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Author
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Topic: Russians shun chance to join cosmonaut corps
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Robert Pearlman
Editor Posts: 42988
From: Houston, TX
Registered: Nov 1999
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posted 07-30-2006 11:32 PM
   
From The Independent quote:
Attempts to recruit a new generation of cosmonauts in Russia have faltered for the first time in 40 years with a rare recruitment competition attracting only a handful of applicants.... The recruitment drive, only the sixteenth of its kind since 1966, was launched last year by Energia, Russia's giant state-controlled space corporation that designs and makes spacecrafts. In the Soviet era the same competition regularly attracted 3,500 applicants, all eager to become flight engineer, train in Moscow's "Star City" and visit the then Mir space station. ... Now, however, the situation is dramatically different. Energia has received around only ten applications in the 18 months since it opened the recruitment competition. Of those, only one - that of 28-year old Elena Serova, a technical specialist - has proved viable. The others didn't even pass the medical test. Desperate times call for desperate measures and Energia has begun scouring Moscow's technical colleges in the hope of getting engineering students to apply. But those students who have shown interest so far have not met the stringent entry conditions.
Read the full article here. |
DavidH
Member Posts: 1217
From: Huntsville, AL, USA
Registered: Jun 2003
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posted 07-31-2006 11:02 AM
If they get really desparate, we could probably find a few volunteers over here...------------------
All These Worlds Space Blog | Hatbag.net
challenge of today has forged man's destiny of tomorrow." - Commander Eugene Cernan, Apollo 17 Mission, 11 December 1972 |
Greggy_D
Member Posts: 977
From: Michigan
Registered: Jul 2006
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posted 07-31-2006 12:04 PM
I was thinking the same thing. |
eurospace
Member Posts: 2610
From: Brussels, Belgium
Registered: Dec 2000
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posted 07-31-2006 12:58 PM
How good is your Russian, folks, and can you live on a Russian salary? ;-)------------------
Jürgen P Esders
Berlin, Germany
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Astroaddies |
Tonyq
Member Posts: 199
From: UK
Registered: Jul 2004
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posted 08-04-2006 01:38 AM
I first spotted this report on the excellent Russian language site www.astronaut.ru about six weeks ago :-
http://www.astronaut.ru/as_rusia/2005/start.htm It is a much fuller story that the Independent ran and you can transalte it pretty well with Babelfish or similar. Two points that it makes which the Independent seems to miss are :- 1. The poor pay at Energia which also influnces graduates in not wanting to work there, or to become cosmonauts. 2. The Air Force have only managed to find two new pilot cosmonauts against a recruitment objective of six. Not specifically mentioned here, but surely a factor too, is the lack of spaceflight opportunities. Most cosmonauts are training for 10 plus years before getting close to a flight assignment, and this is probably putting ambitious young people off, also. On a wider issue, you have to wonder if the Russians may be setting their medical standards a bit high, if no-one from several dozens candidates can pass. On the other hand, all the 'space tourists' (Olsen, Enomoto, Ansari and Simionyi are recent examples) seem able to pass OK. |
kosmonavtka
Member Posts: 170
From: Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
Registered: Aug 2003
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posted 08-04-2006 03:09 AM
quote:
Not specifically mentioned here, but surely a factor too, is the lack of spaceflight opportunities. Most cosmonauts are training for 10 plus years before getting close to a flight assignment, and this is probably putting ambitious young people off, also.
The Russian Space Agency seems to be more interested now in pandering to bored rich tourists rather than sending up its own professional cosmonauts.  quote:
On a wider issue, you have to wonder if the Russians may be setting their medical standards a bit high, if no-one from several dozens candidates can pass. On the other hand, all the 'space tourists' (Olsen, Enomoto, Ansari and Simionyi are recent examples) seem able to pass OK.
Money talks... [This message has been edited by kosmonavtka (edited August 04, 2006).] |
Kocmoc
Member Posts: 33
From: Washington, DC USA
Registered: May 2005
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posted 08-04-2006 02:48 PM
Finding that many recruits cannot pass the physicial is not surprising. The public health infrastructure has collapsed. The Army has trouble enlisting from among even those few young men who comply with conscription. TB is now rampant in the general population and it is not unheard of for young, healthy and affluent people to contract Hepatitis A.Cathy Lewis ------------------
Cathleen S. Lewis |
issman1
Member Posts: 1042
From: UK
Registered: Apr 2005
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posted 08-06-2006 07:23 AM
kosmonavtkaI'm sorry you are anti-space tourism but the fact is it is here to stay.
As for the seeming disinterest among common Russians in becoming Cosmonauts, it is simply that no-one probably wants to wait between 6-10 years for the chance to fly.
If the top brass were to inform candidates that the job also entails lots of international travel and the chance to live and work in the USA and Europe, then perhaps it might become more appealing.
I think the fact that Russia has unofficially barred the current cadre of Cosmonauts from launching/landing on the US Shuttles will not clear the backlog of unflown personnel for years to come.
The added bonus, of course, is that the focus of the global space effort will soon turn towards interplanetary flights as opposed to LEO. So those young Cosmonauts (and Astronauts) will have a surreal adventure awaiting them... barring a WW3. |
kosmonavtka
Member Posts: 170
From: Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
Registered: Aug 2003
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posted 08-07-2006 09:25 PM
I don't dislike space tourism as such (I certainly would like to go up myself  ); it's just that they seem to be getting flight priority over the Russian cosmonauts. quote:
However, this focus on tourism and making a profit has distracted the Russians from their original goal of building interplanetary space vessels. Rather, they are focusing on turning their portion of the ISS into a tourist and entertainment center in order to generate the funds to keep their operation aloft.
– Leaving Earth, Robert Zimmerman
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