As a child, the explorer of the universe dreamed of becoming a paleontologist
Vladimir Putin conferred the title of Hero of Russia on cosmonaut Ivan Vagner. One of the first to congratulate the cosmonaut on the high award was “MK”. We contacted the space explorer to express our admiration for Ivan.
The path to the stars is very thorny. All the messengers of the earth know this firsthand. And it is not for nothing that the decree of the head of state says “for the courage and heroism shown during the long-term space flight to the ISS.”
Ivan Vagner is the 123rd cosmonaut of Russia and the 566th cosmonaut of the world. He made his first and God forbid not the last flight in April-October 2020. As a flight engineer for the crew of the Soyuz MS-16 manned transport spacecraft and as a flight engineer for the crew of the International Space Station under the main space expedition program, Wagner conducted 48 planned scientific experiments.
Ivan’s father is a driver, and his mother is a dispatcher, and since childhood he himself dreamed of becoming a paleontologist. However, the future of the young man was determined by the fact that his father’s house is located 40 kilometers from the Plesetsk cosmodrome. Regularly watching rocket launches, young Wagner began to dream of conquering great heights. Already working as an engineer at RSC Energia, he applied for selection as a cosmonaut. After that, constant training, testing, questioning, and so on began.
“9.5 years have passed since the application was submitted to the first flight,” he says.
The most difficult thing, according to Ivan, was to maintain an ideal shape all this time and withstand all the tests. This is a huge job. Well, in orbit, the most unexpected situations for him were situations that could not be simulated on earth. Only in space did he learn what a long stay in weightlessness and real overloads are.