And Yuri is so young

On March 11, Russian President Vladimir Putin met with the head of Roscosmos, Yuri Borisov. Kommersant special correspondent Andrey Kolesnikov Based on the results of the conversation, he tells what gap in the training of not the cosmonauts, but the president, Yuri Borisov was able to fill.

Vladimir Putin, having entered his office, had not even sat down in his chair, and was already asking Yuri Borisov:

— Yuri Ivanovich, I know that preparations are underway for a new mission to the ISS. How is this work going? Let’s start with this.

“Vladimir Vladimirovich, it has entered the final stage, all complex tests for crew training are literally now being completed,” Yuri Borisov explained.

Everything here was filled with special meanings. Each member of the mission was of special interest.

“The crew consists of three people,” added the head of Roscosmos. “Cosmonaut from our fraternal Republic of Belarus Marina Vasilevskaya, who was selected from six applicants back in December 2022, began training in August last year. Completed, passed all exams, ready to fly!

The flight attendant of Belavia Airlines practices ballroom dancing and loves to grow vegetables in her garden. I think that cucumbers, if you take into account the peculiarities of the national Belarusian pastime (especially in the Shklov region, the homeland, many believe, of cucumbers) and if you understand that the chosen one was supposed to become a standard for all of Belarus, including in her hobbies, even fleeting ones. However, she cannot have any fleeting ones now.

— The commander of the ship is Oleg Novitsky. “He is no longer a newcomer to space flights,” continued Yuri Borisov.

He is not new not only to space flights. Oleg Novitsky is lucky for the ladies. He, presumably, has not yet come to his senses after the actress Yulia Peresild (in the good, let’s say, sense of the word), and here he is again. However, Oleg Novitsky gives the impression of a strong person.

“And the third crew member is American astronaut Tracy Dyson, who will replace Laurel O’Hara, who worked for six months, on the ISS,” Yuri Borisov reported.

And this is almost a surprise. Of course, not for Roscosmos employees: the contract was signed a long time ago and is being implemented. But just the other day, Vladimir Putin, in a conversation with Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, referring to the United States, said that “we need to figure out what they want” and that “they, as a rule, want unilateral advantages.”

It is known, of course, that a few days ago a Russian cosmonaut arrived on an American spacecraft to the ISS, but still, the story looks like the United States cooperates with Russia where it benefits them. And the idea of ​​not letting them do it doesn’t seem to work. All this does not prevent the United States from accusing Russia of trying to distribute weapons in space and continuing to sanction it with particular cynicism. And if they need just such a joint program to develop and for American astronauts to fly on Russian ships, then they fly.

“We expect that the Soyuz-25 spacecraft will deliver them to the ISS on March 21, and we will be waiting for them on Earth on April 2,” Yuri Borisov concluded.

The wait for both is at least not long.

Yuri Borisov could not help but convey a series of thanks to the president. For some reason, now not a single working meeting with the president can go without it (and it used to be possible).

“I would like to convey to you the gratitude of a large team of the industry for your attention in solving our pressing problems!” – exclaimed Yuri Borisov. – Your deep immersion into the essence of these problems, into the nuances, of course, deserves great attention on our part – and obligations. We really appreciate it!

He, of course, hoped that Vladimir Putin would also appreciate this.

“We are completing work on the Angara-5M launch complex on Vostochny,” the head of Roscosmos continued, “we hope that in the first ten days of April we will carry out the first launch, this is a very important event for the country, the space ground infrastructure will be strengthened.” You know that we already have one start in Plesetsk, and this is like a duplicate start, so this is very important for us.

The event, as you know, is long-awaited. At one time, both the rocket itself and the launch complex were even called “the frozen construction site of the century.” In fact, the construction site was under construction. And now, apparently, on Cosmonautics Day we will start from what we have built, from what we have built.

“We continue the series of trouble-free launches,” said Yuri Borisov. “We recently replenished the space meteorological constellation with the Meteor-M satellite No. 2–4. At the same time, by the way, 18 small satellites were launched with it, one of them was from our colleagues from Iran.

If the number of accident-free launches includes the launch from the ISS of the faulty cargo Progress-MS 2, which was successfully sunk in the Pacific Ocean, then yes, accident-free launches continued.

Judging by the solemn and slightly mysterious appearance of Yuri Borisov, he was now preparing to say the main thing.

And here it is:

— Vladimir Vladimirovich, this year marks the 90th anniversary of the birth of Yuri Alekseevich Gagarin, our wonderful cosmonaut, who wrote his name in golden letters into the world cosmonautics, the head of Roscosmos did not hide. — I would like to give you a portrait that is a symbol the cosmonautics pavilion, which you opened in 2018 after reconstruction. Looking at this portrait (He was holding a portrait, of course, of Yuri Gagarin.— A.K.), I would like you to be filled with optimism and confidence that we will succeed!

Only now it has become clear what Vladimir Putin lacks.

And what should it be filled with?