The Interdepartmental Commission (IAC) for the selection of cosmonauts and their appointment to spacecraft and stations crews decided to recommend Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center appoint four people to the positions of test cosmonaut candidates of Roscosmos Cosmonaut Team. The decision came into force on January 27, 2021 following an open contest started in 2019.
The winners are Sergey Irtuganov, Alexander Kolyabin, Sergey Teteryatnikov and Harutyun Kiviryan. In the near future, they will take general space training course for the next two years. The campaign to select new Cosmonaut Team members began on June 3, 2019.
All contestants had to go through several stages:
- Educational and professional compliance with the requirements;
- Complex of medical examinations;
- Assessment of psychological qualities of applicants;
- Testing for physical fitness requirements compliance.