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Pedro Duque, John Glenn, Chiaki Mukai and Valeri Poliakov Prince of Asturias Award for International Cooperation 1999
They have contributed to progress in exploration by making common use of technical and human resources from different countries.
Pedro Duque (Spain, 1963) is an aeronautical engineer and astronaut. He is one of the few European astronauts to have been into space, and is the first and only Spanish astronaut. He was on board the "Discovery" space shuttle in October 1998 with John Glenn and Chiaki Mukai on the STS-95 international scientific mission.
For thousands of years men have looked up and wondered what was up there. In our time, we have been privileged to be able to go into space and use space as a new laboratory. In space, thankfully, confrontation has given way to cooperation.
John Glenn (U.S.A., 1921 - Colombus, Ohio, U.S.A., 2016). Astronaut, retired colonel, ex United States senator for the state of Ohio for four terms. He was the first American astronaut to orbit the Earth when he piloted the Mercury- project spacecraft in February 1962. He returned to Space in October 1998, 36 years after his first flight, on board the NASA STS-95 space shuttle, becoming the oldest person to go into Space.
Chiaki Mukai (Japan, 1952) is a Doctor in Medicine and Physiology. She has twice taken part in missions into space on board NASA space shuttles. She is the Japanese astronaut with the greatest international prestige owing to her contributions to the progress of Space medicine. Her last space flight was with John Glenn in October 1998.
Valery Polyakov (Russia, 1942 - Russia, 2022). Senior director of the IMBP (the Institute of Biomedical Problems), astronaut and University-trained engineer, hero of the Soviet Union, hero of Russia, doctor in medical science and lecturer. He spent from 29th August 1988 to 27th April 1989 in Space on two long missions involving medical and biological research. From 8th January 1994 to 22nd March 1995 he took part in the longest space mission to date (437 days 18 hours) on board the Mir space station for the 15th, 16th and 17th expeditions. Polyakov is actively involved in international collaboration and is in charge of work being done as part of the international medical services programmes.
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