Opinions & Interviews

The congress in progress

MINSK, 10 September (BelTA) – The 31^st planetary congress of the Association of Space Explorers, which is taking place in Minsk on 9-15 September, has been very well organized, BelTA learned from the Russian pilot-cosmonaut Mikhail Korniyenko on 10 September.

The cosmonaut said: “I knew that the congress would take place in Belarus, a brotherly country, and came here with pleasure. I was confident that everything will be properly organized but didn’t expect that organization would be so good. The organization of the forum is beyond any praise.”

Mikhail Korniyenko has been in outer space twice. He took part in the first year-long mission on the International Space Station together with the U.S. astronaut Scott Kelly. The lengthy mission was supposed to collect data about the response of the human body to lengthy space flights.

The 31^st planetary congress of the Association of Space Explorers (ASE) is taking place in Minsk on 9-15 September. The ASE is an international not-for-profit organization created in 1985 to share the best practices in the area of manned space flights. Every year the ASE planetary congress gathers cosmonauts and astronauts as well as representatives of research institutions and national space agencies.