Valery Tokarev has an unusual set of acquired professions - he is the famous Russian cosmonaut, who later became a manager. He is sure that the cosmos is alive and full of energy, and that all cosmonauts return from flights a little by philosophers.
Biography
Valery was born in 1952 in the most ordinary family. The place of his birth is a military town at the Kapustin Yar training ground. His father, who was a military man, served here. Then the family lived in the village of Autumn (Yaroslavl region). Father Valery Ivan Pavlovich for a long time headed the collective farm, and mother Lidia Nikolaevna worked in the library. In this village, Valera received school education. He studied well, constantly appeared in the village library. The greatest interest in the boy was caused by books about military pilots - and so the dream of heaven appeared. Horses were another children's hobby - he spent a lot of time at the stable.
At that time, in the outback you could go through a program from grades 1 to 8. To finish grades 9 and 10, Valery had to move to the city. In Rostov the Great, his grandmother lived with him, and here he graduated from high school. The cosmonaut considers this city his small homeland.
In 1969, Tokarev became a cadet at an aviation school in Stavropol, where pilots and navigators were trained. After that, his flying career begins. Starting in 1973 as an ordinary pilot, he was the commander of the air link and even the deputy commander of the squadron.
The professional education of pilots never ends. In the 1981-82s, Valery Tokarev perfectly passed tests in the city of Akhtubinsk, received the title of test pilot.
Service began as a tester. The list of mastered equipment by Tokarev includes more than 50 types of aircraft and helicopters. Among them are carrier-based aircraft, bombers, vertical takeoff vehicles and many others.
Space training
In 1987, Tokarev goes to the Buran test program, which involves training astronauts. Already in the rank of colonel since 1989, Valery Ivanovich undergoes the whole range of preparatory measures provided for test cosmonauts at the Training Center named after Yuri Gagarin. The service was held at that time in the Crimea, which after the collapse of the USSR went to Ukraine. Valery Tokarev refused to swear allegiance to the Ukrainian command, because he was suspended from all work and removed from the staff.
However, a specialist of this level did not remain without work. He was admitted to the Research Institute in Akhtubinsk, where he continued to work as a test cosmonaut. In parallel, he studied in absentia at the Academy. Yuri Gagarin in Monino.
Since 1997, Tokarev has been directly related to the cosmonaut training program for the ISS. At first he was the commander of the backup crew, then the commander of the main staff. Therefore, his training took place not only in Russian centers, but also abroad - in the Cosmocenter them. Johnson.
The first flight of Valery Tokarev into orbit occurred in May-June 1999. Then he was a specialist in the flight on the Shuttle Discovery, and became the second Russian astronaut who managed to visit the ISS. This flight lasted 9 days 19 hours 14 minutes. The call sign of Valery Tokarev is Dawn.
12th ISS Main Crew.
After returning and recovering, intensified preparations for flight on the Soyuz TM Russian spacecraft began.
The second flight of Tokarev has become much more solid in duration. From October 2005 to April 2006 he was aboard the ISS as a flight engineer of the 12th crew. His colleague was W. MacArthur (USA), space tourist G. Olsen flew with them. During the expedition, the astronauts even managed to observe a total solar eclipse, which occurred at the end of March 2006. In addition, Tokarev twice went into outer space to complete the tasks. The total time he spent outside the station was 11 hours 5 minutes.
Social Activities of Valery Tokarev
After returning to earth and before leaving the cosmonaut corps, Tokarev was listed in the ISS-1 training group.
In 2008, Valery Tokarev was elected head of the Rostov region (in the Yaroslavl region), so he was dismissed from the cosmonaut squad by order of the Ministry of Defense. But already next year he returned to the squad as an instructor, test cosmonaut. Nor does he leave his post as head of the district.
Valery Ivanovich will also make an attempt to join the current cosmonaut corps in 2009 and will even undergo special training. But the commission still will not allow him to fly for health reasons.
V. Tokarev at a meeting with students of the Stavropol Cadet School.
Tokarev was the head of the Rostov region until 2012 and left office after the expiration of his term of office. In 2013, he headed the administration of Star City near Moscow, first as an interim, then by election results.
