Russian cosmonaut takes part in Science Week in Nicaragua

Russian cosmonaut Fyodor Yurchen arrived in Nicaragua on Saturday to participate in Science Week, which will be held from 25-29 this month in Managua, the government said.

Yurchigin leads a delegation consisting of the head of the Russian Aerospace and Rocket Corporation “Energy” and the head of the Tsiolkovsky Foundation, Sergey Sambrov, and the director of the Center for Scientific, Technical Cooperation and Innovation with Ibero-American countries in the southwest. Russia State University, Nikolai Frolov, informed the executive in a note.

The 62-year-old Russian cosmonaut is one of the men who have spent the longest time in space, accumulating 673 days.

His stay in orbit is due to 5 missions, during which he carried out 9 spacewalks totaling 59 hours and 58 minutes.

Yurchijin was the astronaut who brought back the torch from the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics, which went into space in 2013.

Science Week is generally celebrated in November. On the seventh of this month, the general elections of Nicaragua will be held, with President Daniel Ortega seeking re-election for the third time in a row and the first with his wife Rosario Murillo as Vice President.

Nicaragua’s relations with Russia were close when Ortega was in power, first from 1979 to 1990, and then from 2007.

In recent months, Russia has donated wheat, flour and buses to Nicaragua, and has been one of the main suppliers of vaccines against COVID-19 using the Sputnik V and Sputnik Lite formulations.