Pyotr Dubrov

Did You Know?

• Dubrov was one of eight cosmonauts selected in Roscosmos's 2012 selection group, which included Anna Kikina.
• He participated in winter survival training from 4 to 6 February 2013 alongside Anna Kikina and Oleg Blinov.
• Dubrov was awarded the title Hero of the Russian Federation on 12 April 2023.

Cosmonaut career

Pyotr Dubrov became a Roscosmos cosmonaut on October 8, 2012, as part of an eight-person selection group that included Anna Kikina. He and his seven colleagues started training at the Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center on October 29, 2012. In early February 2013, Dubrov joined Kikina and Oleg Blinov for winter survival drills, preparing for a potential Soyuz emergency landing where rescue might be delayed. He completed his cosmonaut training on July 15, 2014.

In 2020, Dubrov served as backup flight engineer for Sergey Kud-Sverchkov on Soyuz MS-17, supporting ISS Expeditions 63 and 64. During the COVID-19 pandemic, he trained at the Johnson Space Center in Houston for work on the US segment of the station. Dubrov launched on Soyuz MS-18 in April 2021 for his first long-duration stay aboard the ISS. He returned to Earth with Mark T. Vande Hei on Soyuz MS-19 on March 30, 2022, after 355 days in space.

Cinematography

In May 2021, the Interagency Committee set the main and backup ISS crews for 2021 through 2023. Anton Shkaplerov, along with actress Yulia Peresild and director Klim Shipenko—the film crew for The Challenge—flew to the station on Soyuz MS-19. That movie is a collaboration between Roscosmos, Channel One, and the Yellow, Black and White studio. After medical checks, the backup team was chosen: actress Alyona Mordovina, director Alexey Dudin, and commander Oleg Artemyev.

Training began on 24 May at the Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center. On 23 July, the primary crew ran a four-hour drill inside a Soyuz mock-up wearing Sokol suits, and on 30 July the spacecraft’s pre-launch work started. Peresild and Shipenko came back to Earth on 17 October 2021 aboard Soyuz MS-18 with commander Oleg Novitsky. Pyotr Dubrov and NASA’s Mark Vande Hei, who had reached the ISS on Soyuz MS-18, later landed with Shkaplerov when Soyuz MS-19 touched down on 30 March 2022.