Nikolai Tikhonov

Nikolay Vladimirovich Tikhonov (Russian: Николай В. Тихонов) was born May 23, 1982. He is a former Russian cosmonaut, selected in 2006. He was selected as a backup flight engineer for Soyuz MS-02. He was made a prime crew member of Soyuz MS-04 but, due to Russian budget cuts, the crews were changed and Tikhonov was then slated to make his first spaceflight on the Soyuz MS-10 spacecraft. He was again removed from the manifest due to delays in launching the Russian Nauka module. He was scheduled to fly into space as commander of the Soyuz MS-15 mission, although he was removed for a third time following the aborted launch of Soyuz MS-10, and the subsequent crew changes that followed. He was then scheduled to finally make his first flight onboard Soyuz MS-16 in 2020. However he reportedly got an eye injury a month before the launch, was replaced on the flight, and subsequently left the cosmonaut corps due to health issues.