Posts: 552
From: Oregon
Registered: Feb 2003

Posts: 583
From: Louisville CO US
Registered: Aug 2003

posted 06-18-2016 08:15 AM               

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This is the Reserve Crew. The role is similar to the "Astronaut Support" role in translation to NASAese.

Backup and Reserve crews serve a role beyond just being a standby in that they increase the overall proficiency of the Cosmonaut Team for selection for future missions. It is also a way to gauge performance in simulated environments.

Many on reserve teams would get promoted to Backup and then onto a Prime Crew two or more missions later.

Also note that the Prime and Backup teams were just two teams prior to the mission and they did not always know until the final State Commision meeting a couple weeks before launch who was going to be Prime. This increased competition and performance in training.