Cosmonauts Sergey Kud-Sverchkov (TASS correspondent aboard the ISS), Sergey Mikayev and Andrey Fedyaev congratulated Russians on Cosmonautics Day from space in a video address, published by Roscosmos.

"Dear friends, we are congratulating you on Cosmonautics Day! 65 years ago, on a spring day like this, Yury Gagarin orbited the Earth for the first time, becoming the first man to see our planet from space," ISS commander Kud-Sverchkov said.

Mikayev went on to say that now, cosmonauts on long missions orbit the planet for hundreds and thousands of times.

"We are not just flying, we are working, helping to move science forward and gain a better understanding of how humans can function in space, so that our followers could make progress in their study of the universe. This was made possible by the historic flight of our great predecessor," he said.

Fedyaev, in turn, expressed hope that new generations will start taking interest in space missions and research.