The Yuri A. Gagarin State Scientific Research-and-Testing Cosmonaut Training Center (GCTC;

Russian Russian(s) may refer to: *Russians (), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *A citizen of Russia *Russian language, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages *''The Russians'', a b ...

: Центр подготовки космонавтов имени Ю. А. Гагарина) is a Russian training facility responsible for training

cosmonaut An astronaut (from the Ancient Greek (), meaning 'star', and (), meaning 'sailor') is a person trained, equipped, and deployed by a List of human spaceflight programs, human spaceflight program to serve as a commander or crew member of a spa ...

s for their space missions. It is in Star City of

Moscow Oblast Moscow Oblast (, , informally known as , ) is a federal subjects of Russia, federal subject of Russia (an oblast). With a population of 8,524,665 (Russian Census (2021), 2021 Census) living in an area of , it is one of the most densely populate ...

, a name which may refer to the facility itself or to its grounds.

Formation

The facility was originally known only as Military Unit 26266 or в/ч 26266, and was a secret training base for Soviet Cosmonaut candidates. The site was chosen for its proximity to Moscow and other infrastructure that would be essential for its function:

Chkalovsky Airport Chkalovsky is a military air base near Shchyolkovo, Moscow Oblast, Russia. It is located 31 km northeast of Moscow. The airport name is also given as Chkalovskoye. The facility should not be confused with Kaliningrad Chkalovsk or Oms ...

, and the Yaroslavl railroad. The densely forested area was originally a radar range with some existing infrastructure. Military doctor Colonel Yevgeny Karpov was appointed as the first chief of the cosmonaut training centre or ''Tsentr Podgotovki Kosmonavtov'' (TsPK) on 24 February 1960. The centre was home to approximately 250 personnel divided into various departments who were responsible for the development of all aspects of the space program ranging from equipment to the well-being of the cosmonauts. These included specialists in heat exchange and hygiene, survival clothing, surgery, and training staff. Initially cosmonaut candidates were housed at the nearby Frunze Central Airfield (Moscow), followed by an apartment block in Chkalovsky before eventually moving to the newly built apartments on site where they would remain with their families throughout training.

Civilian administration

Until April 2009 the center was owned and operated by the

Ministry of Defence (Russia) The Ministry of Defence of the Russian Federation (; MOD) is the governing body of the Russian Armed Forces. The President of Russia is the Supreme Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, Commander-in-Chief of the forces ...

in cooperation with

Russian Federal Space Agency The State Corporation for Space Activities "Roscosmos", commonly known simply as Roscosmos (), is a state corporation of the Russian Federation responsible for space flights, cosmonautics programs, and aerospace research. Originating from ...

. In April 2009, Russia President

Dmitry Medvedev Dmitry Anatolyevich Medvedev (born 14 September 1965) is a Russian politician and lawyer who has served as Deputy Chairman of the Security Council of Russia since 2020. Medvedev was also President of Russia between 2008 and 2012 and Prime Mini ...

signed a

presidential decree A decree is a legal proclamation, usually issued by a head of state, judge, royal figure, or other relevant authorities, according to certain procedures. These procedures are usually defined by the constitution, Legislative laws, or customary l ...

transferring the center from the Defence Ministry to the

(Roskosmos).

Key infrastructure

The facility contains infrastructure essential for the training of cosmonauts across a wide range of experiences, including simulating g-loads, mission specific/suit training, medical observation/testing and astronavigation. Key GCTC facilities include: *Full-size

mockup In manufacturing and design, a mockup, or mock-up, is a scale or full-size model of a design or device, used for teaching, demonstration, design evaluation, promotion, and other purposes. A mockup may be a ''prototype'' if it provides at lea ...

s of all major spacecraft developed since the

Soviet The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

era, including the

Soyuz Soyuz is a transliteration of the Cyrillic text Союз (Russian language, Russian and Ukrainian language, Ukrainian, 'Union'). It can refer to any union, such as a trade union (''profsoyuz'') or the Soviet Union, Union of Soviet Socialist Republi ...

and Buran vehicles, the TKS modules and orbital stations of the

Salyut Program The ''Salyut'' programme (, , meaning "salute" or "fireworks") was the first space station programme, undertaken by the Soviet Union. It involved a series of four crewed scientific research space stations and two crewed military reconnaissa ...

Mir ''Mir'' (, ; ) was a space station operated in low Earth orbit from 1986 to 2001, first by the Soviet Union and later by the Russia, Russian Federation. ''Mir'' was the first modular space station and was assembled in orbit from 1986 to ...

, and ISS. These were co-existing or with time replaced one another inside two main training hangar halls of the center. Room 1 houses the Salyut 4, 6, Mir (Don-17KS) with Kvant (Don-37KE), Kvant 2 (Don-77KSD) and Kristall (Don-77KST) modules and a Soyuz 2 descent module simulators. Room 1A houses the Soyuz simulators (Don-7ST3 -old STK-7ST - for the Soyuz TMA; TDK-7ST4 - old TDK-7TS2 for Soyouz TM - for the Soyuz TMM; Don-732M modified for Soyuz TM and the Pilot 732 - for the TORU docking system). Other rooms house the

Salyut 7 Salyut 7 (), also known as DOS-6 (Durable Orbital Station 6) was a space station in low Earth orbit from April 1982 to February 1991. It was first crewed in May 1982 with two crew via Soyuz T-5, and last visited in June 1986, by Soyuz T-15. Va ...

Spektr Spektr (; ) (TKM-O, 77KSO, 11F77O) was the fifth module of the Mir Space Station. The module was designed for remote observation of Earth's environment and contained atmospheric and surface research equipment. Spektr also had four solar arra ...

(Don-77KSO), Priroda (Don-77KSI), Buran, '' Zarya'' and '' Zvezda'' simulators. *Zero-gravity training aircraft for simulating weightlessness (cf.

Vomit Comet A reduced-gravity aircraft is a type of fixed-wing aircraft that provides brief near-weightless environments for training astronauts, conducting research, and making gravity-free movie shots. Versions of such airplanes were operated by the NA ...

), including the

MiG-15 The Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15 (; USAF/DoD designation: Type 14; NATO reporting name: Fagot) is a jet fighter aircraft developed by Mikoyan-Gurevich for the Soviet Union. The MiG-15 was one of the first successful jet fighters to incorporate s ...

UTI,

Tupolev Tu-104 The Tupolev Tu-104 (NATO reporting name: Camel) is a medium-range, narrow-body, twin turbojet-powered Soviet airliner. It was the second to enter regular service, after the British de Havilland Comet and was the only jetliner operating in the wo ...

and later the

IL-76 The Ilyushin Il-76 (; NATO reporting name: Candid) is a multi-purpose, fixed-wing, four-engine turbofan strategic airlifter designed by the Soviet Union's Ilyushin design bureau as a commercial freighter in 1967, to replace the Antonov An-12. ...

MDK with internal volume of . Training aircraft are based at the Russian Air Force base at Chkalovskiy airfield. *A Medical observation clinic and testing facility. *The original office of

Yuri Gagarin Yuri Alekseyevich Gagarin; Gagarin's first name is sometimes transliterated as ''Yuriy'', ''Youri'', or ''Yury''. (9 March 1934 – 27 March 1968) was a Soviet pilot and cosmonaut who, aboard the first successful Human spaceflight, crewed sp ...

and a number of monuments and busts to him and other cosmonauts. File:Zvezda_training_module.jpg, Cosmonauts training with the ''Zarya'' training module in the neutral buoyancy pool of the GCTC File:Mir training module.jpg, Mir training module File:ISS mock-up training modules at the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center.jpg, ISS training modules File:Soyuz TMA module.jpg, Soyuz TMA training module File:RU270484.star_city_centriguge2.jpg, Mother of all centrifuges - Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center File:RU270485.star_city_centriguge3.jpg, The mouth of the centrifuge at the Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center in Star City File:Centrifuge russia.jpg, Wide shot of the centrifuge (due excursion) at the Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center in Star City

Heads of the CTC

* Yevgeny Karpov (1960–1963) * Mikhail Odintsov (1963) * Nikolay Kuznetsov (1963–1972) * Georgy Beregovoy* (1972–1987) * Vladimir Shatalov* (1987–1991) *

Pyotr Klimuk Pyotr Ilyich Klimuk (; ; born 10 July 1942) is a former Soviet Union, Soviet astronaut, cosmonaut and the first Belarusians, Belarusian to perform space travel. Klimuk made three crewed space mission, flights into space. From 1991 to 2003, he he ...

* (1991–2003) * Vasily Tsibliyev* (2003–2009) *

Sergei Krikalev Sergei Konstantinovich Krikalev (, also transliterated as Sergei Krikalyov; born 27 August 1958) is a Russian mechanical engineer and former cosmonaut and head of the Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center. As a prominent rocket scientist, he ...

* (2009–2014) * Yury Lonchakov* (2014–2017) * Pavel Vlasov (2017–2021)
Maksim Kharlamov
(since June 2021) Asterisks (*) denote cosmonauts.

References

External links