S7 Airlines has conducted an internal selection of pilots and sent their applications to the Cosmonaut Training Center, which since the end of March last year has been the nationwide selection of cosmonauts, said Sergei Sopov, general director of S7 Space Transportation Systems.

"We selected five people among the pilots of our airline, and their applications were sended to the Cosmonaut Training Center for inclusion in the list for selection into the cosmonaut detachment," Sopov said.

The press service of the S7 Group confirmed this information. "Yes, we confirm the information," the press service said.

ROSCOSMOS announced the recruitment of the Russian cosmonaut detachment on March 14, 2017. It was expanded twice and is now planned until mid-2018. It was reported that about 450 applications were submitted. In total, the squad is planned to choose from six to eight people.