Elena Serova is the second woman in the history of Russia to make a space flight (fourth, taking into account the flights of women in the USSR). Has the title of Hero of Russia. Recently, she has taken up political and state activities. In 2016, she was elected to the State Duma of the Russian Federation.
Serov's career
Elena Serova was born in 1976. She was born in the small village of Vozdvizhenka, which is located on the territory of Primorsky Krai. Her father was a soldier, so she had a craving for discipline from childhood. In addition, the family constantly changed their place of residence. The heroine of our article graduated from high school in Germany (Elena's father served in the Western Group of Forces). It happened in 1993.
After that, Elena Serova moved to Moscow, where she entered the capital's aviation institute. While studying at the university, she began to actively earn extra money in her speci alty. In particular, she worked as a technician at the Research Institute of Low Temperatures at the Moscow Aviation Institute. At the university, Elena Serova met her future husband - MarkSerov.
In 2001, she became a graduate of the aerospace faculty. Received a degree in engineering. First of all, she began working at the Energia Rocket and Space Corporation. Her husband also worked there for three years. In January 2004, their first child was born. It was a girl. The birth of her daughter did not prevent Elena Serova, whose photo is in this article, from getting a second higher education. She graduated from the Moscow State Academy of Instrument Engineering and Informatics, this time qualifying as an economist. A year later, she received the rank of an engineer of the second category.
Dream of space
The dream of space began to come true when in 2006 she was enrolled as a candidate for the cosmonauts of the Energia squadron. Prior to that, she worked at the Mission Control Center. The decision was made by a special commission, which carefully studied all the data and biography of potential space explorers.
Already at the beginning of 2007, the future cosmonaut Elena Serova, whose biography is presented in the article, began to take two-year courses at the Cosmonaut Training Center, named after the first man to go into space, Yuri Gagarin. In 2009, she successfully passed all the tests and received the qualification of a test cosmonaut. At the very end of 2011, another interdepartmental commission decided to include Serov in the crew of the Soyuz spacecraft. She was assigned as a flight engineer.
Preparing for flight
In 2012-2014, Serova was preparing for the upcoming flight as part of the backupcrew of the ISS. The whole world saw her in February 2014 at the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympic Games in Sochi. Serova received the honorary right, together with other cosmonauts of Russia and the USSR, to raise the state flag. Sergey Krikalev headed the delegation of space explorers.
The final approval of Serova as a flight engineer took place in March 2014 at Baikonur. To do this, a special state commission gathered for a meeting. Serova continued to prepare for a possible flight, first as an understudy, and then as part of the main crew of the ISS. In September 2014, she was finally approved as a flight engineer for the prime crew of the Soyuz spacecraft.
Space flight
On September 26 of the same year, cosmonaut Serova Elena Olegovna set off on her first flight in her life. She started as a flight engineer aboard the Soyuz, as originally planned.
The whole world, and especially in Russia, watched the forthcoming docking of the spacecraft with the ISS, which took place just five hours and 46 minutes after launch. Serova became an official member of the space expedition. It is noteworthy that for 17 years before that, Russian women had not been sent into space. For more than a decade and a half, this privilege remained exclusively for men. Cosmonaut Elena Serova corrected this injustice. In doing so, she became the first Russian woman to arrive at the International Space Station.
Her space voyage continued until March 122015 when she returned safely to Earth. The expedition was declared a success. The spacecraft landed safely. In addition to Serova, it was piloted by Russian Alexander Samokutyaev and American Barry Wilmore. The total duration of Serova's stay in space was 167 days.
Life after spaceflight
After the heroine of our article returned to Earth, she was awarded the title of Hero of the Russian Federation, and an honorary award - the Gold Star medal. At the same time, she received the honorary title of pilot-cosmonaut of the Russian Federation. The official award ceremony took place in the Kremlin in one of the most famous Catherine's Halls.
Shortly after that, information appeared that Serova decided to devote herself to politics. In 2016, she applied to participate in the United Russia party's primaries. The heroine of our article decided to run among the candidates representing the Moscow region. Interestingly, she went to the primaries not only on the party list, but also as a single-member, having received more than 80% of the vote in the Kolomna district.
Participation in elections
In June, it became officially known that Serova would participate in the parliamentary elections to the State Duma in a single-mandate constituency in the Kolomensky district. However, she was not included in the federal party list. As a result, Serova received a little less than 51 percent of the vote in the elections. At the same time, the turnout in the Kolomna districtwas about 39 percent, which was considered quite high for the capital.
After the official election to the State Duma, she was dismissed from the post of test cosmonaut due to the transition to the lower house of the Federal Assembly. She ended her career as an astronaut. In parliament, Serova decided to take part in the work of the committee on ecology and environmental protection. In this committee, she immediately received the post of deputy chairman, the work in this direction was headed by the people's choice Vladimir Burmatov. At the moment, Elena Serova continues to work as part of the seventh convocation of the State Duma.
