MOSCOW. Jan 27 (Interfax-AVN) - Future space crews are learning to survive during winter in unknown terrain, Yury Gidzenko, a spokesman for the Cosmonauts' Training Center (Star Town, Moscow Region), told Interfax on Thursday.
"The crews continue scheduled training in case of an emergency landing in forest-covered boggy terrain during winter. Yesterday, the first crew that comprised two Russian cosmonauts and one U.S. astronaut fulfilled their task and today the second group started off," he said.
Such tests are part of pre-flight training in case a crew lands off target and is not immediately spotted by rescue teams, he said.
"Cosmonauts must be able to survive two or three days using personal survival kits, materials at hand, their parachute, trees and brush," Gidzenko said.
The first crew mentioned by the spokesman consisted of Roman Romanenko and Mikhail Korniyenko of Russia and Garret Reisman of the United States, who waited for rescuers to arrive for three days and two nights in a makeshift camp they put up in the wood.
"Those currently undergoing the winter survival test are Maxim Surayev and American astronauts Nicole Scott and Timothy Copra. And in three days, U.S. astronauts Michael Barret and Sandra Magnus and [Russian cosmonaut] Oleg Artemyev will follow suit," Gidzenko said.