VK presents projects dedicated to Cosmonautics Day

On Cosmonautics Day, VK will celebrate the 65th anniversary of the first human spaceflight. MAX, VKontakte, Zen and other products have prepared a series of educational and entertainment projects for the holiday.

For the first-ever "Space Week", the MAX and Roscosmos launched joint activities:

– Communication with Space chatbot: you can use it to ask active astronauts a question, generate photos from the International Space Station and receive a greeting card.;

– a set of Space Week stickers based on the adventures of MAX bear in orbit.

For users who want to congratulate each other in an unusual way, MAX has implemented a postcard designer and themed sets of animated stickers: "Belka and Strelka", "Gagarin", "Aliens" and "Space Stamps".

VKontakte and VK Video, together with Roscosmos, presented a new release of the Mythbusters project. The heroes were cosmonauts Kirill Peskov and Alexey Zubritsky, actor and showman Alexander Revva, blogger and actress Anna Pokrov, comedian and presenter Olga Parfenyuk, basketball player and president of the Russian Basketball Federation Andrei Kirilenko. They discussed scenes from films about space and sorted out where the truth is and where the fiction is.

From April 10 to April 12, a special VKontakte zone will open in the Metropolis shopping center, where visitors will be able to immerse themselves in the cosmic atmosphere, learn interesting facts about planets, take photos and share them in VKontakte Stories — with the opportunity to win prizes.

Classmates presented a special edition of the show "People's Interview" with Oleg Artemyev, Hero of Russia, pilot‑cosmonaut of the Russian Federation. In the new episode, he will answer users' questions about work and life in orbit, preparation for flights, and what surprises them most in space. The interview was organized jointly with the Museum of Cosmonautics, and filming took place in the Museum itself.

Zen and Roscosmos have prepared a special project on how cosmonautics affects everyday life: the Cosmos thematic channel contains key events of the Space Week in Russia, industry news, live broadcasts, a program of events and materials about future projects from Skoltech experts. A merch collection inspired by the aesthetics of 1960s cosmism has also been developed for the anniversary: it includes a jacket, a T-shirt, a cap, a belt, a cardholder and an eternal pencil, combined with ideas of practical minimalism, functionality and futuristic materials.

VK Music has released an exclusive podcast "Space Mission" for children from 4 to 7 years old and their parents. The educational stories were voiced by cosmonauts and Heroes of the Russian Federation Oleg Artemyev and Sergey Korsakov, who told how astronauts prepare for flight, which way they travel from Earth and back, and how they live in space.

For Cosmonautics Day, the Nauka Mail portal has prepared a special editorial project dedicated to the 65th anniversary of the first human spaceflight. It tells not only about Yuri Gagarin's mission, but also about what scientific solutions and preparation stages made this flight possible. The special project brings together a collection of more than 10 materials on key stages of space exploration — from the creation of the Vostok spacecraft and the formation of the first cosmonaut squad to the analysis of common myths about Gagarin and little-known details of the mission. The project features comments from space historians, astronomers, and science communicators, as well as an exclusive interview with cosmonaut Alexei Zubritsky. The project is complemented by an animated video by the editorial staff, which recreates in detail the chronology of the first human spaceflight.

VK Play has launched a new show, Playtest. Heroes of unusual professions talk about their careers and games, as well as evaluate how popular games are close to reality. The first issue features test cosmonaut Alexey Zubritsky. He spent 8 months in orbit and became the youngest cosmonaut to walk into outer space from the ISS. Alexey will tell you how weightlessness, working in a spacesuit and life on the ISS work, and compare it with how it is implemented in Dead Space, Prey, Mass Effect and other famous games. In the next issues, there will be football players, salesmen, fishermen, firefighters, doctors and other heroes. Everyone will appreciate how well the game developers have understood their profession.