Yury Borisov
MINSK, 7 April (BelTA) – The Roscosmos head Yury Borisov talked to reporters about prospects of training new Belarusian cosmonauts shortly after the crew of the Soyuz MS-24 spacecraft landed in Kazakhstan on 6 April, BelTA has learned.
Yury Borisov said: “We talked to the Belarus president right after the launch was canceled. Certainly, he was worried. I told him all the technical details. We felt confident that everything will be okay. Actually this is what happened.”
Asked whether Roscosmos will help train new Belarusian cosmonauts, Yury Borisov said: “Why not? We will assist. We still have a backup cosmonaut. Roscosmos has not forgotten Anastasia [Lenkova, the backup of the first Belarusian cosmonaut Marina Vasilevskaya]. We remember our charges.”
Yury Borisov added that the landing had gone routinely. “Everything was perfect. The landing turned out to be soft. One could hardly expect a better one,” he stressed.
The Roscosmos head also greeted the crew at the landing site. He presented a matryoshka doll with Marina Vasilevskaya’s image to the first Belarusian cosmonaut.
BelTA reported earlier that the reentry vehicle routinely landed at 10:17 Minsk time about 150km to the southeast of the city of Zhezkazgan, Kazakhstan. Marina Vasilevskaya’s flight lasted for 14 days, including 12 days aboard the International Space Station (ISS). While on the ISS Marina Vasilevskaya carried out a research program, which had been developed by the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus in association with Roscosmos and the Russian Academy of Sciences.
