Sergey Kud-Sverchkov

Engineer from Karaganda, born in what was then Soviet Kazakhstan, and the rare commander whose first profession was launch-vehicle ground systems. Sergey Kud-Sverchkov spent eight years at Energia before being picked for the cosmonaut corps — a path that gave him a ground-up understanding of the hardware that carries crews to orbit and the Station they live in when they arrive.

Before spaceflight

Kud-Sverchkov was born in 1983 in Karaganda, Kazakh SSR (now Kazakhstan). He studied at the Bauman Moscow State Technical University, one of Russia’s most prestigious engineering schools, earning a degree in rocket and space engineering. After graduation he joined RSC Energia — the state corporation that designs and builds Russia’s crewed spacecraft and Station modules.

At Energia he worked on launch-vehicle ground systems: the infrastructure that holds, fuels, tests, and releases the rocket on the pad. It is work that requires an obsessive attention to procedure and sequence, because a mistake in ground processing can destroy a vehicle before it ever leaves the ground. He spent eight years in that environment, rising through the engineering ranks, before Roscosmos selected him for the cosmonaut corps.

His engineering pedigree at Energia means he understands the Soyuz spacecraft and the Russian Station modules from the design-and-manufacturing side — a perspective that most cosmonauts, who come from military aviation, do not bring.

Spaceflight career

Kud-Sverchkov’s first spaceflight was Expedition 63/64 in 2020–2021, when he launched aboard Soyuz MS-17 for a six-month stay. That mission was notable for its fast-track rendezvous: Soyuz MS-17 docked with the Station just three hours and three minutes after launch, using a two-orbit profile. During the expedition he participated in a range of Russian-segment experiments and supported general Station operations.

This expedition

Kud-Sverchkov returned for Expedition 74 as commander — his first time in command and his second spaceflight overall. He leads the crew of seven, coordinating operations across both the Russian and American segments. His Energia background makes him particularly effective at understanding the structural and systems implications of maintenance decisions: when something needs fixing, he can reason about the hardware’s design intent, not just the procedure in the manual.

He speaks fluent English, which is essential for a Station commander — the daily planning conferences involve Houston, Moscow, and the European and Japanese control rooms, and the commander needs to bridge all of them.

The person

He runs the Sunday-evening movie nights in the Russian segment — a tradition he reportedly introduced during his first flight and brought back for this one. Colleagues describe him as sociable, technically sharp, and the kind of leader who makes decisions calmly and explains them clearly. His background in ground systems gives him an engineer’s humility: he knows how many things have to go right for the hardware to work, and he does not take any of them for granted.