Belarusian cosmonauts to arrange contest for children with trip to Baikonur for winners

Belarusian spacemen Piotr Klimuk, Vladimir Kovalyonok, and Oleg Novitsky attended a meeting with children during the campaign Smart Holidays at Aviation Museum organized as part of the 6th Belarusian Space Congress. They said they are planning to arrange a contest for school students. The winners will be taken to the Baikonur space launch site to see a manned launch, BelTA has learned.

The spacemen visited the Belarusian Arotechnics Museum and met with Belarusian children dreaming about space flights. Together with the school students they planted an avenue of trees. “It is quite symbolic that the trees will grow near the aircraft analogous to the one that Yury Gagarin used for training,” Piotr Klimuk noted. Oleg Novitsky advised the children to always believe in themselves and their dreams. Two-time Hero of the Soviet Union, space pilot Vladimir Kovalyonok suggested holding a large-scale astronautics competition. “I think we will organize such a contest. Probably, our today’s meeting has been the best opportunity for its promotion. I do not think that every kid will become a cosmonaut. The universe is huge and spacecraft are few,” he joked. “I wish you to find your place in life, become a doctor, teacher, engineer, pilot, or a cosmonaut,” Vladimir Kovalyonok added.

Director of the central flying club of the Volunteer Society for Cooperation with the Army, Aviation, and Fleet (DOSAAF), first-class pilot, Lieutenant-Colonel in reserve Nikolai Mochansky said that today the outdoor exhibition area of the Aerotechnics Museum is about 2 hectares. The exposition features over 30 flying vehicles. “We have recently started developing a new field of space studies. Our plans have been supported by Belarusian cosmonauts Piotr Klimuk, Vladimir Kovalyonok, and Oleg Novitsky. They are not guests here, but interested partners. By the way, the exposition will soon get a unique item, a flight trainer TU-104. Many Soviet spacemen used it for training. At the moment it is at Chkalovsky airfield near Moscow but will soon be delivered to Belarus. Besides, the flying club is waiting for another “guest”, a SU-15 aircraft that currently is in Moscow,” Nikolai Mochansky said.