The space age in human history began in 1961. On April 12, 1961, Yuri Alekseevich Gagarin made a flight into space, which in many ways turned world history upside down. He became the first person to rise to a height never seen before. Prior to this, the spacecraft of the USSR had already made flights into space. In 1957, the first artificial earth satellite was launched.
Russian Cosmonauts
In 1991, the USSR collapsed. The main "space heritage" was received by Russia, Ukraine and Kazakhstan. Despite the deep economic crisis and frequent military conflicts, especially in Russia, the development of space programs has not stopped. In many sources, there is no division in the list of cosmonauts into Soviet and purely Russian. And yet, Russian cosmonauts are a new generation of cosmonauts who have worked and continue to work on advanced spacecraft.
From 1961 to 2014, about 248 flights were made from the Baikonur and Plesetsk cosmodromes. From 1991 to 2014, 91 launches took place. That is, more than a third of all space launches from the sites of the former USSR took place during the time of Russia's independence. Given the high cost of implementationspace exploration programs, we note that this is quite a lot.
The first cosmonauts of Russia since independence
The first flight of a spacecraft with the participation of a Russian after 1991 took place from March to August 1992. The honor went to Kaleri Alexander Yurievich. Born May 13, 1965 in the Latvian city of Jurmala. He made 5 flights into space (August 1996-March 1997, April-May 2000, joint flight with an American cosmonaut from October 2003 to April 2004, from October 2010 to March 2011).
Among the first Russian cosmonauts, one can also single out Sergey Vasilyevich Avdeev, who made 3 launches. The first of these took place a few months after the first flight of Kaleri - July 17, 1992. Avdeev was born in the city with the symbolic name of Chapaevsk, in the Kuibyshev region of the RSFSR, in 1956. Its first flight ended in February 1993. This pilot-cosmonaut also participated in joint flights with American space explorers (September 1995-February 1996). He spent his third and last flight in a team with Gennady Padalko and Yuri Baturin (he was at the station from October 1997 to July 1998).
How are flight candidates selected?
There are several criteria according to which the expert commission, which includes astronauts, selects candidates who can take part in flights after training. The commission views only military pilots. These are people who have already completed basic training.and are able to act in extreme situations, having good endurance and coordination of movement. The commission also takes into account the specific experience of the raid, the heights at which a particular candidate flew. Probably the most important criterion is the candidate's state of he alth at the time of selection. Clearly, it must be perfect.
After the initial selection, candidates are sent to special training. The training course can last a different amount of time. It all depends on how long the next flight is scheduled for. Russian cosmonauts are great patriots of the motherland!
Space program today
Space flights Russia continues today. For this, all the necessary infrastructure and training bases have been created. Based on the scientific developments of scientists, new models of spacecraft are being built. How many cosmonauts are active in Russia today? According to the statistics of 2014 - 47 people, among them one woman. Of course, not all of them will be able to fly into space, but everyone takes part in training, undergoes constant training in the halls and at the training grounds. They have a goal - to conquer space and look at the Earth from there!
