Dr. General Domitro Dorin Pronario, the first Romanian cosmonaut, founder of the "Space Explorers Association" in which 400 of the 500 or so astronauts, cosmonauts and space tourists are members, told the Ilan Ramon Space Conference that the Romanian dictator ordered television not to allow any hero Leumi' is another to overshadow him * in an interview with the website the scientist that Rona Ramon's request to recognize Ilan Ramon as a member of the association after his death was granted
Dr. General Domitro Dorin Pronario was 25 years old when he took off for his only mission in space aboard the Soyuz 40 spacecraft to the Sliot 6 space station, where he spent eight days on a scientific mission as part of the Intercosmos program in which the Soviet Union hosted cosmonauts from the communist countries of Eastern Europe.
"Intercosmos was a very good program for its time and helped develop space capabilities in Eastern European countries. We could use the infrastructure of the Soviet Union to develop plans and projects, launch objects into space and thus increase cooperation between the countries.
Pronario, who participated in the panel as part of the annual Ilan Ramon Space Conference, told panel moderator Tal Inbar that while in other countries the cosmonauts have become celebrities (as can be seen, for example, in the movie "Goodbye Lenin" which describes the last days of East Germany, in the eyes of a person who as a child was enthusiastic about the television broadcasts describing the Astronaut AB mission), in Romania Pronario once received the Hero of Romania (and at the same time also the Hero of the Soviet Union from Brezhnev) and since then he has been around the academic circles but his face has not been seen in public. When he was invited again, after the revolution, TV workers told him that it was a special order from President Ceausescu, who did not want other Romanian heroes to overshadow him.
After the revolution in Romania in 1989, Pronario and other researchers proposed to the new government to organize the Romanian Space Agency. In 1991 the government approved the organization of the European Space Agency under the Ministry of Education and Science. In a conversation with the Hidan website, he explains: "The first agreement signed by our new space agency was of course with the European Space Agency already in 1991. We renewed the agreement in 1997 which included greater cooperation, also in the fields of industry and not just research and applications, and in early 2012 we became a full member of the European Space Agency.
"From 1998 to 2004 I was the president of the Romanian Space Agency, then I moved to Russia as the ambassador of Romania" (he learned Russian as part of the preparations for his AB flight). "When I returned, I spent a year in Brussels as the director of the Romanian Office for Science and Technology at the European Commission. In the meantime, I continued in my role as a member of the board of directors of the Romanian Space Agency, from 2010 to 2012 I was the chairman of the UN Office for the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space, headquartered in Vienna, and now I am the president of the "ASSOCIATION OF SPACE EXPLORERS" - the union of all The astronauts and cosmonauts in the world. In this role, I have to promote within the union the professional dialogue between astronauts and cosmonauts from all over the world, as well as use the astronauts' travel stories to encourage children to learn science and technology. We organize conferences every year, a year ago we had a conference in Germany, this year in China, next year in Sweden. A year ago, during the congress in Germany, we received a letter from Rona Ramon saying that she was sorry that Ilan Ramon could not be a member of the union, we were impressed by her moving attitude and decided to make an exception and accept him as a member after his death, including Israel, the 36th country that has a representative in the union. We also plan to collaborate with the Ilan Ramon Foundation.
What else does the association do?
"We cover the entire field of work of the astronauts and cosmonauts, for example we have a committee that handles space flight safety, who knows better than us, the astronauts who suffered on the space station and know what happens there. In addition, we have a committee on near-Earth objects that discusses asteroids that threaten Earth. I am a member of the committee and promote the scientific recognition of the field. In recent years, a comprehensive scientific study of near-Earth asteroids and others has succeeded in bringing global public opinion to the danger. The document we prepared, based on these studies, became a UN working document. The union itself is a member of the Committee for Peaceful Uses of Outer Space. In December, the plenary of the UN Security Council announced that it had approved the document and called for the implementation of its recommendations: the world-class organization of observations, awareness of dangerous asteroids, and also a consulting body that would propose organizing the activities of the space agencies so that they would build systems that would repel the trajectories of dangerous asteroids."
How many astronauts have flown into space in general and how many are members of the association?
Starting from Gagarin, 540 astronauts took off into space. I was the 103rd. There are 395 astronauts in the association, and the membership is on a personal basis, as we have branches in the USA, Russia, Europe and Asia, although this branch is led by the Japanese who have taken off over the years. In response to a question from the science website, Pronario said that his members of the association are trying to convince the Chinese to join as well.
The scientist: Are space tourists also considered astronauts?
"As long as a person has completed at least one orbit in a spaceship, he is considered an astronaut. Reard Garrett was the son of Evan Garrett, who flew in Skylab and the son flew privately as a tourist to the space station. Anusha Ansari, who belongs to a rich family originally from Iran, who invested in space activities, is also a member of our union after serving as a private tourist. We want to use their experience in space so that they can tell about their feelings to students."
If space tourists fly to space hotels in the future, will they be able to be recognized as members of the association?
"We have no limit between tourists and professionals. We want to use their human experience of space flight.” Pronario summarizes.
One response
A member of our union after traveling as a private tourist. typo