It was a meeting of two nostalgic spacemen a quarter century after their path-making attempts to journey into space.
NEW DELHI: It was a meeting of two nostalgic spacemen a quarter century after their path-making attempts to journey into space.
The first Indian in space Rakesh Sharma met his space friend Anatoly Berezovoy at the Russian Centre for Science and Culture here on Thursday to relive the days they spent together prior to the launch of Salyut-7 in 1984.
Berezovoy had flown down to Delhi to participate in the ongoing 18th World Book Fair and to deliver “master classes” to Indian children on space exploration at the Russian pavilion at Pragati Maidan. He told the kids that apart from good education and health, they needed determination and persistence for a career in space exploration.
Sharma, who spent eight days in space, received a warm welcome from Berezovoy, his trainer in Moscow 24 years ago. Sharma spent eight days abroad Salyut-7 mission with two Russian cosmonauts. Berezovoy, a top Russian pilot-cosmonaut, coordinated the space odyssey.
Berezovoy said he would train future cosmonauts and lecture Indian children on space journeys. The Russians are giving importance to space technology and departments are being set up in almost all universities.
Sharma said India had made tremendous progress in space exploration despite being denied many technologies. “Space technology should serve the aam admi,” he said, adding that India had managed to do that.
He said the explosion in the electronic media and the coverage of satellite television were a result of the past work and that he was proud of the progress.
The meeting between the space doyens last about one-and-a-half hour.
Meanwhile, a joint Indo-Russian education satellite, YouthSat, is being launched this year-end.
Mikhail Igorevich Panasyuk, who heads the Skobeltsyn Institute of Nuclear Physics at Lomonosov Moscow State University, has, however, a request.
He has written to Isro to rename the satellite ‘LoYa’, acronym for ‘Lomonosov-Yajnavalkya’. Lomonosov (1711-1765) is a noted Russian physicist, while Yajnavalkya is an Indian astronomer from 3200BC.
k_benedict@dnaindia.net
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