/ world today news/ Our first cosmonaut reminds us of past highs and current lows 65 years after the start of the space age
– October 4 marks the 65th anniversary of the launch of the first artificial satellite on Earth, which is considered the beginning of the space age. Because of the total confrontation in the world, because of the elections in our country, probably few will mark this date.
– On October 4, 1957, the world was surprised by the TASS announcement that for the first time in the history of our civilization, an artificial satellite was created by man and placed in orbit around the Earth. It was created by the design bureau of the genius Russian scientist and designer Sergey P. Korolev. Every day on the radio (there was no television then) they broadcast the exact time when the satellite would fly over Bulgaria. We, the contemporaries of this extraordinary event, and now remember with what great excitement we expected to see the moving artificial star in the sky! The satellite broadcast its signals in Morse code. Bulgarian radio amateurs also received them. This artificial satellite ushered in the space age. In just one month, the Soviet Union launched a second artificial satellite to Earth, followed by a third, a fourth….! Then a living being flew into orbit around our planet – the dog Laika, followed by the dogs Belka and Strelka, who returned alive to earth! People of previous generations know these things well, but I am not convinced that young Bulgarians today are familiar with the events of the beginning of space exploration. And they are interested, judging by the students who participate in space-themed competitions of the Eureka Foundation, which supports young talents.
These first flights contributed to the creation of a spacecraft that could ensure the life of a person in space! And it happened – on April 12, 1961, the Soviet military pilot Yuri Alekseevich Gagarin circled his home planet Earth in 108 minutes. This flight proved that man can live and work in weightlessness, in the hostile conditions of space. With this, Gagarin marked the beginning of manned space flights and the practical exploration of space. After 4 months, the second cosmonaut German Titov flew, and after two years – the first woman, Valentina Tereshkova. In 1969, the American Neil Armstrong set foot on the moon.
– Bulgaria participated in the capture and analysis of the signals from the first satellite from the very beginning, in 1969 the first scientific space group was created in our country and in the years after that, Bulgarian science created numerous space programs. Everyone knows that we have two cosmonauts, but not everyone realizes that their flights do not come out of nowhere, but are the result of the work of our scientists.
– Of course. There would be no flight if there was no scientific program for it created by our scientists. Already at the dawn of the space age, Bulgarian scientists created a scientific group for the study of the Cosmos, which later grew into a Laboratory, and then into an Institute for Space Studies at the BAS. Of particular importance for the development of Bulgarian space science is the creation of the unique international space program “Intercosmos”, which was organized by the then Soviet Union with the participation of all socialist countries. Under this program, the USSR provided its rocket and space equipment free of charge and also carried out the training of future cosmonauts free of charge. Each participating country had its own national science programs. In 1971, a Bulgarian instrument flew into space, and then Bulgaria was recognized by the UN as the 18th space country in the world. The first manned Bulgarian space flight was also carried out under this program – our flight on April 10, 1979 with commander Nikolay Rukavishnikov. With it, Bulgaria took sixth place in the world as a participant in manned space flights and became the third to produce space food after the USSR and the USA. I am often called a hero because of this flight, but I feel comfortable just being an ordinary person who had the good fortune to fulfill the dream of his life.
– What do you remember about the launch of the Bulgarian satellites “1300” with Bulgarian equipment on board?
– In 1981, in honor of the 1300th anniversary of the establishment of the Bulgarian state, two artificial satellites of the Earth were launched into space, filled entirely with Bulgarian equipment, created by our scientists such as Academician Kiril Serafimov, Academician Dimitar Mishev, Mitko Gogoshev and the other heads of the scientific programs. This high level of Bulgarian science then became the reason for us to be respected around the world as a space country. Academician Mishev was not just a great scientist, he was a humble person, although he was the tenth scientist in the world and the first from the socialist countries to be awarded the international award “for significant and long-lasting contributions to the development of space sciences.” He was the head of part of my program, of the program of the second cosmonaut Alexander Alexandrov, of the scientific projects for the Phobos satellites, chief designer of the unique for its time space video systems “Specter 15” and “Specter 256”. I mean, we’ve had world-class achievements. And so far, despite the state’s negligence, Bulgarian scientists actively continue their work on international programs. And now our instruments are flying in space, especially the famous variations of space radiation measuring instruments, which are mandatory and extremely important in any manned space flight.
Bulgaria has potential, and I find it hard to accept that many young talents are leaving the country, going to the West, which affects our science, production, and all activities in our country. Now all kinds of strategies for science are being written, but in words, but in fact our science has been abandoned by the state and our researchers rely only on grants for projects under foreign programs. And it could be completely different, our scientists are a national pride and politicians should value them highly, instead of calling them “feudal old men”. Certainly our talents are more appreciated abroad than at home.
– Cosmonauts and astronauts from all countries have always been like one close-knit family. Today, with this total confrontation of the West against Russia over Ukraine, does this continue to be the case?
– Everyone who has flown into space has seen how beautiful, but also how small and fragile our home planet is, and has understood that we must make joint efforts to protect it. Cosmic cooperation is an example of how humanity can live in peace and work for its own benefit. This was the reason for the creation of the World Association of Space Flight Participants in 1985 in Paris, which includes cosmonauts, astronauts and taikonauts from all over the world. In the association we come together as friends. Every year we hold our own congresses in different countries and discuss current issues related to the peaceful exploitation of space. In 1988, the fourth congress was held in Bulgaria. After the first long-term Soviet manned space stations, the International Space Station (ISS) was created. International crews from Russia, America, Europe, Asia and Africa are constantly working on it. Cosmonauts and astronauts work together for 6 months on common scientific projects related to the future of humanity. They live together as one big family, even in the current complicated political situation on Earth. Just a few days ago, the Soyuz-Tsiolkovsky spacecraft took off from Baikonur with two Russian cosmonauts and one American astronaut. This is the 68th International Expedition of the ISS.
– But does the war in Ukraine continue for too long, the West unequivocally condemns it…
– There is no one who sees war as something normal. As Hemingway says, no one benefits from war – if you die, you lose your life; if you survive you lose your soul! However, why do most analysts miss the most important thing – that this is a battle between two Orthodox peoples, i.e. it is a battle for Orthodoxy in the world, as its representatives are drastically decreasing! Apparently someone is interested in this, and it’s not from now, it’s been for centuries.
– Is that why the West and the Russophobes in our country blame Russia for the war, and forget the criminal attacks by Kiev against the Russian-populated areas in Ukraine since 2014 and the mass murders there?
– One of the main reasons for the conflict is Ukraine’s non-compliance with the Minsk agreements, whose guarantors were Germany and France. Instead of reconciliation, for more than 8 years the murders and torture of the population in Luhansk and Donetsk continued. The bloody coup in 2014 was defined as an internal problem of Ukraine and was not covered in the world media. No one showed the sinister Banderian commands, which, with all the trappings of fascism, triumphed and killed innocent people! The ban on speaking Russian, the closing of Russian schools in territories with a predominantly Russian population, the accumulation of Western weapons on the border with Russia, and the arrogant behavior of NATO have strained patience. This is not heard in most of our and the Western media, which suggest that Russia is an aggressor, and Ukraine – holy water not drunk! Stopping TV channels, persecuting journalists who provide other information is an infantile decision and an insult to the Bulgarian’s intellect. Such a thing happened in times that we all long ago denied and stigmatized!
Why is no one in Bulgaria talking about the real situation of our hundreds of thousands of compatriots in Ukraine, about the closed Bulgarian schools – this happened not now, but years ago. Maybe they want Bulgarian citizenship, and are we ready to provide it to them, as Hungary and other countries in Europe did?
– How do you see the end of the war in Ukraine?
– The conflict in Ukraine cannot end if this uncontrolled arming of Kiev by NATO continues, the problem can only be solved diplomatically, at the negotiating table!
There is a well-known maxim that politicians do not know what war is (most of them have not been soldiers), but they are for war. However, the military knows very well what it is like to fight and that is why they are against war. Therefore, not for the first time, I recommend that the leaders of war-loving countries, as well as the EU commissioners, the leaders of the countries, undergo a short training and fly into space. Let the cosmonauts and astronauts believe us that our home planet Earth is very small, no artificially created borders are visible, it is very fragile and vulnerable. It takes very little for our civilization to disappear forever!
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