A lot of people dream of flying to space but a few become cosmonauts

On the eve of the Cosmonautics Day, students of the Agrarian University were the first to meet with the outstanding compatriot, a Hero of Russia, a pilot-cosmonaut O.I. Skripochka in Stavropol during his visit to his native land.

"It's always a pleasure for me to be in my native land," - with such words began his communication with the youth and teachers of the Stavropol State Military University, veterans of the Great Patriotic War and Labor, representatives of public organizations and the deputy corps, our fellow countryman - a man of extraordinary destiny, a heroic Russian cosmonaut Oleg Ivanovich Skripochka.

Oleg Ivanovich Skripochka is a native of Nevinnomyssk and after space expeditions he repeatedly visited Stavropol Territory, but in the agricultural university, where he was very much expected, Oleg Ivanovich has been for the first time.

The students listened with interest to the biographical story of the cosmonaut - about the first steps in the future unique profession, about how the pre-cosmic "young fighter's course" took place, which took almost 12 years, about working in a crew in near-earth orbit.

His first flight was on October 8, 2010 as a flight engineer of the Soyuz TMA-M spacecraft, during which he conducted many experiments and made three spacewalks. His second flight was on March 18, 2016, as a flight engineer of the Soyuz TMA-20M ship together with the ship commander Alexei Ovchinin. In total, Oleg Ivanovich Skripochka was in space expeditions a whole year!

During the meeting, the children were interested in many questions. What, for example, is the daily routine for astronauts in orbit and how do they spend their free time? Can I call home from the station? What is the main memory of the very first flight?

Rector of Stavropol State University, Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences Vladimir Ivanovich Trukhachev, who conducted an interested and warm, "earthly" conversation, asked how difficult it is to work in an international crew and what a person feels in an unlimited space.

Veterans who worked in their time at the launch sites of the Baikonur cosmodrome, as experts on the launch process, asked the Hero of Russia about contingencies when testing new equipment. And is there still a Gagarin start and if the Eternal Fire burns in memory of all the testers?

For several hours of communication, as they say, from the very first mouth the audience learned so much about the past and today's Russian cosmonautics that for a long time many words of gratitude were heard by Oleg Ivanovich. They sounded both from the agrarian students, and from the present chairman of the regional veteran organization Alexei Gonochenko, State Duma deputy Viktor Goncharov, Duma deputy of Stavropol Territory, Viktor Lozovoy.

As a reminder of a wonderful meeting, university vocal group "Provence" sang a song of all the starts: "And we do not dream about the roar of the cosmodrome ..." And Oleg Ivanovich Skripochka in his turn presented to the Museum of University History photos of the capital of the region from space and left a wish in the Book of Honored Guests: "I wish Stavropol State Agrarian University to keep the mark of the best agrarian higher educational institution of the country!"

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