International Day of Human Space Flight

April 12^th was proclaimed the International Day of Human Space Flight by the United Nations General Assembly. On this day Yuri Gagarin made the first space flight in the history of mankind.

The Republic of Belarus has been actively contributing to space exploration: the country's scientific institutes and industrial enterprises have been developing and creating optical instruments, ground-based rocket launch control systems and space image processing programs since the 1960s. During the Soviet period, two natives of Belarus - Vladimir Kovalenok and Pyotr Klimuk – have been in space.

In the modern history of the country, Oleg Novitsky (2012, 2016, 2021), a native of Belarus, and Marina Vasilevskaya (2024), the first female cosmonaut in the history of sovereign Belarus, have visited the International Space Station. Marina Vasilevskaya, the first cosmonaut in the history of sovereign Belarus, was awarded the Hero of Belarus title by President Aleksandr Lukashenko in a solemn ceremony at the Palace of Independence on 11 April 2024.

Belarusians were entrusted with an inventive mission in the Soviet space program. Semion Kosberg, a native of Slutsk, was the chief designer of the rocket engine that was part of the third stage of the Vostok launch vehicle. Under his leadership, liquid rocket jet engines were created, which were used to launch the first cosmonauts into space and to launch spacecraft into orbit to explore the Moon, Venus and Mars.

Boris Kit (from Korelichi village, Grodno region) is a scientist of international fame in the field of astronautics. His research and development of fuel for spacecraft made the American Apollo and Shuttle space flights possible.

The name of Mikhail Tatura (Doctor of Technical Sciences, Professor of the Belarusian State University of Informatics and Radioelectronics) is also known in the national science, who is engaged in the creation of processors for control systems for missiles, airplanes, and locators. And the developments of scientist Vladimir Kalinov (leading researcher at the B. I. Stepanov Institute of Physics of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus) are used in the creation of nuclear reactors and space equipment.

• July 22, 2012. Belarus has launched its first satellite BelKA-2 ("Belarusian Space Apparatus") into Earth orbit. The satellite was launched for the needs of the Ministry of Emergency Situations, agriculture and forestry. Together with the satellite, Belarus gained the international status of a space power.
• The first Belarusian telecom satellite Belintersat-1 has been in service since January 2016. It is designed to transmit radio and TV signals and provide access to the Internet.
• The first university nanosatellite BSUSat-1 in the education system of Belarus, created by specialists of the Department of Radiophysics and Computer Technologies of the Belarusian State University, was successfully launched on October 29, 2018 and is still functioning in near-Earth orbit.

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