News Cosmonautics Day

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Every April 12, Russia celebrates Cosmonautics Day to honor the anniversary of the first manned space flight performed by Yuri Gagarin in 1961.

Russian Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin was the first man in history to go into space. On April 12, 1961 he became the first human being to orbit the Earth. His flight lasted 108 minutes, including the 89 minutes he spent in space.

Gagarin circled the Earth once, travelling at 27,400 kilometers per hour. At his highest point, he was 327km (203 miles) above mean sea level.

 

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Cosmonautics day greetings from the Russian ISS crew

 

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On the most critical phase of the mission

Some screen captures of the most critical phase of the mission: a separation failure of the two modules prior to reentering the atmosphere. From the movie Gagarin: First in Space, Pavel Parkhomenko, 2013, Russia, 108 minutes