Gala event to celebrate Cosmonautics Day 2023.

 

Today, Russia and many other countries around the world are celebrating Cosmonautics Day. On April 12, 1961, Soviet officer Yury Gagarin paved the way to space for humanity. His flight became a great triumph for our Motherland, for all of our people.

I would like to extend my sincere greetings to all citizens of Russia and our compatriots and cosmonauts, all those who work in the rocket and space industry and, of course, the veterans and military personnel in the Aerospace Forces of Russia, who are performing their duty in the special military operation.

Our country has its own unique approaches to achieving its defence goals and conducting space exploration and research. They were established by the intensive work of many generations of technicians, engineers, and scientists, the organisational genius of Korolyov, Glushko, Tsander, Barmin, Keldysh, Pilyugin and many others whose names it is impossible to mention in one brief address.

Our victories –both in space and on Earth – are based on the limitless will of our chief designers and their ability to achieve results (let us recall when the first steps were taken in this area) even in the most complicated times (I do not think we ever had it easy). This is how they produced these surprising, unique results for us, for our country.

We became the first because the people working at plants and factories, design bureaus and research institutes subordinated their lives to the interests of the Motherland, to serving the people.

Today, our space conquerors are an example of how to strengthen our technological sovereignty. We must certainly continue their glorious actions and traditions and achieve the same striking, historical successes that all of us can be proud of.

President of Russia.