Podcast in English
Text size
Bulgarian National Radio © 2025 All Rights Reserved

45 years since the flight of Bulgaria’s first astronaut Georgi Ivanov

Georgi Ivanov
Photo: Lovech municipality

Three airplanes will overfly Lovech today at around 5.30 PM, as an air salute on the occasion of the 45th anniversary since the flight in space of the first Bulgarian astronaut Georgi Ivanov. The planes will take off from Donla Mitropoliya air base. They will be flown by experienced pilots in wedge formation.

On this date in 1979, the first joint Soviet-Bulgarian flight on board the space ship Soyuz 33 took place, with Russian astronaut Nikolai Rukavishnikov and Bulgarian astronaut Georgi Ivanov. The ship was launched from Baikonur cosmodrome. As it approached the Salyut 6 orbital station, however the ship’s main engine failed. The crew was unable to slow down and maneuver for docking with the orbital station as planned, and decided to use the backup engine to fly back to Earth. The crew of the Soyuz 33 spent 1 day, 23 hours and 1 minute in space. Bulgaria is the 6th country to have sent an astronaut into space.



Последвайте ни и в Google News Showcase, за да научите най-важното от деня!
Listen to the daily news from Bulgaria presented in "Bulgaria Today" podcast, available in Spotify.

More from category

PM Rosen Zhelyazkov

Bulgaria has requested an extraordinary convergence report on the euro: PM Zhelyazkov

Bulgaria has submitted a request for an extraordinary convergence report based on the understanding that the country meets the criteria for entering the Eurozone, Prime Minister Rosen Zhelyazkov said at the opening of a new production facility in..

published on 2/25/25 11:49 AM
Ivo Mihov

Team at Sofia University is working on creating a quantum computer

Artificial intelligence is now built entirely from classical computers with algorithms, while artificial intelligence based on quantum computers will be much faster and more functional , says doctoral student Ivo Mihov from the Center for Quantum..

published on 2/25/25 11:00 AM
Photo: Bulgarian Sunday school in Edirne

Interest in studying Bulgarian is growing in Edirne

The Bulgarian Sunday school "Priest Alexander Cikirik" in the town of Edirne close to the Bulgarian-Turkish border is now attended by 55 children. It was opened in 2017 at the Consulate General of Bulgaria. In one school year, the children there..

published on 2/25/25 10:17 AM