Russia Boosts Female Cosmonaut Program, Three Thousand Applicants Apply To Fly Into Space

Russian female cosmonaut Yelena Serova (right) at the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center, Russia. (Wikimedia Commons/NASA/Stephanie Stoll)

JAKARTA - Russia's federal space agency Roscosmos expects more women to join the national cosmonaut team in 2021-2022, Roscosmos head Dmitry Rogozin said at the 'New Knowledge' online education marathon in early September.

"After we launched work under the Vyzov project with TV Channel One (to make the first film above the orbital post), we received about 3.000 questionnaires from young women who wanted to go into space. We expect our team of cosmonauts to be substantially equipped with women this year and next year", said Rogozin, citing TASS September 3.

According to Rogozin, this is essential for a normal psychological atmosphere aboard the International Space Station (ISS).

"Training techniques allow women to fully withstand weights and tests and perform complex experiments on a station equivalent to men", explains Rogozin.

Meanwhile, Head of Russia's Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center Maksim Kharlamov previously told TASS the training center plans to raise the issue of increasing female cosmonauts in Roscosmos regarding a new recruitment campaign for the national cosmonaut team.

The first female cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova. (Wikimedia Commons/RIA Novosti/archive image #612748/Alexander Mokletsov/CC-BY-SA 3.0)

To note, citing Aerotime.aero, two of the earliest women to space flight came from the Soviet Union which is now Russia. First, Valentina Tereshkova in 1963. It was barely two decades later that Svetlana Savitskaya in 1982 followed in Tereshkova's footsteps.

While citing Euronews, Until now, of the 560 people who have gone into space, only 65 of them are women. Of the 65 women, 51 of them were American women. Russia or the Soviet Union was recorded to have sent four female cosmonauts into space.

Apart from Russia, the European Space Agency (ESA) is also boosting its space program involving female astronauts, for the first time in 11 years. ESA plans to recruit more female astronauts this year.

"We're looking at the Moon and Mars. We need really great astronauts for the future. To go further than we've ever done before, we need to look wider than ever before", said ESA Director General Jan Worner.