Orbital log

Photo from the Suraevs’ family album (click to enlarge)

As a child, I wasn’t really dreaming of becoming a spaceman. I wasn’t even thinking about it. Spacemen seemed to be out of reach for me. My father had served in the air force. When he asked me what I wanted to be, I answered immediately: ‘I wanna be a pilot, of course!’

So I entered the military college in the Yeysk town and graduated with honors. Then I graduated from the Zhukovsky Air Force Academy with honors as well.

We all remember what it was like in the ’90s. At night I was driving passengers home to put some food on the table. One could buy three packs of cigarettes with a serviceman’s salary - that was it. We had to survive any way we could. I was doing extra jobs in the Academy as well. There I learned that they were recruiting people for the space crew. I thought I should give it a try. And if that didn’t work I would quit the military service and get a job…

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Photo from the Suraevs’ family album (click to enlarge)

And I did it!

Generally speaking, it’s all up to one’s willingness to do it. If you really want something you’ll definitely achieve it! I mean, obviously if someone is missing an arm they wouldn’t get the job. But healthy young men should strive for such goals only! If you wanna be a spaceman, you gotta go for it!

Thanks to Maxim’s wife Anna Suraeva for providing us with photos [editorial staff]

Photo: zero gravity practice (the current crew of the Russian
ISS segment, Maxim Suraev and Roman Romanenko,
are in  the center) Click to enlarge

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Much work to do. We’re exhausted.

The Space Shuttle has arrived, and we switched time at the station. It is done at the beginning of each Shuttle mission to make things easier for Houston mission control. This resulted in us getting to bed much earlier. I was tossing and turning and managed to fall asleep only at 4 O’clock in the morning. And we woke up at 12:30pm Moscow time.

Our Fortis space watch points to 12 when it’s 3pm in Moscow.

I decided to “play with time” a little.

Here is Fortis-salad. :) It just grew like this!

Notice a Soyuz patch on my sleeve? Nastya Mestyashkova (the 14-year-old painter who designed the Soyuz TMA-16 mission logo; of which Max was mission commander – ed.) if you read this, hello from orbit to you! See, your work really is in space!

Time is relative. As I finish work and call my wife, she is putting our daughters to bed.

Via Russian space agency Roscosmos

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Our colleague, friend and simply a charming woman celebrates her birthday on November 19. My congratulations, Nicole!

All the station hangs on your delicate shoulders! :)

Via Russian space agency Roscosmos

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