"We all wanted to be Gagarins": cosmonaut Fyodor Yurchikhin visited the National Centre RUSSIA
The
National Centre RUSSIA congratulates everyone on Aviation and Cosmonautics Day.
Cosmonaut, Hero of Russia, and President of the "Cosmonautics and
Aviation" Centre at VDNH Fyodor Yurchikhin visited the National Centre
RUSSIA. He spoke about how Yuri Gagarin's first spaceflight inspired him to
choose this challenging profession.
"For
as long as I can remember, since early childhood, the name Gagarin was
something sacred to me. Back then, when someone excelled in something, in
sports or any other field, adults would say 'Gagarin' about them. As kids, we
understood that it meant 'champion', and we wanted to become 'Gagarins' too.
Only closer to school did I begin to realize that Gagarin was not a title, but
a person," Fyodor Yurchikhin shared.
He noted
that as children, he and his friends knew the names of all cosmonauts in the
order in which they had flown into space.
On 1 September 1966, when Fyodor Yurchikhin started first grade, the teacher asked each student what they wanted to become. He said he dreamed of becoming a cosmonaut. After graduating from secondary school in 1976, he enrolled at the Moscow Aviation Institute named after S. Ordzhonikidze, which he completed in 1983 with a degree in "Amphibious Aircraft." He became a cosmonaut after completing several stages of training, the first of which was being selected as a test cosmonaut candidate for the RSC Energia cosmonaut corps. He took part in the "Mir–Shuttle" and "Mir–NASA" programs.
"Yuri Alekseyevich Gagarin, in every country he visited, carried with dignity the notion of being a citizen of his Motherland. He embodied a person for whom civil and professional heroism were of equal importance," Fyodor Yurchikhin emphasized.
Fyodor
Yurchikhin completed 5 spaceflights and 9 spacewalks.
A panel discussion "Integration of the Special Military Operation Heroes into Civilian Life" was held at the National Centre RUSSIA as part of the 3rd All-Russian Municipal Forum "Small Homeland — the Strength of Russia".
Among its key events were the signing of major agreements, the Twin Cities Forum, and the festival of cultures "Heart of the Motherland", dedicated to the Year of the Unity of the Peoples of Russia.
Guests not only observed the process but also asked the craftswomen about the meanings and the everyday life of the Khanty and Mansi peoples.
