Ildar Khalikov congratulates Tatarstaners on International Day of aviation and cosmonautics

The International Day of aviation and cosmonautics is celebrated on April 12. This day in 1961 a citizen of the Soviet Union, senior lieutenant Yuri Gagarin made his orbital flight in his Vostok 1 spacecraft and opened the epoch of manned space flights. Tatarstan Prime Minister Ildar Khalikov congratulated Tatarstan citizens on this holiday.

“Dear friends! On behalf of Tatarstan Government let me congratulate you on the International Day of cosmonautics! 108 minutes of first space flight of a citizen of our country Yuri Gagarin was one of the greatest events in 20th century and the whole history of civilization. The space is not something inaccessible for people any more. 500 people have made space flights.

This triumph of human mind was possible due to talent, major efforts of engineers, scientists, astronauts, and workers of whole aerospace industry.
I am glad to say that many discoveries were made in Tatarstan. Serious researches were carried out in Kazan laboratories. We cherish the memory of Sergei Korolev, Valentin Glushko and other scientists who used to work in the capital and made considerable contribution to handling scientific and practical problems of cosmonautics.

The Republic of Tatarstan was the first region to use space technologies under Federal space programme and Federal special programme “Global navigation satellite system”. I have no doubts that Tatarstan will keep the same level of science, education and technologies, that high scientific and technological potential.”