ID :
174755
Tue, 04/12/2011 - 08:14
Auther :
Shortlink :
https://oananews.org//node/174755
The shortlink copeid
World marking 50th anniversary since first human space flight
MOSCOW, April 12 (Itar-Tass) - Tuesday April 12, the world marks the
50th anniversary since the first manned flight into space made by Soviet
cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin. It is also a new global holiday.
A few days before the jubilee, the UN General Assembly declared April
12 the International Spaceflight Day, which it said will be marked
annually at the international level to commemorate the start of mankind's
space era and to reiterate the contribution of science and technology to
achieving the objectives of steady development, raising the affluence of
nations, and ensuring their willingness to maintain peace in outer space.
Mankind has made a great step forward in exploring the outer space
since the day of Yuri Gagarin's historic flight.
People have mastered long orbital missions and have learned how to
launch various vehicles and probes to nearby and distant enough planets
and comets.
Now we are not only dreaming of manned flights to the Mars, we've
started preparing for them in practical terms.
Over the past fifty years, a club of space powers that have launched
manned or unmanned vehicles into orbit has been formed, and yet the
biggest number of breakthroughs in this sphere is still linked to a
country that was named the USSR in Yuri Gagarin's time and is named the
Russian Federation now.
The first cosmonaut /Yuri Gagarin/, the first group flight aboard the
Vostok spaceship, the first woman in space /Valentina Tereshkova/, the
first docking of ships in space and transition of cosmonauts from one ship
to another, the first woman cosmonaut who did a several-hours-long
extravehicular activity /Svetlana Savitskaya/, the first woman cosmonaut
who had a prolonged tour of duty in space /Yelena Kondakova/, and the
longest mission in orbit that lasted 437 days /Valery Polyakov/ make up a
far incomplete list of achievements.
Add to it the records like the biggest overall number of days in space
/Sergei Krikalyov who scored more than 803 days during six space missions/
or the longest total hours in empty space /Anatoly Solovyov who spent 82
hours there during sixteen space walks/ and many other events.
The 'manned Lunar race' was the only sphere in the global space
competition that the USSR lost after the death of the legendary Soviet
Chief Space Designer, Sergei Korolyov, who died in 1966. Soviet cosmonauts
never stepped on the surface of the Moon as a result.
Yet the Soviet-era unmanned missions of space probes to the Moon, the
Mars and the Venus still keep Russia in the ranks of leaders of research
of the Solar system planets.
Yuri Gagarin's flight symbolized a huge leap and a breakthrough in the
scientific, technological and even moral aspect that this country made
then, believes Dr Zhores Alfyorov, the winner of a Nobel Prize in Physics.
"It was a great feast, a holiday for everyone," he calls the day on
which Gagarin made his flight.
"We were given the tasks that we were supposed to resolve at that
time, and for resolving them we requested the financing," Dr Alfyorov said.
"As for today, the situation is radically opposite, as the biggest
problem is to get the monies rather than to resolve a task," he said.
Still he is confident Russia will never fall into the category of
"those lagging behind forever" since the people capable of developing
various spheres of activity are found around in big numbers here.
In spite of the failures and insufficient financing of the 1990's and
the first decade of this century, Russia remains a leading power in space
exploration, Dr Alfyorov said.
He recalled that Russia has retained the key role in the International
Space Station project.
Also, all the Russian cosmonauts and astronauts from different
countries will be taken into orbit only by the Russian Soyuz spaceships
after the U.S. winds up the thirty-years-long program of shuttle flights.
Last year, the countries participating in the ISS project agreed to
extend the station's service life through to 2020.
Bearing in mind the future exploration of the Universe, Russia is
starting construction of the Vostochny Space Center in 2011. It will be
located in the Amur region in Russia's Far East
The emergence of the new space launching facility in that part of the
country will enable Russia to launch the vehicles of different types,
including the ones for interplanetary expeditions, from its own territory.
At present, all the manned missions are launched only from the
Baikonur Space Center located in central Kazakhstan.
According to the current plans, the first space start at Vostochny is
to take place in 2015 and the first manned space mission will supposedly
lift off from there in 2018.
Anatoly Solovyov, who has spent the biggest number of days in orbit,
says Gagarin's flight radically changed the destiny of many people and
became a dream and a song for them. "That's a song that should be
performed in full voice," he said.
For fifty years already, this proud song of conquerors of the Universe
is sung not only in Russia and the U.S. but also in many countries of the
world.
50th anniversary since the first manned flight into space made by Soviet
cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin. It is also a new global holiday.
A few days before the jubilee, the UN General Assembly declared April
12 the International Spaceflight Day, which it said will be marked
annually at the international level to commemorate the start of mankind's
space era and to reiterate the contribution of science and technology to
achieving the objectives of steady development, raising the affluence of
nations, and ensuring their willingness to maintain peace in outer space.
Mankind has made a great step forward in exploring the outer space
since the day of Yuri Gagarin's historic flight.
People have mastered long orbital missions and have learned how to
launch various vehicles and probes to nearby and distant enough planets
and comets.
Now we are not only dreaming of manned flights to the Mars, we've
started preparing for them in practical terms.
Over the past fifty years, a club of space powers that have launched
manned or unmanned vehicles into orbit has been formed, and yet the
biggest number of breakthroughs in this sphere is still linked to a
country that was named the USSR in Yuri Gagarin's time and is named the
Russian Federation now.
The first cosmonaut /Yuri Gagarin/, the first group flight aboard the
Vostok spaceship, the first woman in space /Valentina Tereshkova/, the
first docking of ships in space and transition of cosmonauts from one ship
to another, the first woman cosmonaut who did a several-hours-long
extravehicular activity /Svetlana Savitskaya/, the first woman cosmonaut
who had a prolonged tour of duty in space /Yelena Kondakova/, and the
longest mission in orbit that lasted 437 days /Valery Polyakov/ make up a
far incomplete list of achievements.
Add to it the records like the biggest overall number of days in space
/Sergei Krikalyov who scored more than 803 days during six space missions/
or the longest total hours in empty space /Anatoly Solovyov who spent 82
hours there during sixteen space walks/ and many other events.
The 'manned Lunar race' was the only sphere in the global space
competition that the USSR lost after the death of the legendary Soviet
Chief Space Designer, Sergei Korolyov, who died in 1966. Soviet cosmonauts
never stepped on the surface of the Moon as a result.
Yet the Soviet-era unmanned missions of space probes to the Moon, the
Mars and the Venus still keep Russia in the ranks of leaders of research
of the Solar system planets.
Yuri Gagarin's flight symbolized a huge leap and a breakthrough in the
scientific, technological and even moral aspect that this country made
then, believes Dr Zhores Alfyorov, the winner of a Nobel Prize in Physics.
"It was a great feast, a holiday for everyone," he calls the day on
which Gagarin made his flight.
"We were given the tasks that we were supposed to resolve at that
time, and for resolving them we requested the financing," Dr Alfyorov said.
"As for today, the situation is radically opposite, as the biggest
problem is to get the monies rather than to resolve a task," he said.
Still he is confident Russia will never fall into the category of
"those lagging behind forever" since the people capable of developing
various spheres of activity are found around in big numbers here.
In spite of the failures and insufficient financing of the 1990's and
the first decade of this century, Russia remains a leading power in space
exploration, Dr Alfyorov said.
He recalled that Russia has retained the key role in the International
Space Station project.
Also, all the Russian cosmonauts and astronauts from different
countries will be taken into orbit only by the Russian Soyuz spaceships
after the U.S. winds up the thirty-years-long program of shuttle flights.
Last year, the countries participating in the ISS project agreed to
extend the station's service life through to 2020.
Bearing in mind the future exploration of the Universe, Russia is
starting construction of the Vostochny Space Center in 2011. It will be
located in the Amur region in Russia's Far East
The emergence of the new space launching facility in that part of the
country will enable Russia to launch the vehicles of different types,
including the ones for interplanetary expeditions, from its own territory.
At present, all the manned missions are launched only from the
Baikonur Space Center located in central Kazakhstan.
According to the current plans, the first space start at Vostochny is
to take place in 2015 and the first manned space mission will supposedly
lift off from there in 2018.
Anatoly Solovyov, who has spent the biggest number of days in orbit,
says Gagarin's flight radically changed the destiny of many people and
became a dream and a song for them. "That's a song that should be
performed in full voice," he said.
For fifty years already, this proud song of conquerors of the Universe
is sung not only in Russia and the U.S. but also in many countries of the
world.
