Happy International Day of Human Spaceflight!
Sixty years ago today, Yuri Gagarin launched us into the era of human spaceflight. The Russian cosmonaut achieved a major milestone in the Space Race when he orbited the Earth in the Vostok 1 capsule. This amazing achievement came less than four years after the launch of the first satellite, Sputnik 1.
In 2011, the UN General Assembly declared 12 April as the International Day of Human Space Flight, a day when we celebrate the beginning of the space era and the important contributions of space science and technology in achieving sustainable development goals.
By November 2020, more than 560 people from 41 countries have gone into space. Of those, only 24 have been beyond low Earth orbit, and just 12 (the “dusty dozen“) walked on the Moon.
Collectively, astronauts have spent more than 29,000 days in space – over 77 years – including 100 days spacewalking. There hasn’t been a single day in the last twenty years when all humans were on planet Earth.
Unless otherwise stated, © Copyright Emma Doughty 2023. Published on theunconventionalgardener.com.
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