PM Modi Engages with Renowned Russian Cosmonaut, Celebrates Historic Space Collaboration
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Synopsis
Prime Minister Narendra Modi met with renowned Russian cosmonaut Oleg Artemyev during the NXT event in New Delhi, discussing the strong ties in space exploration between India and Russia.
Key Takeaways
- PM Modi and Oleg Artemyev discussed India-Russia space collaboration.
- Artemyev presented flags from the ISS to PM Modi.
- India's Gaganyaan mission highlighted during the meeting.
- Artemyev has extensive experience, including three spaceflights.
- India-Russia space cooperation dates back to the 1980s.
New Delhi, March 1 (NationPress) Celebrated Russian cosmonaut Oleg Artemyev engaged with Prime Minister Narendra Modi during the NXT event at the Bharat Mandapam in New Delhi on Saturday. Artemyev presented the Indian PM with the flags of both nations that had previously been onboard the International Space Station (ISS).
During their brief meeting, Artemyev also gifted PM Modi a book titled 'On the Moon' authored by esteemed Russian theoretical space scientist Konstantin Tsiolkovsky.
In response, PM Modi commended the level of international cooperation in space exploration. He specifically emphasized the bilateral partnership between Russia and India in space endeavors, highlighting India's role in the national manned space mission Gaganyaan, as noted by the Russian Embassy in India.
Oleg Artemyev, born on December 28, 1970, in Riga (now in the Republic of Latvia) to a military engineer family, spent his formative years in Leninsk, Kazakhstan, where his father was stationed.
Since 1998, he served as a test engineer at the S.P. Korolev Rocket and Space Corporation (RKK) Energia located in Korolev, near Moscow, contributing to the preparations for the July 2000 launch of the Zvezda service module of the ISS.
Artemyev's inaugural space flight occurred from March to September 2014 as a flight engineer aboard the Soyuz TMA-12M spacecraft, participating in the 39th/40th main expedition to the ISS alongside Alexander Skvortsov and American astronaut Steven Swanson. Together with Skvortsov, he ventured into outer space on two occasions.
From March to October 2018, he commanded the Soyuz MS-08 spacecraft and served as a flight engineer for the ISS-55/56 expedition.
His third space mission took place from March 18 to September 29, 2022, as the commander of the Soyuz MS-21 spacecraft and the ISS-67 expedition.
According to the Russian news agency Tass, across his three spaceflights, Artemyev accumulated a total of 560 days, 18 hours, and 7 minutes in space, completing eight spacewalks.
The partnership between India and Russia in the space domain dates back to the launch of the Aryabhata satellite, the historic journey of India’s first astronaut Rakesh Sharma aboard Russia's Soyuz T-11 spacecraft in 1984, and the training of four Indian astronauts for the prestigious manned mission Gaganyaan.
