Photo credit: mos.ru (CC BY 4.0)
International Cosmonautics Day is celebrated on Tuesday, April 12, TASS reports. Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin made first manned flight into space on this day 61 years ago.
By tradition, events begin with the laying of flowers at the grave of Gagarin. The cosmonaut is buried near the Kremlin wall. For the first time, a recording of Gagarin's speech on February 14, 1968 will be played publicly. On this day, he defended his thesis at the Zhukovsky Air Force Engineering Academy.
Cosmonautics Day will also be celebrated in orbit. Oleg Artemiev, Denis Matveev and Sergei Korsakov are currently aboard the ISS. The cosmonauts will join the participants of an educational online marathon organized by the Knowledge Society and Roskosmos. During the marathon, participants will be able to test their knowledge of space in the All-Russian Space Dictation.
A large festive program will take place in Baikonur.
The program of Cosmonautics Day in the homeland of cosmonauts Alexei Leonov and Boris Volynov in the Irkutsk region will last a week, uniting more than 200 events. The gala concert of the Yuri Gagarin's Night Festival will be held in Kemerovo on April 15-16. The organizers expect more than 6,000 spectators.
Russkiy Mir
