Russian cosmonauts earn less than $800/month, and the program is having a hard time attracting would-be space-farers:
According to Space News, cosmonauts now earn $767 (20,448 Russian rubles) per month plus bonuses for spaceflights. That's far less than what they could attract in the private sector.
So the rocket company Energia has allowed university students to apply to be cosmonauts before they graduate. That didn't pan out so well. Only five of 20 students who volunteered for the programme in 2006 underwent medical tests. None of them passed.
(Thanks, Matt!)
