Gagarin scientific readings

The opening of the Gagarin traditional scientific readings will be held on March 9, in Gagarin, where first spaceman Yuri Gagarin was born. The Chairman of the Readings Organizing Committee, Space Pilot and Twice Hero of the Soviet Union Alexei Leonov, said that this would be the 30th readings and mark the start of festivities preparations devoted to Yuri Gagarin's 70th anniversary to be celebrated on March 9, 2004. The readings are organized by the Russian Academy of Sciences, the Russian Space Agency, the Space Training Centre named after Yuri Gagarin, the Energiya Russian Space Company named after Sergei Korolyov, the Mikhail Khrunichev GKNPTs, the Space Museums Association, the Smolensk Region Administration and other public and government organizations. The readings will last till March 12 and look at: "History of Manned Space Exploration and Space Equipment", "Space as a Profession", "Space and Society", "Space Museum: Experience, Problems and Prospects", and "Space and Youth".