Yelena Serova

Yelena Serova
Cosmonaut
Nationality Russian
Born (1976-04-22) April 22, 1976[1]
Vozdvizhenka, Primorsky Krai, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union[1]
Other occupation
 Engineer
Time in space
 167d 05h 44m
Selection 2006 RKKE Group[1]
Missions Soyuz TMA-14M (Expedition 41/42)
Mission insignia

Yelena Olegovna Serova (Russian: Елена Олеговна Серова, born April 22, 1976) is a retired Russian cosmonaut and politician. She was selected as a cosmonaut in 2006 and was assigned in 2011 to Expedition 41, which launched in September 2014 and returned to Earth in March 2015. Serova became the first female Russian cosmonaut to visit the International Space Station (ISS) on 26 September 2014.

Personal life

Serova is married to cosmonaut Mark Serov, selected in RKKE-13 in 2003, but retired before flying any missions.[2] They have a daughter.[3] Serova was one of five cosmonauts selected to raise the Russian flag at the 2014 Winter Olympics opening ceremony in Sochi.[4]

Serova was born in Vozdvizhenka, a village which is part of the city of Ussuriysk in the Far East in Russia. She stayed in Vozdvizhenka until 1988. Serova went to Germany since her father who was with the military received a transfer. Afterwards, she came to Moscow. She met her future husband Mark at the Moscow Aviation Institute.[5]

Education

In March 2001, Serova graduated from the Aerospace Faculty of the Moscow Aviation Institute qualified as an engineer.[6] In 2003 she graduated from the Moscow State Academy of Instrument Engineering and Information qualified as an economist.[6]

Experience

Prior to enrollment as a cosmonaut, Serova has worked as an engineer of the 2nd category RSC Energia, and in the Mission Control Center.[6]

Cosmonaut career

Serova was selected as a test cosmonaut at the age of 30 in the RKKE-14 group in October 2006 while working as a flight engineer.[1] She completed basic training at Star City in 2009.

Expedition 41/42

Serova works with test samples from the Kaskad cell cultivation experiment in the MRM2.

In late 2011, Russian Space Agency Chief Vladimir Popovkin announced that Serova would fly to the International Space Station, expected to spend up to six months in space performing biophysics and medical experiments.[7] On September 25, 2014, she traveled aboard Soyuz TMA-14M spacecraft to serve as a flight engineer for Expedition 41/42.[8][9]

Serova is the fourth female cosmonaut to travel to space.[10] Previously, only three female cosmonauts: Valentina Tereshkova (1963), Svetlana Savitskaya (1982, 1984) and Yelena Kondakova (1994, 1997) representing former Soviet Union and Russia have flown into space.[11]

The Soyuz FG rocket carrying TMA-14M commander Aleksandr Samokutyayev, Yelena Serova and NASA astronaut Barry Wilmore blasted off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome’s Site 1/5 at 20:25 UTC. Nine minutes after launch, the Soyuz TMA-14M spacecraft separated from the third stage of the FG rocket to reach orbit. Soon after, the spacecraft deployed its KURS navigation antennas, however, only one of the two power-generating solar arrays successfully unfolded. Despite the trouble encountered, TMA-14M linked up with the Space Station four orbits and six hours later at 1:12 UTC on September 26. When leak checks were complete, the hatch on the Poisk module was opened at 5:06 UTC and Serova with Samokutyayev and Wilmore entered the Space Station. On March 11, 2015, the crew successfully returned to Earth after 167 days in space.

Politics

In 2016, she was elected to the State Duma from the United Russia party and left the cosmonaut squad.

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 "Yelena Olegovna Serova". www.spacefacts.de. Retrieved 16 February 2013.
  2. ↑ "Mark Serov". www.spacefacts.de. Retrieved 5 December 2013.
  3. ↑ "Russian woman cosmonaut may journey to space station". RIA Novosti. 7 December 2011. Retrieved 16 February 2013.
  4. ↑ "The XXII Olympic Winter Games in Sochi in 2014 has opened with a grand show". www.Sochi2014.com. 8 February 2014. Retrieved 11 February 2014.
  5. ↑ NASA (August 1, 2014). "Preflight Interview: Elena Serova". NASA. Retrieved October 26, 2014.
  6. 1 2 3 "Cosmonaut Bio: Elena Olegovna Serova". jsc.nasa.gov. January 2013. Retrieved 16 February 2013.
  7. ↑ Gibson, Karen Bush (2014). Women in Space: 23 Stories of First Flights, Scientific Missions, and Gravity-Breaking Adventures. Chicago Review Press. pp. 66–71. ISBN 978-1-61374-844-2.
  8. ↑ "Expedition 41". NASA. Retrieved 5 December 2013.
  9. ↑ "Expedition 42". NASA. Retrieved 5 December 2013.
  10. ↑ "First Russian woman in International Space Station mission". BBC News. 26 September 2014. Retrieved 6 October 2014.
  11. ↑ Gonzales, Daria (11 March 2012). "First Woman in Space". Russia: Beyond The Headlines. Retrieved 5 December 2013.
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