WARSAW, April 12./TASS/. Yuri Gagarin’s space flight on April 12, 1961 was an historic event, crucial for the future of the space industry, Aleksandra Bukala, Director of Strategy and International Cooperation Department of the Polish Space Agency, POLSA, told TASS on Monday.
"It was an historic event. At last a human, a representative of our society, could for the first time look at Earth from outside. This greatly predetermined the future of the space industry," she said.
"It seems to me that the first manned space flight ushered in a kind of golden era in the development of astronautics that culminated in the Moon landing. The construction of the International Space Station, where people have been working for over 20 years without interruption, came as a next turning point," Aleksandra Bukala said.
There’s been fewer high-profile events in the space industry in the recent years, but this does not mean that nothing is happening on that track, she noted. "Quite the contrary. We are getting increasingly dependent on the space industry. We can no longer imagine traveling without satellite maps, produced owing to space systems," she explained.
"We don’t realize how accurate weather forecasts have become due to the fact that we can look at Earth from the outside, and have weather satellites in orbit," Aleksandra Bukala from the Polish Space Agency went on to say.
"Possibly, the return of mankind to the Moon or the landing on the surface of Mars will be a new major step," she said. "What is important is that Gagarin’s flight and further developments in the space industry have in general influenced the development of technologies," she said. "The question is how future space exploration and the emergence of an opportunity to use resources of the Moon and the landing on Mars will change our life," she stressed.
She admitted that the coronavirus pandemic hinders active international cooperation and direct contacts of scientists. "I think that this gives us a reason to think about how vulnerable we are as humankind, and realize that we have only one spacecraft called Earth, and that we must take care of it. Secondly, we need to think about how further space exploration will help us survive," Aleksandra Bukala emphasized.
Polish Space Agency
The Polish Space Agency was established almost six years ago. Bukala mentioned among its main projects the observation of objects in space, updating the use of satellite data and the development of reliable satellite communications. "And a fourth is cooperation on space exploration, that is missions to Mars or the Moon. Together with Roscosmos, we are part of the International Space Exploration Coordination Group. This work covers observation missions, Mars rovers and lunar rovers, as well as manned missions," she said.
"We are seeking to establish broad cooperation. Interaction has continued for over 40 years, and is development well. We have extensive scientific contacts with the Russian side," the director went on to say. "We are not major players in the space industry. However, cooperation with partners across the globe, including Russian partners, is developing very well," she noted. Bukala mentioned that the president of POLSA had accepted the invitation to participate in the Global Space Exploration Conference - GLEX 2021, due in St. Petersburg on June 14-18.