It was a great honor to host James Bagian, the first Armenian astronaut, American-Armenian engineer, athlete, MD, at the History Museum of Armenian within the framework of the Starmus International Festival. The famous scientist donated to the museum the patches he wore on his uniform during his space flights. He left a note in the Museum’s visitor book, and then got acquainted with the museum’s recently opened permanent exhibition “In the Footsteps of Early Man: The Stone Age” and other temporary exhibitions.

We thank the esteemed donor for these important exhibits, which will be a source of inspiration for our visitors. These samples are the first in our museum that witnessed space travel and are another symbol of the achievements of the Armenian scientific mind.

We would like to remind that James Bagian first flew on March 13-18, 1989 on the American spacecraft Discovery spending 337 hours in space. The second flight was carried out on June 5-14, 1991 on the Columbia spacecraft. For his work, Bagian was awarded Federation Aeronautique Internationale Komarov Diploma (1989); NASA Achievement Award for developing treatment of space motion sickness; and NASA Space Flight Award (1989 and 1991).