The International Space Congress 2018 in Minsk: Opening ceremony, star guests and greetings from the ISS crew

The 31st Planetary Congress of the Association of Space Explorers kicked off in Minsk on 10 September. In attendance are 200 participants including about 60 cosmonauts and astronauts from 19 countries. Belarus is hosting a forum of this scale for the first time despite the fact that natives of Belarus were among those who saw the Earth from the height of thousands of kilometers. Among them are pilot-cosmonauts Piotr Klimuk, Vladimir Kovalenok, Oleg Novitsky

The opening ceremony of the ASE Planetary Congress 2018 was attended by Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko. In his address to the participants of the forum the head of state confirmed that Belarus is ready to engage in dialogue and take an active part in peace programs and projects on space exploration. “I am confident that together, in close cooperation, we will get closer to the new significant milestones in exploring the universe. We must build our space future only in the interests of the entire world and trusting each other,” he stressed at the ceremony to open the congress.

The delegates of the congress were welcomed by their “star” colleagues, members of the ISS crew. In their video address (in three languages at the same time!) they noted the symbolism of the emblem and the slogan of the congress Creating Space Future and pointed out the necessity to “encourage the young generation to study space science, engineering, physics, mathematics, to inspire the youth to work constantly on self-improvement.” Besides, some people declared their love to… Belarus: member of the crew Oleg Artemyev talked about his Belarusian roots.

Meanwhile the BelExpo exhibition center is hosting a major exhibition. Here the guests can familiarize with the history of Belarus, its achievements in space exploration, cutting-edge technologies of creating high resolution optical instruments, space mirrors, equipment for the remote sensing of the Earth and the results of some Union State programs. The agenda of the first day included four technical sessions dedicated to scientific developments and also reports about the latest flights to the ISS.

Special report about the ASE Planetary Congress 2018