He graduated from Yeysk Military Aviation College in 1979. and served as a pilot and later a senior pilot in the Russian Air Force.He even worked as an engineer-ecologist at the UNESCO International Center of Instruction Systems until 1994. Than he worked on both Mir and the International Space Station. Padalka , a prize winner of the Russian Federation Government in the field of science and technology, was also decorated with Fatherland Service Medal fourth class, Medals of the Russian Federation and Medal of the International Fund of Cosmonautics support for Service to Cosmonautics. Married to Irina Anatoliyevna Padalka (Ponomareva), they have three daughters: Yuliya, Yekaterina, and Sonya.
