Cosmonauts Day in Cyprus.
On April the 12th Russia is celebrating the Cosmonauts Day in commemoration of the first space flight. This year marks 50 years since the spacewalk of a man. This laid the foundation to the beginning of a new era in the history of mankind; it was the first practical step in space exploration.
Cyprus has also held a variety of themed events dedicated to this holiday.
In particular, at the invitation of the Honorary Consul of the Russian Federation in the city of Paphos Dr. Georgios Prodromou, double Hero of the Soviet Union and Hero of Russia – Alexander Volkov, famous Soviet cosmonaut, came to Cyprus.
Alexander Volkov was born on May the 27th in 1948. He served in the Air Force as flight instructor. He has qualification of “military pilot class 1” and “test pilot class 2”. He joined the group of Soviet cosmonauts in 1976. The total time he spent in space – 391 days 11 hours 54 minutes. He has two spacewalks total duration of 10 hours 9 minutes. Interestingly, the family of Alexander Volkov is the first dynasty astronauts in the world’s history – his son, Sergey, has followed the footsteps of his father. On September the 1st, 2015, Sergey is going to his third space flight.
During the visit, Mr. Volkov spoke at a specially organised meeting in honor of the Cosmonauts Day in front of the Paphos’ lawyers and representatives of Honorary Consulate. He showed a film about the life of astronauts while they were on board of the orbital research complex “Mir”. The audience learned a lot about the cosmic way of life, saw how a variety of research and experiments were held at the space station.
After watching the film the discussion part of the meeting took place, during which Mr. Volkov was asked questions on various topics: the future of the Russian space industry, the prospects for space tourism, the possibility of landing humans on other planets, mastering the moon, moreover, he was asked some questions, which revealed his personal views, for example, his attitude to religion and the most vivid memories of the time of his flight.
In conclusion, everyone could make a memorable photo with Alexander Volkov.
Also, Mr. Volkov spoke at the Russian Centre of Science and Culture in Nicosia, where “Space Week in Cyprus” – a series of events dedicated to the Day of Cosmonauts – had started. In addition, a record of an exclusive video greeting from ISS’ astronauts, who are on board now, has been demonstrated in the Centre to the participants of “Space Week in Cyprus”.
