Gusakov: Sending Belarusian cosmonaut to ISS will raise Belarus’ prestige as space power

Sending a Belarusian cosmonaut to the ISS will raise the prestige of Belarus in the global community as a space power, Vladimir Gusakov, Chairman of the Presidium of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus, said at the expert and media forum "Belarus-Russia cooperation in industry, science and technology. Science. Cosmos. Education", BelTA has learned.

"A joint project in manned cosmonautics is becoming a new area of Belarusian-Russian cooperation in science and technology. The presidents of our states, Aleksandr Lukashenko and Vladimir Putin, reached an agreement to send a citizen of Belarus to the Russian segment of the International Space Station in the autumn of 2023," Vladimir Gusakov said.

He stressed that the flight of the Belarusian cosmonaut will be a landmark event for the country. "This will raise the prestige of Belarus in the world community as a space power. We hope that this will be a good start for close cooperation between a number of Belarusian organizations and the Roscosmos State Corporation for the long term," Vladimir Gusakov said.