[1] Russian media reported that based on future crew assignments, he was unlikely to ever fly into space for Roscosmos.

He would later attend Moscov Aviation Institute again, doing a postgraduate course systems analysis, management and information processing.

He graduated in 2005 and defended his thesis, "Formation of technical and ergonomic requirements for the system of means of extra-ship activity (VCA) of the crew on the surface of Mars” the following year.

Babkin was selected as a cosmonaut in April 2010 and participated in basic training from October of that year to July 2012 before becoming eligible for assignments to a long-duration flight to the International Space Station.

He was later assigned to the crew of Expedition 62/63, scheduled for launch on Soyuz MS-16 on 9 April 2020 alongside Russian cosmonaut Nikolai Tikhonov and NASA astronaut Christopher Cassidy.