Saltsburg grad fills back-up role in Russian spaceflight
TribLIVE
“It is such a natural step for me,” [Barbara] Barrett said in a phone interview this week from Russia, where she is prepping for the planned Sept. 30 launch of Soyuz TMA-16. “One of the great adventures of humankind has been the ability to go into space.”
No stranger to adventure, Barrett is an international business and aviation attorney and diplomat who completed a stint as the U.S. ambassador to Finland in December. An instrument-rated pilot, she has been recognized as the first civilian woman to land an F-18 Hornet on an aircraft carrier.
She also has served as deputy administrator of the Federal Aviation Administration, vice chairman of the U.S. Civil Aeronautics Board and, more recently, a board member of the Space Foundation.
“It’s a big time commitment,” Barrett said of the regimen of study and simulator training she’s now undergoing at the Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center in Star City, about an hour from Moscow. “I did have some apprehension: could I take off five months to live in Russia?
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