Dumitru Prunariu was the first Romanian - and so far stays the only one - to have ever flown beyond the earth atmosphere 25 years ago. On 14 May 1981, crammed in a space not much larger than the taken by front seats in an automobile, a Russian and a Romanian left Earth from Baykonur Airfield to reach the space USSRâs orbit station Salyut 7.
Since then, all people meeting Prunariu focus on these seven days he spent in space, of his 54-year long life. Saturday morning too, when Prunariu visited the Airfield in Pucioasa hosting a space museum carrying his name, visitors, friends and journalists alike celebrating 25 years since his flight in space converged with the same questions on him.
Though he basks in the attention, Prunariu still dreams of the day when people will simply ask him what he did the day before.
"I kept thinking what made the difference for the communist regime to use for propaganda Nadia Comaneciâs name sthe gymnast to score a first ever 10 in the Olympicst and not my name too. I understood later that Nadiaâs accomplishment valued more as she made it in the West, supported by Romanians only, while I made it as part of an international cooperation team, with support from a country which Romania did not share the best relations with, in spite of our similar political systems," says Prunariu now.
Prunariu was differently handled by the communist regime when it came to having his merits recognized within the country borders; while the USSR made no qualms about giving the highest national order to the Russian cosmonaut Leonyd Popov, flying with Prunariu, the Romanian authorities were procrastinating awarding a similar honor to Prunariu, as the two political regimes convened prior to the space mission.
It took USSRâs diplomatic leverage to talk the Ceausescuâs back into their senses, and make them keep the promise the
