Svetlana Savitskaya Svetlana Savitskaya Svetlana Yevgenyevna Savitskaya (; born 8 August 1948) is a retired Soviet aviator and cosmonaut who flew aboard Soyuz T-7 in 1982, becoming the second woman in space. On her 1984 mission she became the first woman to fly to space twice, and the first woman to perform a spacewalk. She set several FAI world records as a pilot. Svetlana Savitskaya was born in a privileged family. Her father, Yevgeniy Savitskiy, was a highly decorated fighter pilot during the Second World War, which later brought him to the position of Deputy Commander-in-Chief of Soviet Air Defense. Without the
Sergey Prokopyev (cosmonaut) Sergey Prokopyev (cosmonaut) Sergei Valeriyevich Prokopyev (, born 19 February 1975) is a Russian cosmonaut. He is the commander of Soyuz MS-09, and flight engineer of Expedition 56/57 to the International space station. Until October 2010, when Prokopyev was selected as a test-cosmonaut candidate of the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center Cosmonaut Office, he was a Major and Commander of a Tu-160-squadron. He finished training in August 2012. He was assigned as the backup commander for Soyuz TMA-18M and Soyuz MS-07. On June 6, 2018, Prokopyev commanded the Soyuz MS-09, alongside flight engineers Alexander Gerst, and Serena Auñón-Chancellor from the Baikonur