Gennady Padalka was born in Krasnodar on June 21, 1958. In 1979 he graduated from Yeisk Higher Military Aviation Pilots College. In 1994 he got qualification as an environment engineer and Master’s Degree in Ecological Management at the AeroCosmoEcology Faculty of the UNESCO International Educational Systems Center. In 2009 Gennady Padalka graduated from the Russian Academy of Public Service majoring in Public and Municipal Administration.

Gennady Padalka made his first space flight in 1999 as the captain of Soyuz TM-28 and the head of the 26^th main expedition at station Mir. The space flight lasted for 198 days 16 hours and 31 minutes. It was followed with other flights to the orbit in 2004 (187 days 13 hours 22 minutes), 2009 and 2012 (125 days).

Gennady Padalka repeatedly carried out extravehicular excursions. The spaceman conducted a set of scientific experiments according to the Russian, American, Canadian and Japanese programs.

On March 27, 2015 Gennady Padalka started space flight as the captain of the Soyuz TMA-16M and the International Space Station crew according to program ISS 43. The Russian astronaut Mikhail Korniyenko and the American astronaut Scott Kelly accompanied him to the ISS. Gennady Padalka has been the commander of the International Space Station since June 10, 2015. The astronaut will stay on the orbit till September, 2015. By the end of the mission total time spent by him in space will reach about 880 days.

Gennady Padalka has beaten the world record in the total duration of space flights. By the time of setting his record (June 29, 2015) the total duration of his habitation in space made 803 days. The previous world record was set by Sergey Krikalyov.

The space recordsman is married and has three daughters. In his free time he goes in for theater, parachuting and diving.