Tag: Prunariu

  • 40 years since the first flight of a Romanian in space

    40 years since the first flight of a Romanian in space

    In May 1981, Romanian Dumitru Prunariu and Leonid Popov’s Soyuz 40
    docked with the Soviet orbital station Salyut 6. After 7 days, 20 hours and 42
    minutes spent in outer space, the two cosmonauts safely landed in Kazakhstan on
    May 22nd. The flight was part of the Soviet programme Interkosmos,
    through which, the former USSR invited the socialist countries in Eastern
    Europe and not only to participate with cosmonauts in joint space efforts.
    Romanian Dumitru Prunariu has been the first and so far the only Romanian
    cosmonaut, his mission being a landmark in Romania’s aeronautics history.
    During an anniversary event staged by the Foreign Ministry in Bucharest four
    decades later, cosmonaut Prunariu has recollected the flight conditions and the
    experiments he conducted on board of the Soviet space laboratory.




    Dumitru Prunariu: Our spaceflight included a
    series of experiments initiated by Romanian scientists, from various research
    institutes, most of them working for the Central Institute of Physics based in
    Magurele at that time. Others were medical experiments, focusing on the way in
    which the human body adjusts to weightlessness in space, experiments that were
    carried on later after landing when a series of body measurements were made.
    Scientists were also trying to assess the way in which the human body readjusts
    to earth conditions after landing. Some of the experiments pertained to
    astrophysics and the study of space radiation – I for instance took measurements,
    with a digital device made in Romania, of the radiation level over various
    regions of the planet, particularly mainly over South Atlantic. This region
    arrested the scientists’ attention for the anomalies in the Earth’s magnetic
    field. I registered here values of cosmic radiation 20 times higher than in the
    other areas at the same altitude. I also studied the structure of heavy
    particles at various altitudes, and did some technological experiments such as
    the possibility of obtaining high purity materials to be used in the
    electronics industry including in solar panels to produce energy in outer
    space.




    ‘What impressed me the most upon reaching outer space was the thin
    atmospheric layer. If you were to compare the Earth to an apple, the atmosphere
    wouldn’t be thicker than its peel. It is almost shocking to understand the fact
    that life developed and is going under that thin layer and that we, in our
    ignorance, are polluting, poisoning what we are breathing and what we are going
    to leave to the next generations to breathe while cutting down forests which
    are the planet’s oxygen factory’, cosmonaut Dumitru Prunariu has further cautioned.


    But what is the future of space exploration looking like? Is this future
    going to belong to governments as in the past or is it going to be influenced
    by the private initiative?




    Here is again Romanian cosmonaut Dumitru
    Prunariu: The future will
    arguably be a cooperation between the two initiatives. As you see not only the
    governments are investing in this field, as business opportunities have
    developed in this domain as well and now Elon Musk is sending people to the
    International Space Station. He is also building and testing a giant spacecraft
    to carry infrastructure elements for a permanent moonbase and is also planning
    to send crews of up to 20 people to the Moon and also to Mars. Elon Musk is a
    visionary, an entrepreneur who knows how to use his money to both support the
    US government in developing space activities, as he is cooperating with NASA on
    most of his programmes, and to make profit, do business with the rockets he
    built, which have exceeded by far the limits initially imposed by government
    standards. They are reusable rockets and their cost is significantly lower. Two
    years ago he covered about 20% of the total commercial launches of satellites.
    Government agencies have followed suit started studying the possibility of
    building reusable rockets to lower the costs of space exploration. At present
    the cost to launch a kilogram of payload to space is somewhere around 15-20
    thousand dollars, but it will decrease significantly in the future. Not only
    Elon Musk but also Jeff Bezos, who is the world’s richest man, has been involved
    in space exploration and is planning to send tourists into the orbit. He also
    envisages suborbital spaceflights at affordable prices for the rich, somewhere
    around a few hundred thousand dollars. Mars is also one of the main targets of
    space exploration because scientists believe that life existed on that planet
    long time ago. There are signs that water existed on Mars long before and it
    still exists in various forms today. US rover Perseverance is presently looking
    for ancient life in Jezero Crater where it landed on the Red Planet. A Chinese
    spacecraft, which landed on the Moon is also doing the same kind of research in
    a different area of the Earth’s natural satellite. Competition in the area of
    space exploration will be forcing governments to cooperate with private
    entrepreneurs. Even countries like China and Russia are encouraging the private
    initiative in the area, although in these countries, government structures are almost
    exclusively in charge of space exploration at this time. Private initiative
    proved to have achieved more and fared better in this area than the limited
    government structures, and that will eventually lead to development.


    2021 is a great year in terms of anniversaries related to space
    exploration. Besides the present event of marking 40 years since the first
    spaceflight of a Romanian cosmonaut, two other landmarks in the history of
    aeronautics are being celebrated: 70 years since the first manned space flight,
    when Yuri Gagarin became the first man to fly into outer space (12th
    April 1961) and 40 years since the flight of Columbia, the first space shuttle.





  • Nachrichten 08.08.2018

    Nachrichten 08.08.2018

    Landwirtschaftsminister Petre Daea hat am Mittwoch dementiert, dass bebaute Felder flächendeckend zerstört oder verbrannt werden sollen, um die Schweinepestepidemie unter Kontrolle zu halten – nur dort, wo kranke Wildschweine im Feld entdeckt werden, würde man eine solche Maßnahme begrenzt treffen. So einen Vorfall habe es allerdings nicht gegeben, so der Minister. Die Afrikanische Schweinepest breitet sich in Rumänien immer weiter aus. Die Anzahl der Infektionsherde ist auf 580 in 100 Ortschaften gestiegen. Weil es gegen die Afrikanische Schweinepest keine Impfung und keine Behandlung gibt, mussten bis jetzt etwa 78.000 Schweine getötet werden. Die Krankheit wird nicht auf Menschen übertragen, sie hat aber hohe soziale und wirtschaftliche Auswirkungen. Die Schweinezüchter, die ihre Tiere wegen der Kontaminierung mit Afrikanischer Schweinepest töten müssen, werden mit etwa 2 Euro pro Kg entschädigt. In einer geplanten Haushaltsanpassung sollen zusätzliche Fonds für die Bekämpfung der Seuche eingeplant werden.



    Die rumänische Zentralbank BNR hat die Inflationsprognose für das laufende Jahr um 0,1 Prozentpunkte leicht verbessert. Demnach soll die Inflation zu Jahresende 3,5% betragen Auch für nächstes Jahr korrigierte die BNR ihre Prognose um 0,3 Prozentpunkte nach unten– Ende 2019 soll die Inflation 2,7% erreichen. Notenbank-Chef Mugur Isarescu stellte außerdem in Aussicht, dass nach vorläufigen Daten bereits im Juli eine negative Inflation und ein Preisverfall eintreten würden.



    Beschäftigte des rumänischen Ministeriums für Jugend und Sport sowie der nationalen Sportverbände sind am Mittwoch in einen Generalstreik getreten. Die Gewerkschaften riefen den Streik aus, nachdem andere Protestaktionen wie Mahnwachen vor dem Ministerium keinen Erfolg zeigten. Die Beschäftigten verlangen höhere Löhne, ihnen zufolge könne man mit umgerechnet unter 300 Euro keinen Leistungssport unterstützen. Das Management erklärte, man habe bei dem für Lohnfragen im öffentlichen Dienst zuständigen Arbeitsministerium mehrmals angefragt – demnach handele es sich bei den Lohnanpassungen um einen langwierigen Prozess, doch würden ab dem 1. Januar die Löhne um 25% steigen.



    Mit 59 Millionen Euro aus dem Kohäsionsfonds der EU sollen die Schleusen auf den beiden Schiffskanälen modernisiert werden, die den Schwarzmeerhafen Constanţa mit der Donau verbinden. Darüber informierte die Europäische Kommission. Das Projekt soll 2021 abgeschlossen werden und den Schiffsverkehr auf der Strecke um die Hälfte erhöhen, während die Navigationssicherheit und der Überschwemmungsschutz insgesamt verbessert werden. Die gesamte Wirtschaft in Südost-Rumänien werde davon profitieren, so Regionalpolitikkommissarin Corina Creţu.



    Dumitru Prunariu, der bisher einzige rumänische Weltraumflieger, soll den Wissenschaftspreis der internationalen Akademie für Astronautik bekommen. Die Preisverleihung findet am 30. September in Bremen statt. Am 14. Mai 1981 wurde Dumitru Prunariu zum ersten und vorerst einzigen Rumänen, der auf Weltraumreise ging. An Bord der Soyuz 40 Mission im Rahmen des sowjetischen Raumfahrtprogramms “Intercosmos durfte Prunariu fast acht Tage weilen.

  • Jurnal românesc – 16.05.2016

    Jurnal românesc – 16.05.2016

    Este necesară o prezenţă mai hotărâtă a presei de limba română în Republica Moldova, a declarat ministrul delegat pentru Relaţiile cu Românii de Pretutindeni, Dan Stoenescu, care a făcut la sfârşitul săptămânii trecute o vizită la Chişinău. El a afirmat, de asemenea, că societatea civilă şi mass-media din România şi Republica Moldova trebuie să fie parteneri de discuţie în procesul de guvernare, pentru că ele reprezintă cei mai importanţi factori care oferă direcţii societăţii.



    Academia Română a organizat luni o sesiune specială pentru a marca “35 de ani de la primul zbor în spaţiul cosmic al unui român”. Sesiunea a fost dedicată cosmonautului Dumitru-Dorin Prunariu, membru de onoare al acestui for ştiinţific. La eveniment au luat parte 11 astronauţi şi cosmonauţi din Bulgaria, Franţa, Germania, Marea Britanie, Olanda, Polonia, SUA şi Ungaria, precum şi reprezentanţi ai Corpului Diplomatic şi personalităţi ale lumii culturale şi ştiinţifice. În 1981, în perioada 14 – 22 mai, cosmonautul Dumitru Prunariu a devenit primul român care a realizat un zbor în spaţiul cosmic. In timpul misiunii spaţiale el a efectuat o serie de cercetări ştiinţifice, tehnologice, biomedicale, astrofizice şi psihologice. În 2011, Academia Română l-a ales pe Dumitru-Dorin Prunariu membru de onoare, drept recunoaştere a extraordinarei sale performanţe.



    Procurorul-sef al DNA Laura Codruţa Kovesi a cerut luni sesizarea Senatului pentru începerea urmăririi penale a senatorului Titus Corlăţean, in dosarul votului din Diaspora din noiembrie 2014. Procurorii anticoruptie il acuza pe Corlatean ( la acel moment ministru de Externe in guvernul condus de Victor Ponta) de abuz in serviciu si impiedicarea exercitarii drepturilor electorale. În contextul organizării alegerilor prezidenţiale din 2014, în calitate de ministru de externe, Titus Corlăţean, a organizat discreţionar secţiile de votare din străinătate, obţinând astfel un folos necuvenit pentru candidatul propus şi susţinut de partidul din care făcea şi el parte, susţine DNA. Folosul necuvenit pentru altul a constat în limitarea numărului de cetăţeni români care şi-au putut exercita dreptul de vot în străinătate, indică procurorii.



    350 de militari din 6 ţări – România, Bulgaria, Marea Britanie, Republica Moldova, Serbia şi SUA – s-au antrenat timp de o săptămână în Poligonul de la Smârdan, lângă Galaţi, în cadrul modulului de pregătire Platinum Eagle 16.1” Acesta face parte din exerciţiul anual Black Sea Rotational Force 16 (BSRF), condus de Comandamentul Forţelor Infanteriei Marine ale SUA, dislocate în Europa şi Africa. BSRF se desfăşoară în zona Mării Negre, în Balcani şi în regiunea Caucazului şi are drept scop creşterea nivelului de interoperabilitate, prin antrenarea în comun a militarilor în vederea participării la operaţii de menţinere a păcii şi de contra-insurgenţă.



    Între 180.000 şi 200.000 de persoane fizice au datorii la bugetul statului sau la alte bugete publice, iar listele sunt finalizate şi vor fi publicate luni, a declarat preşedintele Agenţiei Naţioanle de Administrare Fiscală (ANAF), Dragoş Doroş. ANAF anunţase că va publica listele la începutul lunii mai, dar a amânat decizia pe motiv că în ultima săptămână a crescut foarte mult numărul contribuabililor care au decis să îşi stingă datoriile sau să îşi clarifice situaţia fiscală. Fiscul urmează să publice doar numele persoanelor fizice care au restanţe la buget de cel puţin 1.500 de lei.