Cosmonautics Day is celebrated in Russia today. On this day 60 years ago a TASS message circulated around the world, beginning with the words: “On April 12th, 1961, the first in the world spacecraft-satellite “Vostok” with a man on board was launched in the Soviet Union into orbit around the Earth. The pilot-cosmonaut of the Vostok spacecraft is a citizen of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, pilot Major Yuri Alekseevich Gagarin", the press service of Roscosmos reports.

Gagarin's space flight lasted 108 minutes. Nowadays, when many months of space expeditions are made, such flight time seems insignificant. But in 1961, each of these minutes was the discovery of the unknown. The flight of Yuri Gagarin proved that man can live and work in space.

"The whole country and the whole world celebrated the victory of man over gravity. And there was an understanding that this accomplishment of Soviet cosmonautics didn’t belong to one country, it really was the Victory of the whole world. From the very flight of Yuri Gagarin, the space topic became the main topic in the press. All television broadcasts began with them. Yuri Alekseevich was the first, and other heroes followed him into space", - the Roscosmos noted.

After the epoch-making breakthrough into space, Yuri Gagarin traveled to more than 30 countries. He was received by heads of government and parliaments, royalty, financiers and politicians, artists and writers. When he was in England, the Queen hosted a breakfast in honour of the first astronaut. Some expressed dissatisfaction with the high honours given to the communist. They say the queen answered this in the following way: "Do what this Russian communist did, and you will receive the same honours."

In the name of Gagarin were named settlements, roads, steamers, mountains, and then the newly discovered celestial bodies, etc. All over the world, thousands of children born in April 1961 were named Yuri. The best Soviet poets, including Robert Rozhdestvensky, Alexander Tvardovsky, Konstantin Simonov, Vladimir Vysotsky, Olga Berggolts, Yevgeny Dolmatovsky, Stepan Shchipachev, Anatoly Shcherbakov, dedicated their works to the first human who flew into space ... “Dawn. We don't know anything yet. The usual "Latest News" ... And he is already flying through the constellations. The earth will wake up with his name "... Words from the famous song of Alexandra Pakhmutova and Nikolai Dobronravov:" You know what a guy he was! No, I was not"! After all, he conquered death! " proved to be prophetic. The name of Yuri Gagarin, the first cosmonaut on Earth, has remained in the memory of mankind forever. As Antoine de Saint-Exupéry wrote: “Man is not eternal. But the memory of him can become eternal if he lived for people. Memory is the gratitude of the living".

On April 9th, 1962, in commemoration of the world's first manned space flight, a Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was signed on the celebration of Cosmonautics Day. Later, according to the protocol of the 61st General Conference of the International Aviation Federation, held in November 1968, and the decision of the Council of the International Aviation Federation, adopted on April 30th, 1969, at the suggestion of the Federation of Aviation Sports of the USSR, the holiday acquired international significance and was named World Day of Aviation and Astronautics.

"From the first manned spacecraft and orbital stations to multipurpose manned orbital complexes - such a difficult path has passed the Russian manned space program over the past six decades. We really have something to be proud of, largely thanks to space, our country has taken a leading position in the world in a number of high-tech areas. Today humanity continues to open more and more space doors - long-term manned flights, space exploration, the construction of orbital stations, satellite constellations, etc. Humanity continues to dream of space and is confidently following the path that Yuri Gagarin paved for him on April 12, 1961", - added at Rosсosmos.