60 years of Russian space exploration celebrated

An event that took place 60 years ago still fires the imagination of the world as a milestone for humanity and is much celebrated globally by Russia at home and in foreign capitals, including New Delhi.

In April 1961, the erstwhile Soviet Union sent the first man into space in the first manned flight. The astronaut, Yuri Gagarin, became a global household name for posterity. The event had also then highlighted the already-close ties between the Soviet Union and India, with Gagarin making a famous trip to India in November that year, meeting India's then prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru at a civic reception hosted in his honour at the Red Fort.

Even though the Soviet Union collapsed three decades ago, its successor state Russia continues to celebrate the momentous achievement. In India, a function was hosted earlier this week at the Russian Centre of Science and Culture (RCSC) in New Delhi by RCSC director Fyodor A. Rozovskiy to mark the milestone.

On April 12, 1961, Gagarin spent about 89 minutes in the five-ton satellite about 188 miles from earth. It also marked a triumph for the Soviet Union over its Cold War rival, the United States. Ironically, even six decades later and much after the end of the Cold War, ties between the US and Russia still remain sour.

The Russian embassy's deputy chief of mission (DCM) in New Delhi, Roman Babushkin, said that Gagarin's flight in 1961 was also the starting point of the RussianIndian cooperation in a sphere of space exploration, which includes joint flights and joint work on navigation systems.

"Russia and India are closely cooperating in multilateral formats, primarily in the framework of the UN Committee on Outer Space, where we promote responsible behaviour to prevent arms race in outer space. This is also part of our agenda in BRICS, where we also work on the initiative of remote satellite constellation," the Russian DCM added.

The Indian government had informed the Parliament earlier this year that as per India's Gaganyaan space project, the first unmanned mission is planned in December 2021 while the second unmanned flight is planned in 2022-23 followed by a human spaceflight demonstration.

The government said the chosen crew members are currently undergoing generic space flight training in Russia.