who holds the record for most time spent in space of anyone in history. He was commander of the resident crew of the Russian space station Mir from August 1998 to February 1999. He commanded the ninth resident crew of the International Space Station (ISS), arriving in the Soyuz spacecraft in April 2004. He returned to the ISS three more times: in 2009, when he served as commander of Expeditions 19 and 20; in 2012, when he served as flight engineer for Expedition 31 and commander of Expedition 32; and again in 2015, when he set his world record for total time spent in space (879 days).

He was selected as a cosmonaut in 1980.