As is known, at the latest meeting of Halk Maslahaty, President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov awarded the highest state decoration – the Title of Hero of Turkmenistan and the Altyn Ay Medal to the Russian cosmonaut, a native of Turkmenabat Oleg Kononenko. Millions of people watched this exciting event. Ten years ago, we had interviewed our famous compatriot, who became the Hero of the Russian Federation; and we were especially interested to see him again, albeit on the TV. It should be noted that he has not changed and remained the same fit and neat.
Obviously, sports always made a part of his life and helped to realize a childhood dream to fly to stars. Oleg Kononenko was born in a simple family. His mother Taisiya Stepanovna was a communications operator at the airport, and remained on the maiden name Churakova after marriage. His father Dmitry Ivanovich worked as a driver in a freight trucking company. Oleg has an elder brother Valery; the former is a late born child. Such children are usually too pampered, they often grow up capricious and inactive. However, Oleg learned to cook simple dishes in the primary school and met his parents with dinner. When he first went to the Mayak pioneer camp, he spent there all summer long, and never asked for a weekend at home. When his mother came to see him, she did not insist on going home, giving the younger son the right to choose. Later on, he admitted that he wanted to try his patience, since only deeds count in the unfamiliar environment, and mother's darlings are not respected.
In the first grade, Oleg firmly decided to become a cosmonaut, actively did sports, and was a member of the city volleyball combined team. He also had a drawing talent: he finished the art school. His parents supported their son's hobbies, and spared no expense for his comprehensive development. In the Kononenko parents’ home, we have seen many books, mainly it is classical literature, and there were the books of Oleg's favourite writers on the shelves in his room: Jack London, Jules Verne, and the brothers Strugatsky.
Oleg Kononenko's purposefulness and aspiration for knowledge resulted in his participation in the high school subject Olympiads in Ashgabat, and later on, in scientific activities and reports during his studies at the Kharkov Aerospace University named after N.Ye.Zhukovsky. It was no accident that after graduating from the university, he received a job offer to the scientific project in Samara, where he became a leading spacecraft engineer.
As for sports, our compatriot played volleyball at the specialized school in Turkmenabat. He performed well in the pitch and was included in the youth national team of Turkmenistan. Later on, he always kept his physical shape, passed the medical examination in 1996 from the very first (it is a rare case) and was enlisted in the group of cosmonauts. The articles in the Russian media described what preparation and workload the cosmonauts had. The educational process based on high technologies is very difficult. The scientific programme included mastering skills in using medical devices, research equipment, studying of biotechnology, space technology, materials science, robotics and navigation, natural landscape of the Earth and many other disciplines.
All cosmonauts take a special course of training sessions on survival after landing in various climate and geographic zones, have parachute preparation. Practicing on the special training simulators, they learn how to dock the spacecraft to the International Space Station (ISS), and to act in emergencies (conflagration, depressurization and others).
Simulation of different conditions in flight is reached in the cargo aircrafts (short-term zero gravity), in the weightlessness simulation tanks (hydro zero gravity), in huge centrifuges, in special planetaria, in altitude chambers, anechoic rooms and heat chambers. The cosmonauts have to tolerate the hypoxia at the 5000-metre height within half an hour and also high sparseness of the atmosphere at the10000-metre height within 15 minutes, thermal influence to 60 degrees at humidity of 35 per cent within an hour, and gravitational positive g force.
In operating time outside the Space Station, pulse can reach 160 beats per minute, and energy loss – up to 12.5 kilocalories per minute. The cover of the Orlan spacesuit, a bulky life support system, creates an extra pressure upon the person and resistance to any motion. Oleg Kononenko said in the interview that even a simple motion of hand is equal to lifting of a heavy weight. In 2008, he had to eliminate the emergency and to remove so-called ‘explosive bolt’ on the transport ship together with the crew commander Sergey Volkov during the first extravehicular activity. It took 6 hours 19 minutes! During his four flights to stars, our compatriot performed extravehicular activity five times in total!
At the International Space Station, he spent 737 days – an absolute record! All these days included the hard work, without which it is impossible to achieve visible results. The crew got up at 6 a.m. (GMT), and practised personal hygiene. Later on, there were the morning communication in English and Russian with the Mission Control Centres in different countries; maintenance of the International Space Station, which is huge and consists of segments; running of various experiments provided in the programme; compulsory physical training sessions. In the evening, again communication with the MCCs: report and analysis of the daily work, and only after – personal time for rest and sleep.
In order to keep the shape and to prevent the influence of weightlessness on the human body, cosmonauts did physical exercises even on the ISS board. Under conditions of limited space, exercises were divided into two parts. The first part was a treadmill. Running in the conditions of weightlessness and the on-going acclimatization of the body was very difficult. The photo, which was taken on the ISS board, confirmed that fact: our cosmonaut was literally drenched in sweat. An hour and a half was spent on the treadmill. It was easier in the second part with the exercise bicycle. There was also the interim resistive exercise device (iRED) which allowed adjusting resistance offered by the devise. According to the flight programme, physical exercises took over two hours per day in total...
Oleg Kononenko said that the strongest emotions were associated with landing. There was a high temperature outside, everything burned due to friction so that the window changed colour from time to time; bubbles appeared and disappeared on the viewing port. When the hatch was fired and the parachute system of the lander was activated, lying on the back, they experienced tangible jerks. First, the 500-square-metre drag parachute opened; then – the main parachute, which was twice as large. At the 10000-metre height, communication with the search team was established. Just before the ground, soft landing engines were turned on, and the heavy lander literally hovered for some seconds and then descended quite sharply. The positive g force was so high that after landing the cosmonauts were unable to walk on their own. However, experienced and highly qualified physicians quickly helped them to recover... And then again the hard work related to space.
It should be noted that in the notebook, we have a quotation from Oleg Kononenko’s speech, delivered ten years ago at the Turkmenabat city secondary school 15, which he finished. During the conversation with the children, our famous compatriot noted that the way to stars lies through excellent studies and doing sports, plus strong character and ability to overcome hardships in the name of the conscious goal. Confirmation of these words is his eventful life, where professionalism, loyalty to speciality and indelible courage were marked with the highest titles and awards of the Russian Federation and Turkmenistan, which are dear to his heart...
Marstal BEKTASOV.
