Jan 26th 2008
Star City, Russia
SINCE the dawn of civilization, space has been the source of humanity’s collective fascination - a culmination of our greatest fears, dreams, desires, and hopes. This New Frontier and last bastion of true adventure has never ceased to inspire, fascinate or challenge me. In all of human history fewer than 450 people - quietly chosen, groomed and trained behind a veil of secrecy – have escaped the confines of Earth.
For every Russian manned spaceflight mission to the ISS and Earth orbit, both a primary and back-up crew are trained for the expedition. As a member of the back-up crew for the TMA 13 mission, I will have the opportunity to train for an actual space mission to the International Space Station alongside other government funded professional Russian cosmonauts and NASA astronauts. My main training will take place at the legendary Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Centre (GCTC) in Russia, one of the world’s leading facilities for training humans for orbital space missions. Training at the GCTC will allow me to continue my training and immerse myself in the elite world of human spaceflight where the essential skills needed for living and working in space will be honed. My Orbital Training will require me to relocate to Russia for most of 2008.
But like all true adventurers and heroes, our orbital training mission will be tested in ways we could never have imagined. Our skill and strength will be scrutinised in the greatest of testing grounds – a faraway place called Star City. The birth of the manned space flight program in the USSR at the end of the 1950s required the creation of a specialized cosmonaut training facility. Star City, north-east of Moscow, is a highly sensitive military installation and cold war era massive facility that I have visited many times.
Everything at Star City is designed to prepare aspiring adventurers for survival in the most hostile environment known to man. We will be thrown into a maelstrom that will push human tolerance to the limit. This is the actual space program the Soviets created to transform average humans into supermen.
Having just arrived from 10 days of medicals in Houston at NASA, I have just arrived in Moscow...-10 Celsius..Winter is brutal here I have been warned. I was in Antarctica for Xmas, but even Russia is colder at the moment. I have moved into the Profi on the base here and launched the settling in phase. My first priority was broadband Internet Access and comfortable quarters where I can set up. Day 1 of my journey to complete my lifelong dream has begun. I have 2 weeks of medicals with the GMK here before I am flight and training status approved. Thus far at NASA, I have had every organ ultrasound and endured the most thorough medicals. I was told this was just the beginning as the Russians have far more intense medical experiments to perform on me.
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