Shumilin: two contenders for space flight selected and are being trained
Aleksandr Shumilin, the Academician-Secretary of the Department of Physics, Mathematics and Informatics at the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus, spoke about this on the eve of World Aviation and Cosmonautics Day
“Today, two applicants have been selected and are being trained, and the National Academy of Sciences has already developed a scientific programme for their preparation. A cosmonaut-researcher is being trained, since space has its own specialisations. This is a cosmonaut-doctor, tester, etc. Our cosmonaut will be a researcher. Therefore, a programme of scientific research of manned flight is being worked out,” he explained.
According to him, the cosmonaut will conduct tests and research of the Belarusian SOVA equipment, which was previously developed in the system of the Education Ministry together with the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus and is already at the Mir station.
“Naturally, when sending our cosmonaut, we are interested that he would use the equipment that was both designed and manufactured in Belarus for observing the Earth from space, including for the study of the upper layers of the atmosphere or the forests of Belarus. As you know, over 40 percent of our country’s territory are covered with forests. The forest starts to get sick from above, and from below it is not always possible to recognise the beginning of the disease while from space, the technology enables us to do this at the initial stage, meaning that it will be possible to make timely decisions.”
