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Cosmonautics Day
The 12th of April is a significant date not only for Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), but for all of humanity. On this day, 64 years ago, the Soviet pilot Yuri Alekseevich Gagarin made the first flight into space.
History
The launch of the spacecraft "Vostok" took place on the 12th of April in 1961 at 09:07 UTC+3 from the Baikonur Cosmodrome, which is now located in Kazakhstan. During the launch, Gagarin famously exclaimed, "Поехали!" (Let's go!). This phrase later became a symbol of the beginning of a new era—an era of space exploration. The flight lasted 108 minutes, during which the spacecraft completed one orbit around the Earth. The cosmonaut described his impressions and the view of the planet from space while conducting some simple experiments with weightlessness. The people who met him on the Earth were surprised to see an "alien", but Yuri Alekseevich calmed them down by saying, "Я свой, товарищи, свой!" (I'm one of you, comrades, one of you).
After the Flight 💫
General Secretary of the USSR Nikita Sergeevich Khrushchev decided at the last moment to organize a grand reception for Gagarin in Moscow. The cosmonaut became a national hero. People welcomed him with immense pride, showering him with flowers and carrying him in their arms. Gagarin made 30 foreign visits to various European countries, Finland, and the United Arab Republic (now Egypt).
Importance 🌏
The first human flight into space became one of the greatest achievements of the 20th century. At the beginning of the century, science fiction writers could only imagine what the vast fields of the Universe might look like. However, after several decades, that dream became a reality. The achievements of the Soviet Union sparked an international race in space exploration.
We want to end this post with a speech of Yuri Gagarin a couple of minutes before his flight:
Dear friends, close and unfamiliar, compatriots, people of all countries and continents! In a few minutes a strong spaceship will carry me away into the distant expanses of the Universe. What can I say to you in these last minutes before the start? All my life seems to me a one wonderful moment. All that has been lived, all that has been done before, has been lived and done for that minute... Of course you understand that it is hard to sort out feelings now, when the hour of challenge we were preparing for a long time with the passion have come. It's hardly worth talking about those feelings I experienced when I was offered to make this first flight in history. Joy! No, it wasn't only joy. Proud! No, it wasn't only proud. I experienced big happiness. To be the first in the space, to enter into an unprecedented duel with nature one-on-one - can you dream of more! But then I thought about the enormous responsibility that had fallen on me. To be the first to do what generations of people have dreamed of, to be the first to pave the way for humanity into space. Am I happy when going on a space flight? Of course I'm happy. After all, at all times and eras, for people the greatest happiness was to participate in new discoveries... I would like to dedicate this first space flight to people of communism, society, which our Soviet people are already entering and which, I am sure, all people on Earth will enter. Now it is only a few minutes before the start. I say to you, dear friends, goodbye, as people usually say each other when setting off on a long journey. How I would like to hug you all, familiar and unfamiliar, distant and close! See you soon!
