Who is Andrey Fedyaev
Andrey Valerievich Fedyaev is a Russian cosmonaut with Roscosmos, born on February 26, 1981. He is currently serving on Expedition 75 aboard the International Space Station as a flight engineer, sharing responsibility with the rest of the crew for keeping the station's systems running and carrying out the mission's science program.
This is his second trip to space. His first was on ISS Expedition 69, so Fedyaev is returning to the station not as a rookie, but as someone who already knows first-hand what daily life on board looks like, its routines and its demands.
From fighter pilot to cosmonaut
Before turning to spaceflight, Fedyaev built a career as a military pilot in the Russian Air Force, retiring in 2013. That background is no accident: a large part of Roscosmos's historic cosmonaut corps has come from military aviation, a path that gives candidates prior experience operating under high pressure, managing complex systems, and making fast decisions in extreme conditions — exactly the skills that get put to the test in orbit.
Fedyaev was selected as a cosmonaut in 2012, meaning he moved from the cockpit of a fighter jet into Roscosmos's training program years before his first flight — a formation process that, in the Russian space program, typically stretches on for years before a candidate receives their first mission assignment.
His first mission: Expedition 69
Fedyaev's spaceflight debut came with Expedition 69 aboard the ISS. That first flight is exactly what gives him an edge on this second mission: he already knows how to move around in microgravity, how to balance time between experiments and maintenance, and how the daily coordination with mission control on the ground actually works. Cosmonauts flying a repeat mission tend to take on the more delicate technical tasks with more ease, precisely because they've already been through the learning curve that comes with living and working off-Earth.
On Expedition 75, that experience translates into a flight engineer role carrying more autonomy and operational responsibility than during his first stay on board.
Career stats
💡 Fun fact: becoming a Roscosmos cosmonaut is a process that takes years, not months. Candidates go through rigorous medical, physical, and psychological testing before being accepted, and once selected they train at Star City (Zvyozdny Gorodok), near Moscow, where entire generations of Russian cosmonauts have been formed. Out of every intake of hopefuls, only a handful ever complete the program and receive their first flight assignment.
You can read more about his public profile on Wikipedia.
Want to know who else is on board with him?
See the full ISS crew