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Astronauts

Cosmonaut Quits. "No Proper Motivation" To Work With Americans

By Keith Cowing
NASA Watch
May 6, 2022
Filed under ,
Cosmonaut Quits. "No Proper Motivation" To Work With Americans

Hero of Russia Alexander Skvortsov explained why he left the cosmonaut corps, MKRU
Google translate: (Alexander Misurkin)“Despite the fact that for health reasons I am still suitable for flying, it is already difficult for me to fly for such a period. It would have been nothing if the program included interesting work on the Russian segment, but there most of the time I would have to work for the Americans, that is, to help them carry out their experiments. Sorry, but there is no proper motivation for this.”

NASA Watch founder, Explorers Club Fellow, ex-NASA, Away Teams, Journalist, Space & Astrobiology, Lapsed climber.

9 responses to “Cosmonaut Quits. "No Proper Motivation" To Work With Americans”

  1. james w barnard says:
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    If a person isn’t motivated anymore, then it’s time to “pull the pin”. Or as the late Kenny Rogers sang, “You got to know when to hold ’em, know when to fold ’em. Know when to walk away, know when to run!” Doubt if he will be missed all that much.

    • Todd Austin says:
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      So, your last sentence there, James, what’s the point of that? Do you know something about intra-cosmonaut relations that makes you thinks that he’s disliked for some reason? If yes, tell us about it (and source it). If not, I don’t understand why you included that text.

      • james w barnard says:
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        I don’t have any idea about his relationship with other cosmonauts. If he isn’t motivated to do whatever work there is because it is mostly on the American modules, then it is his privilege to find something else that interests him. (Presuming the Russian government will allow him the choice.) I’m sure there are other cosmonauts who are still motivated by the opportunities to work in space.

        • Terry Stetler says:
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          If the Russian managers are insisting on your long missions in order to save money, there may not be enough opportunities to make it worth staying in the service. Not to mention the dumpster fire Russia itself is becoming.

          • james w barnard says:
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            Have not American astronauts who have flown significant and or several missions, and who see limited potential for further meaningful flights not either resigned from NASA, or have at least taken ground jobs…including NASA Administrator, for example…gone on to other careers? Best of luck to Skvortsof!

  2. Todd Austin says:
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    The English-language title offered above offers a translation of the original that implies that he doesn’t want to work with Americans. This is *not* what the original Russian says and it should not be interpreted that way. The original says that his next flight was set to be a year-long mission (likely to save rubles on launches and equipment) and that he’s just not interested in doing that for a number of reasons. He doesn’t want to be on orbit for his 60th birthday. There isn’t enough research work to be done in the new Russian science module to keep his interest. He’d essentially be spending a year doing routine maintenance work on the station and helping out the others on the station to do their science experiments. The gist of it is that the Russians aren’t making use of their own facilities and he doesn’t want to spend a year being someone else’s domestic staff. There isn’t a whiff from him of anything that sounds like anti-Americanism. Not a whiff.

  3. Ben Russell-Gough says:
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    I’ve suspected for a while that the Russians threats to pull out of the ISSP was covering the fact that they had to quit. They simply don’t have the budget and resources to utilise the ISS properly. Indeed this article suggests that they barely have the budget or resources to use it at all!

    • Todd Austin says:
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      Indeed. The launch of Nauka not long ago has the potential to be their ‘last hurrah’ as far as ISS goes. With state funds going toward prosecuting a war against their neighbor, repression of dissent at home, and corruption, funding for actual science in space has to be far down their list. Russian businesses are struggling to just keep their heads above water, so are unlikely to produce experiments that might be launched on Progress craft any time soon. Sanctions due to the military actions of their government mean that business has little to no foreign resources and close to zero foreign partners left. If Russia is able to continue to launch a crew through the end of the ISS program, I think they will have done well.

  4. Richard Brezinski says:
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    On his last assigned mission Skvortsov’s only assigned Russian tasks were maintenance. He was told to support the US and international partner astronauts in accomplishing their science where he could.