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Reflections on my training experience

The Expedition 11 prime crew, John Phillips, Sergei Krikalev and Roberto Vittori, reflect on Yuri Gagarin's achievement.

Today's Russian cosmonauts are respectful of the space pioneers who have preceded them into space. In a sense, the former cosmonauts have blazed the trail that we today have the privilege to follow. After the successful conclusion of our qualification exams, the prime and backup crews visited Yuri Gagarin's former office at Star City and then his grave at Red Square. Gagarin and several other heroes of the Russian space program are buried within the walls of the Kremlin. In this photo, the Expedition 11 prime crew (John Phillips, Sergei Krikalev and Roberto Vittori) have just laid flowers at Yuri Gagarin's grave site and are pausing to reflect on his historic voyage that ushered in the age of human space flight.

Mikhail Tyurin and Bob Thirsk walking in their Sokol suits.

Launch of the Eneide mission is scheduled early in the day (Kazakhstan time) on April 15. During the mission, Roberto will be busy from morning to night. While his payload program is ambitious, it is doable. I will function during the mission as a CIC (Crew Interface Coordinator) at the newly operational Columbus Control Centre (Col-C-C) in Oberpfaffenhofen, Germany. Roberto will call down to Col-C-C a few times each day with status reports. If he encounters any difficulties with his payloads, I will work with the other members of the ESA flight control team to find a solution and then relay the troubleshooting steps up to him.

Of course, after having completed this intensive training program, my desire to someday work aboard the International Space Station is greater than ever before. And it would be terrific to fly up and down on the Soyuz spacecraft. It is an amazing piece of technology.

I will fondly remember the winter I spent in Star City with Roberto Vittori, Mikhail Tyurin and Dan Tani. They are top-notch individuals with incredible talents. It would be a pleasure to fly in space with any of them.