Yuri’s Night is Here!

Held on April 12th annually, Yuri’s Night is an international celebration that commemorates space exploration by mankind. It is named after the first human to launch into space, Yuri Gagarin.

On April 12th, 1961, Yuri Gagarin was the first human to pilot his ship, the Vostok-1, into Earth’s orbit. On his return, Yuri immediately became a person recognized and respected all over the world and was awarded a variety of different medals and titles.

Did you know that…

● Gagarin’s flight lasted 108 minutes, however, the amount of food and air supplies aboard Vostok-1 was sufficient to spend 10 days in space.

● Yuri Gagarin had an understudy - German Titov. In fact, there were two people ready to fly in case of special circumstances. The second understudy’s name was Grigori Nelyubov.

● The flight of the Vostok-1 was performed in a fully automatic mode. None of the specialists could guarantee that the astronaut would remain healthy in conditions of weightlessness.

● During the final stage of the flight, Yuri shouted "I am burning! Goodbye, comrades!". No one knew how the passage of a spaceship through layers of the atmosphere would look. Therefore, Gagarin suggested that the spacecraft was on fire and that he would die.

● The spacecraft Vostok-1 was not adapted for the landing of an astronaut inside the capsule. Gagarin parachuted to the ground separately from his capsule after ejecting at 7 km (23,000 ft) altitude.

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