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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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NASA Astronaut Cady Coleman, currently onboard the International Space Station, teamed up this week with Ian Anderson from vintage British rock group Jethro Tull to perform the first ever Space-Earth duet on the flute, in tribute to the 50th anniversary of the first manned Space flight by Yuri Gagarin.

The realities of trying to synch up the two performances in real time, however, were impossible with astronaut Coleman being on the ISS some 250 miles up in orbit, and Anderson currently touring in Russia. Consequently Coleman recorded her part in the duet “Bouree” a few days prior to Anderson performing his part at a concert in Perm, Russia. The two performances were then spliced together for the tribute video.

Hit the play button and have a listen – it sounds good!

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 April 12th 2011 will see celebrated the 50th anniversary of the historic Space flight of Russian Cosmonaut Yuri Alekseyevich Gagarin. 

Born March 9th 1934 and although coming from a humble background, he gained the rank of senior lieutenant in the former Union of Soviet Socialist Republic’s Air Force. 

However, it was in 1960 that Gagarin's life would change forever when he was one of 20 pilots selected for the Soviet Space program. The selection process consisted of physical and psychological testing, as well as a detailed assessment of performance obtained in training, so life was not easy for the young cosmonaut candidate.

 The long awaited answer to who would be chosen finally came and Gagarin found himself selected to participate in the first manned space mission in history. Besides his good performances in the selection process, other factors counted in his favour such as coming from a simple background with both parents being farmers, an important factor within the Soviet communist system. He had a flamboyant and charismatic personality, and more importantly Gagarin was short, measuring only 1.60m or 5 foot 3 inches tall – a crucial consideration when the spacecraft designed for the mission, Vostok-1, was compact and left little room to accommodate a pilot.

 Vostok-1 launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome on April 12th 1961, arrived in orbit and completed one lap around planet Earth before reentry, taking a total time of 1 hr 48 minutes. The flight of the space craft was fully automatic and the control panel locked. Gagarin did though have a code key with which to take control of the ship in case of necessity, though this did not turn out to be needed. However, not quite all went as planned with one service module failing to separate from the main sphere as intended, remaining attached by some wires. This caused some wild gyrations of the craft to take place upon reentry to Earth’s atmosphere, before the wires eventually burned through freeing the remaining sphere and allowing a smoother descent.

With just 7km to go before landing, Gagarin ejected from the sphere and landed safely by parachute. This fact was denied by the Soviet Union for many years, for fear of the flight not being recognised by the FAI, the world governing body for air sports. The rules of the day stated that astronaut and craft must come down together and thus the true facts were kept quiet until 1971.

 Fifty years ago today Yuri Gagarin took less than 2 hours to write his name in the history books, forever to be remembered as the first person in Space, and heralded the beginning of a new relationship between mankind and his blue planet. 

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Russian Soyuz TMA-21 named after Yuri Gagarin
The docking of a soyuz spaceship with the International Space Station is not in itself anything out of the ordinary these days.

However, the soyuz that successfully docked in the early hours of this morning (7 April 02:13UT) is officially named in tribute to Yuri Gagarin and the fiftieth anniversary of the flight of the first man in Space.

And rather fittingly, the soyuz blasted off from the same launch pad, Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan that was used 50 years ago for the historic event on 12th April 1961. 
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centrifuge at Star City
49 years ago today, 12th April 1961, Yuri Gagarin became the first human in outer Space and the first person to orbit the Earth.

Since that time, all Russian cosmonauts have lived and trained at Star City, just outside Moscow, in a facility kept highly secret during Soviet times. In fact, it is only in very recent years that Star City and the Yuri Gagain  Cosmonaut Training Centre have opened up the doors to public scrutiny.

The buildings may look a little dated, but the facilities there such as the human centrifuge where cosmonauts experience up to 8g, the giant underwater tank used to simulate Space walks and the mock-up of the MIR Space station must be well worth a visit. And indeed, excursions can be made their through tour operators, given enough notice and paying a premium price of around £120 per person for a couple of hours.

But for anyone who remembers the Space Race, and grew up with the likes of Gagarin, Alexey Leonov (first person to do a space walk 1965) and Valentina Tereshkova (first woman in Space 1963), it is a small price to pay to witness at first hand where an important part of history was born.  

Rather surprisingly for me, Russia is still a place that I have not yet visited, however, I have always wanted and intended to. Star City is definitely on my list of dream destinations and I hope I can tick it off soon.
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