SPACE FLIGHT NEEDS MENTAL STRENGTH

SERGEY Prokopyev, currently the only Russian cosmonaut at the International Space Station (ISS), said on Wednesday that a person should be able to be awake for 68 hours in order to be selected for a space flight, as this is one of the guarantees of his psychological readiness.

The Moscow Region-based Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center posted on Facebook a video featuring Prokopyev answering various questions by the center’s account subscribers. “A very hard test is being carried out within the general space flight preparation – a person is placed in a special anechoic chamber, and he stays awake for 68 hours, as his ability to cope with a similar stress is being tested,” Prokopyev said in the video.

He added that psychologists participated in the joint training of the space crews in order to assess the cosmonauts’ readiness for cooperation in space, as well as the cooperation within a certain crew.

“As a result of such a strict selection process, only people who have already got used to each other psychologically are included in one crew,” Prokopyev said.

He added that the thing that impressed him most in space was the size of the ISS as seen from the Soyuz spacecraft upon approach.