I am a journalist and illustrator specialized in the history of space exploration. Native of
Moscow,
then Soviet Union, I attended School of Journalism at Moscow State University.
Upon moving to the United States in 1993, I earned bachelor's degree from
Syracuse University's Newhouse School of Public Communications. Currently, I am working as a contributing writer to the Air & Space Smithsonian, Popular Mechanics and the Aerospace America magazines, in addition to publishing RussianSpaceWeb.com -- a unique collection of news, historical information,
photography and interactive graphics on space exploration.
In 2013, I completed writing and illustrating a large-format book on the history of Russian plans for space exploration published by Apogee Prime.
During my years in Moscow,
I worked as a contributing editor for the Astronomy and Cosmonautics series
of Moscow Polytech Society and later as an aviation and space reporter
for Nezavisimaya Gazeta, one of the first independent dailies in Russia. I visited
all leading Russian space centers including Baikonur Cosmodrome and interviewed
many legendary personalities in the Russian space program, among them
Boris Chertok, Yuri Semenov and Alexei Leonov.
My articles,
artwork, animations and photography appeared in practically every major space publication
around the world and in many general news media outlets including:
- Aerospace America, US
- Air & Cosmos, France
- Air & Space
Smithsonian, US
- BBC, UK
- Bild am Sonntag, Germany
- Channel I Ostankino, Russian television
- Discover, US
- Financial Times, UK
- Flieger
Revue, Germany
- Focus BBC, UK
- GEO, Germany
- Gong, Germany
- IEEE
Spectrum, US
- Illustreret Videnskab, Denmark
- Journal
of the British Interplanetary Society, UK
- Nonproliferation Review, UK
- Popular Mechanics (the US and Russian editions)
- Sky at Night, BBC, UK
- Science, US
- Science and Technology Trends, Quarterly Review, Japan
- Space
Illustrated, US
- Spaceflight, UK
- Space Travel Guidebook, Random House, Japan
- Süddeutsche Zeitung, Germany
- Technology Review, US
- Twenty-First
Century Bimonthly, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, China
- Wired.com, US
- X Prize Cup and Google Earth
SELECTED
WRITINGS:
Autobiographical:
Dear Sputnik: How a simple sphere changed my life
Delays Likely For Russian Lunar Lander Program
China Seeks Human Lunar-landing Technology
Russia Is Still Inching Toward The Moon
Russia’s New ISS Lab Detoured En Route To Launchpad
Russia Expected To Quickly Wrap Up Soyuz Launch Failure Probe
JOURNALISTIC PORTFOLIO
A profile of the Russian super-heavy launcher
NASA: Lunar 'Gateway' Is Still Our Best Bet for Putting Boots on the Moon
NASA’s Return to the Moon Could Include a Reusable Lunar Lander
Russia Is Riled Up About Being Left Behind In Space
Russia's New Rocket Project Might Resurrect A Soviet-Era Colossus
Russia's Soyuz Spacecraft Could Find New Life As A Lunar Taxi
The Soviet Laser Space Pistol, Revealed
Ukraine Is Building A Spaceplane For...Saudi Arabia?
Russia's Space Agency Might Break Up With The U.S. To Get With China
Russia Is Now Working on a Super Heavy Rocket of Its Own
This Was a Huge Week for the NASA-Russia Lunar Space Station and the Future of Spaceflight
Russia's Plan To Build a Luxury Hotel on the ISS
Why Does Russia Have a Secret ISS Experiment?
The Rocket That Launched Sputnik and Started the Space Race
How Sputnik Worked
Russia Will Team Up With Nasa To Build A Lunar Space Station
Long Abandoned Soviet Tech Might Help China Land on the Moon
This Russian ISS Module Has Been Delayed For a Decade and It's Still Not Ready to Fly
Here Is NASA's Plan for a Space Station That Orbits the Moon
This Is NASA's Plan For Humanity's Return to the Moon, and Beyond
The Model T of Space: Russian Soyuz Spacecraft Turns 50
Why NASA May Ferry the First Cosmonaut to the Moon
A First Peek at Russia's New Space Cargo Ship
U.S. and Russian Scientists Are Making Plans to Go Back to the Moon Together
Russia's Workhorse Soyuz Space Taxi Gets a Makeover
Russia's Plan To Spin Off a New Space Station From the ISS
Declassified Photos Show the Soviet Union's Hero Space Dogs in Color
Russian Launch Inaugurates New Spaceport
Putin's Shiny New Spaceport Is About To Launch Its First Rocket
Astronomers Can't Explain How These Trillion-Degree Quasars Got So Hot
Did the New Russia-Europe Mars Mission Narrowly Escape a Launch Disaster?
Russia Actually Lights Rockets With an Oversized Wooden Match
How Mir Became Humanity's Foothold in Space
The Soviet Union's Secret Moon Base That Never Was
Revealed: Russia's Manned Lunar Lander
Russia's Big Plan To Finally Put Cosmonauts on the Moon
This Is NASA's Very First Idea for a Space Station
Here Is the Soviet Union's Secret Space Cannon
5 Places Russia Will Send Its Space Probes Next
One Russian's Plan to Prove Once And For All That Americans Landed on the Moon
The Russian Ancestors of SpaceX's New Dragon
Another Disaster for Russia’s Space Workhorse
Did the Soviets Actually Build a Better Space Shuttle?
The Hidden History of the Soviet Satellite-Killer
Inside Russian Spacesuit Factory
Russia Is Building an Inflatable Space Module of its Own
Photo-essay from Moscow's Air and Space Show, MAKS-2013
Inside Russia’s Spectacular Rocket Disintegration
JOURNALISTIC PORTFORLIO
What’s Going on With Russia’s Space Program?
Turns Out Alexei Leonov’s First Spacewalk Wasn’t Quite as Dramatic as We Thought
Russia Just Selected a New Group of Cosmonauts. What For?
Inside a Soviet ICBM Silo
The Day a Soviet Moon Rover Refused to Stop
Laika Declassified
The First Fatal Spaceflight
Georgy Grechko, 1931-2017
The Strange Trip of Soyuz T-15
A Rare Look at the Russian Side of the Space Station
"Not a Woman’s Profession"
The Spaceport in Siberia
Space cooperation: A U.S. bargaining chip in the Ukraine standoff?
Planes, Ships…and Caspian Monsters
Valentina Tereshkova’s Journal Sheds New Light on Her Historic Spaceflight
Scenes from MAKS-2013 Airshow
Disaster in Xichang ("The best long-form story on the web!" See Feb. 12, 2013, entry: longreads.com)
Mission Possible (Preview of the Phobos-Grunt mission)
Lunar Clipper (With rich tourists traveling to Earth orbit, can a cruise around the moon be far behind?)
The
rest of the rocket scientists (Story of the German rocket team
in USSR)
Tsiolkovsky (Biography of the Russian space pioneer)
Fallen
Star (How Mir came down)
Copies of published articles are available in PDF format
upon request
Russia’s Proton rocket falls on hard times
Russia pushing to partner with NASA on lunar gateway
JOURNALISTIC PORTFOLIO
Space station partners weigh in on NASA’s Deep Space Gateway plans
NASA, ISS partners quietly completing design of possible Moon-orbiting space station
Russia’s Proton rocket grounded by poor quality control
Mystery of Russia’s doomed Progress spacecraft may delay next ISS crew launch
Spektr-RG sees (x-ray) light at the end of the tunnel
An international outpost near the Moon gets closer to reality
ExoMars domino effect
ExoMars rover seeks exit from dire straits
Russia approves its 10-year space strategy
Ukraine Vies For Place In Crowded Launch Market
Getting Its Space Mojo Back
ANALYSIS: Space Collaboration at risk
VIEWPOINT: The case for optimism
Collateral Damage: Impacts of Russian-Ukrainian conflict extend beyond the here and now
What would Mars probe failure mean for Russian space?
Russia, India plan return to the Moon
China considers big rocket power
Russian future ship to leave the drawing board
Difficult rebirth for Russian space science
Russia to resume ISS construction
Russia plots return to Venus
Crunch time for Russia Mars probe
Russia 'to save its ISS modules'
Russia mulls rocket power 'first'
Russia to unveil spaceship plans
Russia to approve new Moon rocket
Why did the USSR build a "copy" of the space shuttle?
Forgotten cradle of the space age
Future Russian-European spacecraft (3D artwork, consulting)
Russia's Post-Shuttle Space Plans
SELECTED JOURNALISTIC PORTOFLIO
THE BACK STORY
Russia Reveals Vision for Manned Spaceflight
Russian Return to a Martian Moon
Russia to Delay Martian Moon Mission
Europe
to Join Russia in Building Next Space Shuttle
Highlights
of the 2005 Paris Air Show
Russians
Propose A New Space Shuttle
U.S.-Russian
Space Cooperation in Doubt
Saving
the station
(The prospects and challenges of the International Space Station)
Can
Russia Fill NASAs shoes? (The outlook for the ISS after the
Columbia tragedy)
Rockets
R' Us (A review of Russia's rocket fleet)
Arianespace
Picks Up the Pieces (An interview with Clayton Mowry, President
of Arianespace)
Russia
gives International Space Station a lift
Taking
tourists for a ride (in space) (A look at the Russian suborbital tourist
cruiser)
US Rocket
with Russian engine gets to work (Inaugural Atlas-V launch)
Russias
Nuclear Submarine Wastes Still Far From Secure
Industry Insiders Foresaw Delay of Russia’s Phobos-Grunt
PRESENTATIONS AND CONFERENCES:
I work to inform general public, as well as policy makers and aerospace industry professionals on developments and trends in the Russian space program and about other space-related issues:
Space Security 2014: Implementation and Compliance
A Conference at the United Nations Insitute for Disarmament Research, UNIDIR, Geneva, Switzerland, March 19-20, 2014.
“Russia’s Space Plans”
Secure World Foundation, Washington, D.C., November 2011
I also provided commentary and was quoted by numerous publications and leading mass media organizations, including:
The National Public Radio
The New York Times
The Washington Post, (-)
The Los Angeles Times
Nature magazine
Science magazine
Popular Mechanics (-)
Daily Beast
Associated Press
...also, see my interview with the Space Safety magazine
SELECTED RADIO AND TV APPEARANCES:
I regularly appear
as a guest on various TV and radio programs around the world, including Russia Today, the Voice of Russia, CNN Next, CNN International's Foreign Correspondents, BBC, German Public Radio, Voice of America, France 25, and
on various other radio and TV shows.
The Voice of Russia:
Prospects for methane-fueled rockets
Uphill battle for Phobos-Grunt
The last launch
Yuri Gagarin: First man in Space
The Space Show with Dr. David Livingston:
Today and tomorrow of the Russian space program
John Batchelor's HOTEL MARS radio show:
Proton's return to flight, (October 2013)
October 2013
August 2013
SELECTED
INTERACTIVE GRAPHICS:
My graphics adore numerous mass media publications, books, internal space industry documents and they even made it to the International Space Station:
Pinterest portfolio page
Michel Denis, Flight Operations Director of the European Space Agency's ExoMars project, conducts pre-launch briefing with the help of RussianSpaceWeb.com's unique artwork. The original of this particular graphic can be viewed here.
Like other Roskosmos leaders before him, Dmitry Rogozin used artwork from RussianSpaceWeb.com in his most high-profile events. The original used in this particular material can be found here.
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