World Space Week and online chat with an astronaut

The history of mankind is so rich that for every day of the year you can pick up several holidays, memorable events and birthdays of all kinds of scientists, artists and other worthy people. But not every event, and even more so on an international scale, is honored with a few “red days” in the calendar. For this, it must be particularly meaningful.

58 years ago, on October 4, 1957, the Soviet Union launched the world's first artificial Earth satellite. The country that won the devastating war, after only 12 years, was able to create a rocket capable of taking the device into near-earth orbit. She became the " R-7 ", our first intercontinental ballistic missile. The flight of the satellite saw the whole world, and any radio amateur could hear the signal emitted by it. This event was the beginning of the space age of humanity, no less and no more. And 16 years ago, the World Space Week , which is celebrated every year from 4 to 10 October, was proclaimed at the UN General Assembly.

By the way, the week, not the day of the cosmos, was proposed not by chance, since, apart from October 4, there is another important date - October 10. On this day in 1967, the Space Treaty was signed. Thanks to this successful combination of two dates, it was decided to celebrate the week of space.
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In contrast to the New Year holidays and the Day of the Airborne Forces, World Space Week is of a scientific and educational nature. During this period, various events to promote space research are being carried out in dozens of countries. Scientists, cosmonauts, designers and engineers talk about the importance of the development of space technology, meet with children and young people, trying to captivate them with space themes. World Space Week even has its own website , where a calendar of timed events is published.

Surprisingly, despite the achievements of our country in space exploration, few people know about the holiday itself. There is not even a Russian version of the article on Wikipedia. Probably, because we have a national Cosmonautics Day, celebrated on April 12, on the day of the flight of Yuri Gagarin. But the achievement of tens of thousands of people working in our space industry is not limited to one feat of Yuri Alekseevich.



The launch of Sputnik-1 laid the foundation not only for the space era, but also for the competition of two superpowers - the USSR and the USA. On November 3, 1957, the Soviet ship Sputnik-2 put into orbit the first living creature, the dog Laika . Just a few months later, on February 1, 1958, the United States launched the Explorer 1 satellite. Both countries could not allow the superiority of the rival at the forefront - in space - and threw huge forces and funds to create the space industry.

In August 1960, the famous Belka and Strelka flight took place, and in 1961 the USA sent a chimpanzee to the suborbital flight. The first man in space was already April 12, 1961. On May 5, 1961, American astronaut Alan Shepard made a suborbital flight to an altitude of 187 km. We have initiated an unprecedented Venus research program . June 16, 1963. Valentina Tereshkova became the first female astronaut in the world. March 18, 1965 Alexei Leonov, for the first time in the world, made a spacewalk. Then the years of the "lunar race" began.



The tense struggle for space, which took place in a nervous environment, caused assumptions and assertions that the flight of American astronauts and the landing on the moon were falsified. Of course, conspiracy theorists may also believe in aliens, spirits, otherworldly forces, missing stars, missing ground, non-flying missiles, lost films, etc. Is it possible, in principle, to convince them of anything?



Literally the other day NASA published more than 8 thousand pictures of the first landing of American astronauts. Image quality - 1800 pixels per inch. “But these are NASA shots!”, Rightly say conspiracy therapists. Is there a way to check whether there was a landing on the moon or not? There is such a way.

The blogger and space explorer Vitaly Egorov, known by his nickname “The Green Cat”, conceived with the team to build an automatic satellite equipped with a good camera, which should go into the lunar orbit, and make surface shots. With the help of photographs, you can explore not only the traces left by the Apollo astronauts, but also see the Soviet Lunokhod, look at the back side of the Moon, shoot the poles where traces of water were found.



Just a few days ago, on October 1, on the crowdfunding platform, Bumstarter opened the “ Satellite Project for Photographing the Moon ”. To start work on the project, it was required to collect 800 thousand rubles, but after two days the amount of fees exceeded 1 million rubles.

What is the life of modern cosmonautics, including domestic? We know the heroes and the great achievements of the past, but what do we know about the people who fly into space today? But in the Russian cosmonauts detachment there are now 38 people. Soon you will have the opportunity to ask questions to a person who has the most direct relationship to space: on October 9, together with the Cosmonaut Training Center. Yu.A. Gagarin we in OK.RU will conduct an online chat with the Russian cosmonaut Sergei Ryazansky. Write questions in the comments, we will ask the most interesting ones during the broadcast.

A competition for the best poem about space and cosmonautics is also taking place now. And if you feel a poetic talent in yourself, then we invite you to switch to the lyric mode and try your hand at the addition of verse. The best poem chosen by the CPC them. Yu.A. Gagarin, will be sent by e-mail to the ISS (yes, there is Internet), and the station’s current crew will read it in front of the camera. This will be, by the way, the first user content in space. So look forward to a video recording of poetic recitation in zero gravity.

And congratulations on your space week!