The 30th anniversary of the joint Cuba-USSR spaceflight, which made Cuban Arnaldo Tamayo the first Latin American astronaut, was remembered on Saturday in Cuba. 

Thirty years after the event that created great expectations among millions of Cubans, Tamayo stated to Prensa Latina that those who have contemplated Earth from space are aware of the need to protect her. 

Long before a nuclear conflict threatened the world, the leader of the Cuban Revolution, Fidel Castro, appealed to preserve the human race, the most important treasure of the planet. 

Tamayo emphasized that the flight aboard the Sayuz-38, sponsored by the Intercosmos program, with his college Yuri Romanenko, was not a personal deed, but a Cuban and Latin American victory. 

Tamayo remembered the friendship between Cuba and the former USSR, and noted the present bonds of cooperation with Russia. 

On September 18th, 1980, Cuba became the ninth country to send a person into orbit, with the flight from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in the former USSR.