The Cosmonaut Corps (Russian: Отряд космонавтов) is a unit of the Russia's Roscosmos state corporation that selects, trains, and provides cosmonauts as crew members for the Russian Federation and international space missions. It is part of the Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center, based at Star City in Moscow Oblast, Russia.
History The development of Soviet science and technology made it possible, by the end of the 1950s, to consider the issues of crewed space flight. At the beginning of 1959, the President of the USSR Academy of Sciences Mstislav Keldysh held a meeting at which questions about crewed space flight were discussed specifically, right down to "who should fly?". The decision on the selection and training of astronauts for the first space flight on the spacecraft "Vostok" was made in the Resolution of the Central Committee of the Communist Party and the Council of Ministers of the USSR No. 22-10 "On the medical selection of candidates for astronauts", dated January 5, 1959, and in the Resolution Council of Ministers of the USSR No. 569-264 "On the preparation of man for space flights", May 22, 1959. The selection of candidates for cosmonauts corps was entrusted to the command of the Air Force of the Armed Forces, military doctors and medical flight commissions, which monitored the health of pilots in units and formations, and the training of future cosmonauts was entrusted to the Air Force of the Armed Forces of the USSR. Later, the selection was directly entrusted to a group of specialists from the Central Military Research Aviation Hospital (TsVNIAH). The cosmonaut corps was formed on January 11, 1960, by the order of the Commander-in-Chief of the Air Force of the Armed Forces of the USSR, dated March 7, 1960, the first 12 pilots who passed the initial selection were appointed to the post of listener-cosmonauts of the Air Force; The first cosmonaut corps, which included the future first cosmonaut of Yuri Gagarin, consisted of twenty people. On March 23, 1961, Yuri Gagarin was appointed as the commander of the cosmonaut corps. The first Cosmonauts Corps was military unit No. 26266, which formed with the task of training cosmonauts, and a little later it was transformed into the Cosmonaut Training Center of the Air Force of the Armed Forces. After the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the Corps became partly civilian and was managed by the Russian Space and Aviation Agency (RKA).
Organization The Cosmonaut Corps is based at the Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center in Star City, Russia, although members may be assigned to other locations based on mission requirements. The Chief of the Cosmonaut Office is the most senior leadership position for active cosmonauts in the Corps. The Chief serves as head of the Corps and is the principal adviser to the Roscosmos Director-General on cosmonaut training and operations. The first Chief Astronaut was Yuri Gagarin, appointed in 1960. The current Chief is Maksim Kharlamov.
Requirements
In order to enter the cosmonaut corps, a candidate for the role of a space pilot must pass medical and psychological tests (in the Central Research Aviation Hospital), as well as undergo a face-to-face interview. During the Soviet era, in addition, membership in the Communist Party of the Soviet Union was also a prerequisite for joining the cosmonaut corps. The main current requirements for joining the cosmonaut corps are to be with Russian citizenship, age up to 35 years, have higher education, have knowledge of English, successfully pass medical and psychological tests, and have body weight up to 90 kilograms (200 lb).
List of active cosmonauts As of July 2025, the corps has 23 "active" cosmonauts consisting of 1 woman and 22 men. All of the current members of the cosmonaut corps were selected in 1996 or later. Missions underlined are in progress. Missions in italics are scheduled and subject to change.
List of former cosmonauts (partial)
Russia and the Soviet Union The Soviet space program came under the control of the Russian Federation in December 1991; the new program, now called the Russian Federal Space Agency, retained continuity of equipment and personnel with the Soviet program. While all Soviet and RKA cosmonauts were born within the borders of the U.S.S.R., many were born outside the boundaries of Russia, and may be claimed by other Soviet successor states as nationals of those states. These cosmonauts are marked with an asterisk * and their place of birth is shown in an appended list. All, however, claimed Soviet or Russian citizenship at the time of their space flights.
A Viktor Mikhaylovich Afanasyev — Soyuz TM-11, Soyuz TM-18, Soyuz TM-29, Soyuz TM-33/32 Vladimir Aksyonov (1935–2024) — Soyuz 22, Soyuz T-2 Aleksandr Pavlovich Aleksandrov — Soyuz T-9, Soyuz TM-3 Ivan Anikeyev (1933–1992) — Expelled from Vostok program; no flights. Anatoly Artsebarsky* — Soyuz TM-12 Yuri Artyukhin (1930–1998) — Soyuz 14 Oleg Atkov — Soyuz T-10/11 Toktar Aubakirov* — Soyuz TM-13/12 Sergei Avdeyev — Soyuz TM-15, Soyuz TM-22
B Andrei Babkin — No flights. Aleksandr Balandin — Soyuz TM-9 Yuri Baturin — Soyuz TM-28/27, Soyuz TM-32/31 Pavel Belyayev (1925–1970) — Voskhod 2 Georgi Beregovoi* (1921–1995) — Soyuz 3 Anatoly Berezovoy (1942–2014) — Soyuz T-5/7 Valentin Bondarenko (1937–1961) — No flights. Andrei Borisenko — Soyuz TMA-21, Soyuz MS-02 Nikolai Budarin — STS-71/Soyuz TM-21, Soyuz TM-27, STS-113/Soyuz TMA-1 Valery Bykovsky — (1934–2019) — Vostok 5, Soyuz 22, Soyuz 31/29
D Vladimir Dezhurov — Soyuz TM-21/STS-71 Georgy Dobrovolsky* (1928–1971), Died on reentry. — Soyuz 11 Lev Dyomin (1926–1998) — Soyuz 15 Vladimir Dzhanibekov* — Soyuz 27/26, Soyuz 39, Soyuz T-12, Soyuz T-13
F Konstantin Feoktistov (1926–2009) — Voskhod 1 Valentin Filatyev (1930–1990) — Expelled from Vostok program; no flights. Anatoly Filipchenko (1928–2022) — Soyuz 7, Soyuz 16
G Yuri Gagarin (1934–1968), First person in space. — Vostok 1 Yuri Gidzenko* — Soyuz TM-22, Soyuz TM-31/STS-102, Soyuz TM-34/Soyuz TM-33 Yuri Glazkov (1939–2008) — Soyuz 24 Viktor Gorbatko (1934–2017) — Soyuz 7, Soyuz 24, Soyuz 37/36 Georgi Grechko (1931–2017) — Soyuz 17, Soyuz 26/27, Soyuz T-14/13 Aleksei Gubarev (1931–2015) — Soyuz 17, Soyuz 28
I Aleksandr Ivanchenkov — Soyuz 29/31, Soyuz T-6, Anatoli Ivanishin — Soyuz TMA-22, Soyuz MS-01, Soyuz MS-16,
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