Celebrations mark 50th anniversary of Gagarin spaceflight

Yury Gagarin before his historic space flight aboard the Vostok spacecraft 50 years ago

 

Celebrations are being held today to mark the 50th anniversary of the first human spaceflight -- a 108-minute orbit of earth by Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev is expected to mark the April 12, 1961, flight by visiting Russia's space mission control center outside Moscow to speak via video link to the current International Space Station crew, which includes Russian cosmonauts.

In advance of the jubilee, Russia honored Gagarin by naming a Soyuz spacecraft after him.

The craft last week brought a new crew of Russians and an American to the International Space Station.

Sending the first man into space, and launching the first sputnik satellite four years earlier, are among the major successes of the Soviet space program.

Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty

Subscribe to: RSS, Email

Comments