Prague, March 2 (CTK) – A new exhibition in the Stefanik Observatory in Prague focuses on the space flight of the first Czechoslovak cosmonaut Vladimir Remek 40 years ago and also on less known Czech space projects such as the MIMOSA satellite and the completed but never launched czCUBE satellite.
Remek flew to space together with Soviet cosmonaut Alexei Gubarev on the Salyut 6 spacecraft on March 2, 1978.
This autumn, 40 years will also elapse since the launch of the first Czechoslovak satellite to Earth orbit.
The satellite was Magion 1 and was followed by another four within the Magion series.
The visitors can see Magion 1 at the exhibition, which the organisers presented on Friday. It will actually be Magion 1’s twin, since at the time, the experts completed two identical satellites simultaneously in case a complication occurred.
Also on display is MIMOSA, the first model of a purely Czech satellite, which took off in 2003.
It is being displayed for the first time, the observatory’s expert Stanislav Poddany said.
MIMOSA orbited the Earth for eight years but it failed to fulfil its main task, which was to measure the planet’s gravitational field, due to a defect on the relevant device.
As for the czCUBE satellite, which is really shaped as a cube, it was an amateur project but was never launched due to a lack of money.
The exhibition also highlights VZLUTSAT-1, a Czech technological satellite that has been on the orbit since last year, a small model of one of the satellites from the Galileo system, and also some objects loaned from the Prague-Kbely aviation museum, such as a life belt for landing in the sea, a sample of space meals and a transmitter used by Remek during his flight as the first astronaut from outside the Soviet Union and the USA.
The exhibition has been installed on the observatory’s ground floor and will run through June 30.
