Putin Gave the Order of Courage to the American Astronaut Nick Haig

The Russian President Vladimir Putin awarded the American astronaut Nicholas Haig with the Order of Courage and gave other state awards to a number of space workers, a tvbrics.com correspondent reports with the reference to the TASS.

The NASA astronaut received an award "for high professionalism shown in the line of duty in high-risk conditions during a contingency situation at the Baikonur Cosmodrome", the Presidential Decree says.

It refers to the launch accident at the Baikonur on October 11, 2018. The Russian astronaut Alexey Ovchinin and the American astronaut Nick Haig were supposed to go to the ISS, however, the launch of the Russian vehicle Soyuz-FG appeared to be contingent because one side booster did not go off as it is supposed to. Astronauts managed to evacuate to Earth in a lander and landed safely in Kazakhstan.

It was the first launching accident of a piloted spaceship in 35 years.

Therewith, Vladimir Putin gave Orders of Friendship to the Deputy Head of Roskosmos Alexander Lopatin and the CEO of the Khrunichev State Research and Production Space Center Aleksey Varochko "for a major contribution to the development of the space-rocket industry and the long-term fair work". And the Deputy CEO of Roskosmos Alexander Astakhov got a first-class medal of the Order of Merit for the Motherland. A number of employees of the Russian space-rocket companies have also been awarded.