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Yuri Gagarin's 50th death anniversary
March 28 , 2018
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- Yuri Gagarin, feted as a Soviet national hero for being the first man in space, was killed in a plane crash 50 years ago
- For the first time in Soviet history, a day of national mourning was declared for someone who was not a head of state.
- On 12 April 1961, Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first human to journey into space.
- Gagarin’s rocket was an adapted missile, called R-7 or ‘Semyorka’. The rocket carried his ‘Vostok’ spacecraft, which translates as ‘east’ in Russian.
- Since 12 April 1961, the anniversary of Gagarin’s first flight has been celebrated in Russia as a holiday known as Cosmonautics Day.
- Yuri Gagarin was also a back-up commander for the ill-fated Soyuz 1 mission, which crashed on 24 April 1967. He died in a training flight (MiG-15) in the following year.
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