In order to become a crew member for any designated suborbital mission in the LATCOSMOS-C program you first need to be accepted as a TPEM (Crewman Mission Specialist) crew candidate or CSEM (Suborbital cosmonaut mission specialist)  cosmonaut candidate.

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For this to happen, you need to be nominated by an institution in your native country, this institution must be a member of the International Astronautical Federation (IAF) and can be a research or educational institution or your country's space agency.

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For those nominated by their space agencies, they will become CSEM cosmonauts if accepted for training, for those nominated by any other institution member of the IAF they will become TPEM (Crewman Mission Specialist) if accepted for training.

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If the nominating institution is not a member of the IAF, being this an space agency or any other institution, they can apply to join the EXA International Cosmonaut Corps (ICC), this selection will be done over a case-by-case basis. If selected, the nominee will become an EXA ICC Cosmonaut and must be available to fly for a period of at least 3 years, renewable.

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If the nominating institution cannot provide the funding need for the training and flight of its nominee, it can apply to the OrbitMuse platform for funding.

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Acceptance

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For a nominee to be accepted, a full CV and profile must be submitted alongside with detailed medical/bio-metrical/psycho-metrical records, once vetted and reviewed by a selection committee, an answer will be sent to the nominating institution and to the nominee. this process can take up to 2 months since the complete application is received. All information and records received by LATCOSMOS are private and kept offline.

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If the nominee meets the minimum requirements (as detailed below) he/she will become pre-selected candidate and will be notified by email alongside the nominating institution. to become candidate, the nominee will need to pass a final round of personal interviews by the Selection Board.

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Once the institution and its nominee are accepted, a public profile with a provisional picture will be created with non-sensitive data about the candidate and its nominating institution.The institution then will have up to 90 days to raise the funds needed to begin training of its nominee, once the funds are raised, training will begin at the next available class, training can take no less than 90 days and no more than 365 days.

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If funds cannot the raised, the nominee will remain as valid accepted candidate for a period of 2 years, after that, he/she will have to update his/her application with fresh medical/bio-metrical/psycho-metrical records and certificates.

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Training

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The full CSEM and TPEM training programs will be revealed to the candidate only after signing and NDA and a training waiver, the programs  imply traveling into countries like USA, Canada, Russia and Ecuador, it is responsibility of the institution that its candidate has all the traveling permits needed. Also, many classes will be virtual with no more than 8 hours per week of classroom time, no more than 4 hours per week of homework and no more than 8 hours per week of physical training.

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The program includes life insurance for the candidate valid only during the training program term.

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The candidate will be provided by his/her own NOMEX 2A/3A flight suit tailored to its measures with a leather name tag with the program's wings, the LATCOSMOS-C patch and the flag of his/her country, the nominating institution can provide its own patch that has to conform to the dress code of the program, also a pair of flight boots and steel dog tags will be provided.

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The candidate must provide an official picture dressed in full flight suit with the flag of his/her country behind in an specific format that will be provided in order to appear in the public website section of the mission, updating the provisional picture of the candidate.

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The training program does not guarantee candidate acceptance into TPEM or CSEM cosmonaut, if the candidate does not meet the minimum qualification, he/she will not graduate.

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Once the candidate graduates, the nominating institution will have no less than 12 and no more than 24 weeks to raise the funds needed to secure a crewman position in an ESAA-class suborbital mission. Once the funds are secure, the candidate will be included in a mission crew roster, assigned to a commander and awarded a position in the next available ESAA-class mission.

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More information

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The information detailed here is only preliminary, the full program information shall be disclosed to the institutions/candidates directly upon NDA agreement signing.