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A ceremony of presenting state awards was held in the Catherine Hall of the Kremlin. Vladimir Putin presented the Order of Merit to the Fatherland, 1st degree, to Hero of Russia and Turkmenistan Oleg Kononenko, commander of the Roscosmos cosmonaut squad.
The Russian leader noted that the tradition of honoring outstanding citizens is evidence of public recognition of their talent, labor, and creative achievements.
"Here, in the Kremlin, are representatives of our stellar cosmonaut squad. Your work is cutting-edge research, inspiring implementation of breakthrough projects and, of course, a challenge, risk, and serious tests," Vladimir Putin said at the ceremony.
Receiving the order, Oleg Kononenko noted that this award is "not only recognition of personal merit, but also a sign of great respect for the work and efforts of thousands of people in the rocket and space industry." "I am proud that I am contributing to the development of manned Russian cosmonautics, performing experiments and various technological works outside the Earth," our fellow countryman said.
Let us recall that in his fifth flight, Oleg Kononenko set a record for the total duration of a person's stay in space. His result was 1,110 days, 14 hours and 57 minutes.
At a meeting in the Kremlin, Oleg Kononenko's colleague Nikolai Chub, who worked with our fellow countryman in orbit during that very record-breaking flight, also received a high award - the Star of Hero of Russia and the honorary title of "Pilot-Cosmonaut of the Russian Federation".
At the post-flight conference at the Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center, both cosmonauts were the first to appreciate the work of the young artist from Turkmenistan, Batyr Sultanov, who painted a portrait of Oleg Kononenko. They really liked the painting, created as part of the unique international cultural project "Crossroads of Arts".
At the same time, at the press conference, the cosmonauts answered the question that I was lucky enough to ask together with schoolchildren from the city of Ivanovo, where the “#23put” media center operates in the 23rd gymnasium, which has a Roscosmos award in the All-Russian competition of clubs in the direction of "Space education for schoolchildren". We asked the heroes what they dream of after the flight? Oleg Kononenko's answer was very predictable.
"I will not be original: to fly again!" - our fellow countryman said.
It turns out that Nikolai Chub, for whom the flight to the International Space Station was the first, has the same dream.
We will wait for new flights of our heroes and new creative projects that strengthen the friendship of our countries. And even give the most ordinary people the opportunity to reach the stars!
By the way, the media center of the 23rd gymnasium of Ivanovo managed to present the story about the dreams of Oleg Kononenko and Batyr Sultanov at the International Youth Tsiolkovsky Readings in Kirov. Here, we received several gifts for the young artist at once - autographs for him were signed by the test cosmonaut, head of the department for the creation of complex simulators for promising transport ships at the Cosmonaut Training Center Oleg Blinov, who told us that Oleg Kononenko's portrait is already known in Star City, as well as the pilot-cosmonaut Pyotr Dubrov and the great-grandchildren of Konstantin Tsiolkovsky. We will definitely give all these real presents to Batyr in Ashgabat.
Leonid KIYASHKO, special correspondent of ORIENT,
Guild of Interethnic Journalism, Ivanovo, Russian Federation
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