Oleg Valeriyevich Kotov was born on October 27, 1965, in Simferopol, Crimean oblast in the Ukrainian SSR. After a career as a physician assigned to the Soviet space program, he joined the Russian cosmonaut corps. He has flown three long duration spaceflights on the International Space Station logging over 526 days in space. Most recently, Kotov flew on the Soyuz TMA-10M/Expedition 37/Expedition 38 long duration spaceflight, from September 2013 until March 2014.