yuri’s night

This anniversary (also Cosmonautics Day, День космонавтики) of the first human to cross the barrier into outer space on this day in 1961, when the Vostok 1 was piloted by cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin (*1934 – †1968, previously), is an international celebration of achievements in space exploration. This World Space Party includes outreach and education and are hosted in various venues across the globe, including schools, museums and planetariums. The first NASA space shuttle mission, Columbia (STS-1), took off on the twentieth anniversary of Vostok 1 in 1981, though this coincidence was not intended as the launch was delayed due to bad weather conditions.