Russia, other countries mark International Cosmonautics Day

Russia and other countries are marking World Cosmonautics Day today, TASS reports.

An official rally is due in Moscow later this Friday, and flowers will be laid at the monument to the world’s first cosmonaut, a Soviet citizen Yuri Gagarin. Youth organization officials will stand close to one another in a Moscow park so that they will form the words WE ARE THE FIRST. The words will be photographed from a space satellite flying over Moscow at the moment.

Also, hundreds of air balloons will be launched with ribbons attached to them and containing messages to cosmonauts. The holiday is marked every year on April 12th . Back in 1961, on April 12th, Yuri Gagarin went on the first spaceflight on human record aboard the VOSTOK spaceship, making a circle around the Earth.