waele . Jo . Payler . Samuel J. . Vattano . Marco . Sauro . Francesco Maria . Turchi . Leonardo . Bessone . Loredana . 234819922 . 11585/819077 . free .
  2. Web site: No U.S. Crew Will Command The International Space Station in 2019 . AmericaSpace . Ben Evans . May 30, 2018 . August 18, 2018.
  3. Web site: As Soyuz MS-01 Lands, International Partners Look Ahead to Reduced Crewing in 2017 . AmericaSpace . Ben Evans . October 30, 2016 . August 18, 2018.
  4. katlinegrey . Pavlushchenko . Katya . 1230157111285469186 . 2020-02-19 . Breaking news! #Roscosmos decided to replace the crew members of #SoyuzMS16 with the backup crew due to medical indications. https://rbc.ru/technology_and... .
  5. Web site: Cosmonaut Nikolai Tikhonov dropped out of the cosmonaut corps . gctc.ru . Jul 31, 2020 . August 7, 2020.