Meet Valera Riazanov

Valera Riazanov is the Physical Instructor.

He was born on 20th January 1970 in the Crimea. His father was a footballer for the Soviet Union team Dynamo and, following in his footsteps, Val joined the Dynamo youth squad -- but football wasn't for him, and he soon began martial arts training instead.

Val joined the army as part of his compulsory military service, and after initial training was selected to join Russia's special forces, the KGB Special Operations Unit, where he was involved in numerous covert operations. He became a KGB trainer, training soldiers for early Russian Space Federation missions, until in 1993 he was headhunted by Russian oil billionaire Sergei Boschov to help run the Space Tourism Agency of Russia - the first Russian commercial space travel programme.

Since then Val has devised a groundbreaking system of exercise and fitness designed specifically to equip tourists for space travel, and to help them cope with the after-effects of this physically demanding and life-changing experience.