lightthiscandle:

Space is fascinating. But plenty of other things are fascinating, too. Like ancient Rome, or reptiles, or psychology. And yet, we don’t have tumblrs about ancient Rome or reptiles or psychology.

How did you become interested in space? Was it through a friend, or a family member, or an experience? Or did it just happen?

My father had always been the science guy, I had always tried to resist it. I had become disillusioned with my fine arts degree and was home taking a year off from university, moping around. One day my father was watching NASA TV and called me over because then-Russian president Dmitri Medvedev (I’m also interested in Russia in general) was talking to the ISS crew for Cosmonautics Day. I started looking up cosmonauts more and more. Suddenly I was hooked and I was out of my funk. Now I’m applying to do my masters next September on the history of the Russian space program.

I can’t really articulate why I like it besides that it’s interesting. There’s always something new to learn about, especially with the secrecy of the Soviet space program.

We hit a milestone! 1000 followers! Thanks for being curious about the Russian side of the space program.

In case anyone was wondering why their dashboard has been bereft of cosmonauts, my computer had to make an emergency trip to the repair shop. It’s not completely fixed and I’m in the process of moving, so the posting might be sporadic over the next few days.

My list of traditions is now up. It’s got lots of pictures!

Due to popular demand (well, 2 so far), I’ll make a little timeline of traditions of the Russian space program (to the best of my knowledge). I’ll see if I can finish it tonight.

This blog turns 1 year old today! Thanks to everyone who enjoys this blog.

To celebrate, here are my favourite cosmonauts in no particular order.

I’ve given this site a fresh look, the old theme wasn’t very good for navigating to the next page, the button was way up at the top. I made a header too, Vasily Tsibliyev is showing his approval.

This was a nice surprise, Voskhod 1 was also featured in the history tags.

Hello to all the new followers, some of you have interesting names.

I’m finally back! I go away and a progress vehicle fails? But in good news I have gained a lot more followers so thanks for that.

I was able to visit the Gagarin statue and the exhibition of him in London and I got some Soviet stamps of cosmonauts in Russia. So expect some of that soon.

I’m traveling for the next 6 weeks and won’t be online. But as long as the queue doesn’t screw up there should be a post a day.

(I might come back with some goodies, I hope to see the new Yuri Gagarin statue in London)

Inspired by spaceandstuffidk, I decided to make a tags list too, especially since my theme doesn’t show the tags with the post. So you can now look up your favourite cosmonaut or space dog with ease.