The Russian Defense Ministry has opened a special section in honor of the 60th anniversary of the first manned flight into space. Archival materials are available on the website of the defense department in the section “Earth orbits of space explorers”.
“Historical documents and photographs vividly and emotionally convey the path that the first participants in the space program had to go to this great achievement,” the press service of the Ministry of Defense said.
The new section includes archival documents and photographs related to preparations for space flights, as well as information on the activities of the first Soviet cosmonauts before joining the detachment, including cosmonauts Yuri Gagarin, German Titov and Alexei Leonov.
In addition, a copy of the order of the Minister of Defense of the USSR Marshal Malinovsky on the extraordinary awarding of the rank of major to Gagarin was published on the site.
The day before, the crew of the Yu.A. Gagarin transport manned spacecraft (Soyuz MS-18) boarded the International Space Station (ISS). The launch of the ship with the crew took place on April 9. It was timed to coincide with the Cosmonautics Day and the 60th anniversary of the first man's flight into space. In connection with the anniversary of the historic event, the initials of Gagarin were applied to the rocket body.
