Cosmonaut news: 2009
News of the Cosmonaut Group, Отряд Космонавтов, for 2009. For ISS cosmonaut training reports, see the news section of the Energiya site. There is also a Cosmonaut assignments thread at NASASpaceflight.com.
February
23/2
Oleg Kotov is now a Deputy Commander of the Cosmonaut Group of the TsPK. He is also an instructor-test-cosmonaut. Sergei Volkov is also named as an instructor-test-cosmonaut.
March
27/3
Sergei Krikalyov is assigned Chief of GCTC/TsPK. He is the first civil head (Начальник) of the GCTC/TsPK, which was transferred from the Russian Ministry of Defence to become an agency reporting to Roscosmos (Federal Space Agency). He was released from his duty as instructor-test-cosmonaut 1st class (thus he is retired from the Cosmonauts’ Group). There is a timeframe of 9 months for the transferation from the military to the civilian TsPK; this extends to the end of June.
Official FKA/Russian Space Agency press release:
By the order of the head of the Russian Space Department, from 27 March 2009, the Hero of the Soviet Union № 97, the Hero of Russia (the Gold Star of the Hero №1) Sergei Konstantinovich Krikalyov, is appointed to the post of the chief of the Federal state budgetary establishment, the Yu. A. Gagarin Russian State Scientific-Research and Test Centre of Cosmonaut Training Research (RGNIITsPK) since 30 March of this year.
On 27 March, as communicated by a submitted statement, the 1st class instructor-cosmonaut-verifier of the Open Society RKK Energiya, and the assistant to the Open Society general designer of RKK Energiya, Sergei Konstantinovich Krikalyov, has been released from the position of the 1st class test instructor-cosmonaut, according to the order (№44 dated 27 March 2009) of the head of the Russian Space Agency.
April
2/4
Valerii Tokarev will come back to the Cosmonauts’ Group of the TsPK as an instructor-test-cosmonaut. Gennadii Padalka retired from the Air Force (VVS) and is now a cosmonaut of the civilian TsPK. Yurii Gidzenko is now the First Deputy of the Head of the TsPK (don’t know the exact date for these).
May
Yurii Baturin left TsPK and the Cosmonauts’ Group.
June
Cosmonaut Sergei Moshchenko retired from the Cosmonauts’ Group this month. He did not get a spaceflight.
2/6
All cosmonaut candidates of the 2006 selection group (TsPK/VVS-14 Selection RKKE-14 Selection) have passed their examination, five with a qualification of “Excellent” («отлично»), and Ovchinin and Serova with “Good” («хорошо»).
9/6
The 7 cosmonaut candidates received the designation of “test-cosmonaut” (космонавт-испытатель).
July
27/7
Yurii Malenchenko left the Cosmonauts’ Group and the Russian Air Force (VVS).