 Alexander Ivanovich Lazutkin - April 11, 2001
April 11th was the fortieth anniversary of the first human flight into space when Uri Gagarin had made his journey to space. To commemorate the occasion we had an exhibition and had invited the Russian cosmonaut Alexander Ivanovich Lazutkin to Science city in Chennai to meet the students, scientists and public. He spoke both at the Tamil Nadu Science & Technology Centre and Dr. Dharmambal Govt. Women's Polytechnic. A very charming, intelligent and good-looking man, he was an instant success with everyone and there was a scramble to take photographs with him and get his autograph. It was a very special day, as it was the first time that a cosmonaut had visited Chennai. This was made possible by the efforts of Tamil Nadu Science and Technology Centre and Science City. As a host I had ample opportunity to spend time with this charming man and learn about him which I found very inspiring.
Alexander was born in Moscow in 1957, to Ivan Lazutkin and Zinaidae Lazutkin. He went to study in a local State School where he excelled in sports. He was so good that the Government transferred him to the Sports Boarding School, to be trained as a sports man. There he did very well and obtained the degree of Master of Sports. After which he entered the Department of Flying Vehicles of the Moscow Aviation University where he continued his interest in sports. He took part in Parachute Sports and was an ace parachute jumper. However, he was also very interested in the technical aspects of aviation and did very well at the University. Being one of the star students, he was employed by the University upon his graduation in 1984. He joined the Energiya Rocket and Space Corporation and became involved in training crews for space flights. He was also giving elaborate training to space station operators (cosmonauts).
In 1992, he was selected by Energiya as a cosmonaut and started training for his space flight. After completing his training he was assigned as the backup crew for the project 30-21. At this stage, for the first time, he realised that he would be going to space in the next two to three years and will be realising his long cherished dream.
Alexander's Dream
 Alexander has been having a recurring dream of going to space from the age of four and this dream continued. Some times he even got tired of it, as it is not easy to become a cosmonaut and go to space. From his childhood he was influenced both by Uri Gagarin and Neil Armstrong. However his main inspiration came from his own mother who liked to watch stars. The family used to have a country house outside Moscow and they used to sit together and watch the stars and other heavenly bodies in the night and this influenced him a great deal.
During 1995-96, he went through a rigorous training and was assigned as a backup flight engineer of the Soyuz TM 32 spacecraft. In 1996-97, the crew comprising V. Tsibliyev, A.Lazutkin, Ewald Reinhold, a German cosmonaut and an American cosmonaut, J.Linenger, trained together for the space station Mir. He made his space flight on February 10, 1997, on board Soyuz Tm-25 ship and Mir space station, along with V.Tsibliyev and S.Reinhold and spent 180 days in space, which is a normal space flight. The longest space flight so far has been of the duration of one-and-a-half-year.
Hero of Russia Award,
 During this flight there were several emergency situations such as a fire on board station, a collision of cargo spaceship Progress 3Y with Specter Module, failures of thermo-control and the oxygen system. In all these situations he acted courageously and expertly and handled the emergency successfully. During the descending the control panel wrongly showed that the main parachute had opened and they could safely descend. Actually, due to the excessive G load the main parachute had not opened. (The G load is generated when the spacecraft enters from a state of weightlessness into the atmosphere). He detected that the indication given by the control panel was wrong and then as commander decided to wait for the backup parachute to open before descending. Similarly there was a fire due to over-heating of the oxygen system that was handled by him.
After his successful flight he was honoured with the title of 'Hero of Russia' as well as decorated with the NASA medal 'for Space Flight' and 'for Service to Society'. In fact, he deserved these honours as he been greatly responsible for the success of the mission. He is happily married to Ludmila Lazutkina, a bio-technologist and has two lovely daughters. He had met his lovely wife, also a parachute jumper, in the Parachute Jumping club. Though a brave person herself, she would like him to stop space flights, if he would listen. Asked if he would like his daughter Natalia and Eugenia to be cosmonauts he replied he would like them to be good, tender caring girls to begin with.
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