Marina Vasilevskaya
MINSK, 24 April (BelTA) – The flight of the first cosmonaut of sovereign Belarus to the International Space Station can be described as an accomplishment of an intellectually developed nation. Belarus President Aleksandr Lukashenko made the statement in his speech at a session of the 7th Belarusian People’s Congress on 24 April, BelTA has learned.
According to Aleksandr Lukashenko, many accomplishments of the country can be compared to outer space technologies. But this comparison sounds differently this year because Belarus is a space power now.
“Space is ours! It is not an aphorism. Marina Vasilevskaya’s flight is not simply an image-building flight for Belarus. It is a symbolic chord, the peak we’ve been going to since the Soviet times,” the Belarusian leader stated.
The president stressed that a lot of hard and efficient work had been done in the country for the sake of space programs when the history of space exploration was only starting. During the years of independence research teams were preserved and made significant progress in space technologies. “We inserted the first Belarusian satellite into orbit in 2012. We have three satellites of ours over there now,” the head of state reminded.
Belarus’ competences in this sphere are sought by other countries. For instance, Belarus and Russia are working on a project to create a new Belarusian-Russian satellite with an image resolution nearly an order of magnitude better than that of the previous satellite.
“It is an accomplishment of the intellectually developed nation,” Aleksandr Lukashenko stressed.
