Tomorrow marks a major milestone in space history - the 50th anniversary of the first human space flight, completed by Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin.
On April 12, 1961, 27-year-old Gagarin completed a 108-minute orbital flight in the Vostok 1 spacecraft, making him the first man in space. View archival footage below.
"Triumphant music blared across the land. Russia's radios saluted the morning with the slow, stirring beat of the patriotic song, 'How Spacious Is My Country.' Then came the simple announcement that shattered forever man's ancient isolation on earth: 'The world's first spaceship, Vostok [East], with a man on board, has been launched on April 12 in the Soviet Union on a round-the-world orbit.' Time magazine wrote in a 1961 cover story.
According to NASA, Gagarin did not actually operate the spacecraft's controls. In 1961, the effects of weightlessness had only been tested on dogs, so officials did not want to take any chances putting Gagarin in full control of the spacecraft. The mission was controlled by a ground crew, though there was an override key in case of emergency.
Upon his return, Gagarin was received as a national hero, but this status actually prevented Gagarin from making any future space flights. NASA says the Russian government wanted to protect its national treasure, so he was relegated to training MiGs. Ironically, Gagarin was was killed when his MiG-15 fighter plane crashed in 1968 during inclement weather. He was 34.
A monument to Gagarin was erected in Star City, the world's oldest space-flight training center. But as Reuters noted Monday, Russia is releasing top-secret archives to counter rumors that Gagarin was murdered by jealous or paranoid Soviets.
Scientific spaceflight cooperation between the U.S. and the Soviet Union started in 1975 with the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project. It was designed to test the compatibility of rendezvous and docking systems for American and Soviet spacecraft and to open the way for future joint manned flights, according to NASA.
The U.S. and Russia also collaborated on the Mir space station; in 1995, Norm Thagard became the first U.S. astronaut to take up residency on Mir, paving the way for the International Space Station. Construction on the ISS started in 1998, and it has been staffed non-stop since November 2000.
Earlier this month, Expedition 27 launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, carrying Flight Engineer Ron Garan and Russian cosmonauts Alexander Samokutyaev and Andrey Borisenko to the ISS. Their spacecraft was nicknamed the Yuri Gagarin in honor of the upcoming 50th anniversary.
American astronaut Alan Shepard became the first American in space several months after Gagarin's trip, but April 12 has significance in U.S. space history as well. Tomorrow marks the 30th anniversary of the space shuttle Columbia's first launch, which at the time was a "radically new" approach to space travel, NASA says.
Tomorrow is also the tenth anniversary of Yuri's Night, an annual celebration of Gagarin's historic 1961 flight. As of Monday afternoon, there were 451 "Yuri's Night" events scheduled around the globe. Yuri's Night was a project of the Space Generation Advisory Council until last year when it became an independent organization. It was recently granted 501(c)(3) status.
As PCMag analyst (and ham radio enthusiast) Tony Hoffman discovered recently, there is also a Russia-sponsored worldwide amateur radio contest called the Gagarin Cup, which coincides with the weekend closest to the anniversary of Gagarin's flight.
For more of Gagarin's flight, see the slideshow above.