During the golden years of the Soviet space age thousands of young men would compete for a handful of training places and a chance to be like the 1960s space hero Yuri Gagarin, who was the first human in space in 1961.

But not for the first time since the space age began not enough would be trainee cosmonauts have applied to join with only two civilian candidates being accepted for training after an 18-month effort. And now Yelena Serova, 30, and Nikolai Tikhonov, 24, will be supplemented by five air force pilots to make up a group of seven trainees.

Cosmonauts were heroic figures in the Soviet Union, given special privileges and rock-star treatment. The latest cosmonaut recruitment drive, only the sixteenth since 1966, attracted a few dozen applicants. Young Russians are dazzled more by career prospects on Earth than by the glamour of reaching for the stars.

Sergei Shamsutdinov, an editor with Cosmonaut News was reported by The Times as saying, "The Soviet Union achieved so many firsts in space that it was a rare and privileged profession. Now it is seen as just another job. The present generation is less romantic and more pragmatic about their career choices. Cosmonauts are paid very little in comparison with bankers or businessmen and, of course, people want to earn good money."

Currently Russian cosmonauts can less than $1000 and that the profession has lost its high public status as more and more "space tourists" hail a ride on a Soyuz Taxi flight to the International Space Station for a mere $20 million.

According to The Times Mrs Serova was recruited from within Energia, where she is an engineer at the mission control centre. Her husband, Mark, was accepted on to the cosmonaut training programme in 2003.

Underscoring the rapid fall in status of the Russian manned space program among young people, David Tarkhanyan, a year two at a Moscow technical university told The Times, "I think the gap is too wide between what such a job offers and what a private company offers. I don't think there are too many students left who would be romantic enough to abandon material gain for space."

Related Links
Energia
Travelling through Space

Add to Delicious