[1] Dezhurov was born on July 30, 1962, in the settlement of Yavas, Zubovo-Polyansky District, Mordovia, Russia.

His father, Nikolai Serafimovich Dezhurov and mother, Anna Vasilevna Dezhurova reside in Yavas settlement, Zubovo-Polyansk district, Mordovia, Russia.

In March 1994, Dezhurov began flight training as commander of the prime crew of the Mir-18 mission.

The crew was launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on March 14, 1995, aboard the Soyuz TM-21 spacecraft.

Dezhurov lived and worked aboard the International Space Station where he served as a member of the Expedition 3 crew.

During the long-duration mission the Expedition 3 crew enjoyed a unique view of the 2001 Leonid meteor storm.

[4] At the end of the stay Expedition 3 crewmembers, Dezhurov, NASA astronaut Frank Culbertson and cosmonaut Mikhail Tyurin returned to Earth on board Space Shuttle Endeavour.

Endeavour's STS-108 mission delivered the Expedition 4 crew to the ISS and landed at KSC on December 17, 2001.

As of June 2010, his nine spacewalks totalling 37 hours and 2 minutes has placed him in the 25th position in the list of astronauts who have the most extra-vehicular activity (EVA) time.

On 28 May and June 1, 1995, Dezhurov and Strekolov conducted two spacewalks to prepare Mir to move Kristall and Spektr modules.

[5] On October 8, 2001, Dezhurov and Tyurin ventured outside the ISS to mark the 100th spacewalk to be carried out by Russian cosmonauts.

Dezhurov and Tyurin used a cutting tool to remove an errant rubber seal that had prevented a Progress resupply ship from firmly docking with the ISS.

The two spacewalkers also took pictures of the debris, which was a rubberized seal from the previous cargo ship, and of the docking interface.

This article incorporates public domain material from websites or documents of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.