In 1979, Kaleri graduated from the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology, Dolgoprudny, Moscow region, as a specialist in Aircraft Flight Dynamics and Control. In 1983, he completed post-graduate studies at the same institute as a specialist in the field of Mechanics of Fluids and Plasma.

In 1979, he was hired by the Energia Corporation and worked on the Mir space station. He participated in development of design and engineering documentation, full-scale tests of the Mir. Kaleri is a skilled programmer.

Kaleri was selected as the Energia RSC cosmonaut candidate in April 1984. Between 1985 and 1986, he completed basic training and evaluation at the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center. In 1987 he was qualified for flight assignment as a test cosmonaut.

Kaleri has participated in three extended missions aboard the Mir Space Station. In 1992, he participated in a 145-day flight aboard the Soyuz-TM-14 spacecraft and the Mir. Between 17 August 1996 to 2 March 1997, Kaleri spent 197-days in space aboard the Soyuz-TM-24 spacecraft and the Mir as the Mir-22 mission flight engineer. In 2000, Kaleri performed his third spaceflight aboard the Soyuz-TM-30 spacecraft and the Mir as the Mir-28 mission flight engineer.

On 8 July 1992, at 12:38 UTC Kaleri started his first career spacewalk. During the spacewalk, he and cosmonaut Aleksandr Viktorenko inspected some of Mir’s gyrodynes. The spacewalk lasted 2 hours and 3 minutes.

Kaleri is married to the Svetlana L. Nosova. They have a son, Oleg Aleksandrovich Kaleri, born in 1996. Kaleri’s mother, Antonina Petrovna Kaleri, resides in Sevastopol, Crimea, and his father, Yuri Borisovich Kaleri, is deceased. Kaleri enjoys running, reading and gardening.

On 2 December 1996, Kaleri and fellow cosmonaut Valery Korzun completed a 5 hours 57 minutes long spacewalk. The main purpose was to complete connections of the cooperative solar array to provide more electrical power to the Mir station. The spacewalk was Kaleri’s second career spacewalk.

On 9 December 1996, Kaleri and fellow cosmonaut Valery Korzun completed a 6 hours 36 minutes long spacewalk. The spacewalk began at 13:50 UTC and ended at 20:28 UTC. During the spacewalk, the two cosmonauts completed connecting the solar array and attached a new Kurs docking antenna subsequently used to guide Progress vehicles docking with Mir. They also repaired the transceiver system that the Mir crew used to talk to amateur operators all around the world.

On 12 May 2000, Kaleri and fellow cosmonaut Sergei Zalyotin completed a five-hour spacewalk to inspect the exterior of Mir. The two spacewalkers also tested a glue which would have been useful to seal tiny cracks, and applied the new airtight sealant to a special panel imitating a damaged section in Mir’s skin. The two cosmonauts also examined the exterior of the Progress M1-2 cargo spacecraft.

In 2003, he first flew to the International Space Station (ISS) with NASA astronaut Michael Foale on his fourth spaceflight. Kaleri served as a Flight Engineer on Expedition 8 and spent 194 days in space from 18 October 2003 to 30 April 2004. The Soyuz TMA-3 spacecraft carrying Kaleri, Foale and ESA astronaut André Kuipers successfully landed in Kazakhstan at 00:11 GMT on 30 April 2004. The landing site was located some 60 kilometers northeast of the town of Arkalyk.

On 26 February 2004, Kaleri and NASA astronaut Michael Foale floated outside the ISS from the Pirs Docking Compartment airlock. The spacewalk began at 4:17 EST, and Foale and Kaleri were able to complete all but two of their planned tasks, swapping out experiment packages and mounting an instrumented dummy torso on the station’s hull to measure the radiation environment faced by spacewalking astronauts. Although the spacewalk was originally planned for 5 hours and 30 minutes, it was cut short due to a cooling system malfunction in Kaleri’s spacesuit. Kaleri reported seeing drops of water on the inside of his spacesuit’s visor. The spacewalk lasted 3 hours and 55 minutes. The excursion was the fifth career spacewalk for Kaleri.

Kaleri was a member (Flight Engineer) of the ISS Expedition 25/26, that was launched on 7 October 2010 from Baikonur Cosmodrome, aboard Soyuz TMA-01M spacecraft, together with cosmonaut Oleg Skripochka and NASA astronaut Scott Kelly. He served as the Soyuz commander. The mission marked Kaleri’s fifth flight into space. He arrived at the ISS after the Soyuz spacecraft linked up with the space station at 00:01 UTC on 10 October 2010. He remained in the ISS till March 2011. During their mission, Kaleri and the rest of the Expedition 25/26 crew participated in a wide array of research, including fundamental physics, biometric experiments and investigations of crystal growth in space, as well as education outreach.