Celebrating 40 years of Mongolia’s role in space travel

This year marks the 34th anniversary of Mongolia’s first participation in space flight, the 50th anniversary of the first open space mission, and the 40th anniversary of the historic joint U.S.-Soviet space flight the “Soyuz-Apollo”, which marked the end of the “space race” between the two superpowers.

For the celebration of the anniversaries the Astronomy and Geophysics Institute of the Scientific Academy will organize a “Mongolians Reaching for Space” event. It will showcase the events leading up to the historic March 22, 1981, Soyuz 39 space flight with a Mongolian cosmonaut onboard, and focus on the contributions of individuals who made the launch possible. Also, an art exhibition of postage stamps, photos, and collectible envelopes depicting the flight will be displayed from March 20 to 22. The exhibitions hope to show how a Mongolian man flew to space through the contributions of many people.

A range of activities for children – future astronauts, have been planned. The best primary school class will be chosen to visit the Space and Astronomy Palace, while classroom 7B of the 21st school in Bayanzurkh District will be named after Mongolian Hero and Soviet Hero, the astronaut J.Gurragchaa. Annual song, drawing, and poetry competitions will take place accordingly.

The Dudu Education Foundation has big plans for the anniversary. The director of the foundation, D.Munkhtulga stated, “A national program to increase children’s knowledge about space is being implemented in two stages. First, we are developing a complete educational program, in which students can experiment on toy rockets. Next, we plan to create the first Mongolian space camp for children.”

When asked about how we can prepare future astronauts, J.Gurragchaa replied, “The relevance of space flight is in research, which must contribute significantly to the development of the country, its people, and technological advancement. Preparing astronauts has little to do with it. Mongolia is in need of an organization to define the state’s space policy. We must have a national space studies advisory board to support state policy. Even though such an organization exists, their activities are unclear.”