Roscosmos Cosmonaut Corps

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
"Pilot-Cosmonauts of the USSR" on Television. Pilots-cosmonauts of the USSR at the television studio (from left to right) P. Popovich, Y. Gagarin, V. Tereshkova, V. Bykovsky, A. Nikolaev and G. Titov. Moscow, March 12, 1963

The Roscosmos Cosmonaut Corps (in Russian: Отряд космонавтов, simply The Cosmonauts Corps) is a unit of the Russia's Roscosmos State Corporation that selects, trains, and provides astronauts as crew members for the Russian Federation and international space missions. It is part of the Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center, based at Star City in Moscow Oblast, Russia.

History

The development of Soviet science and technology made it possible, by the end of the 1950s, to consider the issues of crewed space flight. At the beginning of 1959, the President of the USSR Academy of Sciences Mstislav Keldysh held a meeting at which questions about crewed space flight were discussed specifically, right down to "who should fly?". The decision on the selection and training of astronauts for the first space flight on the spacecraft "Vostok" was made in the Resolution of the Central Committee of the Communist Party and the Council of Ministers of the USSR No. 22-10 "On the medical selection of candidates for astronauts", dated January 5, 1959, and in the Resolution Council of Ministers of the USSR No. 569-264 "On the preparation of man for space flights", May 22, 1959.

The selection of candidates for cosmonauts corps was entrusted to the command of the Air Force of the Armed Forces, military doctors and medical flight commissions, which monitored the health of pilots in units and formations, and the training of future cosmonauts was entrusted to the Air Force of the Armed Forces of the USSR. Later, the selection was directly entrusted to a group of specialists from the Central Military Research Aviation Hospital (TsVNIAH).

The cosmonaut corps was formed on January 11, 1960, by the order of the Commander-in-Chief of the Air Force of the Armed Forces of the USSR, dated March 7, 1960, the first 12 pilots who passed the initial selection were appointed to the post of listener-cosmonauts of the Air Force; The first cosmonaut corps, which included the future first cosmonaut of Yuri Gagarin, consisted of twenty people. On March 23, 1961, Yuri Gagarin was appointed as the commander of the cosmonaut corps.

The first Cosmonauts Corps was military unit No. 26266, which formed with the task of training cosmonauts, and a little later it was transformed into the Cosmonaut Training Center of the Air Force of the Armed Forces.

After the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the Corps became partly civilian and was managed by the Russian Space and Aviation Agency (RKA).

Organization

The Cosmonaut Corps is based at the Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center in Star City, Russia, although members may be assigned to other locations based on mission requirements.

The Chief of the Cosmonaut Office is the most senior leadership position for active cosmonauts in the Corps. The Chief serves as head of the Corps and is the principal adviser to the Roscosmos Director-General on cosmonaut training and operations. The first Chief Astronaut was Yuri Gagarin, appointed in 1960. The current Chief is Maksim Kharlamov.

Requirements

A Soviet space skafander in the Museum of Cosmonautics, Moscow

In order to enter the cosmonaut corps, a candidate for the role of a space pilot must pass medical and psychological tests (in the Central Research Aviation Hospital), as well as undergo a face-to-face interview. During the Soviet era, in addition, membership in the Communist Party of the Soviet Union was also a prerequisite for joining the cosmonaut corps.[1]

The main current requirements for joining the cosmonaut corps are to be with Russian citizenship, age up to 35 years, higher education, knowledge of English, successful passing of medical and psychological tests, body weight up to 90 kilograms.

List of active cosmonauts

As of March 2023, the corps has 23 "active" cosmonauts consisting of 1 woman and 22 men or 4.3% female and 95.7% male[2] All of the current members of the cosmonaut corps were selected in 1996 or later.

Astronaut Missions Group
Oleg Artemyev Soyuz TMA-12M (Expedition 39/40), Soyuz MS-08 (Expedition 55/56),Soyuz MS-21 (Expedition 66/67), 2003 Cosmonaut Group
Andrei Babkin None - awaiting assignment 2010 Cosmonaut Group
Konstantin Borisov SpaceX Crew-7 (Expedition 69/70) 2018 Cosmonaut Group
Nikolai Chub Soyuz MS-24/MS-25 (Expedition 69/70/71) 2012 Cosmonaut Group
Pyotr Dubrov Soyuz MS-18/Soyuz MS-19 (Expedition 64/Expedition 65/66) 2012 Cosmonaut Group
Andrey Fedyaev SpaceX Crew-6 (Expedition 68/Expedition 69/70) (currently in space) 2012 Cosmonaut Group
Aleksandr Gorbunov SpaceX Crew-9 (upcoming flight) 2018 Cosmonaut Group
Alexander Grebenkin SpaceX Crew-8 2018 Cosmonaut Group
Anna Kikina♀ SpaceX Crew-5 (Expedition 67/68) 2012 Cosmonaut Group
Oleg Kononenko Soyuz TMA-12 (Expedition 17), Soyuz TMA-03M (Expedition 30/31), Soyuz TMA-17M (Expedition 44/45), Soyuz MS-11 (Expedition 58/59), Soyuz MS-24/MS-25 (Expedition 69/70/71) 1996 Cosmonaut Group
Sergey Korsakov Soyuz MS-21 (Expedition 66/67) 2012 Cosmonaut Group
Sergey Kud-Sverchkov Soyuz MS-17 (Expedition 63/64), Soyuz MS-28 (upcoming flight) 2010 Cosmonaut Group
Denis Matveev Soyuz MS-21 (Expedition 66/67) 2010 Cosmonaut Group
Sergei Mikajev Soyuz MS-27 (upcoming flight) 2018 Cosmonaut Group
Oleg Novitsky Soyuz TMA-06M (Expedition 33/34), Soyuz MS-03 (Expedition 50/51), Soyuz MS-18 (Expedition 64/65), Soyuz MS-25 2006 Cosmonaut Group
Aleksey Ovchinin Soyuz TMA-20M (Expedition 47/48), Soyuz MS-10, Soyuz MS-12 (Expedition 59/60), Soyuz MS-26 (upcoming flight) 2006 Cosmonaut Group
Kirill Peskov Soyuz MS-27 (upcoming flight) 2018 Cosmonaut Group
Dmitry Petelin Soyuz MS-22/Soyuz MS-23 (Expedition 67/Expedition 68/69) 2012 Cosmonaut Group
Oleg Platonov 2018 Cosmonaut Group
Sergey Prokopyev Soyuz MS-09 (Expedition 56/57), Soyuz MS-22/Soyuz MS-23 (Expedition 67/Expedition 68/69) 2010 Cosmonaut Group
Sergey Ryzhikov Soyuz MS-02 (Expedition 49/50), Soyuz MS-17 (Expedition 63/64), Soyuz MS-27 (upcoming flight) 2006 Cosmonaut Group
Ivan Vagner Soyuz MS-16 (Expedition 62/63)Soyuz MS-26 (upcoming flight) 2010 Cosmonaut Group
Alexei Zubritsky Soyuz MS-28 (upcoming flight) 2018 Cosmonaut Group

List of former cosmonauts (partial)

Russia and the Soviet Union

The Soviet space program came under the control of the Russian Federation in December 1991; the new program, now called the Russian Federal Space Agency, retained continuity of equipment and personnel with the Soviet program. While all Soviet and RKA cosmonauts were born within the borders of the U.S.S.R., many were born outside the boundaries of Russia, and may be claimed by other Soviet successor states as nationals of those states. These cosmonauts are marked with an asterisk * and their place of birth is shown in an appended list. All, however, claimed Soviet or Russian citizenship at the time of their space flights.

A

B

D

F

G

I

K

L

M

N

O

P

R

S

T

U

V

Y

Z

Soviet and Russian cosmonauts born outside Russia

All of the locations below were part of the former U.S.S.R. at the time of the cosmonauts' birth.

Azerbaidzhan S.S.R. / Azerbaijan
Byelorussian S.S.R. / Belarus
Georgian S.S.R. / Georgia
Kazakh S.S.R. / Kazakhstan
Kirghiz S.S.R. / Kyrgyzstan
Latvian S.S.R. / Latvia
Turkmen S.S.R. / Turkmenistan
Ukrainian S.S.R. / Ukraine
Uzbek S.S.R. / Uzbekistan

See also

References

  1. ^ "An assembly and test building is under construction for spacecraft for flights to the Moon". cbsmedia.ru (in Russian). Retrieved 2021-04-30.
  2. ^ "Действующие космонавты отряда космонавтов Роскоcмоса". 2018-08-01. Retrieved 2018-08-31.

External links