"The newspaper.<url>" announced the dismissal of cosmonaut Babkin, who did not fly to the ISS
Andrei Babkin, a member of the cosmonaut squadron, was offered to resign from his flight position for health reasons. It is claimed that the main cause is a runny nose. At the same time, another reason is the desire of Roscosmos to save money on its preparation, compensating for the budget deficit.
Babkin, who had been preparing to fly into space as part of the squad for 14 years, never flew to the ISS because of the filming of the film "The Challenge".
Babkin was offered to resign, although doctors diagnose him as "healthy"
According to the source of the newspaper.En" from the rocket and space industry, Babkin was asked to sign an application for transfer from a flight position in the cosmonaut squadron to the position of deputy commander for science. This means that, according to the leadership of the Cosmonaut Training Center, Babkin is no longer suitable as a candidate for cosmonauts, which means that he will never fly into space. The information was confirmed by Dmitry Strugovets, an expert in the field of cosmonautics.
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| Andrey Babkin (on the right). |
| Source: Sergey Karpukhin / TASS |
The reason for the dismissal could be a medical withdrawal. It is explained that it could have been made by the Main Medical Commission (MMC) of the Cosmonaut Training Center, and its decisions are not checked by anyone. MMC does not accept the opinions and opinions of outside doctors, even from leading clinics and research institutes. The source of the publication said that several other cosmonaut candidates had already been dismissed in the same way, but did not give their names. "This is due to the fact that astronauts inside the squadron sign certain rules of the code that do not allow them to "take out the trash from the hut," she added.Газета.Ru ".
According to the information available to the publication, Babkin was dismissed due to bilateral polysinusitis, or a running cold. He even performed the recommended surgery and was allowed to fly in the summer of 2022, but in December of the same year he received permanent disability instead of temporary. At the same time, according to the published certificates of examinations in various medical institutions from March 2023, he was diagnosed as "healthy" and noted positive dynamics. The same was revealed in June of this year.
Babkin has been preparing for the flight for 14 years
Andrey Babkin was enlisted in the cosmonaut corps 14 years ago, having previously worked for the same period as an engineer, test pilot and leading researcher at the rocket and space Corporation Energia. He began preparing for the flight in earnest in October 2017, when, as a flight engineer, he joined the backup crew of ISS-57/58 with cosmonaut Oleg Skripochka and NASA astronaut Shannon Walker. But the crew was changed in May 2018 due to the revision of the ISS flight program. It is alleged that at that time Boeing received five seats on Soyuz spacecraft for American astronauts to repay the Russian debt for the floating Sea Launch cosmodrome.
Babkin then began training as part of the ISS-61/62 crew with Nikolai Tikhonov and Christopher Cassidy. But in October 2018, the Soyuz MS-10 with Alexei Ovchinin and Nick Hague crashed at launch. Both eventually flew to the ISS on the next scheduled launch, and because of this, Babkin's flight was postponed again.
Since April 2019, Babkin has been preparing as part of the main crew of ISS-63 with Tikhonov and Japanese Akihiko Hoshide. But a Russian cosmonaut gets injured and the entire crew is changed. Since May 2020, he has been part of the main crew of ISS-66 with cosmonaut Anton Shkaplerov. But in the end, he was replaced by actress Julia Peresild and director Klim Shipenko, who in October 2021 went to the ISS to shoot the film "The Challenge".
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| Yulia Peresild, Roscosmos cosmonaut Oleg Novitsky and director Klim Shipenko after landing the lander of the Soyuz MS-18 manned transport spacecraft, October 17, 2021. |
| Source: © Sergey Savostyanov/TASS |
Alexander Khokhlov, a design engineer for space instrumentation, noted at the time that the cosmonauts were dissatisfied with this project, since the federal space program, which was preparing for launch, was used to work on it. "Instead of finding money to make an additional ship, they took a ship under the federal space program, paid for by the government, on which professional astronauts were supposed to fly. There was a flight plan, and the whole plan was redrawn," Khokhlov said. He admitted that he felt very sorry for Babkin, who is over 50 years old. No one spoke in his support, although the cosmonaut had been waiting for his flight for a very long time.
At the moment, his status is listed in the Center as "test cosmonaut - deputy commander of the cosmonaut detachment (for research and testing work)."
Hundreds of millions of dollars were spent on Babkin's training
It is noted that Babkin, in addition to training at the Cosmonaut Training Center, has also completed an extended specialization course in North America and Europe during this time. So, in Canada, he studied to control the Canadian SSRMS manipulator — to capture payload and satellites. In the USA, he was trained to work with the systems of the American segment of the ISS — he trained in the Alpha-Cupola virtual reality laboratories to escort and capture Dragon and Cygnus ships, as well as control the SAFER installation, which is worn on a spacesuit in outer space.
In Germany, Babkin received certification for working with the payload of the European Space Agency and the Columbus module, and also successfully completed the course of the Japanese space agency JAXA on working with the Japanese JEM module and the HTV cargo ship.
According to Dmitry Strugovets, hundreds of millions of dollars or tens of billions of rubles could have been spent on Babkin's training over the years, based on the average estimate of the cost of training one cosmonaut from among the candidates.
