MOSCOW, June 3. /TASS/. Roscosmos does not plan to create a separate all-women cosmonaut team, Executive Director for Manned Space Programs Sergei Krikalev said at a press conference in Moscow on Monday.
"No all-female crew will be created; we have the common Russian crew. The issue was about the fact that historically there have been fewer women in our crew than in the American one, and the reason is not some special requirements for the women participating but just the number of contenders," he said.
Speaking about new enrollment to the Russian cosmonaut squad, Krikalev specified that demands to men and women in the selection process are very similar. "There is a small difference in physical training; however, in terms of knowledge and motivation, if a person does not want it, he has nothing to do in the team," the Roscosmos executive director noted.
On May 31, Roscosmos Director General Dmitry Rogozin said during his visit to the Progress rocket and space center in Samara that the state corporation had declared new enrollment to the cosmonaut crew. The state corporation expects women and experts in the aerospace industry to participate in it more actively, he said.