There are, have you seen any . I didnt see it, there is a feeling that they are watching you there, but except from the ground, no, there is no feeling, but the alien compartment from which we go into outer space, half of the earth and the black sky are visible, when i turn off the light, i fly up to porthole, then my eyes are reflected, it feels like im looking. Yes , someone is looking at me from below with my mind, i understand that its me, its my reflection, the reflection of my eyes, but a chill passes over my skin, oleg , well, first of all, i want to ask you about the mission with which you are flying, well, we are flying to carry out the program, the federal Space Program in terms of manned space. That is, to do scientific experiments, to repair the station in places, for me this is an uh, ordinary flight, the fifth, but in terms of preparation it is unusual, because it lasted for quite a long period, for 2 years, for objective reasons, because in december there was an accident on the soyuz ship degraded the outer contour, so we had to spend an additional six months to train, that is, practically repeated all the training over these six months, youve been trying for more than a year, is this the first time . No, this is probably, if my memory serves me right, this will be the Fourth Annual flight in general in history. I understand correctly that they tell you from the ground, in general, what you will do, you dont have any kind of freedom to act on the station, no, there are days like this, for example, the earth gives us rest, assuming that we will sleep for a day, naturally, we dont sleep for 24 hours, we get up, and its as if the earth doesnt support us here disturbs, does not cause communication, and we can, lets say, call home, eat, drink tea, watch a movie there, and so we. Live strictly according to a schedule, in our country i would call it a patagonal system, which means at the end of each weeks we are given a detailed plan for the next week, at the end of the month a detailed plan for the entire coming month, and every day radiograms are sent with an exact time schedule of what we were supposed to do, and we are obliged to complete all the work on time, if anything we didnt have time to do it, then the earth will analyze why the radiogram is bad, the equipment is not the same, therefore. Here you need to be very careful, obligatory and do everything quickly and on time. After this flight, you will be the world record holder for the time spent in orbit, and how do you feel about this, you are trying , well, it seemed to me, to even get away from this topic, somehow, well, youll think about it, well, you wont think about it, of course seriously, a thousand days in orbit , if it works out, but uh, i dont care at all, because this is my job, my favorite job, i do this, that is the numbers are insignificant to you, no, absolutely. These things are significant for medicine, because a person was in space for so long, they will examine me in more detail and thoroughly, but even if a person flew onetime flights for 200 days, this does not implore his merits and dignity, some kind of honoring is expected after, i i dont really like all sorts of celebrations on board, there are birthdays, but still relatives, friends, colleagues come out, you listen to a lot of words of praise about yourself and somehow you feel awkward, especially. You know, after all new year is a family holiday, and when they tell us how great it is that on such a holiday you are on board, i listen to it all, i think how i would change now, with you, so that you were here, i would be in the circle family, well, this is very often present, when such, well, white envy is expressed, that you want to be on board at this time, but you think about something else, about the family after all, well, of course, family is the most important thing , well, i think so. That in almost all areas hes just like dad, that is, he supports, helps advice, so when you let him go, of course, no one can replace this function, the most exciting moment is probably when you need to part with everything, that is , in no way can you come up, touch, hug, well, probably the start itself, what qualities should one have astronauts wife . Patience, what patience gives, patience, wait, wait, until, well, always wait, zerogravity flights, you wait, ill ask jumping there, some kind of water survival, they tell you that yes, im going to such and such a test , you sit, wait, well, i dont i know, are you worried . Well, of course youre worried or youve already hardened yourself, youve already hardened yourself , in general, youre just im sure everything about my husband. In general, i want to talk about cosmonautics, are you inside, how do you currently assess the state of russian cosmonautics . Good question. The main thing is that we are still flying into space, the main thing is that we are launching rockets , the main thing is that the industry is trying to somehow develop in these conditions, and maybe we would like it to be more intense, faster, but young people are interested , which are studying at universities, is not weakening, i think that in the end we will pass such a turning point, well, astronautics will get a second wind. For now, we are still developing, we have plans, we are designing a new orbital station, we are designing a new ship, a new base module the same thing is already being done, so there is still such a prospect, optimism. Is it possible for development and modernization in such large projects as space, exclusively within one country, how important is International Cooperation . Well, my personal opinion, if we certainly want to reach the moon and achieve some serious successes there or mars, then from my point of view this is of course an international project, because it is very expensive and it is necessary to unite minds, intellects and technologies, because even if you take a ship, which is made by the americans , not only americans participate in it, the Service Module is made by the European Space agency, as you know, more than a dozen countries are included there, and longdistance navigation and communications are done by the japanese space agency, that is, they have such a ship. Not purely american, therefore, of course, there is great prospect in International Cooperation, but this should not exclude the creation of National Means of introduction, national ships, national stations, but such Global Projects as the settlement of humanity, at least within the solar system, it seems to me, one the party will not be able to cope in any way, along which path will the movement be more effective and productive the state path or the private path, as happened, for example, with spacex . But the sps company is simply making money, because the company has not created a fundamentally new ship, so it simply made a ship using 21st century technologies, but from the point of view of any technological breakthrough there is nothing like that. It seems to me that fundamental science will never be financed with private capital , but who needs a nuclear collider from private companies, no one, because it will not bring sevenminute returns. Also astronautics, of course, the Main Investments should be from the state , because we we are flying, and we are doing mostly fundamental experiments on the iss, which will give results in the foreseeable future, but not in the near future, so private business that will finance some such serious scientific experiments, realizing that scientists may simply make a mistake not in that direction, only the state, nothing else, lets talk about technology, russia now. Is technologically behind the same United States, china, as you estimate, well, its difficult for me to judge, in part of china, because what i im watching there on the internet, on youtube, in telegram channels , videos from the chinese station, the spacesuits are almost identical to our orlan spacesuit, the internal structure of the station is a symbiosis of the american and russian segment, even when chinese astronauts go into outer space. They use insurance both according to the rules of the russian segment and according to the rules of the american segment, just like the shinzhe ship, it is much larger, because the launch vehicle can still launch more, more. Mass, but essentially, because how everything works, this is the soyuz ship. The americans at the iss station, uh, they, why did you invite us, they couldnt , they stopped flying in space for a long time in the seventies, they started doing shatovs program, they forgot how to work and live longterm in space, so we were them are needed, for a very long time the life support systems of the foreign station were russian , now of course they have made their own system, but again, taking into account our experience, there are two toilets at the station, both russian, although. Ours in our segment, the americans have modified our toilet with from an ergonomic point of view, of course, he somehow made it more beautiful, but this is our russian toilet, so at the moment any Breakthrough Technologies have not been created in space, there is, of course, our lag in terms of launch quantity satellites, small satellites, here are satellites, for various purposes, maybe we are lagging behind somewhere here, of course, but something so fundamental. I dont see, who will you be with us, the main flight engineer, then the left seat is yours, okay, because im in central, im like a commander, oh my god mine, 3 cubic meters, normal, 3, m, yes, a meter per person, well, here you will still be controlling a spaceship, like this, your legs are correctly placed on the footrest, then there are these, uh, knee pads, so that your legs look like they are being pulled away , at the start, so that they dont jump out of the cradle and get blown apart, well, so youre speculating, here i can control the ship as a whole, but where is the rudder . These are my handles, that is, i pull them out and control these handles, that is , this. For descent, in this form, here we are we lie down and start, there is a throw of the head drain, now we are entering the main base block. Russian segment of the International Space station, i always sleep in the left cabin, i call it the cabin with a view of moscow, we have uh such subscriber consoles, yeah, here are 1, 2, 3, 4, in pho in prk, and you can put on headphones here , how do you like it when you are constantly being watched, in american they are watched, there are constant cameras, we dont have cameras behind us in the russian segment, you take the ptt button, we talk in the first line, the socalled speaker. You keep clicking, clicking here, and speaking here, and what are you saying, well, normally, i say , if i call, then, the center of moscow answer the iss, the sensations of weightlessness are cool, its generally, its just me, im like, im sticking out from weightlessness, i cant just be in it, even the americans say, oleg , youre in this all the time, im holding on to this handrail, and im jumping up and down all the time, i m jumping and jumping, i really like it. This is the table we are going to, there is a system for regenerating water from condensate, this is, roughly speaking, a kettle from which we, well, this is where we do everything, and experiments, and live and eat, but there are also other modules, but lets say this is so basic, well, it feels a little cramped there is. No, you get used to it normally, first of all, i flew alone on the last expedition of 105 acres, in general on the entire russian segmental, what do you mean, so its somehow normal, you have between expeditions, there are 23 years this time, miss this place, i just always have great pleasure i arrive at the station, uh, i fly away with regret, i really dont have that , im full of the expedition, im just leaving with this, of course, i m glad that im returning to my family, but there is some regret, because you dont know whether youll return or not, because it still depends on your health. Does space take away your health . Well, it doesnt add up, thats for sure, when i arrive at stations, i start preparing for my return almost from the first day, but i do physical exercises so that my muscles dont lose volume, they i was in good shape, i ran on a treadmill, a cool bike to support my bones, skeletons, everything else, that is, everything turns out very strange. On the ground im preparing for weightlessness, while in orbit im preparing to return, from the very first day when you were a newbie, what struck you most, i dont know, on the way, to the station or. At the station itself, just remember what are your first vivid impressions , the most vivid impression is that this is the size of the earth, when i first saw the earth from the outside, then i, of course, this may sound impudent, i did not agree with Yuri Alekseevich gagarny, our land is not small and not fragile, it is very large, secondly, i dont know why the earth is called earth, most of the trajectory flies over the ocean, i would call it water, water, water. To fly into space, what should i prepare for, besides saving a sufficient amount . Yes, it seems to me that you dont need any preparation , you just need to have the necessary amount and you will be taught and prepared for everything, but the first thing, of course, will test your vestibular stability, thats because thats when you spin this turntable, well, the chair is a controversial king, because this is very important. How do you yourself see the future of the iss and is the station really outdated, as some say . The station is not getting younger, but it is really being modernized, for example, here is a simple, simple example, light and soyuzl was made in such a way that the americans in the eighty first year made it in 2011 and realized that its modernization would cost much more than the development of a new ship and they stopped all flights from the twelfth year, they simply stopped our alliance, it was laid down, structurally, it is possible to constantly modernize it, we are constantly changing the instrumentation, from my point of view, the station will not be sunk in the thirtyfirst year, i think every effort will be made to keep this unique laboratory in orbit, but this does not exclude the possibility. It will all depend on finances, but my opinion is that the station will not be sunk, it will be maintained as long as possible, and there are alternatives to this station, or maybe it will appear in the near future . Well, an alternative for the americans, this is the creation of a lunar station from which they will land on the moon, the alternative is a station from the russian part , the creation of a russian orbital station, there is some news on the russian orbital station, a preliminary design has been completed, everyone is interested. By the end of summer in the fall, these comments should be considered, the preliminary design should be approved, after which the stage of developing the work documentation should go to the government and funding is needed for the next stage, but the preliminary design of the new station has already been made, it differs from the iss, in part of the inclination is that this will be an open configuration, that is, any outdated or. Module will be easily replaced with a new one. We were thinking about china and the United States, so who do you think is our main competitor now . Some external factors may interfere with us, but if everything works out for us, then it is very difficult to compete with us with those people who live on the territory of russia, because we have different nationalities, we have very smart, talented children, and we in general nations, smart, talented people, you name it, all the fundamental discoveries made either by russian people or people who lived in the territory. We are interested in doing something, something that no one in the world has ever done, discovering something that no one has ever done in the world i didnt open it, but in order to later bring it to a sales sample and learn how to sell, we are not interested in this, even if we take everything that the stations are made simpler, smarter, they have it more complicated, maybe sometimes you look and think, what kind of engineers are they, its so difficult to design spacesuit, we have it all done much simpler and much more savvy. Therefore, its quite difficult to defeat us, someone competes with us, its quite difficult, just to cooperate , despite their education, despite them, there are california institutes of technology, massachusetts, but our children are students. To me, you already mentioned colonization at one time, according to in my opinion, the soviet union was betting on a program for the study of venus, and the United States was betting on martian programs , what do you think, as well, as everything has already been determined, that is, of course, to live on the moon, without atmosphere is impossible, hard radiation is difficult, on venus, at the surface level there are 400 atmospheres, so it is very difficult to survive there, venus is simply of interest from the point of view of studying, developing technology, working in such difficult conditions, if we live somewhere, probably on mars, well, were talking about such a peaceful colonization, but its still no coincidence , theres probably such a movie called star wars, yes, do you think star wars in general is possible, well, i wouldnt want to, but moving the war to space, incredible and true the un issues decisions not to put weapons into space, not to put Nuclear Weapons into space, not to shoot down other peoples satellites, but i think, probably, someday this could still happen, there is an idea that astronauts are the elite of the country and i dont know, some exorbitant salaries, maybe contracts, something else, if you can talk about it, tell me. Well, i would really like for us to really be some kind of elite, at least the technical elite of the country, periodically roscosmos tries to raise us salaries and it turns out, the moment of increase, they seem to correspond to at least our expectations, but still this is not the level that we would like to have, there are problems with apartments, of course, i would like for the state to return to the principle of allocating apartments, as it was in the soviet union, that is, a person flew into space and he, so that the state would provide him with the conditions that he deserves, because we have cosmonauts and large families, three or four children each, respectively live in such apartments , which seem to be well small for such a family, an extreme situation in space, what is the most dangerous stage . Well, any way out is still such a very serious matter, quite dangerous , despite this, astronauts always want to go into outer space, but at every stage the system. Is designed in such a way that there are means of rescuing the astronaut