Belarusian Aleh Navitski flies into space
He started at 13.51, Belarusian time.
The live broadcast of the start is available at the web-site of RIA Novosti.
Belarus
native, 40-year-old Aleh Navitski (in the photo, right) will fly into space on
October 23. He will head a crew which will work at the International Space
Station for about 4 months. Belarusians never occupied any leading positions
there before. The crew will also include Russian Evgeniy Tarelkin and American
Kevin Ford.
Aleh Navitski was born in Cherven, Minsk region. He studied in Russia. Aleh
graduated the Military Air Academy named after Gagarin. Aleh Navitski served in
the Russian air forces for about 9 years, and was at war in Chechnya before
being included into the space squad.
30 years passed since the last space flight of a Belarusian (Uladzimir
Kavalyonak)
Aleh Navitski likes Belarusian folk songs and sings them together with his Russian colleagues. When he comes to Cherven to visit his mother, he is never idle - he prepares wood fuel, cuts off dead branches of the apple-trees, paints the fence. A Museum of Space Navigation is prepared to be opened in the school where he studied.
