MOSCOW. June 26 (Interfax-AVN) - Anna Kikina has been allowed to stay in Russia's cosmonaut group after a government commission reversed its decision to expel her from a team where she was the only woman, a Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos) spokesman said.
"She was left in the group as a candidate cosmonaut," the spokesman told Interfax-AVN.
Another space industry source told Interfax-AVN that Kikina would have to take one-year extra training before she is allowed to travel into space. However, this would not be an individual course - she would be in a group of trainees and would even be the team commander during water landing and survival and sessions, the source said.
Kikina's earlier expulsion from the cosmonaut team had been announced by the head of the Energia Rocket and Space Corporation, Alexander Kaleri.