The next International Space Station crew is training in Zvyozdny Gorodok (Star City), in the Moscow Region. The Yury Gagarin Cosmonauts Training Center has the facilities to simulate zero gravity and a high g-force.
The next International Space Station crew is training in Zvyozdny Gorodok (Star City), in the Moscow Region. The Yury Gagarin Cosmonauts Training Center has the facilities to simulate zero gravity and a high g-force.
The center’s hydro lab contains a special 12-meter deep swimming pool with a mock-up of Russia’s segment of the ISS.
Each cosmonaut has to take at least 20 training sessions in the hydro lab to gain the necessary skills for working in outer space.
Cosmonauts spend about three hours at 10 meters underwater practicing the rescue of a crew member in an accident.
Photo: Instructors Ignat Ignatov, center, and Maxim Zaitsev, background, left, conducting a zero gravity training session for cosmonauts at the Yury Gagarin Cosmonauts Training Center’s hydro lab in the Star City.
Photo: Instructors Ignat Ignatov, center, and Maxim Zaitsev, background, left, conducting a zero gravity training session for cosmonauts at the Yury Gagarin Cosmonauts Training Center’s hydro lab in the Star City.
After cosmonauts complete their training they are required to pass an exam before a special commission. Based on the exam’s results, cosmonauts are cleared for an ISS mission.
Working in water is much easier than in zero gravity, says Gennady Padalka, head of the cosmonauts’ extreme training department. “Maintaining ones position in a swimming pool is easier since water has drag. In space it only takes a slight push or a movement of your arm for you to start floating away from the station,” he added.
Photo: Specialists assisting Ignat Ignatov with a special suit during training session in the center’s hydro lab.
Photo: Specialists assisting Ignat Ignatov with a special suit during training session in the center’s hydro lab.
With this suit on, a cosmonaut weighs about 200 kg. However, a cosmonaut will barely feel this weight in the water.
The most difficult test for future ISS crew members is the centrifuge simulator. Cosmonauts must endure a high g-force load during this test. Photo: Submerging a space station module into water at the Yury Gagarin Cosmonauts Training Center’s hydro lab.
