On October 19, the launch of a space expedition to the ISS will take place, in which Sergei Ryzhikov, a Vartovite, will take part. Our portal has already written that the first flight into space for it was supposed to begin on September 23, but for technical reasons the launch was postponed. We decided to collect for you the most Interesting Facts about our "star" countryman and his upcoming flight.
1 . Sergei Ryzhikov was born in Nizhnevartovsk, graduated from high school and the Wings of Samotlor aviation center here. As his class teacher from the 12th school, Valentina Eremenko, notes, since childhood he dreamed of becoming an astronaut and was confidently moving towards this goal.
2. After school, he entered the Orenburg Higher Military Flight School and in 1996 became a military pilot. Behind him are more than 400 hours of fighter flight and 110 parachute jumps. He was transferred to the reserve in 2012 with the rank of lieutenant colonel of the guard.
3. Ryzhikov is divorced. His son, Ivan, is a cadet of an Orthodox gymnasium located in the St. Alekseevsky desert, near the city of Pereslavl-Zalessky.
4. By the way, about Orthodoxy. Sergey is a deeply religious person and plans to take icons, letters from relatives and pebbles from Mount Tabor with him into orbit.
5. The upcoming comic expedition, led by a Vartovite, will probably be the most “religious” in the entire history of space exploration, because Ryzhikov’s crew will deliver a piece of the relics of St. Seraphim of Sarov to the ISS and then return it to earth.
6. Ryzhikov has three state awards: the medal "For Distinction in military service» 2nd degree, the medal "For Distinction in Military Service" of the 3rd degree and the medal "For Military Valor" of the 2nd degree.
8. Our fellow countryman passed all the necessary exams and pre-flight tests with five stars. He completed the general space training course long ago and with honors. 100% ready to fly into space.
9. For Ryzhikov, this flight will be the first, but calling him a "green cosmonaut" would be a mistake. Sergey was enlisted in the Russian detachment as a cosmonaut 10 years ago and in 2009 he already received all the basic knowledge to go into orbit. Since then, he has taken part in many the most difficult workouts and tests.
10. The Soyuz MS-02 spacecraft will launch from Baikonur on October 19 at 11-05 Moscow time and two hours later will dock to space station. The crew will have to work on it for 155 long days.
A quarter of a century in the second district hospital of Nizhnevartovsk has been working Nikolay Vasilievich Ryzhikov. The Day of Aviation and Cosmonautics, which the whole country celebrates on April 12, is especially dear to him. And he has a weighty reason to love this holiday: Ryzhikov's son, Sergei Nikolaevich Ryzhikov, is a test cosmonaut of the Roscosmos cosmonaut corps. Launched on October 19, 2016 at 11:05 Moscow time from pad No. 31 of the Baikonur Cosmodrome as a Soyuz MS-02 spacecraft crew commander and a flight engineer for the International Space Station crew under the ISS-49/50 main program space expeditions. Spent 173 days in orbit.
A reasonable question for the father of the only cosmonaut from the city of Nizhnevartovsk is how to raise a purposeful, worthy citizen of his Fatherland? Nikolai Vasilyevich answered him like this: “Since childhood, Serezha had a dream to rise into the sky, and we, the parents, supported her.”
Cosmonaut Ryzhikov’s dad answers so modestly, without any special emotional overtones: “When we arrived in Nizhnevartovsk, in the mid-70s of the last century, everyone together participated in a large construction site, raised Samotlor. I worked first as a truck driver, then for some time as a bus driver, and since 1982 as a passenger car driver. The time was like this: people worked with all their hearts, no one envied, and there was nothing, everything was the same for everyone, Soviet ... children grew up, studied. In my free time, I go fishing, hunting, picking mushrooms and berries in the woods… and my sons, the eldest Sergey and the youngest Alexander, they have a five-year difference, they are always with me. As a father tried to be close to them, to communicate more. Sergey has always been distinguished by an analytical mindset, determination and strong-willed qualities, as if from birth he knew what he wanted and how. I read a lot. I remember that in the 4th grade he began to sleep on the floor so that his back was straight ... and then in 1991, after graduating from school 12, he himself entered the Orenburg Higher Military Pilot School. We went to support him, and he is already a student.”
Another remarkable fact from the biography of the son, according to Nikolai Vasilyevich, is that the father, along the line of Lyubov Ivanovna's mother, was a pilot during the Great Patriotic war. At a meeting, he liked to tell his grandchildren about the flights of his squadron. This is how grandfather planted the "flying grain" in Serezha's soul. It was the impetus for a big goal - to definitely visit space. Today, the father recalls how he and his son Alexander went to accompany Sergei into space to Baikonur. They saw everything with their own eyes, the ship in which he flew, his crew. There was a press conference. During takeoff there was a strong rumble, the ground trembled underfoot and, of course, it was very scary for my son.
In the Ryzhikov family, men are distinguished by good health and calm disposition. Nikolai Vasilievich himself believes that he received a good hardening in the army, he served in the troops of public order in Mordovia. In UTT-1, where he worked in middle age, not a single weekend was complete without football or skiing. Plus no bad habits.
“Of course, now I’m not the same athlete as in my youth,” says Nikolai Vasilyevich, “but physical activity I try to support. I like to go fishing, and there it happens that you can walk more than a dozen kilometers and work with oars. There are many beautiful and fishy places around. And we also have such a “pattern” as a dacha: plant, weed, harvest ... (laughs) and so on ... all gardeners will understand me. Again, I try to imitate the children. Recently I was visiting Sergey, I watched how he does every morning - either gymnastics, or an exercise bike without fail, supports healthy eating, mode".
By the way, on March 28, 2018, Nikolai Vasilyevich turned 69 years old. And every time he waits for Sergei to come on vacation to Nizhnevartovsk. Then at the dacha, the father will heat the bathhouse and brew fragrant herbal tea. “Let's take a steam bath, drink tea and sing songs with a guitar,” Nikolai Vasilyevich shares, “Sergey plays and sings great, loves a variety of songs, but mostly military ones, and also from the repertoire of Vysotsky and other famous bards, he always sings in space, goes through life with a guitar.
For many years, Nikolai Vasilievich Ryzhikov has been known in the second district Nizhnevartovsk hospital as a professional and a decent person. Magomed Magomedovich Dibirov, Deputy Chief Physician for Medical Work managed to accidentally get to know Ryzhikov during a vacation in 1999 in Belokurikha: “The most positive and kind impressions from communicating with Nikolai Vasilyevich and his family. He is a professional with a capital letter. He drives the car very carefully, for me his style is an example of how a driver should behave on the track. Zero emotions on strangers, no reactions to provocations. Nikolai Vasilyevich is a wonderful father. He repeatedly said that his son trains hard, undergoes training in order to get into the cosmonaut corps. And I remember my father's joy when he came to work and said that his son was included in the detachment. And we all rejoiced at such events.”
Ilya Farmanovich Salmanov, chief physician BU KhMAO-Yugra "Nizhnevartovsk District Hospital No. 2" notes the high professional and human qualities of the team member: “Nikolai Vasilyevich Ryzhikov has been working for us as a driver for a long time on ambulance transport. He was always distinguished by diligence, modesty, decency, they never heard patients complain that he refused a request to be taken by ambulance so that he would not deliver to any place. Always friendly, very intelligent person. Everyone who has ever worked with him has always appreciated him. Now, due to health reasons, he can no longer work as a driver, but he is still with us. And we are very happy about it.”
Nikolai Vasilyevich Ryzhikov is not only a conscientious worker, an enthusiastic fisherman and summer resident, he is also a happy grandfather. His eldest grandson Ivan, the son of cosmonaut Sergei, is today a student at Moscow State University, Alexander's son, Sergei, is 12 years old, he lives and studies in Nizhnevartovsk, 5 months ago, Ryzhikov's youngest daughter Vladislava gave birth to a daughter, Miroslava. Grandfather, as they say, does not have a soul in the baby and really hopes that one of the children will surely please him with the replenishment of the Ryzhikov family.
Small towns love their heroes and don't forget them. Cosmonaut Sergei Ryzhikov is a national treasure. Today he is considered a countryman in his mother's homeland in the Orenburg region and in Nizhnevartovsk, where he graduated from school and an flying club. Having flown into space, Sergei joined the list of famous Bugulma residents, standing on a par with Nadezhda Kadysheva and Alsu. Only now Sergei visits us much more often, and his visits are not covered in the media. Read more about this in an interview with the cosmonaut's mother Lyubov Ryzhikova.
— Lyubov Ivanovna, please tell us about your family.
— My family comes from the village of Kamenogorskoye, Orenburg region. My father's parents lived there, and my mother's moved from the village here. Their children followed them to help the elderly. My cousin also lives in Bugulma, and there were seven of us in all. My brother became a phthisiatrician, now he is an honored doctor of the Russian Federation. My sister is a manager, she works in a medical school. I graduated from the Bugulma medical school, managed to work in the children's hospital and the gynecological department of the maternity hospital. The parents were pious. Religion was banned because my dad is a communist, but God has always been with us. I remember the terrible times when icons were burned before my eyes. It's impossible to forget something like this. Three years ago, in Kamenogorsk, Sergey installed a worship cross, opened a house church. The village church in honor of the Transfiguration of the Lord was destroyed after the revolution, and people forgot about faith and God. At the meeting, the residents listened to the proposal with caution. Then they searched for a suitable building for a long time, and settled on an abandoned kindergarten. His son overhauled it, installed a dome with a cross, and then the ruling bishop consecrated it. For Sergei, visiting the village is sacred. When he arrives for worship, a lot of people gather. He has already called Kamenogorskoye from space.
Why don't you like to give interviews?
“Because we are modest, non-public people, we don’t boast of anything.
How to raise such a son?
“My parents raised me very strictly. No, they didn't - it never happened. Raised by sight. I was left alone early and really wanted my sons to grow up to be real men, worthy people, and I was not ashamed of them. Therefore, first of all, she set an example herself, because everything comes from the family. The boys spent a lot of time with their grandparents. Learned from them. My father headed the city financial department, my mother worked as a teacher in an orphanage. Sergey went to the nursery in Bugulma on Yakupov Street, and then to kindergarten“Cheburashka” is now Lyceum No. 2. I kept both sons in strictness, so I still worry that I didn’t like it, didn’t give motherly affection. But the terrible time demanded it: drug addiction flourished, the shelves in the shops were empty. Sergey got up early as an adult. When the flour was brought, we took a queue, and then the first-grader son carried it home, since I couldn’t do it. Almost everything was bought like that then - in bags, boxes, trunks. They didn’t sell it differently in Nizhnevartovsk. My sons reassure me, they say that "if I were stricter, it would be even better if I grew up." When she went on duty, she made a list of what household chores to do, what products to buy. It helped self-discipline. Sergey says that he still makes such lists.
— Kamenogorsk, Bugulma, Nizhnevartovsk… And how did you end up in the monastery?
- When Sergei was enrolled in the cosmonaut corps and transferred from Chita, where he served, to Star City. Grandson Ivan went to the school named after Vladimir Komarov there, but after a while he said that he did not like it and he would not study there. The grandson wanted to study at an Orthodox gymnasium, and we began to look for options. In the summer, together with his father, he took part in Velikoretsky procession(for Sergei, he was already the seventh in a row) and met the priest, on whose recommendation we placed our grandson in a gymnasium at the St. Alekseevsky Hermitage. When I went to visit him, I ended up in the hospital there, and having recovered, I could not part with this place. The grandson has been studying at Moscow State University for the fourth year, and I'm still in the gymnasium medical worker I'm toiling. The children there are simply amazing - you will not find such pure eyes in the world. It's hard without God. When I lived in Bugulma, I went to Sunday school for adults at the Kazan Cathedral to Father Sergius. Now this is Father Philip.
- How did you get in touch with your son in Bugulma?
- The whole family gathered at my sister's. Her son understands computers: he installed a special program, he has a microphone, a laptop and a webcam. Communication is established through the MCC. From there they call to set up a time. We look forward to every Sunday like a holiday.
- Was your meeting with cosmonauts Anton Shkaplerov and Alexei Ovchinin in our registry office planned?
“It came about quite by accident. I came to Bugulma on my family business - on my sister's memorial day. I thought to be with relatives, to celebrate my brother's birthday, and they invited me to this event. I was genuinely surprised to see Anton and Alexei.
— It is known that astronauts have many pre-flight traditions. And how did Sergey prepare for the flight?
- He went to Athos before the start, returned very happy. I visited many monasteries there, helped. He brought us many sacred things. In 2014 we visited the Holy Land. An astronaut traveling to the ISS can take with him personal belongings with a total weight of no more than one kilogram. Shane Kimbrough took photographs of his relatives, Andrei Borisenko took a book and a commemorative toy, and Sergei took an icon and a Bible.
— How often do you come to Bugulma?
- We're here all the time. Sergei this year came six times. He has a dream. The son wants, having reached retirement age, to buy a house and land. He is very friendly with Priest Georgy Mikhailin, rector of the Church of St. George the Victorious in the Upper Village. Arriving in Bugulma, the first thing he always goes to visit him. Batiushka introduced him to the village of Sosnovka, where the Alexander Nevsky Monastery was located. We went with him to the feast of the Descent of the Holy Spirit: we cleaned the church of the Sovereign Icon of the Mother of God, served the Liturgy, and then attended a concert where children from an Orthodox camp performed (in that distant 2011, I happened to be the director of this camp. — A. B.). Then Sergey examined the abandoned monastery buildings, listened to the story about the history of the monastery. My son fell in love with this place and wants to build a house there. We have all read Vladimir Salnikov's book about history. I worked as a cook for Batiushka for another three months.
- How did you know that your son will fly into space?
- Vanya and I were at home when Sergey came and said that a meeting had taken place State Commission, and he was included in the manned group. But the son did not say that he would be a commander - he never boasts. After that, there were many exciting moments. For example, when the son went through the "survival" - he worked out with his team different situations that could happen. Then I was worried when he and the guys came to us for dinner. I did not know what to cook and how to meet them. Andrei Borisenko, who flies for the second time, is older than Sergei, as is Robert Shane Kimbrough. I asked the guys how they feel about the fact that my son is a commander. Shane replied that with such a commander, no matter where.
- Probably, this excitement cannot be compared with what you feel now?
- When I was at Baikonur ... it can not be described in words. Very worrisome. At the start of the wave, all the buttons on my coat fell off, and then - haze, fog. The ship has left, nothing is visible. It's a huge stress. Then I watched the replay. The authorities noted that everything went smoothly with Sergei, in the Gagarin way. My grandson and I returned home, the next day my son had a scheduled docking. I watched it in the TsUPe online. On a huge screen, a ship approaching the international space station, and next to it, the mute silence of dozens of people: invited guests, management. Only prayer saved me in those moments. And then the hatch opened, and Sergey, happy and joyful, found himself in the ship. A little later, he called me - reassured me, said that everything was fine.
Involuntarily, the lines from the famous song of Maya Kristalinskaya “Tenderness” come to mind: “The Earth has become empty without you ... / How can I live for several hours?”. It's not even military service. This is space - endless, unknown, alien. Live from call to call, to text messages with a photo or video in the Viber messenger. With a constant prayer on his lips: "Lord, save and save your son!".
Small towns love their heroes and don't forget them. Cosmonaut Sergei Ryzhikov is a national treasure. Today he is considered a countryman in his mother's homeland in the Orenburg region and in Nizhnevartovsk, where he graduated from school and an flying club. Having flown into space, Sergei joined the list of famous Bugulma residents, standing on a par with Nadezhda Kadysheva and Alsu. Only now Sergei visits us much more often, and his visits are not covered in the media. Read more about this in an interview with the cosmonaut's mother Lyubov Ryzhikova.
— Lyubov Ivanovna, please tell us about your family.
— My family comes from the village of Kamenogorskoye, Orenburg region. My father's parents lived there, and my mother's moved from the village here. Their children followed them to help the elderly. My cousin also lives in Bugulma, and there were seven of us in all. My brother became a phthisiatrician, now he is an honored doctor of the Russian Federation. My sister is a manager, she works in a medical school. I graduated from the Bugulma medical school, managed to work in the children's hospital and the gynecological department of the maternity hospital. The parents were pious. Religion was banned because my dad is a communist, but God has always been with us. I remember the terrible times when icons were burned before my eyes. It's impossible to forget something like this. Three years ago, in Kamenogorsk, Sergey installed a worship cross, opened a house church. The village church in honor of the Transfiguration of the Lord was destroyed after the revolution, and people forgot about faith and God. At the meeting, the residents listened to the proposal with caution. Then they searched for a suitable building for a long time, and settled on an abandoned kindergarten. His son overhauled it, installed a dome with a cross, and then the ruling bishop consecrated it. For Sergei, visiting the village is sacred. When he arrives for worship, a lot of people gather. He has already called Kamenogorskoye from space.
Why don't you like to give interviews?
“Because we are modest, non-public people, we don’t boast of anything.
How to raise such a son?
“My parents raised me very strictly. No, they didn't - it never happened. Raised by sight. I was left alone early and really wanted my sons to grow up to be real men, worthy people, and I was not ashamed of them. Therefore, first of all, she set an example herself, because everything comes from the family. The boys spent a lot of time with their grandparents. Learned from them. My father headed the city financial department, my mother worked as a teacher in an orphanage. Sergey went to a nursery in Bugulma on Yakupova Street, and then to the kindergarten "Cheburashka" - now it is Lyceum No. 2. I kept both sons in strictness, so I still worry that I didn’t love, didn’t give maternal affection. But the terrible time demanded it: drug addiction flourished, the shelves in the shops were empty. Sergey got up early as an adult. When the flour was brought, we took a queue, and then the first-grader son carried it home, since I couldn’t do it. Almost everything was then bought like that - in bags, boxes, trunks. They didn’t sell it differently in Nizhnevartovsk. My sons reassure me, they say that "if I were stricter, it would be even better if I grew up." When she went on duty, she made a list of what household chores to do, what products to buy. It helped self-discipline. Sergey says that he still makes such lists.
— Kamenogorsk, Bugulma, Nizhnevartovsk… And how did you end up in the monastery?
- When Sergei was enrolled in the cosmonaut corps and transferred from Chita, where he served, to Star City. Grandson Ivan went to the school named after Vladimir Komarov there, but after a while he said that he did not like it and he would not study there. The grandson wanted to study at an Orthodox gymnasium, and we began to look for options. In the summer, together with his father, he took part in the Velikoretsk procession (for Sergei, he was already the seventh in a row) and met the priest, on whose recommendation we arranged a grandson for a gymnasium at the St. Alekseevsky Hermitage. When I went to visit him, I ended up in the hospital there, and having recovered, I could not part with this place. My grandson has been studying at Moscow State University for the fourth year, and I still work as a medical worker in the gymnasium. The children there are simply amazing - you will not find such pure eyes in the world. It's hard without God. When I lived in Bugulma, I went to Sunday school for adults at the Kazan Cathedral to Father Sergius. Now this is Father Philip.
- How did you get in touch with your son in Bugulma?
- The whole family gathered at my sister's. Her son understands computers: he installed a special program, he has a microphone, a laptop and a webcam. Communication is established through the MCC. From there they call to set up a time. We look forward to every Sunday like a holiday.
- Was your meeting with cosmonauts Anton Shkaplerov and Alexei Ovchinin in our registry office planned?
“It came about quite by accident. I came to Bugulma on my family business - on my sister's memorial day. I thought to be with relatives, to celebrate my brother's birthday, and they invited me to this event. I was genuinely surprised to see Anton and Alexei.
— It is known that astronauts have many pre-flight traditions. And how did Sergey prepare for the flight?
- He went to Athos before the start, returned very happy. I visited many monasteries there, helped. He brought us many sacred things. In 2014 we visited the Holy Land. An astronaut traveling to the ISS can take with him personal belongings with a total weight of no more than one kilogram. Shane Kimbrough took photographs of his relatives, Andrei Borisenko took a book and a commemorative toy, and Sergei took an icon and a Bible.
— How often do you come to Bugulma?
- We're here all the time. Sergei this year came six times. He has a dream. The son wants, having reached retirement age, to buy a house and land. He is very friendly with Priest Georgy Mikhailin, rector of the Church of St. George the Victorious in the Upper Village. Arriving in Bugulma, the first thing he always goes to visit him. Batiushka introduced him to the village of Sosnovka, where the Alexander Nevsky Monastery was located. We went with him to the feast of the Descent of the Holy Spirit: we cleaned the church of the Sovereign Icon of the Mother of God, served the Liturgy, and then attended a concert where children from an Orthodox camp performed (in that distant 2011, I happened to be the director of this camp. — A. B.). Then Sergey examined the abandoned monastery buildings, listened to the story about the history of the monastery. My son fell in love with this place and wants to build a house there. We have all read Vladimir Salnikov's book about history. I worked as a cook for Batiushka for another three months.
- How did you know that your son will fly into space?
- Vanya and I were at home when Sergey came and said that a meeting of the State Commission had taken place, and he was included in the piloted group. But the son did not say that he would be a commander - he never boasts. After that, there were many exciting moments. For example, when the son went through the "survival" - he worked out with his team different situations that could happen. Then I was worried when he and the guys came to us for dinner. I did not know what to cook and how to meet them. Andrei Borisenko, who flies for the second time, is older than Sergei, as is Robert Shane Kimbrough. I asked the guys how they feel about the fact that my son is a commander. Shane replied that with such a commander, no matter where.
- Probably, this excitement cannot be compared with what you feel now?
- When I was at Baikonur ... it can not be described in words. Very worrisome. At the start of the wave, all the buttons on my coat fell off, and then - haze, fog. The ship has left, nothing is visible. It's a huge stress. Then I watched the replay. The authorities noted that everything went smoothly with Sergei, in the Gagarin way. My grandson and I returned home, the next day my son had a scheduled docking. I watched it in the TsUPe online. On a huge screen, a ship approaching the international space station, and next to it, the mute silence of dozens of people: invited guests, management. Only prayer saved me in those moments. And then the hatch opened, and Sergey, happy and joyful, found himself in the ship. A little later, he called me - reassured me, said that everything was fine.
Ryzhikov Sergey Nikolaevich - test cosmonaut of the cosmonaut detachment of the federal state budget institution Yu. A. Gagarin Research and Testing Cosmonaut Training Center, Moscow Region.
Born on August 19, 1974 in the city of Bugulma of the Tatar Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic (now the Republic of Tatarstan). Russian. His father worked as a driver, his mother worked as a medical worker. In 1975, the family moved to his father's new place of work in the city of Nizhnevartovsk, the Khanty-Mansiysk National (now Autonomous) District of the Tyumen Region. In 1991 he graduated from secondary school No. 12 in Nizhnevartovsk and the Wings of Samotlor aviation club.
Since August 1991 - in the service in the Armed Forces of the USSR / Russian Federation. He studied at the Orenburg Higher Military Aviation School named after I. S. Polbin, in September 1990, in connection with its disbandment, he was transferred to continue his studies at the Kachin Higher Military Aviation School named after A. F. Myasnikov. Graduated from it in 1996. In 1996-1997 he served in combat units of the 37th Air Army (Sennoi airfield, Saratov region) and the Air Force Command special purpose 76th Air Army (Andreapol airfield, Tver region). Since July 1997, he served in the Guards Fighter Aviation Regiment of the 14th Army of the Air Force and Air Defense (Domna airfield, Chita Region, now the Trans-Baikal Territory): senior pilot, flight commander, chief of staff - deputy squadron commander.
After passing the medical examination in August 2006, he was enrolled as a candidate for the cosmonaut corps of the Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center. In June 2009, he successfully completed the general space training and state exams, after which he was enrolled in the CTC cosmonaut corps. Since August 2009 - test cosmonaut.
In connection with the transformation of the TsPK them. Gagarin in a civilian structure, Lieutenant Colonel S. N. Ryzhikov was transferred to the reserve in mid-2012.
He was the backup crew commander in 2016.
The first space flight of S. N. Ryzhikov began on October 19, 2016 at spaceship"Soyuz MS-02" as the commander of the ship and the main space expeditions ISS-49 / ISS-50 (crew members - Andrey Borisenko, Robert Kimbrough (USA)). The crew successfully completed the flight program and planned scientific experiments on the ISS. On April 10, 2017, the crew on the Soyuz MS-02 spacecraft landed. The flight duration was 173 days 3 hours 15 minutes. Sergei Ryzhikov became the 121st Russian cosmonaut (including the USSR).
For courage and heroism shown during a long-term space flight on the International Space Station, by Decree of the President of the Russian Federation dated November 13, 2018 Ryzhikov Sergey Nikolaevich was awarded the title of Hero of the Russian Federation with the Gold Star medal.
Continues to work in the cosmonaut corps of Yu.A. Gagarin".
Lives in Star City, Moscow Region.
Pilot-cosmonaut of the Russian Federation (11/13/2018). Military pilot 2nd class, parachute training instructor, diver officer.
Lieutenant colonel. He was awarded departmental medals of the Ministry of Defense and Roscosmos.
