Soviet and Russian Lunar Exploration

Early Soviet cosmonauts, Sochi, 1961
Those chosen for the moon mission were inevitably likely to be drawn from the
most experienced members of the groups, especially those who had flown in space
before. In more detail, the following is the pool from which they were drawn:
I960 first Air Force pilot selection (20): Ivan Anikeyev, Pavel Belyayev, Valentin
Bondarenko, Valeri Bykovsky, Valentin Filateyev, Yuri Gagarin, Viktor Gorbatko,
Anatoli Kartashov, Yevgeni Khrunov, Vladimir Komarov, Alexei Leonov,
Grigori Nelyubov, Andrian Nikolayev, Pavel Popovich, Mars Rafikov,
Georgi Shonin, Gherman Titov, Valentin Varlamov, Boris Volynov, Dmitri
Zaikin.
This was the first, original and most famous group of cosmonauts. These were the
equivalent of the Mercury seven, selected in April 1959 for the first American mission
into space and immortalized in the film The right stuff. Russia's right stuff comprised
young Air Force pilots recruited in 1959-1960. Compared with the American group,
they were much younger (24 to 35, but mainly at the younger end) and had much fewer
flying hours. Gherman Titov, the second Russian to orbit the Earth, was only 25 years
old when he made his mission. Yuri Gagarin, the first man in space, had only 230
flying hours to his credit when he joined the cosmonaut squad (prospective Americans
must have a minimum of 1,500). Like the Americans, the Russians put an emphasis on
young, tough, fit men in perfect health who could react quickly to difficult situations.
Young Air Force pilots, disciplined by military service, were considered to provide the
best possible background for the early space missions. China selected a similar type of
person for its first yuhangyuan group (1970) and its second one many years later
(1996).
Cosmonauts from the moon flights were most likely to be drawn from this group.
By autumn 1968, eight members of the group had flown, in this order: Yuri Gagarin,
Gherman Titov, Andrian Nikolayev, Pavel Popovich, Valeri Bykovsky, Vladimir
Komarov, Pavel Belyayev and Alexei Leonov. There was a high rate of attrition
from this group and eight of the group never flew in space at all because of problems,