A weightless environment training facility, where cosmonauts learn to work in a zero gravity by means of simulating missions carried out in the outer space, will be upgraded in a year, head of Cosmonaut Training Center (CTC) named after Y.A. Gagarin, Yuri Lonchakov told RIA Novosti.

Earlier he said that in light of increasing number of tasks, specified in the program for development of manned astronautics, the center is preparing documents comprising new training programs.

“We have a lot of things to do. And there will be a lot of new things. The upgrade of weightless environment training facility has been started, where cosmonauts are trained to carry out missions in the outer space. It is very important,” Lonchakov told Rossiyskaya Gazeta.

“There is a lot of installation work to be done on the surface of the station. Specialists need to prepare for it. In future a Russian orbital base may be created. So we need a state-of-the-art laboratory,” the head of CTC explained.

He noted that ISS is a very complicated mechanism with a weight of 400 tons, length – 70 m and width – 110 m. In future its Russian segment may be upgraded. According to him, depth and diameter of the laboratory’s pool will remain the same, but all the equipment is going to be replaced.

“It is planned that the work will take about a year. We have a very ambitious plans related to upgrade of the centrifuge, establishment of a joint practice ground in order to prepare cosmonauts for surviving different climatic conditions, as well as upgrade of rehabilitation facilities,” he added.