Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday called for the nation to remain a great power in space, as it celebrated the 60th anniversary of the legendary flight that made Yuri Gagarin the first person in orbit.
Russia’s space industry has struggled and been hit by a series of mishaps, but the sending of the first human into space on April 12, 1961, remains a major source of national pride.
After visiting a memorial in southern Russia at the site where Gagarin landed after his 108-minute trip around the Earth, Putin told his government to do more to maintain Moscow’s standing in space.
Photo: Reuters / Sputnik / Alexei Druzhinin / Kremlin
“In the 21st century, Russia must retain its status as a nuclear and space power,” Putin said in televised remarks.
“We will analyze what needs to be done to strengthen our position in this strategic industry,” he said, adding that the space program is “directly related” to national defense.
Putin called for a review of major projects and a new space development strategy over at least 10 years.
The day of Gagarin’s flight is celebrated every year in Russia as Cosmonautics Day, and this year authorities pulled out all the stops to mark the 60th anniversary, with round-the-clock TV coverage, murals on high-rise buildings and laser projections of Gagarin’s portrait.
For Moscow commuters, the morning started with a broadcast on the metro of the original report by state news agency TASS about the launch, followed by Gagarin’s legendary words — “Poekhali,” or “Let’s go” — as Vostok 1 lifted off.
In a message from the International Space Station, the four Russians on board saluted “all Earthlings” and hailed Gagarin’s accomplishment.
“Gagarin’s legendary 108-minute flight became an example of heroism for his successors, including us,” cosmonaut Oleg Novitsky said.
Vostok 1 took off carrying Gagarin, the 27-year-old son of a carpenter and a dairy farmer, from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, then part of the Soviet Union. The flight lasted just 108 minutes, the time it took to complete one orbit of the Earth.
Gagarin landed in a potato field in front of a five-year-old girl, Rita Nurskanova, and her grandmother.
In an interview with newspaper Moskovsky Komsomolets for the anniversary, Nurskanova said that after seeing a flash of light and a spacesuit, her grandmother started to pray and wanted to run.
Gagarin calmed them down, saying he was human and “came from the sky,” she said.
Then her grandmother helped him unfasten his helmet.
Gagarin’s now-rusty capsule is on display at Moscow’s Museum of Cosmonautics, where a new exhibition dedicated to his achievement opened yesterday, including documents, photographs and personal belongings, some dating back to Gagarin’s childhood and school years.
“This is probably the only surname that everyone knows, from four-year-old children to people over 80,” said Vyacheslav Klimentov, a historian and the museum’s deputy director of research.
Gagarin’s flight remains a symbol of the nation’s dominance in space during the Soviet era. Four years before Gagarin, the Soviet Union had sent the first satellite into orbit, Sputnik.
“That the first manned flight into space was done by the Soviet Union was very significant for our state,” Tatiana Brazhnikova, a 49-year-old teacher, said at the museum. “I feel great pride in this achievement by the Soviet Union and Russia.”
However, the anniversary also comes at a difficult time for Russia’s space industry. It has suffered a number of setbacks, from corruption scandals to lost spacecraft and an aborted takeoff during a crewed mission in 2018.
Russia’s aging Soyuz rockets are reliable and allow Moscow to remain relevant in the modern space industry, but the nation is struggling to innovate and keep up with other key players.
In a major blow, Russia last year lost its monopoly for crewed launches to the International Space Station after reusable rockets from Elon Musk’s Space X, carrying NASA astronauts, successfully docked at the station.
Dmitry Rogozin, head of the Roscosmos space agency, has set a series of ambitious goals for the space program, despite funding cuts.
In a video message on Monday he said that Russia was “on the cusp of very important changes” that would bring next-generation spacecraft and lunar missions.
“We believe in our space, in Russian space,” Rogozin said.
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