Roscosmos leadership, cosmonauts awarded with Dostyk Order (PHOTO)

MOSCOW. KAZINFORM In the course of the visit to Moscow, head of the Aerospace Committee of the Kazakhstan Investment and Development Ministry Talgat Mussabayev handed out state awards to Russian cosmonauts and Director General of Roscosmos Corporation.

By the Decree of President Nursultan Nazarbayev as of December 3, 2015, Director General of Roscosmos Igor Komarov and Head of the Gagarin Cosmonauts Training Centre Yury Lonchakov were awarded with 1 st Degree Dostyk Order.

2 nd Degree Dostyk Order was handed in to Roscosmos cosmonauts Sergey Volkov and Gennady Padalka.

“As a governmental official and as a cosmonaut, I am pleased over this mission to hand out state awards to you,” Talgat Mussabayev said.

“I am thankful to Kazakhstan leadership and to our colleagues from Kazcosmos. I think, this high-level award is a recognition of the contribution of Russian space development enterprises and staff to the development of Kazakhstan-Russia friendship,” I. Komarov said.

According to Yury Lonchakov, the award is of special importance for him. “I was born in Kazakhstan, and the man who hands in me this Order is my commander Talgat Mussabayev,” noted he.

Upon completion of the ceremony, Talgat Mussabayev said that Kazakhstan and Russia continue cooperating actively in space development sphere. One of the outcomes of this work became the participation of the third Kazakh cosmonaut Aidyn Aimbetov in ISS mission. “This start became possible thanks to your support, your contribution to the strengthening of friendship between our nations,” Mussabayev said addressing the awardees.