Russian Cosmonaut Resigns Space Station Command for 'Better Job'

Cosmonaut Yuri Lonchakov, seen here on board the International Space Station in 2008, resigned from the Russian federal space agency, despite being assigned to a 2015 mission. Credit: NASA View full size image

A veteran Russian cosmonaut who was assigned to command the International Space Station in 2015 has unexpectedly resigned.
Cosmonaut Yuri Lonchakov tendered his resignation to the Russian federal space agency, Roscosmos, on Thursday (Sept. 5). Russian news agencies, quoting the head of the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center, reported Lonchakov will be "formally discharged" on Sept. 14.
"He came and told me that he had found a better job than working in space," Sergei Krikalev, the training center's chief and the current record holder for most time in space by any human, told the Interfax news service. "Frankly, we were counting on him because he was not just in the unit, [but] he was assigned to a crew." [Quiz: Do You Know the International Space Station?]