Translated material
The second open set to the Cosmonauts detachment
On March 14, 2017, the Goskosmos State Corporation announced the second open competition for the selection of candidates for a detachment of astronauts. Information about the recruitment was posted on the website of the state corporation [1] and on the website of the Center for Training of astronauts named after Yu. A. Gagarin [2]. According to the representatives of Roscosmos [3], it is planned to select 6-8 candidates for astronauts.
The applicants will have to go through an absentee, and then full -time stages. Within the framework of the correspondence, documents from the contestants will be considered according to the list given in the Regulation on the selection of astronauts [4, 5]. Documents must be sent before July 14, 2017 by mail with a notification or brought personally to the address: 141160, Moscow Region, Star Town, Head of the Federal State Budgetary Institution “NII CPC named after Yu.A. Gagarin” with a note “to the Commission for the selection of candidates for astronauts”.
The full -time stage includes an interview and an exam for professional suitability, physical training, in -depth medical and psychological examination.
Starting from July, the applicants selected at the correspondence stage will be invited to the CPC to them. Yu. A. Gagarin (payment of road and accommodation - at the expense of the contestants). From the past stage in December 2017, 6-8 people will be selected as suitable for the terms of the competition.
Candidates should be Russian citizens no older than 35 years, have a higher technical or natural science education or experience in the aviation and missile and space industry, have good learning, have excellent health and physical training, know English at the level of a technical university.
The selected candidates for astronauts in 2018 will begin general space training (1.5 years) in the CPC named after Yu. A. Gagarin and then, following the results of the exams, will be able to become astronauts of Roscosmos.
According to the state corporations, selected astronauts will be able to participate in three manned programs: testing the new Russian spacecraft “Federation”, work at the International Space Station (ISS), the first piloted Russian flights to the Moon.
The requirements of the new selection contain a number of innovations in comparison with the selection requirements in 2012 [6]. For example, now an astronaut cannot be a person who has a second citizenship or residence permit in another country. The number of medical tests that must be taken at the correspondence stage has increased. The lack of an early official selection plan is surprising.
For example, in the competitions now in the USA and Canada, all the dates were known in advance [7]. The point on higher education raises the question: it is not clear whether the master's diploma received outside Russia will be accepted.
The analysis of the requirements shows that Roscosmos and CPC did not listen to the opinions of experts expressed back in 2012 [8]. A restriction on age - up to 35 years - cuts off many of the held specialists [9], showing at the same time that selected candidates will wait a very long time for their turn for the first flight into space.
This is also evidenced by the fact that since 2017 the number of Russian astronauts in the main crews of the ISS from 3 to 2 people has been reduced [10]. And the commissioning of a new scientific module of MLM on the Russian segment of the ISS is again shifted to the right [11]. It was his docking with the station that was called Roscosmos as an occasion to increase the number of Russian astronauts in the crew again.
But, despite all the difficulties, I would like to wish success to all young people who decided to try themselves in an open set in a detachment of astronauts.
Alexander Khokhlov
3. Https://youtu.be/yaayqwx5ym
4. Roscosmos.ru/media/files/docs/2017/prikaz.244.pdf
6. Www.astronaut.ru/as_rusia/2012/text/glav.htm?reload_coolMenus
7. Https://astronauts.nasa.gov/content/timeline.htm
8. Https://republic.ru/future/obyavlen_nabor_v_kosmonavty-735157.xhtml
9. Https://republic.ru/future/kakikh_ne_berut_v_kosmonavty-772074.xhtml
10. Khokhlov A. The manned program of the ISS: Are the changes coming? // TRV-hobby. No. 211 of August 23, 2016.
11. Http://kosmolenta.com/index.php/1031-2017-03-16-mlm-Delay