International Space Station, it's huge, I would say, space building. When you just can see it - and you can see it actually from five kilometers perfectly well when the sun is rising - and you can't imagine, or can't believe, that this miracle was built by people, by humans.
I think the curiosity of mankind, that we want something unknown. Like, 500 years ago, humankind wanted to know what the other side of the ocean is, and it was a very risky project, and then we decided that probably we can fly; let's fly higher. And now we're flying space station, and still it's not enough for us: we want to know what's beyond.
When I was a child, and I was at our school, everybody's parents were involved in space program. In every class, we have several kids whose fathers were flown cosmonauts or who prepared for the flight.
For me, maybe, in comparison with other cosmonauts who were inspired by the Sputnik launch or Yuri Gagarin launch, I think I'm cosmonaut of another generation. For me, the spaceflights were sort of a common thing.
The Star City community - because it's not a big city, actually; it's only 14 big houses, and everybody knows each other. It's like a small village, and I felt that somehow everybody wants to help me, especially during days when my father flew, and somehow care about me, and it was really great time, you know.
After I graduated Star City school, I entered to the Tambov Military School of Pilots because I really wanted to be a pilot, and in Russia, it's one of the steps of how you make a career as a cosmonaut. You have to be a military pilot or an engineer.
The Space Shuttle was a great machine. Without it, we would not have been able to build the International Space Station because the parts and modules were delivered by Shuttle crews.
We prepare for ten years, but other people buy their way into space.
I never thought about it, really, that I am going to be the second generation of the space cosmonauts. I just want to do my job as best as is possible, and that's it, honestly.
Actually, it wasn't a kid dream, because my father was a cosmonaut, and I was able to see all pros and cons of this job, and when I was a kid, it was more minuses than plusses: always busy, studying all day long, exams.
