Гагарин в моей судьбе, в судьбе страны. Письмо космонавту

Dear Mr. Krikalev,

My name’s Nadya, and I’m a third-year student at a teachers’ training college in Moscow Region. Practicing our professional skills my group mates and I often go to the local primary school to give lessons, and sometimes we do some extracurricular activity. In Russia this year we honour the 50-year anniversary of Y. Gagarin’s flight into the space. I’ m going to tell the children about the achievement of the Russian Federation in this sphere. Actually I’ll be speaking about our cosmonauts.

        Recently I thought to myself: “What Russian spacemen do I know? “ The list seems to be quite short - Gagarin,  Titov, Tereshkova,  Leonov and, of course, you. I know that in the 1960’s and the 1970’s the name of cosmonauts knew everyone. They were like gods from the Olympus, supermen and heroes of our Motherland. Most of the Soviet boys wanted to become cosmonauts, and even girls were ready to follow the example of V. Tereshkova.  So, what do we have how? The news about launches doesn’t attract as much attention as before. Schoolchildren dream of becoming models, bankers and politicians. Ordinary people pay no attention   to the results of space missions; we have other things to worry about. Unfortunately, everyday routine and different troubles make the work of cosmonauts unimportant for people.

        I think it’s absolutely wrong. Although your work far from the Earth, you do your job for us and for the future generations. You are making space travelling possible for mankind.  Each of you has great background and practical experience. Your job demands not only intellectual abilities but also good physical shape and psychological stability.

I can’t imagine myself living in a spaceship, speaking foreign languages and doing scientific experiments. We watch films and series like “Star Track”, “The War of the Worlds”, “The Alien” and imagine spacemen to have outstanding, almost superhuman powers. Then we read article or watch TV news and find out that you have down-to- Earth life like all of us. Still, you’ve seen our planet through the spaceship window, you were in weightlessness, you survived and came back.

        Looking at my class, I hope that they will follow your life strategy - work hard and reach the stars… each in his own Space.

         I want to thank you for the great job you do and wish you all the best.

Sincerely yours,

Nadya Lobochiova.