Road to the stars: young people in the CIS think about space exploration
Space is a unique 'platform' for international cooperation. Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, the main theorist of interplanetary flights, dreamed of space as a place for all Earthlings, regardless of their race. The first Earth cosmonaut, Yuri Gagarin, spoke about this many times in his speeches in different parts of the world. By the way, this year the space pioneer has an anniversary - Yuri Alekseevich could be 90 years old.
However, in the second half of the twentieth century, the countries claiming world hegemony had the desire to turn space into an arena of military rivalry. To this end, the US, Canada, Japan, France and the UK began launching hundreds of spy satellites into orbit. The Soviet Union and the People's Republic of China had to respond to this challenge.
The same Konstantin Eduardovich Tsiolkovsky called space "the cradle of mankind". And can such a situation be considered normal when someone tries to destroy his own cradle, his own home, with a deadly laser or nuclear charge? Of course not!
How can we return space to its original purpose, make it a peaceful construction site and a laboratory for socially useful experiments? This - and not only - was discussed in the Volgograd region within the framework of the International Integrative Tournament on Fidgetal UAVs. It was organised by the ANO "Unique World" with the support of the regional administration. About a hundred children and young people with health disabilities took part in the event. The children came to the banks of the Volga from all over the CIS, proving once again the international nature of cooperation in the field of space exploration. Back in the Soviet Union, the whole world loudly proclaimed that there would be a place in orbit for everyone: Russia's Yuri Gagarin, Ukraine's Pavel Popovich, Kazakhstan's Toktar Aubakirov, Azerbaijan's Musa Manarov and many others. In fact, Soviet cosmonautics was at the forefront of science because it was created by representatives of all the nationalities of the USSR without exception.
The need to use the positive experience of the past was much discussed at the international scientific and educational festival "Y.A. Gagarin - Hero of Our Time", which took place in Moscow and was dedicated to the anniversary of the first cosmonaut. Russian cosmonauts were sent to Armenia, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan to open the festival. They were Sergey Korsakov, Peter Dubov and Harutyun Kiviryan - they visited Bishkek, Dushanbe and Yerevan respectively. But not only did they visit, they also gave lectures, talked about flight preparations, scientific research and the heroic deeds of their colleagues.
Schoolchildren, high school students and university students listened to the cosmonauts with bated breath. Undoubtedly, the speeches of the "space" guests left a mark on their souls, made them think about the profession connected with the transformation of space into an arena of peaceful human work. If the young people of the post-Soviet republics unite their efforts, their knowledge, their will, their talents and their enthusiasm, as they did 70 years ago with Gagarin, Titov, Tereshkova and Komarov, there is no doubt that the peaceful way to the stars will be much shorter.