July 2, 2024
Categories: GCTC, Roscosmos, Russia, Star city

Preparations for the 72nd long-term expedition to the ISS are ongoing. Now members of the main crew and their backup are undergoing a cycle of training in the hydrolaboratory, in which cosmonauts Alexey Ovchinin and Ivan Wagner on 28 June practiced elements of extravehicular activity.

The water environment helps cosmonauts to achieve maximum approximation to the conditions of weightlessness. All the participants of the flights at one time in the process of training received the qualification of a diver.

Today Alexey Ovchinin and Ivan Wagner had a combined training, during which they practised several typical tasks to be performed during the spacewalk: opening and closing the hatch, moving and working on the outer surface of the station.

The cosmonauts paid special attention to transporting an inoperable operator to the airlock. In addition, they performed some target operations, one could say, “rehearsed” the spacewalk programme to be performed during the real work outside the ISS during the planned flight. Such extravehicular activities involve scientific experiments, so cosmonauts practise installation and repair and work with the equipment necessary for research.

Alexey Ovchinin has experience in spacewalking, so he can compare the conditions created in the hydrolab with what happens in airless space.

Of course, there are differences, because the earth’s gravity has not gone anywhere, and in space, it does not exist, but the conditions of hydro weightlessness bring us as close as possible to this state and it helps us a lot in our work. Besides, during the dive we move on to the exact model of the station, which makes orientation easier. That is, you understand in which direction you need to move, where to return, where and what you can leave or fix, so water training is vital for us, – said the cosmonaut.

With the participation of instructors, divers, and doctors Alexey Ovchinin and Ivan Wagner performed all the typical and target tasks that were set during the training  and showed a good level of cooperation in the hydro environment. Next week the cosmonauts will have two more dives. Now Alexey Ovchinin and Ivan Wagner are being trained as the main crew of the 72nd long-term expedition to the ISS, which is scheduled in September 2024.

More from this category:
February 21, 2020

On February 20, 2020, at 11:24:54 (Moscow time), the “Soyuz-2.1a” launch vehicle with the “Meridian-M” communications satellite was successfully launched from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in…

full story
June 27, 2016

Baikonur spaceport saw traditional flag raising ceremony taking place at pad #17 in front of  “Cosmonaut” hotel. Soyuz MS main and back-up crew members raised…

full story
November 10, 2021

Tonight Russian Mission Control Centre may accomplish debris avoidance maneuver aimed at protecting ISS from the debris of Chinese satellite. Roscosmos is scrutinizing the level…

full story
April 27, 2015

At 09.41, Moscow time. April 25, 2015, Progress M-25M cargo vehicle undocked from the station. On Apil 26, at 15.08, Moscow time, according to the…

full story
January 31, 2019

The Institute for Biomedical Problems of the Russian Academy of Sciences continues preparations for the SIRIUS-19 international isolation experiment. Start of the experiment is scheduled…

full story
August 1, 2013

According to the contract signed in late July, Lavochkin Association will develop a special adapter enabling to set CubeSat class nanosatellites into the orbit by…

full story
December 11, 2018

On December 11 the cosmonauts of Roscosmos Sergey Prokopiev and Oleg Kononenko will make an exit to open space according to the Russian program. The…

full story
January 10, 2014

Preparation works for the first space launches in 2014 started at Baikonur spaceport today. Fuel service units operation centre crew of “Yuzhny” space centre started…

full story