Happy International Day of Human Spaceflight!
The day, 12 April of every year was recognised by the UN General Assembly in 2011 as International Day of Human Spaceflight to mark 50 years of Yuri Gagarin’s first manned spaceflight.
Russian cosmonaut, Yuri Gagarin (1934 – 1968), on 12 April, 1961 made history in his Vostok 1 capsule, launched from Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakstan, when he completed one orbit of the Earth in a flight that lasted 108 minutes.
The Russians started celebrating the day as Cosmonautics Day in 1963.
The Russian authorities banned Gagarin from further spaceflights for fear of his life after attaining a global hero’s status.
Gagarin was back-up to Vladimir Komarov in the fatal Soyuz mission of 1967 which crashed on return to Earth due to improper parachute deployment; hitting the ground at high speed.
Gagarin however, died in 1968 when the fighter jet he was flying crashed.
The first American in space is Alan Shepard (1923 – 1998) who on 5 May, 1961 was launched into space by a Mercury Redstone rocket inside a Freedom 7 capsule.
