Yuri Gagarin: Ushering the space age

Posted on April 12, 2007
Filed Under World news |

Yuri Gagarin in space suit

Today marks the 46-th anniversary since Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first man in space and also the first man to complete an orbit around the Earth ushering a new space age for mankind. It was April 12, 1961, at the age of 27, when Gagarin was buckled in the small Vostok capsule designed by Sergei Korolyov setting out to write history and become one of Russia’s most admirable and charming heroes. Yuri’s seminal flight occurred 4 years after the launch of Sputnik 1, the first manmade object (artificial satellite) to be place in geocentric orbit.

For many years, the Russian people have celebrated Cosmonauts Day but in recent years there has been global parties organized to honor this space pioneer. Today, 119 parties will take place worldwide (in 32 countries) in what is called Yuri’s Night. Yuri Gagarin was met with an untimely death only a few years after his space flight. The cosmonaut was killed in a plane crash during a training mission on March 27, 1968.

Almost 5 decades later, we are entering a new era in space travel. Wealthy individuals can purchase trips to the International Space Station; the most recent example is billionaire Charles Simonyi who is currently a passenger on the orbiting laboratory. At the same time, space travel is no longer a government endeavor. The private sector has made huge progress in terms of making space travel affordable to more people creating a new class of passengers aptly referred to as space tourists. The Ansari X Prize competition was pivotal in this matter.

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