‘Exactly 60 years ago, on April 12, an event happened and became a turning point in the world. A cruise ship carrying the first man to leave Earth, entering the orbit of the earth. And the brave man on that flight was our teammate, Yuri Alekseyevich Gagarin. On that day, the whole world knew about him, because by that time history had turned the page, prelude to the flights that brought humans into space.
Images of Yuri Gagarin present everywhere in Russia – Photo: AFP
Russian astronaut Sergei Kud-Sverchkov, who is currently working on the International Space Station (ISS), said in a video clip released by the Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos) on April 12 – in celebration 60 years of human astronaut Yuri Gagarin becomes the first person to fly into space.
60 years ago, on April 12, 1961, the Vostok spacecraft carrying astronaut Gagarin was launched from Baikonour Space Airport in Kazakhstan, then part of the Soviet Union. The flight lasted just 108 minutes when the ship completed one orbit of the Earth and returned.
Since then, astronaut Gagarin has also become a legend. The historian Alexander Zheleznyakov called this a moment that gave humanity a firm conviction that discovering another world outside of the vast universe was entirely within reach.
The event has made such a deep impression that the 27-year-old astronaut’s “Poekhali” has become a symbolic catchphrase for the Russian people throughout the years to come.
After 60 years, astronaut Yuri Gagarin is still mentioned as a national hero. Every year, many Russian people still come to place flowers at his memorial sites across the country on April 12.
While Gagarin was honored, the Vostok spacecraft was also put on display at the Space Travel Foundation in Moscow. Up to now, Gagarin’s flight has always been referred to as national pride for each Russian, a symbol of the power of the Soviet Union in the field of aerospace.
Every year, Russia celebrates the first flight of astronaut Gagarin into space and April 12 becomes Russia’s Astronaut Day.
In 2011, the United Nations General Assembly declared April 12 to become the International Day of Flight to put people into space.
On this occasion, Russian President Vladimir Putin went to Engels, a city on the banks of the Volga River in the south of the country, the landing point of the spacecraft carrying the Gagarin astronaut on a historic flight.
Four years before Gagarin’s flight, on October 4, 1957, the Soviet Union was also the first country in the world to put a satellite in orbit on Earth – the Sputnik satellite. Until now, the world still considered the first two “beep-beep” signals Sputnik sent to Earth triggered a race between the Soviet Union and the United States in the space field. pillar.
In the years that followed, Russia always took the lead when Gagarin successfully flew his flight, or the fact that the astronaut Alexei Leonov became the first person to step into space and the fact that Russia was the first country to launch. The Moon probe was launched in 1966. However, three years later, the US became the first country to send a man to the Moon.
Competition is fierce
Over the past 60 years, Russia has maintained a leading position in space exploration, steadily bringing astronauts to the ISS. However, observers assess that Russia is currently competing with strong competitors such as the US and China in the race to develop space technology.
In 2020, Russia loses its monopoly on human launchers on the ISS when US tech billionaire Elon Musk’s Space X Company develops and successfully put into use reusable missile systems, bring the NASA astronauts to the ISS successfully.
Although Roscosmos Director Dmitry Rogozin insists the agency is pursuing ambitious projects such as a mission to Venus, Mars or setting up a space station on the Moon, industry insiders still consider this time to be full. difficult for Russia as rivals emerge increasingly powerful.
However, the Russian people still believe in future success when looking at the historical fact that this country always appears at memorable times in human history.
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