My profile in IEEE Spectrum (jpg version)
Pioneering Vostok missions in color!
My contribution toPartners in Space
focused on the Russian side of the International Space Station project: 
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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 theAerospace America magazines, in addition to publishingRussianSpaceWeb.com -- a unique collection of news, historical information, photography and interactive graphics on space exploration. In 2013, I completed writing and illustrating alarge-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 theAstronomy and Cosmonautics series of Moscow Polytech Society and later as an aviation and space reporter forNezavisimaya Gazeta, one of the first independent dailies in Russia. I visited all leading Russian space centers includingBaikonur Cosmodrome and interviewed many legendary personalities in the Russian space program, among themBoris 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 uponrequest
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 NASA’s 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) Russia’s 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: TheNational Public Radio TheNew York Times TheWashington Post,(-) TheLos Angeles Times Nature magazine Science magazine Popular Mechanics(-) Daily Beast Associated Press ...also, see my interview with theSpace Safety magazine
SELECTED RADIO AND TV APPEARANCES: I regularly appear as a guest on various TV and radio programs around the world, includingRussia 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 viewedhere.
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 foundhere.
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UPDATE: This book is out of print (The ad above is for historical purposes only)
In the morning fog atGagarin's pad ofBaikonur Cosmodrome, witnessing the launch of the first expedition to theInternational Space Station, October 2000.
Inside the Assembly and Testing Building, MIK, atSite 31 at Baikonur Cosmodrome, during the preparations for the launch of the European Cluster spacecraft, July 2000.
On the assembly floor at the Baikonur Cosmodrome beforethe launch of the first space tourist to the International Space Station in April 2001.
With Yuri Grigoriev, Deputy Designer General of RKK Energia inside the company's Control and Testing Station, KIS, in Korolev, Russia.
At the Launch Complex 39A of the Kennedy Space Center, Florida, with the Space Shuttle Atlantis on the launch pad.
Next to the flown and now lost Buran orbiter (top) and its full-scale prototype at Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan.
In the clean room of RKK Energia processing building at Site 254, Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan.
Working in the field.See what can be achieved with a simple camera. Moscow Aviation Institute
Searching for a mysterious Sovietlunar lander at the demo room of the Moscow Aviation Institute.
At the helm of theAlmaz (OPS-4) military space station at the NPO Mash development center in Reutov, Russia.
A unique "selfie" inside of a gigantic thermal testing chamber of theNIIKhIMMash research facility near Sergiev Posad, in the company of Vladimir Galyaev, a leading specialist. The fuselage of theBuran orbiter,Mir space station and otherspacecraft went through rigorous trials here. Giant mirrors inside the facility are used to imitate solar radiation.
Near the monument to the legendary Soviet rocket designer Mikhail Yangel on the grounds of KB Yuzhnoe development center. Dnepropetrovsk, Ukraine.
First journalist on the closedGorodomlya Island in the Seliger Lake, which was a home of theGerman rocket team in the USSR in 1946-1953.
Discussing the Soyuz spacecraft on CNN's NEXT.
Discussing NASA return to the Moon on CNN's Foreign Correspondents.
"Piloting" a full-scale simulator of the Kliper winged reusable orbiter at RKK Energia's Control and Test Station, KIS, in Korolev, Russia.
Navigating the Kourou River through the rain forest of French Guiana near theEuropean space launch site in the equatorial South America.
Next to the very descent module of theVostok spacecraft which carried Yuri Gagarin into space and back to Earth during thehistoric first human mission into space on April 12, 1961.
Next to a Soviet orbital bombardment vehicle. Click to enlarge.
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