SELECTIONS BY TsPK

The Cosmonaut Training Center was the first to select a dedicated group for the Buran program. On 23 August 1976, just six months after the official approval of the Energiya-Buran program, nine pilots were chosen, the first selection by TsPK in six years. They were:

• Leonid Georgyevich Ivanov;

• Leonid Konstantinovich Kadenyuk;

• Nikolay Tikhonovich Moskalenko;

• Sergey Filippovich Protchenko;

• Yevgeniy Vladimirovich Saley;

• Anatoliy Yakovlevich Solovyov;

• Vladimir Georgyevich Titov;

• Vladimir Vladimirovich Vasyutin;

• Aleksandr Aleksandrovich Volkov;

All of them were young, relatively inexperienced Air Force pilots in their mid to late twenties. The rationale behind their selection at this early stage may have been that they would need several years to advance their flying skills while the more experienced LII and GKNII test pilots conducted the early Buran test flight program.

Not surprisingly, it was decided that the cosmonauts would first have to undergo test pilot training before beginning the standard cosmonaut training course. They began studying and training at TsPLI in Akhtubinsk in September 1976, becoming Test Pilots 3rd Class (the lowest test pilot rank) in June 1977. In addition, in August they conducted parachute training. From October 1977 until September 1978 they then underwent the standard basic cosmonaut training course (“General Space Training” or OKP) at TsPK.

After graduation most members of the group (Ivanov, Kadenyuk, Moskalenko, Protchenko, Saley, Solovyov, and Volkov) returned to Akhtubinsk to resume test pilot training with the goal of becoming Test Pilots 2nd Class. It was during this follow-up course that Sergey Protchenko was medically disqualified and dismissed from the cosmonaut team in April 1979 [3]. More than a year later, on 24 October 1980, the group suffered another loss when Leonid Ivanov was killed in the crash of a MiG-27 in Akhtubinsk.

The Air Force’s 1976 selection group. From left: Vasyutin, Ivanov, Saley, Kadenyuk, Protchenko, Volkov, Solovyov, Moskalenko, and Titov (B. Vis files).

A remarkable group photo of the 1976 selection group. Although the names of the cosmonauts were still state secrets at the time, it appears to have been made for publicity purposes, as the obelisk and the wall on the right actually are over 150 meters apart (B. Vis files).

On 22 June 1981, Kadenyuk, Moskalenko, Saley, Volkov, and Solovyov were awarded the title Test Pilot 2nd Class. After that, the first four went on to conduct Buran-related training, but Solovyov was transferred to the Salyut space station program, together with Titov and Vasyutin.

Leonid Kadenyuk was the next to be dismissed. He left the cosmonaut team in March 1983 after he had divorced his wife. In the Soviet Union of the 1970s and 1980s, getting a divorce usually resulted in the end of a cosmonaut career for those who were still awaiting their first mission.

The 1976 selection had been limited to the Air Force and it was therefore decided that another screening would take place in the Soviet Navy and Air Defense Forces

Aleksandr Viktorenko (left) and Nikolay Grekov (B. Vis files).

[4]. As a result, on 23 May 1978 one additional candidate from each of these two branches of the military was added to the detachment:

• Nikolay Sergeyevich Grekov (Air Defense Forces);

• Aleksandr Stepanovich Viktorenko (Navy).

In October 1978 the two began training in Akhtubinsk, graduating as Test Pilot 3rd Class on 2 July 1979. They then returned to Star City, where they underwent OKP, finishing that in February 1982. Viktorenko almost died in a bizarre accident during a medical check-up in 1979. He was wearing a band with electrodes around his body to have an ECG made when a 220-volt current was accidentally sent through it. Apparently his heart stopped and he was brought back to life using CPR. According to Viktorenko the incident cost him quite some time in training as the doctors wanted to be 100% certain that he had not suffered any ill effects from the incident [5].

As the training went on, it was becoming increasingly apparent that Buran’s first flights would be significantly delayed. Since TsPK was becoming confronted with a shortage of commanders for Soyuz and Salyut, it was decided in late 1983 to transfer all members of the 1976 and 1978 selections to the space station program. In the following years, they would become the core of the cosmonaut detachment, with several of them flying record-breaking missions (for details on further careers see the cosmonaut biographies in Appendix B).