Space and space technologies are of great interest today on a global scale. Space exploration and the development of space technologies is an expensive undertaking, but their use in the future brings a significant effect for all of humanity. After all, space information is needed to solve many practical problems in various fields. Therefore, an increasing number of countries are turning their attention to outer space.
Neil Armstrong’s famous phrase about “one small step for a man, one giant leap for all mankind” can easily be rephrased and used for a recent landmark event: the Republic of Belarus, a country with a population of more than 9 million people, became a full-fledged participant in the pool of countries in April of this year who conquer space.
Belarusian scientists have done a lot in the field of remote sensing of the Earth. The Belarusian space system for remote sensing of the Earth with its ground and orbital segments has been created.
Now a new stage has arrived for Belarus; it has been decided to send a Belarusian cosmonaut into space. For the first time in the sovereign history of the country, a citizen of the republic went into outer space. The sending of a Belarusian female cosmonaut along with participants of the 21st expedition to the International Space Station (ISS) became possible thanks to an agreement at the level of the presidents of Belarus and Russia.
On the ISS, Marina Vasilevskaya worked as the main crewmember with Roscosmos cosmonaut, commander Oleg Novitsky and NASA astronaut from the USA Tracy Dyson.
One can hardly call this flight into space an easy walk. The program of the Belarusian cosmonaut’s twelve-day stay included two public educational and five research experiments. One of them is a space experiment to study the earth’s surface, study the processes and consequences of natural and man-made phenomena and disasters. The main stages of the experiment included monitoring agricultural and forestlands in Belarusian Polesie, assessing their condition and degree of pollution.
As stated by the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus, which carried out the development of practical scientific research for space flight, the entire planned scientific program has been completed.
“Thanks to Marina Vasilevskaya’s flight, Belarus lived for two weeks under one slogan, an idea: «Space is ours!»” said President of the country Aleksander Lukashenko.
Over the years, space does not become safer; on the contrary, new surprises await the conquerors of airless space in orbit. Nevertheless, Belarus boldly set out on this path to make its contribution to the history of humankind’s space successes.