World-famous Russian cosmonaut meets Turkish students

By Fahri Aksut

ANKARA (AA) – Going through an adventurous experience in the space, Russian astronaut Aleksandr Lazutkin met Saturday with students in Turkey’s capital to give an inspirational talk on space and aviation sector.

The event was organized by Ankara’s Ted University, Russian Language and Cultural Center, and YD Yazilim -- a Turkish software company.

Lazutkin was sharing his dreams and fears while the event commenced with a footage showing him in the space and in a spacecraft.

It was a childhood dream of Lazutkin to be a cosmonaut.

“Some people tried to make me give up my dream by saying that 'you are not good enough to be a cosmonaut and you do not know the powerful people who may help you.’”

But Lazutkin was an ambitious child. “I have never given up,” he said.

After completing his five-year training successfully, Lazutkin qualified to become a cosmonaut.

He described the training “very interesting.” “I bailed out, dived deep seas in the hottest and coldest parts of my country.”

- Meeting aliens, dream failed

Lazutkin was so close to achieve his undisclosed dreams, which he kept to himself for fear of being barred from the space mission.

“Before going to the space, I had three dreams,” he said.

“The first one was to see the world from the space. The second one was to fly in zero-gravity environment.”

When looking out of the window, Lazutkin was disappointed to see the world round. “Because I was expecting it to have a different shape,” he said.

“Five minutes later, my second dream came true and I was flying. It was so exciting because I was feeling like a wizard.

"And the third one was to meet with aliens. I had never talked about these dreams because those are, especially the third one, a reason to be dismissed from the mission,” he said.

Though he realized the first two dreams, Lautkin was disappointed as he could not to meet the aliens.

Speaking of the difficulties and problems alongside the good memories, the cosmonaut said prior to his journey he talked to experienced cosmonauts about the problems he might come across in the space.

"They said you would face four problems at most, but never five. But I faced a lot of troubles such as fire, power outage, loss of oxygen, and thermostat problems.

"But when the toilet broke down, it was the biggest problem," he said.

He also recounted the active role he took to save the spacecraft when a Russian Progress supply spacecraft crashed into the Russian Mir space station during the testing of a docking procedure via remote control on June 25, 1997.

"We fixed everything without a fear," he said.

Lazutkin was announced as a national hero in Russia for his devoted and fearless works.

When his mission ended after six months, he was happy to return to the world but he was disappointed because he could not meet aliens.

"When I arrived in the space, I was so happy but a few days later I had many health problems due to the space conditions. Therefore, I was sad and disappointed. But there was still a reason that encouraged me. It was to meet with aliens," he said.