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This week in London saw the unveiling of a tribute to Russian Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin, 50 years after he became the first man in Space on 12th April 1961, and also half a century after he visited London and was greeted by cheering crowds on July 14th that same year.  

 The statue, which is a gift from the Russian Space Agency Roscosmos, is placed just off The Mall outside the British Council offices, and opposite the statue of another great explorer Captain James Cook. The monument showing Gagarin standing on a globe in his spacesuit, is a copy of one that can be found just outside Moscow, in the town of Lyubertsy where Gagarin worked in his teens as a foundry worker. 

In addition to the statue, an exhibition called 'Gagarin in Britain' is also taking place at the British Council from 19 July to 13 September 2011. The display includes items from the Vostok manned space program, the first space suit, and an ejector seat from the model used by Gagarin when he parachuted out of Vostok 1 at an altitude of 7km.

It is an excellent opportunity to see some of the earliest space items that marked the beginning of space exploration so get along there if you are in the city – I certainly hope to in August!
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Tiangong 1 Space capsule CNSA
Just as the thirty year era of the USA Space Shuttle program is about to come to an end, China has shipped its Tiangong 1 mini space station to the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Centre, where it will be prepared for launch in the next three months.

This module weighing in at 9,500 kgs and being just 9 metres long is about half the size of the first space station ever to go into orbit, Salyut 1, sent by the Russians in 1971. Tiangong, which in Chinese means ‘heavenly palace’ is equipped with a docking port, navigation/communications instruments, as well as a pressurized cabin for future visitors.  

According to the Chinese National Space Agency (CNSA), launch should take place by the end of September this year on a Long March 2F rocket, with plans to test the docking system a few weeks later using an unmanned Shenzhou 8 vehicle. All being well, two more manned Shenzhou flights to the mini space station should follow in 2012. 

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With the final flight of NASA's shuttle Atlantis due to take place later this week, it will bring with it an end to the capability of the USA to send its own astronauts into Space. I'm sure it is going to be a very sad day for many when Atlantis makes its final landing after a 12 day mission to the International Space Station (ISS), and many people I am sure will be left shaking their heads in disappointment. 
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The US will now be reliant on Russia for future astronaut transportation to the ISS until such time as privately developed commercial crew transport becomes available, hopefully in the next few years but with no guarantees as to time scale. Quite coincidentally today I came across this graphic which shows the yearly cost per seat the US will have to pay on board the Russian Soyuz capsules. According to Charlie Bolden, current Nasa Administrator, the price is going up due to inflation and not because the Russians are taking advantage of their monopoly. Perhaps true, but inflation would seem to be very high at the moment! 
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