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Cosmonauts might resume training in Crimea in 2015

Crimea has all the necessary conditions for sea and mountain training, it is a unique territory with unique opportunities, Chief of the Russian Cosmonauts Training Center Yury Lonchakov said
Cosmonauts' training in Crimea, 1990 Fotokhronika TASS/Albert Pushkarev
Cosmonauts' training in Crimea, 1990
© Fotokhronika TASS/Albert Pushkarev

MOSCOW, November 18. /TASS/. Russian cosmonauts and their foreign colleagues might resume training in Crimea next year; the situation is being studied now, Chief of the Russian Cosmonauts Training Center Yury Lonchakov told TASS.

"We have been looking into the problem to ensure that cosmonauts could undergo training at sea, rather than on a lake, so that in the event of emergency (splashing onto sea) they could have the necessary skills to survive," Lonchakov said.

The Russian and foreign cosmonauts had been trained in Crimea until 2008, "but something went wrong and they left Crimea. Afterwards, they were trained in Sochi, but we have found no other place better than Crimea to train cosmonauts," Lonchakov said. "Crimea has all the necessary conditions for sea and mountain training. This is a unique territory with unique opportunities."

"We have been studying all variants, negotiating problems with organizations, which will ensure support, six months ahead. If we are planning sea training we need support of logistics supply ships; we need instructors who know mountains well in case of mountain training, and helicopters and Air Force will come to the rescue if a cosmonaut has to be picked up from water surface," he said.

In perspective, training on water surface has been planned at Vostochny cosmodrome (in the Amur region) which is under construction, Lonchakov said.

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