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

Cloudy and foggy weather expected on Thursday, temperatures in wide limits

On Thursday, minimum temperatures in Bulgaria will be in wide limits, from minus 6° - minus 8°C in places with fog, to about 5°C in the extreme southwestern regions of the country. In Sofia, it will be about minus 1°C.  During the day,..

published on 2/26/25 7:15 PM
Deputy Premier Tomislav Donchev

Bulgaria will try to save part of the second payment under the Recovery and Resilience Plan

Our country has a six-month deadline until the end of August 2025 to restart the process of adopting the laws related to the Recovery and Resilience Plan. This will be done in an attempt to save most of the second payment under the plan,..

published on 2/26/25 6:32 PM
Daniel Mitov

The Interior Ministry is performing well with the checks in the interior of the country after Bulgaria's entry into Schengen

The Ministry of Interior is performing well. There has been an increase in the amount of seized drugs and human traffickers caught at the Schengen borders , Minister of Interior Daniel Mitov said in response to a journalist's question about how the..

published on 2/26/25 4:48 PM