Soviet-Hungarian Pair of Astronauts Visits MZNDU

Following her opening address, the deputy rector first called on the doyen of space travel, Valeri Kubasov, who emphasized the scientific and technical significance of the developments that took place half a century ago and the impact they had on the thinking and self-definition of humanity. In the preparation phase, Valeri Kubasov was working together with Yuri Gagarin and Sergei Korolev, the father of the Soviet space program, who was only referred to as the “Chief Designer" as his name had been held to be a state secret. The R7 carrier rockets designed by him were the first ones to carry man-made equipment  Sputniks, and later spaceships with dogs  into space.

Kubasov also talked about Yuri Gagarin, the first cosmonaut, who joined an aviation club as an engineering student and had a licence for light aircraft. He pursued his career as a fighter pilot and took his officer’s oath as a first lieutenant. Having volunteered for the space program, together with twenty other candidates he went through a hard training process until he was selected to go to space aboard Vostok 1. The reserve crew was Titov.

The first manned flight lasted 108 minutes, during which Gagarin orbited the Earth. After the landing he was promoted to major. In 1967, after the tragedy of Soyuz 1, Gagarin was leading training programs in Star City and started flying fighter planes once again. He lost his life in 1968 while piloting a MiG-15 on a routine flight  his instructor also died in the crash.

Speaking about himself, Valeri Kubasov said that as a cosmonaut, he had participated in three space missions. Firstly in 1969 as an engineer and secondly as a flight engineer to commander Aleksei Leonov. On his second mission, spacecraft of two countries performed the first space rendezvous, when during the Apollo-Soyuz program, Soyuz 19 docked with an Apollo spaceship. His third and last space flight  together with Hungarian astronaut Bertalan Farkas  took place between May 26 and June 3, 1980, when Soyuz 36 docked with space station Salyut 6, from where they returned to Earth with the Soyuz 35.

During his professional career, Valeri Kubasov was selected for two more space flights, but due to various reasons these missions were cancelled. He would have been on the crew of Soyuz 2 but this program was aborted because of the tragic death of Komarov, the cosmonaut of Soyuz 1. On the second occasion the entire crew of Soyuz 11 was replaced due to health problems during the final check-ups, but all three members of the team that finally set out into space lost their lives on the return flight. Since their tragedy, astronauts keep on their spacesuits until landing.

Parallel to his active role as a cosmonaut, Kubasov had been working as an engineer in Soviet space industry. He was appointed leader of various organizational units and later deputy CEO at the company ’Energia’, and participated in the development of the Mir space station.

Bertalan Farkas said that as a child, he had been training to become a football player; he went to secondary school in Kisvárda and was attracted to aviation at the Nyíregyháza sports airfield, where he had decided to apply for the aviation college. He graduated from the Kilián György College for Aviation Engineering and from a university in the Soviet Union, and as an officer of the Hungarian Air Force he had been serving with the Pápa Tactical Air Wing where he became a first class fighter pilot. Together with 94 other candidates he volunteered to become a spaceman; his training began in 1978. After his space flight he received the ’Hero of the People’s Republic of Hungary’ and the ’Astronaut of the People’s Republic of Hungary’ medals. Afterwards he took a degree from the Budapest Technical University, Faculty of Transportation Engineering, and worked as a senior member in a research team of the Hungarian Academy of Science. He is a member of the Association of Space Explorers.

Bertalan Farkas said it had been a wonderful feeling to see Hungary from space. He saw the sun rise and set sixteen times a day, and talked about the beauty of the constellations of the cosmic night, the mountain ranges of South America, and the African deserts. The spaceship carried equipment from several Hungarian research institutes, and he used these instruments in space. During the space flight, they usually passed over Hungary by night. He took photos from the outer space of our

The Hungarian astronaut brought two historic documents to the event: the first one was the April 13, 1961 issue of the Hungarian journal “Népszava", the front page of which had been a tribute to Gagarin’s space flight. “Berci" was a child when he wrote on the paper the words “Thank you, Yura!" – at that time unaware that one day he too would travel to space. The other document was a report about the visit of Bertalan Farkas and his fellow astronaut, Béla Magyari to the former Zalka Máté Military College.

On the occasion of the present event, Bertalan Farkas donated a signed poster of European astronauts to the museum of the MZNDU.

On April 12, the 50th anniversary of Yuri Gagarin’s space flight, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev decorated Bertalan Farkas in the Catherine Room of the Kremlin for his achievements in exploring space. The first Hungarian astronaut spent 7 days, 20 hours and 45 minutes in space, while Valeri Kubasov 18 days, 17 hours and 57 minutes during his three flights.
Following the presentations, the astronauts were photographed with the participants.

Photo: Tünde Rácz