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  Chief cosmonaut: Difficulty recruiting candidates

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Author Topic:   Chief cosmonaut: Difficulty recruiting candidates
music_space
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Posts: 1179
From: Canada
Registered: Jul 2001

posted 04-13-2011 12:17 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for music_space   Click Here to Email music_space     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
In a news piece on Radio-Canada Télévision shot in Russia, Sergei Krikalev says on camera that it is increasingly difficult to find qualified cosmonaut candidates because of the additional academic requirements needed to operate the new systems and also because, in essence, the novelty wore off.

Sergei Volkov adds that spaceflight wasn't a childhood dream of his. He could see the toll it took on his father Alexander. But after one spaceflight in 2008, Volkov, who has been assigned to a future mission, has of course no regrets: "It's still something special."

How about international candidates? Intercosmos phase 2?

Tonyq
Member

Posts: 199
From: UK
Registered: Jul 2004

posted 04-13-2011 07:55 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for Tonyq   Click Here to Email Tonyq     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
It has been suggested previously that the remuneration package afforded to cosmonauts is a major factor here. This is particularly the case for civilian engineers who can take their skills to other organisations or industries.

Add to this the very long wait for flights -several of the 1997 intake have only flown in the last 12 months or so and Valkov hasn't flown at all.

It seems to me that they need to develop the 'package' to make it more attractive for the brightest people, and shorten the queue so cosmonauts can fly a couple of times, and still be young and hungry enough to move on to other careers, as happens elsewhere in the world.

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