— Russian cosmonaut Aleksandr Samokutyaev, who served twice as a crew member aboard the International Space Station (ISS), including during the final U.S. space shuttle mission in 2011, has died at the age of 56.

With Samokutyaev's death on Wednesday (June 17), he is now the first former ISS long-duration resident to die in the 26 years that the space station has been a home to 155 other cosmonauts and astronauts as expedition crew members.

"The leadership and staff of the Roscosmos State Corporation extend their sincere condolences to the family and loved ones of Aleksandr Mikhailovich," officials with Russia's space agency said in a statement.

Samokutyaev joined the cosmonaut corps in 2003. Two years later, after his basic training, he qualified for spaceflight assignments.

To ISS and back, twice

On April 4, 2011, he launched for the first time, flying as the commander of Soyuz TMA-21 with flight engineers Andrey Borisenko with Roscosmos and NASA astronaut Ron Garan. Their spacecraft was given the name "Gagarin" in honor of the the world's first human in space who had lifted off 50 years earlier from the same launch site at the Baikonur Cosmodrome.

Samokutyaev served as a flight engineer on the space station's 27th and 28th expedition crews. In addition to Borisenko and Garan, he worked with Dmitri Kondratyev of Roscosmos, Cady Coleman of NASA and Paolo Nespoli of ESA (European Space Agency) for about a month and Sergey Volkov of Roscosmos, Mike Fossum with NASA and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) astronaut Satoshi Furukawa for the second part of his stay.

On July 10, 2011, the U.S. space shuttle Atlantis arrived at the space station and for nine days, the four STS-135 astronauts joined Samokutyaev and his Expedition 28 colleagues aboard the orbiting laboratory. Not only was it the last time that a shuttle would visit the ISS, but it was the final mission of the 30-year program.

On Aug. 3, 2011, Samokutyaev performed his first spacewalk, venturing outside of the ISS with Volkov to relocate equipment, install a materials science experiment and hand-deploy a micro-satellite.

After 164 days in Earth orbit, Samokutyaev returned to Earth on Soyuz TMA-21 with Borisenko and Garan, landing safely on the steppe of Kazakhstan.

Samokutyaev returned to the ISS three years later, this time with Elena Serova — one of only two female cosmonauts in Roscosmos' corps at the time and only the fourth to fly into space — and NASA astronaut Barry "Butch" Wilmore on board Soyuz TMA-14M. Samokutyaev spent about two months as an Expedition 41 flight engineer, sharing the space station with cosmonaut Max Surayev, NASA astronaut Reid Wiseman (later of Artemis II fame) and ESA astronaut Alexander Gerst from Germany.

On Oct. 22, 2014, Samokutyaev went outside for his second career spacewalk, working with Surayev to jettison no longer needed equipment and conduct a detailed photographic survey of the station's Russian segment exterior. In total, Samokutyaev logged 10 hours and one minute on his two spacewalks.

Samokutyaev then transferred with Serova and Wilmore onto the Expedition 42 crew, working with his 2003 cosmonaut classmate Anton Shkaplerov, as well as NASA astronaut Terry Virts and ESA astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti from Italy. The three returned to Earth on March 11, 2015, adding 167 days to Samokutyaev's time in space for a total of 331 days, 11 hours and 23 minutes.

Samokutyaev was the 518th person to enter orbit and the 527th to fly above 50 miles (80 km), according to the Association of Space Explorers' Registry of Space Travelers.

From pilot to politician

Aleksandr Mikhailovich Samokutyaev was born on March 13, 1970 in the city of Penza, Russia. He graduated from the Yuri Gagarin Air Force Academy in 2000, and flew as as pilot, senior pilot and deputy squadron commander in the Russian Air Force before his selection to train to become a cosmonaut.

Prior to his first launch, Samokutyaev trained as a member of the Expedition 23/24 backup crew. Similarly, he served on the Expedition 41/42 backup crew before his second mission.

In 2017, an interdepartmental commission recommended that Samokutyaev be dismissed from being an instructor and the deputy commander of the cosmonaut corps, reportedly due to medical concerns. Two years later, he graduated with honors from the Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration and, taking up a new career as a politician in 2021, was elected as a deputy to the State Duma of the Russian Federation.

"Alexander Mikhailovich Samokutyaev did much to glorify our Penza region and improve the lives of people in his native region. His fond and cherished memory will forever remain in our hearts," the regional government wrote in an obituary posted to its website.

For this service to the Russian space program, Samokutyaev was awarded the title of Hero of the Russian Federation, receiving the Gold Star medal, as well as the honorary title of Pilot-Cosmonaut of the Russian Federation. He also received the Order "For Merit to the Fatherland" (4th Class), medals from the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation and departmental awards from Roscosmos.

Samokutyaev is survived by his wife Oksana Nikolaevna and daughter Anastasia Aleksandrovna.