50 years ago on April 12th 1961 the first human space flight has been performed. The first manned space ship Vostok-1 with pilot-astronaut Yuri Gagarin has been placed into orbit by the rocket carrier launched from Baikonur cosmodrome. AEX.ru
“Vostok” has started at 09:07 Moscow time. The ship has completed one rotation around Earth. The flight’s duration was 108 minutes. Gagarin has carried out basic test while being on orbit: he drank, ate and wrote.
Having completed the full rotation, the ship has finished the flight at 10:55:34 Mocow time. The lander with Gagrin has landed in Saratov Region near Engels in the area of Smelovka settlement.
The head of Roscosmos, Anatoliy Perminov, has addressed to the workers and veterans of aerospace industry, astronauts and scientists in honor of 50th anniversary of first human space flight.
Festive events will take place in Russia and other countries.
Exhibitions take place in the buildings of Viennese Worldwide UN Headquarters, Genevan UN department and New York UN Headquarters presenting mockups of “Vostok”, Gagarin’s busts, photographs. Two photo exhibitions dedicated to the anniversary, are taking place in Brussels: at the Euro Commission’s main office and in NATO Headquarters. In addition, the similar exhibition is taking place in the Canadian parliament. The celebration will take place in the Space center of Toulouse, France. The exhibition called “Yuri Gagarin – 50 years since the first manned flight” will open in Berlin.
The UK plans to erect a monument in honor of Yuri Gagarin in London. The monument will be erected behind the Admiralty Arch where the first astronaut had a meeting with Prime-Minister Garold MacMillan. The monument is to be erected on 14th July, it will leave Moscow on April 13th. It has been placed in All-Russian Exhibition Center.
UN’s postal service has issued a series of anniversary stamps. 52000 blocks of stamps have already been printed with the nominal of 44 US cents, 65000 with nominal of 35 eurocents, 55000 — 0,50 Swiss francs. The stamp cancellation is planned at the anniversary date.
In Russia the Cosmonautics Day will be started with holiday lessons at schools. The flower-laying ceremony to the first astronaut’s on Earth monument and holiday rally will take place at 15:00 at Gagarin Square in Moscow. The holiday concert will take place in the State Kremlin Palace in the evening.
The fountains of All-Russian Exhibition Center’s Main alley will be started on April 12th. Roscosmos’ event will take place at Memorial museum of Cosmonautics.
The crew of ISS: Dmitriy Kondratyev, Alexander Samokutyaev, Andrey Borisenko, Catherine Coleman, Ronald Garan and Paolo Nespoli will re-train in postmen. The astronauts will cancel the correspondence using the special postmark at the Russian segment of the station. The rocket carrier Vostok is pictured at the postmark and it is specified that the postmark is dedicated to the anniversary.
Salute of 50 volleys will close the celebration at 22:00. President of Russia, Dmitriy Medvedev , has signed the corresponding ordinance.
The UN General Assembly has accepted the resolution declaring the 12th of April to be the International human space flight day. The resolution’s project has been put under consideration of General Assembly by the Russian delegation. Representatives of more than 60 counties have taken part in resolution’s development.