Roscosmos, Unity Foundation to Send Cancer Patients' Drawings Into Space on Sputnik Skif-D

"The drawings of 100 children aged 2 to 17, who have... cancer, are placed on the plates installed inside and on the surface of the Skif-D spacecraft. The satellite is scheduled to be launched into orbit at the end of October from the Vostochny cosmodrome," Kuzmenko said. "The Dream Satellite project is being implemented as part of a series of charitable space art projects of the Roscosmos State Corporation, the UNITY Foundation and JSC Information Satellite Systems Reshetnev."

Kuzmenko shared that dozens of children who drew their dreams, as well as their parents, will be able to personally see the launch of the rocket. The visit will be done under the supervision of the medical personnel who will travel with them at the event.

"On metalized thick sheets of paper, similar to the surface of a satellite, children's hands drew homes, rockets, space landscapes, pets," she said. "Varya from Tulun in the Irkutsk region drew a heart because she dreams of becoming a cardiologist, Nikita from Voronezh dreams of winning first place in a wrestling competition as soon as he leaves the hospital, and Caslav from Serbia dreams of her own planet with pets."

Kuzmenko noted that during the year preceding the launch of Skif-D, the foundation team with cosmonaut Sergei Kud-Sverchkov visited the pediatric oncology departments of Irkutsk, Tulun, Bratsk, Usolye-Sibirsky, Yekaterinburg, Yeysk, Voronezh, Lipetsk, Tambov, Volgograd, Moscow region, Belgrade (Serbia), Lusaka (Zambia).

"During master classes in hospitals, Sergey Kud-Sverchkov talked about the flight to the International Space Station, his way to the dream, and the fact that the impossible is possible, and artists and psychologists helped the children to depict their dreams in colors," she said.

The Dream Satellite art project is not the first project in the framework of cooperation between the Roscosmos State Corporation and the UNITY Foundation. Since 2016, two spacesuits have been sent on board the ISS - “Victory” and “Dreamer” with drawings of children with cancer from 23 cities and 10 countries.

"For six years, joyful news has come from different parts of the world that the children who took part in the project have gone into remission and believe that space has helped them," Kuzmenko said. "The process of drawing with astronauts is a kind of “art therapy” and allows children to switch from difficult treatment, and the opportunity to send their dream into space gives hope for recovery."

Kuzmenko explained that the UNITY Foundation is creating a system of psycho-social support for cancer patients based on the best world practices adapted to Russian realities.

The UNITY Foundation team implements programs to support children and adults with cancer online and offline in the regions of Russia, as well as in other countries.

Among the partner countries visited by the team are the United States, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Belgium, Armenia, Zambia, Serbia. In Russia, with space art projects, the team visited 15 cities from Kaliningrad to Amur.