MOSCOW. Sept 23 (Interfax) - Would-be cosmonauts have been facing increasing requirements for physical fitness, the Cosmonaut Training Center's industry magazine Crewed Spaceflights said.
"A comparison of the results of the current and previous selections, in 2012 and in 2017-2018, respectively, points to a sustained trend toward increased physical fitness on the part of potential cosmonauts," the article says.
During the last selection, candidates did swimming, running, diving, long jumps, pull-ups, trampoline exercises, and other types of physical activity, it says.
Four-fifths of the candidates were selected, with men substantially outnumbering the women.
"The data calculated shows that successful male candidates on average were much more (by half) physically fit than their female counterparts were, while men from among civilian and military personnel on average demonstrated approximately equal physical fitness," the article says.
The last selection for a cosmonaut detachment was in 2020. The successful candidates were Sergei Irtuganov, Alexander Kolyabin, Sergei Teteryatnikov, and Arutyun Kiviryan. The final list included only men, despite Roscosmos announcing plans to recruit young women more actively.
At present, the detachment includes only one woman, Anna Kikina. Last summer, it was reported that she was due to fly into space in 2022.
To date, four Russian women have been in space: Valentina Tereshkova, Svetlana Savitskaya, Yelena Kondakova, and Yelena Serova. The last spaceflight involving a female cosmonaut was in 2014-2015.