As I traveled in earth orbit in a spacecraft, I was amazed at the beauty of the earth. People of the earth, let us protect and increase her beauty without destroying her! --Yuri Gagarin
61 years ago today, at 14:07 Beijing time on April 12, 1961, Yuri Gagarin took off from the Baikonur Space Launch Site on the Vostok-1 spacecraft, circled the earth for a week, lasted 108 minutes, returned safely at 15:55 Beijing time on the same day, landed in the Smelovka village area of Saratov Oblast, completed the world's first manned space flight, and April 12 was also designated as International Space Day.
Launched on April 12, Gagarin was notified on April 9 that he had been selected as an astronaut. Gagarin wrote a message similar to a "last word" to his wife, Valentina, in the next three days. Give the message to a friend, instructing that only if the mission fails, you can give the message to Valentina. To educate the two daughters well, "do not educate them to become princesses, but to educate them into real people." Gagarin told his wife, "You can choose whether to remarry or not."
Images of Yuri Gagarin and Valentina Tereshkova visiting the United Nations.
Valentina Tereshkova was the first female astronaut in human history (June 16, 1963) to go into space.
Credit:UN
On April 12, 1961, Yuli. Gagarin became the first human to go into space. He had the following description: "The sky is very dark, and the earth is blue, and everything looks very clear. ”
Credit：NASA
In 1981, another April 12, NASA launched the first space shuttle. Commemorate them today with night views of Earth taken at the International Space Station.
Russian astronaut expedition ceremony
As the first country to send humans into space, Russia undoubtedly occupies a pivotal position in the world space community.
Russian astronauts have a small expedition ceremony before entering space: they will pee on the tires of the bus that takes them to the launch site, while the female astronauts will bottle their urine beforehand and sprinkle it on the bus tires. At first glance, this expedition ceremony seems to be unremarkable, but it is actually related to the first astronaut gagarin.
Earlier, Soviet spacesuits did not have a urine discharge system designed. Therefore, astronauts cannot urinate after putting on the spacesuit and must urinate before entering the spacecraft. At that time, the Baikonur launch site was still very desolate, and there was no shelter.
In desperation, Gagarin had to pee on the tires of the bus that transported him to the launch pad. Since then, this helpless move has become a ritual that Soviet/Russian astronauts must perform before entering space. Female astronauts, because of their inconvenience, will put their urine into a vial and splash it on the tire. Interestingly, even astronauts from other countries who took a Russian spacecraft to the International Space Station would, without exception, complete this very strange expedition ceremony.
reference
[1]http://www.calt.com/n488/n752/c11838/content.html
[2]https://www.un.org/en/observances/human-spaceflight-day