For 14 years, Russian cosmonaut Andrei Babkin trained for a flight into space – but it will likely never take place. Something always came up.
Who trained for so long unsuccessfully for their flight into space? The cosmonaut (a term for space travelers from Russia) Andrei Babkin (55) has been training for his first flight into space for about 14 years. However, he never boarded a Soyuz rocket, and that will remain the case, as reported by Gazeta.ru citing internal sources.
Training, Bad Luck, and Injuries
Why did Andrei Babkin never go to space? Andrei Babkin was an engineer and part of different crews preparing for launches to the ISS over the years. Before space travelers fly into space, they are nominated by their respective organizations (ESA, NASA, Roscosmos, etc.) and trained for the planned mission – Babkin was no exception. However, there were always circumstances that removed him from the list before it got serious:
- The commander’s injury: Roscosmos always replaces the entire crew in this case – the backup crew eventually flew into space.
- There were delays with the technology he was supposed to oversee in orbit, so he was left behind.
But the real blow came in 2021 when Babkin and a colleague were replaced shortly before the launch of the Soyuz rocket by actress Yulia Peresild and director Klim Shipenko. Tagesschau also reported on the filming of the movie “Challenge.”
Meanwhile, Shipenko joyfully commented on this opportunity, which must have been bitter for Babkin:
People should know that you don’t have to train your whole life to go into space. It can be achieved within four months.
Four months was how long he and the actress trained to finally be allowed to fly aboard a Soyuz orbital rocket to the ISS. Babkin worked for 14 years for this dream, with that time only counting his time as part of the cosmonaut corps.
If Andrei Babkin were sent to the ISS today, he would be a high-quality crew member based on all available information – but it turned out differently.
A Time After the End of the Dream
Will Andrei Babkin be released? No, according to sources familiar with the situation, Roscosmos has asked Babkin to voluntarily resign from the corps. In return, he is supposed to receive a leading position as a scientist in the space program’s environment.
Professionally, he seems qualified, as evidenced by his 14 years of training. The reasons for Roscosmos’s unwillingness to place him on a crew list again remain unclear to us.
More about space: Aside from the decades-long established space travel by state organizations like NASA, ESA, or Roscosmos, private companies have shown serious ambitions in recent years to overtake the giants. Some German companies also wish to send rockets into space soon, such as Rocket Factory Augsburg: A German orbital rocket is set to make history from the UK
