The only Hungarian astronaut: Bertalan Farkas

42 years ago today, Hungary was the seventh nation to send a person into space. Brigadier Bertalan Farkas was the first-ever Hungarian man to leave Earth’s exosphere. He was the first and only Hungarian astronaut, and on May 26th, we commemorate the day he left for space. He spent an unforgettable week on the Salyut 6 orbital space station in 1980. 

While we celebrate the day of astronautics and space on April 12th, the day Bertalan Farkas became the first Hungarian to enter the cosmos is equally important. Generations of Hungarians know his name and celebrate him as a legend. He wrote his name in Hungarian history books back then, and he will certainly be known for many decades to come.

About his life

He was born in 1949 in the eastern Hungarian town of Gyulaháza. He was a diligent student with a great passion for football and sports. When the time came though, he chose to attend the Aeronautical College in Szolnok and join the Hungarian Air Force. Following his passion for flying, later, in 1976, he became a first-class fighter pilot. From 1949, Hungary was under the control of the USSR, and thus, when he decided to become an astronaut, he joined the Interkosmos program designed to help the Soviet Union’s allies to get their astronauts to space. 

Bertalan Farkas today, with his spacesuit, source: mandiner.hu

The route to space

Bertalan Farkas took part in a long and hard training both here in Hungary and then in the Yuri A. Gagarin State Scientific Research-and-Testing Cosmonaut Training Centre in Moscow where he was the one selected to visit the Salyut 6 orbital space station and carry out many important scientific experiments for the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, especially the department of Physical Sciences. Later in his life, this is how he remembered back to which were the greatest sights in space: 

To see Hungary from outer space for the first time, to see the sunrise and the sunset… Then seeing the constellations of the cosmic night, the mountain ranges in South America, the beauty of the deserts of Africa, and the red sand clouds over India.

For the past 42 years, no Hungarian got to visit space after him. But this February, it seemed like this would be changing, as a new space program called HUNOR (Hungarian to Orbit) was launched. They have already selected the 100 young people from whom the lucky one gets to visit the International Space Station in 2024.

Read alsoBreaking! Hungary could soon send researchers to the International Space Station

Source: kormany.hu, gyulaháza.hu