Did you know that today is the 50th anniversary of manned-space-flight?    It’s also the 30th anniversary of the US Space Shuttle Columbia’s maiden launch.

Pictured here is Discovery during take-off on the STS-114 mission.

It was 50 years ago that Yuri Gagrin made his historic flight, being the first human being ever in orbit.

The total mission lasted just 108 minutes, and the trip once around the Earth at 17,500 mph (most of the way) took less than an hour and a half.

In that time, Vostok 1 completed one not-quite-circular orbit, at a maximum altitude of 203 miles, before slowing down to the point that the capsule was pulled back into the atmosphere for ballistic re-entry:

Who was Yuri Gagarin?

He was only a 27-year old pilot in the Air Force of the Soviet Union when he made his first (and only) trip into space.     After safely returning to Earth, Yuri was a national hero, and indeed a national treasure deemed to valuable to send on such dangerous missions in the future.

He would get another shot, however in a twist of irony, he was killed during when his aircraft crashed during a routine training mission.   

After the fall of the Soviet Union, Yuri Gagarin remained a national hero.   While statues and monuments of former communist leaders were being torn down, the monuments to Yuri were preserved.

Today, Russia’s cosmonauts still celebrate a launch-day tradition first started by Yuri.   On their way out to the launch pad, the bus they ride out there stops so that the cosmonauts can get out and ‘take a leak’ just as Yuri did fifty years ago today, the morning he made history.

The launch pad he used is still active today in support of the International Space Station.  Indeed the current crew lifted off from this very launch pad at the Baikonur Cosmodrome just last week on their Soyouz spacecraft.

In celebration of the 50th anniversary of the great accomplishment by Yuri Gagarin,
Modern Russia, which is run by the Russian Federation, has posted an article and a downloadable attachment about where the Russian space program has come and is going.

Check out the post here: ​http://www.modernrussia.com/content/gagarins-first-flight-continues-propel-rus​sian-space-program

Check out the downloadable Russian space program fact sheet here: ​http://www.scribd.com/doc/52765058/ModernRussia-com-Fact-Sheet-Russian-Space-P​rogram

Seeing as we have only two more shuttle flights left, before the US is entirely dependant on Russia for getting astronauts to the space station, it might be worth taking a look.  : )