50th anniv: Russia hails Gagarin feat

Russia must preserve its pre-eminence in space, President Dmitry Medvedev declared on the 50th anniversary of the first human spaceflight by cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin.

Russia must preserve its pre-eminence in space, President Dmitry Medvedev declared Tuesday on the 50th anniversary of the first human spaceflight by cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin.

Medvedev hailed Gagarins flight as a symbolic,revolutionary event that changed the world. Gagarins spaceship made a single orbit of the earth as the experts were not willing to take a chance due to the fact that in earlier flights by dogs the problems were registered after third-fourth orbit.

Gagarins 108-minute mission on April 12,1961,remains a source of great national pride,and Russia marked the day with fanfare resembling Soviet-era celebrations.

Story continues below this ad

We were the first to fly to space and have had a great number of achievements,and we mustnt lose our advantage, Medvedev said during a visit to Mission Control outside Moscow.

On Monday,Svetlana Savitskaya,who flew space missions in 1982 and 1984 and became the first woman to make a spacewalk,harshly criticised the Kremlin for paying little attention to space research after the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union. Savitskaya warned that Russia could quickly fall behind the US after it builds a new-generation spaceship.

Boris Chertok,former deputy to Sergei Korolyov,father of Soviet space programme,said it has become difficult for Russias space industries to hire new personnel because of lack of funds. Korolyovs effort resulted in the space mission. Gagarins success shocked the US into racing to put the first man on the moon.

Tags:
50th anniversary

Nepal PM Oli resigned from the post amid violent GenZ protests

‘To help facilitate solution’: Nepal PM Oli resigns amid violent ‘GenZ protests’

World30 min ago

Nepal Prime Minister K P Sharma Oli resigned Tuesday "in view of the adverse situation in the country" as anti-corruption protesters defied an indefinite curfew and clashed with police. This comes a day after 19 people died in violent protests triggered by a social media ban.

View all shorts

Live Blog