The only surviving research vessel from the Soviet "star flotilla" is being transferred to the Kaliningrad Region and will remain a museum afloat.
NIS "Cosmonaut Viktor Patsaev" is the last vessel from the famous flotilla, which was built by the USSR to provide communication with space. The rest were put on pins and needles.
The ship arrived in Kaliningrad in 2001, moored at the berth of the Museum of the World Ocean. At the same time, having become a museum afloat, until 2017 Patsaev also performed the functions of a space communication vessel.
In 2016, it was recognized as an object of cultural heritage of federal significance. However, the Museum of the World Ocean had no funds for the maintenance of "Patsaev". It was decided that the military would take it under its wing, making it part of the Patriot Park.
Alas, nothing came of it. Moreover, there was a threat that the Patsaev would share the fate of the other ships of the Star flotilla. In this connection, the daughter of the Hero of the Soviet Union who died in space, Svetlana Patsayeva, was even forced to write an open letter to Vladimir Putin.
"The ship is slowly but surely coming to a deplorable state, and the further it goes, the more funds and efforts will be required to restore it," Svetlana Patsayeva wrote. She asked the President of the Russian Federation to intervene in the situation, recalling that in 2021 the country will celebrate the 50th anniversary of the world's first long-term orbital station "Salyut", where G.T. Dobrovolsky, V.N. Volkov and V.I. Patsaev, who died on their return to Earth, lived and worked.
And now it became known that "Patsaev" was transferred to the ownership of the Kaliningrad region. And in addition to the museum part, a hotel and a cafe should now appear on it, which will surely attract even more tourists to it.
Vladislav Rzhevsky, correspondent of "MIC" (Kaliningrad)
