Celebrating Cosmonautics Day

President of the Udmurt Republic Alexander Volkov congratulated citizens of the republic on the Cosmonautics Day.

His address, in particular, says:

Dear citizens of the Udmurt Republic!

Dear friends!

On April 12 it will be 50 years since an event of an enormous historic importance. On this day, back in 1961, the first ever manned spaceflight took place, and the flight was performed by Soviet citizen Yury Alexeyevich Gagarin.

The 108 minutes that he spent orbiting the Earth opened the door to space exploration for the good of all mankind. Man’s entry into space confirmed the most extensive potential of our science, technology, and industry. It didn’t only give a boost to the development of various branches of knowledge, but also made an invaluable contribution to the cause of the preservation of peace on Earth.

Recognizing a special significance of this event, the UN General Assembly declared the 12 of April the International Day of Human Space Flight and expressed its confidence that all over the world this day would become a holiday filled with aspiration for a bright future.

Citizens of our republic also proudly celebrate the half-century anniversary of Gagarin’s space exploit. Udmurtia has played a fairly big role in space exploration. It was the Izhevsk Motozavod plant that produced communication equipment for the flight of the first artificial satellite and the first man in space, Yury Alexeyevich Gagarin. The plant’s engineers and workers participated in major Mars and Venus exploration programs, the Soyuz-Apollo flight, the Mir space station maintenance and numerous other space projects. For its contribution to space exploration the Izhevsk Motozavod was decorated with three orders of the Soviet Union.

Workers of the Izhevsk Radiozavod plant contributed to the creation of the Proton carrier rockets, Molniya, Soyuz, Mir, Buran, Energy space systems, the development and production of the Alpha international space station on-board radio-telemetering system. The oldest enterprise in Udmurtia, the Votkinsk Machine-Building Factory, also supports implementation of space programs.

The Cosmonautics Day is everyone’s personal and significant holiday. Most sincerely, from the bottom of my heart, I congratulate all people living in the Udmurt Republic on this wonderful holiday.

May your lives be filled with as many happy and merry days as possible. May these days be filled with confidence in the future, respect to and recognition of the services to the Motherland of our scientists and testers, aviators and designers, of everyone who has worked for the benefit of the Russian space industry.