Putin appoints all-male cosmonauts for Spaceflight Training

The six newly-appointed members of Russia's cosmonaut corps pose with the chief of the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center in Star City. 

From left to right: Oleg Blinov, Nikolai Chub, Sergei Korsakov, Yuri Lonchakov, Dimitri Petelin, Andrei Fedyaev, Pyotr Dubrov.

Credit: Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center

Six new cosmonauts joined the ranks of Russia's space agency on Monday (June 16), two short of the eight candidates who started basic training for the job two years ago.

Among the two who did not make the cut was the group's only woman. By coincidence, the announcement came 51 years to day after Russia launched the world's first female cosmonaut into space.

Since then, only two more Russian women have flown into orbit, with the fourth set to launch later this year.

An interagency commission including representatives from Russia's federal space agency Roscosmos, as well as the Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center in Star City and from the Russian aerospace companies RSC Energia and Khrunichev approved the six men to be the 2012 class of test-cosmonauts.

As a group, they will next begin training for spaceflights to become eligible for crew assignments.

"I congratulate your successfully passing the cosmonaut training course and passing the state [final] exam," former cosmonaut Yuri Lonchakov, the chief of the Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center, told the graduates.

The six include Oleg Blinov, Nikolai Chub, Pyotr Dubrov, Andrei Fedyaev, Sergei Korsakov and Dimitri Petelin. The group ranges in age from 30 to 36.

They're all mechanical or software engineers, with the exception of Fedyaev, who is a military pilot.

Five of the cosmonauts hail from Russia. Petelin was born in Kustanai, Kazakhstan, where landing ceremonies have been held for crews returning from the International Space Station.

Among the two candidates who did not qualify was Ignat Ignatov, a 32 year old engineer who had previously worked for eight years as a neutral buoyancy spacewalk instructor at the cosmonaut training center.

In April, it was reported that Ignatov had failed a medical exam and as such, was considered unfit for further training.

Anna Kikina is seen taking part in water survival training as one of the eight cosmonaut candidates selected in 2012. 

In June 2014, Kikina was not among the group’s six members to advance to spaceflight training.

Credit: Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center

Anna Kikina, 29, was also absent from the graduation for reasons that were not stated.

An engineer and economist, she was working at a radio station in Siberia at the time of her selection for basic training.

Had she qualified to continue her training, Kikina stood the chance to join Valentina Tereshkova, Svetlana Savitskaya and Yelena Kondakova as among the few Russian woman to fly in space.

Yelena Serova, who was selected in 2006, is scheduled to launch on her first mission in September.

Serova's flight to the International Space Station will make her only the 58th women in history to leave the Earth out of the more than 500 worldwide space explorers.

Roscosmos began recruiting for this cosmonaut class in January 2012, opening the process to the general Russian public for the first time in the country's history.

Out of the total of 304 applications received, 51 were deemed eligible from which the eight were selected.

The addition of the six new cosmonauts on Monday brings the Russian corps to a total of 46 active members.

Cosmonaut Elena Serova to become 4th Russian Woman in Space

Cosmonaut Elena Serova salutes her female predecessors that paved her way to becoming a cosmonaut. 

She will become the first Russian woman in space since Yelena Kondakova's STS-84 mission in May 1997.

Credit: NASA

Yelena Serova: First Russian ISS Cosmonaut in Two decades

Yelena Serova will spend six months at the ISS.

Russia will send a female cosmonaut into space for the first time in two decades next year, an official at Russia's Star City space training centre said Wednesday.

Yelena Serova, 36 and a professional cosmonaut, "is getting ready for a space flight in the second half of 2014," said Alexei Temerov, an official at Russia's Star City space training centre.

Russia will this year celebrate the 50th anniversary of the first woman's trip to space.

The feat was accomplished by Valentina Tereshkova on June 16, 1963, and was followed by that of another Soviet cosmonaut, Svetlana Savitskaya, who became the first woman to do a space walk.

But while NASA regularly sends female astronauts to work at the International Space Station (ISS), there has been only one Russian woman to fly to space since the early 1980s, Yelena Kondakova.

Kondakova spent five months in space on the since-retired Mir station in 1994-1995. She also travelled aboard the US Space Shuttle in 1997.

Yelena Serova will spend six months at the ISS, Temerov said.

"Her work programme at the ISS will not be anything extraordinary. It will be the usual research programme. A space walk is not planned," he added.

A second woman currently in training, 28-year-old Anna Kikina, has joined the cosmonaut program after becoming one of eight people selected in last year's recruitment drive.