site.btaMonument to Intercosmos Bulgaria 1300 Satellite Should Be Included in 100 National Tourist Sites, Says Yuri Gagarin Astronomical Observatory Director

The monument to the Intercosmos Bulgaria 1300 satellite in Stara Zagora will be proposed for inclusion in Bulgaria's 100 national tourist sites, said Assoc. Prof. Alexey Stoev, Director of the Yuri Gagarin Astronomical Observatory with Planetarium, in an interview with BTA on Monday.

He stressed that the monument is unique in Bulgaria and that not only the residents of Stara Zagora, but also the guests of the city will have the opportunity to see it, adding that the satellite will be associated with a number of initiatives for this purpose. Stoev pointed out that a lot of effort and fundraising campaigns have been invested in the construction of the monument, noting that more innovations are to be made still.

"The monument will have an evolution of its functions as an artifact from the recent past. We intend to place replicas of all 12 devices together with the laser reflector, thanks to which the satellite's orbit is very precisely positioned and can be tracked," he said. Stoev also stated that a special website will soon be presented, which will allow citizens to inform themselves when it is best to visit the monument, as it has special sound and light effects. "On a special screen in real time, anyone who is interested will be able to obtain information on where exactly the satellite is located, since today we have the opportunity to observe it, so as to determine the exact orbit", he noted.

"We also plan to place several modern satellites in the monument itself, in order to see the evolution of satellite construction,” he pointed out.

The Intercosmos Bulgaria 1300 satellite was created under the Intercosmos International Programme, which was relevant in the 1970s and 1980s and was conceived as an entirely Bulgarian creation, Stoev noted. He specified that the satellite was made mainly to study the so-called magnetospheric-ionospheric interactions and the role of the solar wind in everything that is excited in the magnetosphere and ionosphere of the Earth at these altitudes. Stoev added that the satellite had a design life of six to eight months, but it continued to operate for almost two years, which for satellites of that era and of this category is a significant achievement.