Russian department Zoom call with a Russian Cosmonaut

On Tuesday the 20th of April, the Presdales Russian department were very lucky in being able to offer the Russian pupils a chance to meet Sergei Rysansky on zoom at lunch. A few other schools attended and we got a chance to hear about Sergei’s incredible career as a Russian cosmonaut. He played us a slideshow which documented the amazing adventures he had on his two space flights. My personal favourite moment was when he and his crew held the first pizza party ever in space. He also took over 350,000 pictures and showed us some of them. They were all incredible and really captured the beauty of our planet. But, it wasn’t all fun and games, when one member of his crew became very ill, Sergei had to perform surgery on him and it luckily all went to plan. Sergei told us that was his scariest moment on his trip. There was time at the end for a Q and A, where all the schools got a chance to ask him their questions and he gave fascinating in-depth answers to every one. He told us about the importance of learning languages in school as he had to learn English in order to go on his flight and learning another language opened many opportunities for him. Overall, it was a really interesting and fun to speak to a real cosmonaut and I would like to say a big thank you to Sergei and the Russian department for that fantastic opportunity.

Esme Sabin – Year 9