10 April 1979, 8:34 pm… The Soyuz 33 spaceship, launched into orbit, headed to space with the first Bulgarian spaceman Georgi Ivanov onboard. It completed 31 full circles around the Earth. The flight was dynamic and dramatic and the Bulgarian set a record in global aeronautics with the calmest pulse in history ever. Soviet and American cosmonauts stated than the flight had contributed a lot to the development of aeronautics. Thus Bulgaria became the 6^th country in the world that sent its spaceman into orbit.

“This country will have a third one too, since it has a strong potential in the sphere of space research,” Georgi Ivanov states today in an interview for RB.

“However, our experts have to develop a scientific program for the purpose, which should be accepted by the big space countries and the European Space Agency. The Bulgarian state should stand behind such a program,” the first spaceman goes on to say.

Is it hard to be first? “When you fly with a plane, you don’t think whether you are first or second and we can say the same thing on space flights,” the former military pilot says. However, no former or retired people exist in aeronautics. Mr. Ivanov feels a spaceman to this day. There are the annual congresses of the International Association of Space Activities Participants. Issues on Earth and in space are discussed there. About 560 astronauts and cosmonauts from more than 20 countries have been into orbit so far, most of those Russians and Americans. Georgi Ivanov expects guests for the jubilee in Sofia – the space elite of Russia, Poland, Romania, Hungary and the Czech Republic will take part in both the official celebrations and a special conference.

Let’s go 35 years back now, on the day of the flight and check out the rucksack of Mr. Ivanov.

“I carried a lot of stuff at the orbit station – the Bulgarian flag, Istoriya Slavyanobolgarskaya (Slav Bulgarian History), dust from the old Bulgarian capital of Pliska and the Shipka Peak. Of course, I also carried foods, produced in Bulgaria for use in space,” Mr. Ivanov says. “Bulgaria became the third country back then, which produced cosmic food and the 6^th cosmic one in the world.”

How does the Earth look through the illuminator? “The pacific Ocean, the white clouds, the blue and green seas… it’s really beautiful,” Georgi Ivanov recalls.

“It doesn’t look like a small round ball, as most often drawn,” he adds. “The blinking lights of the big cities can be seen at night, while through the day those are covered with smog. I saw as early as 35 years ago how polluted the Earth was. We should protect it, because it is very small and tiny, compared to the planets we know.”

Are we going to land on Mars and conquer the Red Planet?

“This is the dream of many scientists and it is hard to say when a person will step on Mars for real. One has to live and work in zero-gravity more than a year before the flight to Mars. There are lots of obstacles. Besides zero-gravity and food, there is a lot of radiation that is hard to be endured for a long time. However, scientists continue to study all those elements. Orbit flights nowadays last about 6 months.”

Georgi Ivanov thinks that mankind is still a bit away from the dream on space holidays, but the number of space tourists is growing. “After they pay several dozens of millions in euros or dollars, they fly about 6 days and nights. The first Bulgarian spaceman explains that despite our dreams the preparation of such a flight is long, complicated and expensive. Mr. Ivanov is a pessimist, as far as eventual contacts with other civilizations are concerned, but says that those probably do exist, since we can’t be the only ones in the whole galaxy… Despite being “grounded” at the moment, Georgi Ivanov says that he would like to fly again – who wouldn’t?...

English version: Zhivko Stanchev