MOSCOW, December 3. /TASS/. Russia’s space corporation Roscosmos hopes that Belarus will select a young woman to be trained for a space flight, the corporation’s CEO, Dmitry Rogozin, told the media on the sidelines of the EAEU’s business forum Space Integration on Friday.
"I have asked Belarus to select a young woman to keep our cosmonaut team in balance," Rogozin said, when asked when a Belarusian cosmonaut would begin to be trained for a space mission.
The Roscosmos chief hopes that in the first quarter of 2022 the Gagarin Space Training Center will be able to see a list of candidates with a view to sending a Belarusian cosmonaut on a space mission in 2023 or 2024.
Earlier, Russian President Vladimir Putin said at a meeting of the Supreme State Council of the Union State that Russia was ready to include a Belarusian cosmonaut in a future crew of the International Space Station. He said the issue had been discussed with top Roscosmos officials in Sochi.
A source in the Russian space industry told TASS on Thursday Roscosmos had offered to train a cosmonaut for Belarus over a period of two years.