MOSCOW, August 16. /TASS/. Russian women are less eager to become cosmonauts than men, said Sergei Krikalev, a former cosmonaut who now oversees human spaceflight for the Russian space agency, Roscosmos.

Earlier, Roscosmos announced the names of eight people, selected to its crew of cosmonauts. All of them are men.

"One of the main requirements for those willing to join the crew is determination, the desire to become a cosmonaut. Apparently, the percentage of women willing to become cosmonauts is a bit lower," the official said in an interview, posted by Roscosmos on YouTube on Thursday.

The 17th open selection to the Roscosmos space crew began in March 2017. The cosmonaut trainees were selected among 420 Russian citizens aged 35 or younger, with a higher education of a pilot, a scientist or an engineer.

The eight cosmonaut trainees selected as a result are Russian military officers Sergei Mikayev, Alexander Grebenkin, Alexei Zubritsky and Oleg Platonov; Russian aerospace company RSC Energia employees Yevgeny Prokopyev and Alexander Gorbunov; commercial airline pilot Kirill Peskov and the head of innovations for a Russian construction equipment company, Konstantin Borisov.