We celebrate the International Day of Aviation and Astronautics

Exhibition and special program offered by the Aviation Museum in Krumovo

published on 4/12/24 5:15 AM

Photo: airmuseum-bg.com

On April 12, we celebrate the 55th International Aviation and Space Day. On this date in 1961, at 6 hours and 7 minutes Greenwich time (9 hours and 7 minutes Moscow time), with the ship "Vostok 1" Yuri Gagarin began his memorable tour around the Earth, which lasted 1 hour and 48 minutes. Exactly eighteen years later, on April 10, 1979, Bulgaria became the sixth country in the world to send its representative into outer space - Georgi Ivanov.‎

First Bulgarian cosmonaut Georgi Ivanov (right) with Soviet cosmonaut Nikolai Rukavishnikov before the launch of Soyuz-33

The two events are traditionally the focus of the special program of the Museum of Aviation in the village of Krumovo, near Plovdiv. Visitors have the opportunity to view the specially prepared exhibition "The Way to the Stars", dedicated to the 45th anniversary of the flight of the first Bulgarian cosmonaut Georgi Ivanov aboard the Soyuz-33 spacecraft.‎

45 years since the flight of Bulgaria’s first astronaut Georgi Ivanov

The exhibition also presents Bulgaria's participation in the Intercosmos program, within the framework of which Bulgaria became the sixth country in the world to send an astronaut in space and the third to produce space food. Museum guests will learn details about the research program of the flight and the problems that canceled the planned docking with the Solyut-6 orbital complex and forced the early return to Earth.‎

The Soyuz-33 lander and Georgi Ivanov's spacesuits from his 1979 flight

Through a special presentation, visitors will get to know details about the Bulgarian contribution in the field of space research and technology, what equipment has flown in space, when and why Bulgarian scientists study the ionosphere - the layer of the Earth atmosphere that is electrified under the influence of the sun's rays, on which the life of our planet largely depends.‎

Many interesting facts about the flight of the second Bulgarian cosmonaut Alexander Alexandrov, who took off on June 7, 1988, will also be told. Alexandrov flew into space onboard the Soviet spacecraft "Soyuz TM-5" in a team with the Russians ‎Anatoly Solovyov - the flight commander, and the flight engineer Viktor ‎Savinikh. A little-known fact is that 9 years earlier, Alexander Alexandrov was left as Georgi Ivanov's "back-up/reserve" by the Bulgarian Defense Minister at the time, Dobri Djurov. ‎‎"A person, here on Earth, cannot imagine what it feels like to be in open space", the second Bulgarian cosmonaut said some time ago in a conversation with Diana Tsankova for Radio Bulgaria. ‎

"At the time of the first steps into space, it was believed that meteor streams, heavy intergalactic particles and radiation would be the main enemy of space exploration, while weightlessness is almost a heavenly state in which you float in space like a bird. But it turns out that it is precisely this that does not allow everyone to fly in space because of the many harmful factors affecting the human body." ‎

Cosmonaut Alexander Alexandrov after landing the lander

What we have achieved was unique for its time, the Bulgarian cosmonaut said. The crew of "Soyuz TM-5", including Alexandrov, was the first to computerize all 56 experiments in four directions. One of the most important, according to him, is related to the sleep of astronauts. ‎

"Sleep is a unique experiment, and before us it was performed by the Americans, but unsuccessfully, because their astronaut did not sleep. And we know that sleep is the main factor that restores the body. Therefore, we carried out the experiment a month before the flight, during the flight and a month after it, and we proved that the astronaut can recover in space, i.e. deep sleep, light sleep and sleep before awakening are also present. This shows that flights to other planets and galaxies can be made, so Bulgaria has a major contribution to international space flights.

We, cosmonauts, are people of a different dough, admits Aleksandrov: ‎

"Each flight changes us, as we see that we are only a speck of dust in the universe. That's why we perceive as mean and indecent the envy, malice, careerism that exist on Earth and it seems funny to us to meet people full of similar emotions."‎

And the heir of Georgi Ivanov and Alexander Alexandrov may also be among the children who will visit the Museum of Aviation in Krumovo. In order to awaken their curiosity, the organizers have planned an educational game "Mission Mars", which will challenge the competitive spirit of the little ones and introduce them to curious facts about the planet Mars. ‎

March 29 this year marked the 30th anniversary of the state decision by which the Ministry of Culture gave its consent to the transformation of the museum collection at Krumovo Airport into the Museum of Aviation and Air Force of the Ministry of Defence, and since 2005 it has been a branch of the National Museum of Military History.