October 01

Álvaro de Mendaña de Neira (1542–1595) was a Spanish navigator renowned for his Pacific voyages. In 1567, he led his first expedition and charted several Pacific islands, seeking Terra Australis. His 1595 voyage found the Solomon Islands archipelago, named after the biblical King Solomon. Mendaña’s missions combined exploration with missionary efforts, carrying priests and soldiers to spread Christianity. Despite hardships and high mortality, his voyages expanded European knowledge of the southern Pacific. He died in the Santa Cruz Islands during his return trip. Mendaña’s discoveries paved the way for later Spanish colonization in Oceania.

Boris Morukov was a Russian physician and cosmonaut selected for the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center in 1992. He served as payload specialist on NASA's Space Shuttle mission STS-106 in September 2000, conducting medical experiments in orbit. Morukov graduated from the Russian State Medical University and specialized in aerospace medicine. He contributed to the development of life-support systems for long-duration spaceflight. After his spaceflight, he headed the Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center and trained new cosmonauts. Morukov passed away in 2015, leaving a legacy of scientific inquiry and international cooperation in space exploration.