With a photo exhibition and validation of a post stamp with the image of the first Bulgarian cosmonaut Georgi Ivanov, the 40th anniversary of his flight in space has been marked. The celebration included cosmonauts from 5 European countries: Pavel Vinogradov - Russia; Vladimir Remek - Czech Republic; Mirosław Hermaszewski - Poland; Bertalan Farkas - Hungary and Ivan Bella - Slovakia.

With the flight of 1979, Bulgaria became the sixth country in the world to send its cosmonaut to Earth's orbit. Bulgaria is also third in the world to start producing food for cosmonauts. Ivanov said that the purpose of the anniversary was to make young people acquaint with the achievements of the Bulgarian space science in the past century.