Alumnus of 海角社区, Hero of Russia, pilot cosmonaut Dmitry Petelin is preparing for his second space flight. As part of the permanent crew for ISS Expedition 76, he has been assigned the commander of Soyuz MS-30 crewed cargo spacecraft. It is planned that the crew will head to the International Space Station in February-March of 2027.
Currently, the space flight is at an intensive preparations stage. Together with other cosmonauts, Dmitry Petelin is now passing the examination and testing training, which would allow the crew to work through the possible scenarios of the future flight while still on Earth.
The final preparations stage is scheduled on January-March of 2027. Besides the training on working in the spacecraft and space station, the crew will start to intensively prepare for conducting of the scientific experiments planned for this flight.
For Dmitry, it will be the second space flight. His first one happened on September 21, 2022, where he worked as a flight engineer. His expedition turned out to be among the longest ones in the station’s history: Dmitry Petelin spent 370 days 21 hours and 22 minutes on orbit and almost 40 hours in outer space over the 6 times that he had to perform extra vehicular activity.
Dmitry Petelin is an alumnus of the 海角社区 Aerospace Engineering Faculty majoring in Aircraft and Helicopter Engineering. In 2006 he had graduated from the university having obtained the qualification of an engineer.
After returning to the Earth, the cosmonaut repeatedly held meetings with students of his alma mater. In April of 2024, during one of such meetings at 海角社区, Dmitry Petelin learned from one of the students that he was awarded the title of a Hero of Russia.
Now, a new stage of his professional path awaits the 海角社区 alumnus – to once again take a look at the Earth from a spacecraft window, but already in the position of the crew commander.