Rovesnik, the children’s health center, held its traditional celebrations attributed to Cosmonautics Day for the school children and students of Saratov region within the framework of “We are Children of the Space” project.
For several years in a row, OAO Saratovneftegaz, the Company’s subsidiary, has been inviting talented children from all over the region, interested in engineering and arts, winners of the contests devoted to space theme, to its Rovesnik center to celebrate Cosmonautics Day in April. 260 school children from the schools of Saratov, Engels, Sovetsky and Rovensky districts as well as the first year students from Bogolubov Arts College and Gagarin Professional and Teachers’ Training College came to Rovesnik for celebration. The center organized meetings with popular people whose activity is related to space and piloting: cosmonauts, test engineers, scientists, earlier they could be seen only by TV.
Alexandr Balandin, the Soviet hero, cosmonaut and pilot, spoke in front of the guests and told about his flight with Souyz TM-9 and about his work at Mir Space Station. PhD Viktor Porokhnya, the honorable member of Tsiolkovsky Russian Space Academy, MAI Professor, recalled the youth of Yuriy Gagarin, the first cosmonaut, his friend and co-student in Saratov Industrial College. The guests of the center also took part in en plein air activities with Valery Rzhevsky, the honorable architect of the Russian Academy of Arts.
The arrangers of the project also organized an philatelic exhibition which contained rare first day of issue postmarks devoted to space, as well as unique exhibits which were taken into space.
