- The International Day of Human Space Flight is the annual celebration, held on April 12, of the anniversary of the first human space flight by Yuri Gagarin.
- At the 65th session of the United Nations General Assembly on April 7, 2011, a few days before the 50th anniversary of the flightever human spaceflight, it declared 12 April as the International Day of Human Space Flight.
- The resolution, A/RES/65/271 called it a day “to celebrate each year at the international level the beginning of the space era for mankind, reaffirming the important contribution of space science and technology in achieving sustainable development goals and increasing the well-being of States and peoples, as well as ensuring the realization of their aspiration to maintain outer space for peaceful purposes”.
- It was on 12 April 1961 that Yuri Gagarin, a Soviet citizen, carried out the first human space flight, a historic event paving the way for space exploration for the benefit of all humanity.
- Yuri Gagarin crewed the Vostok 1 space flight in 1961, making one orbit around the Earth over 108 minutes in the Vostok 3KA spacecraft launched by the Vostok-K launch vehicle.
- In the Soviet Union, April 12 was commemorated as Cosmonautics Day since 1963 and is still observed in Russia and some former Soviet states. Yuri’s Night, also known as “World Space Party” is an international observance initiated in the United States in 2001, on the 40th anniversary of Gagarin’s flight.
- April 12 was also the date of the first Space Shuttle launch, STS-1 of Columbia in 1981, which is also commemorated on this date.
- The Day celebrates the start of the space era for humankind, reaffirming the important contribution of space science and technology in today’s world. The day also aims to promote aspirations to explore and maintain outer space for peaceful purposes.
- Commemorative stamps depicting human space flight have been released on or around the International Day of Human Space Flight in the past. A statue of Yuri Gagarin, the world’s first cosmonaut to journey in outer space, is located about 40km (about 25 miles) from Saratov, Russia, it was erected in 1981.
- The International Day of Human Space Flight is considered the start-up of the space age and it celebrates the scientific and technical achievement in that industry. It also is a reminder of the ambition to use space for only peaceful reasons.
