Gennadi Strekalov Status: Deceased 10/26/1940 – 12/25/2004 Nationality: Russian Type: Government Agency: Russian Federal Space Agency (ROSCOSMOS) Gennadi Mikhailovich Strekalov (Russian: Генна́дий Миха́йлович Стрека́лов; October 26, 1940 – December 25, 2004) was an engineer, cosmonaut, and administrator at Russian aerospace firm RSC Energia. He flew into space five times and lived aboard the Salyut-6, Salyut-7, and Mir space stations, spending over 268 days in space. The catastrophic explosion of a Soyuz rocket in 1983 led to him being one of only two people to use a launch escape system.