On April 12 each year, Russia and several former Soviet republics commemorate the beginning of human space travel with a celebration known as Cosmonautics Day. This date honours the historic journey taken by Yuri Gagarin, a 27-year-old Soviet pilot, who became the first human to travel into space on April 12, 1961. Stamps from all over marked the brilliant initial Soviet achievements in space.
Yuri Gagarin's mission aboard the Vostok 1 spacecraft lasted 1 hour, 48 minutes and marked a major milestone in space exploration. In recognition of this achievement, the United Nations, during its 65th General Assembly in 2011, officially designated April 12 as the International Day of Human Space Flight.
On 18 March 1965, Alexei Arkhipovich Leonov achieved a milestone, during the Voskhod 2 mission, by becoming the first individual to leave a spacecraft and float freely in the vacuum of space. His extravehicular activity lasted 12 minutes and 9 seconds.
The world's first space station, named Salyut 1 was launched by the USSR on April 19, 1971. The first crew, Mission Soyuz 10, was not able to dock at Salyut. Three-member Mission 11 did and the cosmonauts spent 23 days aboard. When they were returning to earth the crew capsule depressurised before re-entry and all three cosmonauts were killed (the only humans to die in space).
A 12 kopecks stamp issued by Russia, then USSR, in 1965 to mark Cosmonautics Day.
Mir was a modular orbital platform managed between 1986 and 2001, by Russia (USSR). Built, piece by piece, in space over a decade, it became the heaviest human-made object in orbit until the International Space Station eventually replaced it after Mir re-entered earth's atmosphere.
Kazakhstan issued a special postage stamp, with Yuri Gagarin on it, to honour Cosmonautics Day, celebrating their nation's connection to space exploration. Kazakhstan's Baikonur Cosmodrome, that came up in 1955, was the launching pad for Vostok 1 on which Gagarin travelled. A Kazakh astronaut, Toktar Aubakirov also went up in space in 1991 for 7 days, eating freeze-dried Kazakh food.
To celebrate five decades since Yuri Gagarin's pioneering space mission, Ukraine introduced a special postal stamp in 2011.
Romania also decided to honour Yuri Gagarin by issuing a stamp in 1961. Seven years later Gagarin was no more. He and a flight instructor were killed when their MiG-15UTI crashed near Kirzhach, Vladimir Oblast, close to Moscow, on March 27 1968, and his ashes were interred into the Kremlin walls. The cause of the crash was never revealed.
In 2011, Russia released a commemorative coin honouring Yuri Gagarin 50 years after his first journey into space.