The 30th of March at the RCSC saw the grand opening of a Festival in conjunction with the 50th anniversary of the first manned flight to space by Y.A. Gagarin.

The Festival’s program was jointly prepared by representatives from Rossotrudnichestvo, the National Space Agency of Malaysia, and the National Planetarium. Is comprises of about a month’s activities. During this period the planetarium will be showcasing daily demonstrations of multimedia presentations, documentary films and photo-exhibitions of Y.A. Gagarin and his historical feat. The planetarium’s showrooms were decorated with bright banners with photographs and articles of our planet’s first astronaut. Information stands which chart the history of the space era and the existing multilateral cooperation between Malaysia and Russia in matters of space exploration were also on display. The exhibition also featured full-scale models of Gagarin’s capsule, workplace and suit.

The main highlight of the Festival will be the colourful presentation of first flight to space by Earth’s first astronaut, which will take place at the National planetarium on the 16th of April. The organizers predict a turnout of at least a few hundred Malaysians.

The launch of the Festival, which took place at the RCSC, was well attended by distinguished guests from the National Space Agency of Malaysia, representatives of the intelligentsia, and students. The RCSC’s director M.Y. Popov gave the opening address. In his speech he highlighted Gagarin’s outstanding contribution to the history of space exploration.

Those assembled could admire an exhibition on Yuri Gagarin, and were shown a demonstration of a film about the Russian astronaut. They were also treated to a selection of songs on Y.A. Gagarin from the famous song-cycle by A. Pakhmutova.

The Malaysian astronaut Faiz Khaled was also present to give an impassioned speech to the auditorium. The aforementioned had completed the full preparatory course for space flight on the Russian spaceship “Soyuz TM-10” in Russia in 2006 and 2007. He fondly recalled the time spent in hard work whilst undergoing the space program under the guidance of Russian specialists. The words “Star city” and “Korolev” were pronounced by him in correct Russian. Mr Khaled has recently returned from a trip to Russia, where he discussed plans of expanding cooperation with his Russian colleagues in the matters of preparing Malaysian space explorers. For this event he had prepared a video presentation on Gagarin and the Star city.

Students from several Malaysian universities made presentations on Y. Gagarin. One such presentation of particular interest was by Cliff Tan, a student of University “Technology MARA”, who told of his journey to Star city as the winner of the national space competition. His speech was full of sincerity and respect to the great man who opened the road to space for humanity.

The opening of Malaysia’s Festival, dedicated to the 50th anniversary of Y.A. Gagarin’s flight to space was well covered by the local media. A special report was made by the news channel “Bernama TV”.