Cosmonauts Selection and Preparation

Abstract

Abstract The Soviet Union's launch of the world's first artificial Earth satellite on 4 October 1957 and its subsequent achievements in developing rockets and space technology and flying living beings in its space flight program marked the beginning of preparations for the first human spaceflight. The issue of human spaceflight was discussed in the USSR Academy of Sciences as early as the very beginning of 1959. Selection of the first cosmonauts began in October 1959 among men in Air Force units. It was believed that the best candidates for the first piloted spaceflight would come from the ranks of military pilots. Documents for more than 3000 fighter pilots, aged 35 or below, were examined to select the first cosmonaut candidates. Only 29 pilots passed all phases of medical selection and, of these, 20 were accepted into the spaceflight training program (subsequently, requirements for cosmonaut health standards were relaxed somewhat). The first group of cosmonauts trained at the Cosmonaut Training Center included Yu.A. Gagarin, who completed an orbital flight of 1 hour 48 minutes on the Vostok‐1 piloted spacecraft on 12 April 1961. After Gagarin's flight, G.S. Titov was trained to perform a 1‐day space flight. This flight was completed in August 1961. The next phase of the Center's activity focused on training cosmonauts for group flights. Subsequently, the Center entered a phase in which cosmonauts were trained for flights on the multiman piloted spacecraft of the Voskhod series, which had just been developed. Training these crews emphasized the use of the new capabilities these spacecraft had for conducting scientific, technological, and biomedical experiments and enabling extravehicular activity. In 1966 Center specialists began to train cosmonauts in a program involving testing and a series of flights on the new multiperson, multipurpose piloted spacecraft of the Soyuz series, which possessed technical capacities that significantly exceeded those of Vostok. This article gives the history of the various training programs implemented at the Center. Programs included training for lunar landings, the Almaz space station and the Salyut 4 long‐term space station. The Center is now participating in the training of astronauts and cosmonauts to support the International Space Station. As space technology developed, the goals, structure, and technical facilities underwent change. The main activities of the Center are given in detail.