OREANDA-NEWS. April 12, 2011. On the International Day of Human Space Flight Dmitry Medvedev visited the Mission Control Centre in Korolev, Moscow Region. The President inspected the Centre and spoke with the International Space Station crew.

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PRESIDENT OF RUSSIA DMITRY MEDVEDEV: Good afternoon, friends,

I want to begin by congratulating you on the International Day of Human Space Flight and the anniversary of Yury Gagarin’s flight into space.
It gives me great pleasure that today people are happy to celebrate this holiday, at least in our country. I would really like to understand what you are feeling on this day.

I think your feelings must be very special because you are celebrating this unique anniversary, the 50th anniversary of the first manned space flight, in orbit and that must give you great joy, as well as a great responsibility and effort.

You are a unique international crew, and I would like to greet all of you, the citizens of the Russian Federation and our friends and partners from NASA and the European Space Agency. I hope you are enjoying this day, that you have already received congratulations from your colleagues, your loved ones and heads of states. I sincerely congratulate you once again and wish you success and interesting work.

We are not going to talk about past achievements because there have been so many of them in these 50 years. On the other hand, a great deal still lies ahead.

I have just received information about one of our upcoming projects, a flight to Mars. This is a truly fascinating and a fundamental challenge. You are in orbit now and, if you have no objections, I would be interested to understand what kind of emotions you are experiencing today, on April 12, 2011, 50 years after Yury Gagarin’s first flight into space.