Cosmonaut Decides Not To Visit ISS
Russian Cosmonaut Bails Out of Upcoming Spaceflight, RIA Novosti
“An experienced Russian spaceman set to fly to the International Space Station (ISS) in 2015 suddenly tendered his resignation for unclear reasons, a Russian space industry representative said Thursday. Yury Lonchakov will be formally discharged from his job on September 14, Irina Rogova of the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center told RIA Novosti. Rogova’s boss, Sergei Krikalev, was cited by Russian media as saying that Lonchakov “found a more interesting job,” but did not elaborate. Rogova could not name Lonchakov’s new job.”
Keith’s note: Lonchakov flew on STS-100, Soyuz TMA-1, and Soyuz TMA-13/Expedition 18. So he certainly has had some spaceflight experience. Time to do new things, I suppose. This is sadly interesting, however: “Once a dream job for Soviet kids, being a cosmonaut does not hold much allure in modern Russia: Only 5 percent of adult Russians actually wanted to grow up to be cosmonauts, with doctors, teachers, truck drivers and aviators all being more popular, according to a 2011 study by the Public Opinion Foundation. Russia’s first-ever open cosmonaut recruitment drive attracted a mere 300 applications last year, compared with 6,000 for NASA in 2011.”
I can’t say that I blame him, or the Russian people for not wanting to be a cosmonauts. Russia may be starting to turn things around with its space program but its unclear if it will do so quickly enough. The competition is very thick, not only in Asia but in the United States. Where this all leaves Russia after the space station retires is very unclear indeed.
Also there is the issue of replacing Soyuz. I am not going to hold my breath, not after all the so called replacements that came before. Russia is at a disadvantage. Whether they rally is yet to be seen. Would be nice if they did but we will see. What is clear is out of any other space agency that are the ones who are facing the most that they need to overcome to change things.
Here’s an out of this World thought. Maybe they are planning to use ISS and the RD-180 as retaliation for US actions against Syria. Those up there have a way home. But it would only incite the idiots (that’s not a censored word is it?) in Congress to add funding to accelerate a commercial alternative. They could extend the stay of the present crews by a maybe a year. Resupply with unmanned. The impact would have a positive effect on the NASA manned program. They may still need to evacuate ISS for an interim period. With a degrading orbit, it could boosted by unmanned. I wonder if it could remain mothballed unmanned and then re-occupied later. Also, ISS is the only thing Russia has going in manned flight. I suspect it would be no retaliation and have more negative impact on their manned program than ours.
There is no such drama playing out- rest assured. This is almost certainly a career choice (it is a job after all). I know enough astronauts well enough to know that there comes a point when it is time to retire and move on to new challenges. They are the same as the rest of us in this regard – even if their job is flying in to outer space. I am certain that this is nothing more than that. So .. reading global politics into this is pretty much pointless. IMHO.
No. Even if it happened (which it won’t), the propaganda being used by the lobbyists talks of Musk as an “outsider” on whom “America” must not be dependant. In other words, SpaceX and the Russians are seen as the same thing, with SLS on the other side as the “real American” launcher.
Failure of Russian rockets is already used as a reason to not support the “risky” SpaceX. And so too would political games by the Russians be used as justification for defunding commercial crew and putting the money into Orion, “America’s only real capsule!”
You are both totally off topic. Take the discussion somewhere else.
Why do people keep referring to the false story about RD-180 from a fiction magazine as if it were real? Once started, a false rumor seems to get a life of its own..
Welcome to Space X, Comrade Lonchakov
Lonchakov had a guaranteed income and job security as a space traveler – the best a nation can offer. What more could he want? Unless he was as disaffected, disenchanted and disillusioned with life as most people anywhere seem nowadays?
I have several very good friends who happen to be former astronauts and a number of other friends with that same job on their resume. Believe it or no they are just like you and I. They have families, interests, enjoy new challenges, and have skills other than those associated with being an astronaut etc. All of my astronaut friends made career choices for exactly the same reasons that everyone else makes them. I do not know Lonchakov but would not assume that he is “disaffected, disenchanted and disillusioned with life” as you hypothesize. For all we know he has just landed the dream job and can spend more time with his family and indulge his hobbies. Why don’t you call him and ask why he quit?
A russian friend posted this on another blog:
“Tatiana – depends on what is important for you. Do you know how much money Russian cosmonauts make? I’ll tell you – those are public data from December 2012. 60900 RUR ($1830) for a candidate, 63800 RUR ($1917) for a cosmonaut, 88450 RUR ($2658) for an instructor-cosmonaut. Just for comparison, monthly rent of a good one-bedroom apt in non-fancy part of Moscow is about $2000. And some of those guys actually have families and kids.”
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I believe he wanted a raise in salary to better raise his family.
From what I have read those sound like they would be base salaries, but once you get assigned to a flight, especially an ISS flight the money goes way up, supposedly well over $100,000 bonus for a single ISS flight. The problem for most cosmonauts is trying to survive for several years at extremely low wages with no guarantee of ever flying. In the case of Lonchakov, since he was assigned to an ISS flight, financial pressure probably wasn’t as much of a factor in his decision to leave as it would be for other cosmonauts. That’s not to say that he wasn’t offered a lucrative position with some private company, maybe they have noticed what is going on with U.S. astronauts lately.