Aleksandr Gorbunov

Aleksandr Vladimirovich Gorbunov was born on 24 May 1990 in Zheleznogorsk, in Russia's Kursk region, and reached the cosmonaut corps as an engineer rather than a pilot. He studied at the Moscow Aviation Institute, qualifying in spacecraft and upper stages, and then joined the storied RSC Energia corporation, beginning as a technician in 2012 and advancing to design engineer. There he worked on the Progress cargo spacecraft that keep the International Space Station resupplied, supporting the uncrewed launches that fly from Baikonur. In 2018, after passing the medical and selection process, Roscosmos chose him for its cosmonaut detachment, moving him from building and dispatching spacecraft to training to fly aboard them.

Gorbunov's single spaceflight to date came with an unusual assignment. In 2024 he was named to NASA's SpaceX Crew-9 mission under the seat-exchange arrangement that keeps both Russians and Americans continuously represented on the station. Crew-9 launched on 28 September 2024 aboard the Crew Dragon Freedom, and it flew with just two people — commander Nick Hague and Gorbunov as mission specialist — deliberately leaving two seats empty so the capsule could later carry home the Starliner test crew. The flight lasted about 171 days, and Gorbunov splashed down with his crewmates in March 2025. Though he served in the limited role of mission specialist, holding the rank of test cosmonaut, he took the pilot's seat during launch, and by most accounts the assignment made him the first Russian cosmonaut to sit at the controls of a U.S. commercial spacecraft.

Gorbunov's significance is bound up in the era he flew in: a period when the ISS partnership held together through integrated crews even as geopolitics strained around it, and when a Russian engineer could ride an American Dragon to orbit. His path — from Energia's Progress program to a Crew Dragon seat — reflects how the station's operations depend on cross-training and shared vehicles across national lines. A paraglider on Earth who has said his love of soaring drew him toward higher skies, Gorbunov remains an active Roscosmos cosmonaut after his debut mission, with the experience of a long-duration expedition and a notable first behind him and further assignments possible in the years ahead.