Photos: Commemorating Space Pioneers, Milestones of Space Exploration History on Cosmonautics Day

Cosmonautics Day, also known as the International Day of Human Space Flight, is a day that commemorates the first manned space flight by Yuri Gagarin on April 12, 1961. This day is celebrated every year to honor the achievements of astronauts and cosmonauts, as well as to promote the exploration of space and the advancements of space technology.
Sputnik
On April 12, the world celebrates the International Day of Human Space Flight. It is a day to recognize the bravery and dedication of those who have ventured into space, and to inspire future generations to continue pushing the boundaries of human space exploration.
Humans have been living and working in space for over six decades. Since 1961, astronauts from various countries have traveled to space to conduct scientific research, maintain spacecraft and equipment, and even live aboard the International Space Station (ISS) for extended periods of time.
Check out Sputnik Africa's photo gallery, showing milestone events in the history of space exploration!
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The world's first cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin after the landing of the Vostok-1 spacecraft lander. Gagarin is surrounded by a search team led by the commander of the missile division, Major A.Gassiev, and local residents.

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The descent vehicle of the Vostok spacecraft with cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin landed at 10:55 a.m. near the village of Smelovka in the Russian Saratov region.

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This 19 November 1969 file photo released by NASA shows one of the astronauts of the Apollo 12 space mission on the Moon with a camera. An other astronaut is reflected in his helmet.

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The Shenzhou 9 spacecraft rocket lifts off from the launch pad at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in Jiuquan, China, Saturday, June 16, 2012. China sends its first woman and two other astronauts into space Saturday to work on a temporary space station for about a week, in a key step toward becoming only the third nation to set up a permanent base in orbit.
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Russian Actress Julia Peresild, a member of the main crew of Expedition 66 to the International Space Station, before the launch of the Soyuz MS-19 spacecraft at Russia's Baikonur cosmodrome.

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Russian Instructors Ignat Ignatov and Maxim Zaitsev conduct a demonstration training of cosmonauts in simulated weightlessness in the hydrolaboratory of the Russian Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center in the country's Zvezdny Gorodok.

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Picture taken on 27 September, 2006, by France's National Centre for Space Studies (CNES) and Novespace, during the first surgery carried out in conditions of weightlessness using a specially-adapted aircraft to simulate conditions in space.

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The return of the members of the Russian film crew of the country's film "The Challenge" and the cosmonaut of the Russian space agency Roscosmos Oleg Novitsky from the International Space Station.

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Space tourist Canadian billionaire and clown Guy Laliberte smiles sitting inside the Soyuz TMA-14 spacecraft shortly after his landing with the members of the mission to the International Space Station, Russian cosmonaut Gennady Padalka and NASA astronaut Michael Barratt, not seen, near the town of Arkalyk, Kazakhstan on Sunday, October 11, 2009.

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Journalists photograph the Russian Soyuz-FG launch vehicle with the Soyuz TMA-18 M manned transport vehicle during its removal to the launch pad of the country's Baikonur cosmodrome.

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Three NASA personnel suited in space-flight restraining gear prepare to climb aboard the Apollo Spacecraft April 6, 1962. This preliminary mock-up model was placed on display April 6.13ft wide and 12ft high, this command module was the most complex manned flight device ever designed and built for earth orbit and lunar landing.

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The International Space Station is silhouetted against the sun during a partial solar eclipse Monday, August 21, 2017.

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Russia's Roscosmos cosmonauts Sergey Volkov and Yuri Malenchenko performed a spacewalk on February 3, 2016.

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Launch of the Russian Soyuz MS-05 manned spacecraft from the Baikonur cosmodrome.

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In this image provided by NASA, a close up of the tracking and relay satellite as it was ready for launch from the cargo bay of the space shuttle Discovery, on September 29, 1988.

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This photo provided by NASA astronaut Christina Koch shows the launch of a Russian Soyuz rocket, as seen from the International Space Station on September 25, 2019.

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Space tourist Japan's Daisuke Enomoto, on the right, and US entrepreneur Anousheh Ansari, in the center, due to become the first female space tourists, take part in a training session inside a zero-gravity simulator, onboard Russian IL-76 MDK aircraft better known as the Flying Laboratory in Zvezdny Gorodok, outside Moscow, on 27 July 2006.

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Monument to Gagarin in the city of Baikonur.