Today, Mongolia is marking Cosmonauts’ Day. This day, 37 years ago, J.Gurragchaa became the first Mongolian, the second Asian and the 101th person to travel into space. He orbited the Earth 124 times during his trip, which lasted seven days, 22 hours and 42 minutes.

J.Gurragchaa selected from over 1,000 young people who were tested without being told the purpose of the test. On 22 March 1981, after rigorous training he was blasted into orbit in a Soyuz spacecraft from the Baikonur Cosmodrome along with Soviet cosmonaut Vladimir Dzhanibekov. During the successful mission, they docked with the Salyut 6 space station, where they carried out numerous tests in Earth orbit.

After successfully completing his space mission, he went on to serve in various important posts including Mongolian Minister of Defence from 2000 to 2004.

Numerous products, such as coins, carpets, confectionary, vodka, and leather jackets, were produced in 1981 in celebration of the first space flight by a Mongolian. Since then, many children were named Sansar – meaning ‘cosmos’ or Sanchir – meaning Saturn; a whole district of Ulaanbaatar has been called Sansar ever since.

The re-entry module of the J.Gurragchaa’s Soyuz spacecraft can be seen at the Ulaanbaatar Space Musuem where it is on permanent display.