"Planned rejuvenation" in the cosmonaut corps

The departure of a number of experienced cosmonauts from the cosmonaut corps of the Yury Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center could not pass by the attention of the public. This week it became known about the departure of four more pilots from the squadron: among them Gennady Padalka, the champion in the total duration of space flights. “I have to leave. Tired of messing around. There are no prospects for flight. There is no work for me at the Center either, ” he said .

Recently, about a dozen cosmonauts left the Cosmonaut Training Center, including Oleg Kotov and Sergey Revin. A month ago, the first-class professional Sergey Volkov left.

As it turns out, the departure of so many astronauts from the squadron is not accidental. The crisis is associated with the personality of the new head of the Cosmonaut Training Center, Yuri Lonchakov (in the photo). According to Gennady Padalka, this former deserter, who has returned to the Center as a leader, survived Oleg Kotov and promotes adventurous projects.

Yuri Lonchakov called the dismissal of astronauts "a natural process." On April 25, 2017, on the official website, he published an article “from the first person” in which he explained his position: “It is quite obvious that the resources of the human body are limited, and life does not stand still. Therefore, sooner or later astronauts have to leave the squad. Someone - because of the change of life priorities, someone - for health reasons. And this, no matter how regrettable, is a completely natural process. ”
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In his article, Lonchakov mentioned that some astronauts after leaving CPC remain in the space industry, but there are exceptions to the rules: “Every person has the right to determine his own life course and further direction of activity”.

In the direction of Gennady Padalki, the head let out a few arrows, hinting at his old age and health problems: “You must take into account the age of the cosmonaut, who this year is 59 years old. We should not forget that working at the International Space Station, work in open space is not only a high risk, but also stress for the human body, as well as a blow to health. ”

Lonchakov denied rumors that the CPC massively dismisses astronauts. According to him, the care of each of them is an individual decision. Some cosmonauts left the squad after the decision of the Chief Medical Commission, including Oleg Kotov: “Now the CPC has reached the line when many cosmonauts leave their flight posts, and the main part is forced to do so for health reasons. Nevertheless, the CPC today continues successfully to prepare a new generation of astronauts, which, we hope, will be assigned to crews in the near future. We are preparing to accept new candidates and are confident that they will be able to learn from the experience of those astronauts, behind whom they have completed space flights, those who continue to work at the Center and remain in the space industry. The time has come when it is necessary to give way to the younger generation of cosmonauts, and the management of the state corporation Roskosmos fully supports us in this, ”wrote Yuri Lonchakov.

This article by Lonchakov caused a sharp and emotional response from Gennady Padalka . The cosmonaut says that he tried to avoid any comments, but he could not but respond to the publication of the head of the Center.


Gennady Padalka. Photo: Mikhail Dzhaparidze / TASS

Further, we quote an open letter from the pilot-cosmonaut, Hero of the Russian Federation Gennady Padalka:

All this is called: "comrade is nervous." The level of cynicism and lack of any conscience is amazing.

Most of all I was shocked by the words about Kotov Oleg, the man whom he survived and squeezed out of the Center, forgetting about it. Oleg in 2015-2016 was appointed to the post of Director of the Department for Manned Programs of Roskosmos. Lonchakov did everything to prevent this from happening, realizing that in this position Oleg would oppose his individual adventurous projects in the Center.

Initially, a stuffing was made at Roscosmos that the entire Cosmonaut Detachment was allegedly against such an appointment. This is a favorite practice to hide behind the authoritative opinion of the detachment. A meeting was held in the Detachment, at which he was convicted of separate moments of lying, and everything turned out to be just the opposite. To the head of Roscosmos a letter was sent in support of Oleg Kotov.

After some time, it was organized (it is not difficult to guess by whom) another stuffing that Kotov allegedly submitted a fake flight document to the Center at the time. At the initiative of Lonchakov, the competent authorities were engaged in this, finding out that the diploma of flight education was lawfully obtained. The trial took more than six months, and the head of Roscosmos appointed another person.

In general, “comrade is nervous” and doesn’t say so. It would be better for him to tell about the crew that he abandoned (more correctly, deserted) after his appointment for the flight. The head of Roscosmos, V. Popovkin, was forced to seek urgent replacement. The choice fell on me. Then I left the control I was in charge of and headed for the fifth flight.

It is also necessary to tell about how Lonchakov left the Center and unexpectedly “surfaced” as an adviser (or assistant) of the then head of Roscosmos Ostapenko O. N. and worked in this position with benefit for himself.

Not without the help of individual “personalities”, the Center launched a campaign to discredit Sergei Krikalev. By the way, I assure you, under all letters against Krikalev to all instances, the overwhelming majority of cosmonauts from the Detachment forcedly put their signatures. Someone bent, someone persuaded, someone did it because of a misunderstanding of the situation.

I will not talk about the rest of the "exploits", in particular, to go into the details of the qualifications he received "a first-class cosmonaut." This is a complete discredit of the level of professionalism in our profession.

The man who abandoned the crew, abandoned the Center and after a while returned with “triumph” as the head of the Cosmonaut Training Center - the question is: how is this possible?

He, as a leader, needs to be removed more quickly, and not just one, but with a part of the team that is recruited not by the principle of professionalism and authority, but by loyalty, personal loyalty and cronyism. Otherwise, the Center will be killed finally. ”

During his career, Gennady Padalka traveled in space five times, made ten spacewalks. The total duration of his stay in orbit was 878 days 11 hours 29 minutes and 24 seconds (this is a world record for the total stay in space). The astronaut was going to go on an expedition again to break his own record, but he was never assigned to the crew.

Most of the other dismissed and active cosmonauts prefer not to get involved in the conflict and do not want to comment .

According to informed sources, Gennady Padalka and Yury Lonchakov had a personal conflict related to Padalka’s excessive directness - he directly said what he was thinking. Apparently, she continues to do it after the dismissal.

The cosmonaut Padalki commented on the comments of Lonchakov . He explained that "in this letter, not a line of truth." “I don't want to talk about him badly, but this is a sick person. And what I offended him? Offended by the opinion of the entire Roscosmos management, that we need to renew the team, ”said Lonchakov. He once again pointed to the age of cosmonaut Padalki, noting that he “was really in years already”: “Well, a person wants more records. This is all because of records, because of fame, but these are his problems. We fly into space not for records and fame, but to work. Therefore, his accusations of desertion - generally nonsense. I read and laughed at this letter, ”said Lonchakov.

Dmitry Rogozin, Deputy Prime Minister of Russia and Chairman of the Supervisory Board of the Roscosmos State Corporation, explained the dismissal of the astronauts by the planned rejuvenation of the detachment: “This year Roscosmos announced a new set. Therefore, there is a planned update, ”said Rogozin. According to him, the average age in the cosmonaut detachment is 53 years: “This is too serious an age for astronauts,” said Rogozin and added that he did not understand “why such a reaction is wary.”