What does it feel like to know you’re visible from orbit? Now, a hundred students from Samara University can show friends and family a satellite photo and say with pride: “That’s me!”
On Thursday, 1,500 students from universities and colleges across the region gathered on Kuibyshev Square to take part in a spectacular flash mob. They formed the phrase “Samara. Space. 65”, which was captured from 470 kilometers above Earth by the Resurs-P Earth observation satellite as it passed overhead.
Among the participants were 100 future aerospace engineers and IT specialists from the Institute of Aerospace Engineering (IAE), the Institute of Engine and Power Plant Engineering (IEPPE), and the Institute of IT and Cybernetics (IIC). This is no coincidence: since 1989, Samara University has been designing and building its own spacecraft. The University also operates three ground stations for receiving satellite data and controlling orbital assets, and uses remote sensing data to develop GIS-based smart city services that enhance urban life across the region.
Organized by the Roscosmos State Corporation and GTRK “Samara”, the flash mob served as a powerful reminder that Samara’s legacy is deeply intertwined with space exploration. Exactly 65 years ago, the Vostok launch vehicle—which carried Yuri Gagarin, the first human in space—was assembled right here in Kuibyshev (now Samara). In addition, the very satellite that photographed the event, Resurs-P, was built at the Progress Rocket Space Centre in Samara—the same facility that produced the Soyuz-2.1b rocket that launched it into orbit.
Photos by Olesya Orina, Roscosmos, GTRK “Samara”
