Star City is the launchpad for every Russian cosmonaut. At this unique training center outside Moscow, future spacefarers undergo rigorous trials and learn to cope with high g-forces, isolation, and weightlessness.
Cosmonaut Anton Shkaplerov has completed four trips to the ISS and ventured into open space three times. His experience includes years of training, including parachute jumps and even tests in total silence inside an anechoic chamber. Sergei Mikaev is preparing for his first launch, practicing every step of a spacewalk in the hydrolab, where water simulates weightlessness. His dream is to take part in lunar missions – the next stage in humanity’s conquest of the universe.
How has cosmonaut training evolved since the 1960s, and what do explorers of different space eras have in common?
