On the eve of his birthday, which our fellow countryman cosmonaut Oleg Kononenko celebrates on June 21, he received a new appointment. By the decision of the head of the “Roscosmos” corporation Dmitry Rogozin, he became the special representative of the general director for manned astronautics.

“He will head this department as a detachment commander,” D. Rogozin said, “and at the same time will perform a number of functions that provide additional collective control from the detachment over the development of rocket and space technology.”

According to the head of “ Roscosmos”, the commander of the detachment, O. Kononenko, will be his “right hand”. In a radical change in the relationship between the cosmonaut corps and “Roscosmos”, our compatriot has been assigned an important role and great responsibility. The astronaut will not be a passive observer of what technology will be created. He will be directly involved in the work, express his opinion to designers, engineers, so that this opinion is taken into account. And from the point of view of ergonomics, safety issues, simplification of this connection, the interface between the person controlling the ship and the ship itself. This is especially important when lunar takeoff and landing complexes are being built.

For 15 years Oleg Kononenko worked as an instructor-test cosmonaut - the commander of the cosmonaut detachment. The high professionalism and vast experience of the cosmonaut, who more than once participated in long-term space expeditions, led to further success and career advancement.

Our compatriot constantly maintains close ties with his historical homeland, and the Turkmen people follow with great interest his achievements in the professional sphere. President of Turkmenistan Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov noted the same qualities of O. Kononenko, in his congratulations sent to Oleg Kononenko on the occasion of his previous birthday: “ In Turkmenistan we observe with a special sense of pride how our compatriot has made a significant contribution to the development of world cosmonautics for many years, inspiring young generations to achieve great achievements ”.

Once again Dmitry Rogozin confirmed and announced his decision to appoint O. Kononenko at the recently held St. Petersburg International Economic Forum. There, he added that O. Kononenko would soon help in the Cosmonaut Training Center for flight training programs. All this sharply enhances the role of the cosmonaut corps, who, in fact, entered the team of “Roscosmos” itself as the parent company and became representatives of management at its enterprises.

The Turkmen people, having joined in congratulations on the birthday of Oleg Dmitrievich, can only wish their fellow countryman further success in his difficult and responsible work in space exploration.

Ogulgozel Rejepova