The history of Russian-French cooperation and achievements should not be forgotten, Alexey Meshkov notedPARIS, January 12.
/tass/. Russian-French cooperation in space exploration has a rich history and should continue. This was stated by Russian Ambassador to Paris Alexey Meshkov at an event dedicated to the 40th anniversary of the Salyut-7 mission and the 30th anniversary of the Antares mission, which took place on Thursday at the Russian House of Science and Culture in Paris.
"For Russia, cooperation with France in the space sector has always been important," Meshkov said. "The founder of the Fifth Republic, General Charles de Gaulle, who became the first head of a Western state to visit the Baikonur Cosmodrome, was at the origins of the development of these relations."
The head of the Russian diplomatic mission recalled that during this visit to the USSR in 1966, an Intergovernmental Agreement on Cooperation in the Field of Exploration and Use of Outer Space for Peaceful Purposes was signed. "This gave rise to many further joint projects," said Meshkov.
"Today, despite the difficult international situation, the history of Russian-French cooperation and heroic achievements should not be forgotten," the Russian ambassador stressed, expressing confidence that the partnership between Russia and France can lead to major discoveries in various fields.
General de Gaulle's grandson Pierre de Gaulle, who was present at the event, spoke in the same vein, saying that partnership relations are mutually beneficial for the two countries. "General de Gaulle spoke about the special nature of relations between Russia and France," he said, adding that he believes in the continuation of "partnership relations and common sense."
The first French cosmonaut
Meshkov noted that the first French astronaut was Jean-Loup Chretien, who in 1982 flew to the Salyut-7 station together with Vladimir Dzhanibekov and Alexander Ivanchenkov.
"An equally bright page in space exploration was the joint flight 10 years later to the Mir space station of French astronaut Michel Tonini as part of the crew of Anatoly Solovyov and Sergey Avdeev," Meshkov said. He stressed that scientific experiments were carried out during both missions, which made it possible to use the best Soviet and French developments in the field of space exploration.
In turn, Chretien, who joined the event via video link, began his speech in Russian, then switching to French. The space explorer described his impressions after being awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union for flying into space. "I felt an incredible sense of pride. Before me, only a few Frenchmen who fought in the Normandy-Neman air regiment received this highest award," Chretien noted.
During the event, the words of cosmonaut Ivanchenkov were also heard. "We flew over France for several days, but it was hidden by clouds. But one day Chretien saw France - the sky above it was almost cloudless. He clung to the porthole, and when he returned to work, I saw the face of a happy man," Ivanchenkov said.
At the end of the ceremony, Meshkov and De Gaulle made a symbolic cancellation of a postcard dedicated to the 1982 flight.
First flights
The first joint Russian-French flight took place in 1982 and lasted from June 24 to July 2.
The second flight took place in 1988. This was Chretien's second expedition. From November 24 to December 21, on board the Soyuz TM-7 complex of the Mir station, together with Russian cosmonauts, he carried out scientific and technical work on the Aragats program. More than 12 thousand images of the earth's surface were taken, on December 9, Chretien and Russian cosmonaut Alexander Volkov went into outer space, where the ERA folding antenna created by the French firm Aerospacial was mounted.
The third joint flight under the Antares program took place in 1992. From July 27 to August 10, on the Soyuz TM-15 spacecraft and the Mir orbital complex, Russian cosmonauts and French cosmonaut-researcher Michel Tonini conducted joint work on space medicine, psychology, biology, and fundamental physics.