News and Events /GOLDEN JUBILEE OF FIRST ARTIFICIAL EARTH SATELLITE LAUNCHING MARKED

New Delhi, October 9, 2007:: The 50th Anniversary of the Launching of the First Artificial Earth Satellite was marked at a function, jointly organized by the Russian Centre of Science & Culture (RCSC) and Nehru Planetarium, on October 9, 2007.

Before the start of the Multi-Media Presentation devoted to the landmark event in space exploration, Mr. Alexander E. Petrov, Deputy Director, RCSC, presented Dr. N. Rathnasree, Director, Nehru Planetarium, with a Diploma from the Federation of Cosmonautics of Russia, for her significant contributions to astronomy education and in appreciation to her sincere and active cooperation with the RCSC, Cultural Department, Embassy of the Russian Federation in India, in promoting and popularizing different aspects of Russian space science.

Mr. Petrov also handed over 70 photographs on Russian space exploration to Dr. Rathnsree for the Nehru Planetarium.

The Multi-Media Presentation, made by Mr. Alaxander Petrov, highlighted the unknown glorious pages of Russian-Indian cooperation in space exploration, which are dedicated to the 50th Anniversary of world's first space flight. The Presentation also featured the innovative works by Russian pioneers in the field such as Konstantin E. Tsiolkovsky, founder of theoretical cosmonautics, Fridrikh A. Zander, scientist in the theory of inter-planetary flights and inventor of rocket engines, and Sergey P. Korelev, founder of practical cosmonautics.

The function also included presentation of Certificates of Merit to School Children, Winners of Essay Competition "Russia is the First Language in Space" by Mr. Alexander Petrov, after the names of the winners were announced by Mrs. Rita Swamy, Director, Institute of Russian Language, RCSC.

Addressing a group of over 100 students from 75 schools in Delhi and NCR at the "Space Race Fest", organized by the Science Popularization Association of Communicators and Educators (SPACE) at the India Habitat Centre on October 8, 2007, Mr. Alexander Petrov described the first man-made artificial earth satellite as a sign of what the erstwhile USSR was capable of. "Sputnik's launch was really just one step into space. It was not the satellite that was important, but that we had the technology to deliver it into space", he said. He added that space explorations remain an expensive pursuit, they have made possible TV broadcast, telecom, remote-sensing, etc., apart from sending back pictures in the past 50 years. Noting that they have served as windows to our planetary neighbourhood from Venus to Saturn, we have to take care of the Earth, Mr. Patrov concluded.