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The urgency and importance of NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center's mission in the 1960s was apparent from the beginning. It became even more apparent on April 12, 1962, when the Soviet cosmonaut, Yuri Gagarin, became the first man in space.
In this April 12, 1961, photo, rocket engineer Oleg Ivanovsky leads Yuri Gagarin (l.) to the Vostok spacecraft before the launch from what will later become known as the Baikonur cosmodrome. Ivanovsky said that designers had done their best to make the first human flight into space safe, but risks were still high. Russia is marking the 50th anniversary of man's first trip into space.
A pensive Yuri Gagarin is in the bus on the way to the launch pad on the morning of April 12, 1961. Behind him, seated, is his backup, German Titov. On April 12, 1961, at 9:06 a.m. Gagarin lifted off in the Vostok 1 spacecraft and after a 108-minute flight of extended microgravity, he parachuted safely to the ground in the Saratov region of the USSR. As the first human to fly in space, he successfully completed one orbit around Earth.
On March 30, 1968, the funeral of Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin and engineer-colonel Vladimir Seryogin took place at the Red Square. Gagarin perished when a MiG 15 training jet he was piloting tragically crashed just seven years after he became the first human in space.
Gagarin's portrait reflects in the glasses of a woman wearing a mock space helmet as people march during celebrations of the 50th anniversary of the Yuri Gagarin's first manned flight into space, in downtown St. Petersburg, Russia, on April 12.
A still from the film 'The first flight to the stars' shows Gagarin in 1961.
In this April 12, 1961, photo, rocket engineer Oleg Ivanovsky (r.) leads Yuri Gagarin (c.) to the Vostok spacecraft before the launch from what will later become known as the Baikonur cosmodrome. Ivanovsky said that designers had done their best to make the first human flight into space safe, but risks were still high. People in the background are unidentified engineers.
In this Aug. 18, 1962, photo, Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev is flanked by four Soviet cosmonauts as they wave from Lenin's tomb in Moscow's Red Square during a welcome ceremony for cosmonauts Andrian Nikolayev and Pavel Popovich, who made a dual orbital space flight. From left are Gherman Titov, Yuri Gagarin, Khrushchev, Nikolayev, and Popovich.
A woman looks at a statue of Soviet cosmonaut Yury Gagarin temporarily displayed at the All-Russian Exhibition Center (VVTs) in Moscow, on April 8. The statue, a replica of the Gagarin monument in Lyubertsy, a city in Moscow's southern outskirts, will be unveiled in London on July 14 as part of celebrations for the 50th anniversary of the first manned flight into space, the Russian media reported.
Gagarin is seen on the bus on the way to the spacecraft prior to launch on April 12, 1961.
A file photo taken on June 1, 1960, shows Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin posing with his wife, Valentina, and daughter, Yelena, on the bank of the Klyazma River in the central Russian Vladimir region.
This undated picture shows a Russian Vostok rocket on its launcher. It was the Soviet Union's own giant leap for mankind – one that would spur a humiliated America to race for the moon. It happened on Tuesday, April 12, 1961.
In this April 12, 1961, photo, rocket engineer Oleg Ivanovsky pats Yuri Gagarin (l.) on his helmet as he sits down in the cockpit of the Vostok spacecraft before the launch from what would later become known as the Baikonur cosmodrome.
Gagarin smiles in 1961.
Pictured in this file image dated 1963 an unidentified teenage cadet is flanked by Soviet cosmonauts Pavel Popovich (l.), and Yuri Gagarin, at the May Day parade on May 1, in Red Square, Moscow.
An undated photo of Yuri Gagarin and his award of the Hero of the Soviet Union (r.) are part of an exhibition dedicated to the 50th anniversary of the first man in space, in Moscow on April 11. Alexander Zemlianichenko/AP
An undated photo of Yuri Gagarin and his wife, Valentina, is on display at the upper house of Russian parliament in Moscow on April 5. Alexander Zemlianichenko/AP
Russian communists and supporters lay flowers at the grave of the first man in space, Yuri Gagarin, in the Kremlin wall in Moscow on April 12, to mark the 50th anniversary of the first manned space flight. Maria Turchenkova/AP
In this April 14, 1961, photo, Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev greets cosmonaut Maj. Yuri Gagarin at the Vnukovo airport in Moscow after he took the first manned space flight in history. ITAR-TASS/AP/File
This undated photo shows Soviet Air Force Maj. Yuri Gagarin. TAR-TASS/AP/File
US astronaut Thomas Stafford, Yuri Gagarin's daughter, Yelena, and Russian cosmonauts Alexei Leonov and Viktor Gorbatko attend an exhibition marking the 50th anniversary of the first man in space, Russia's Yuri Gagarin, in Moscow on April 11. Alexander Zemlianichenko/AP/File
Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin stands in an open car outside the Russian Embassy in London and waves to the crowd as he departs for home on July 15, 1961. AP/File
Cosmonaut Maj. Yuri Gagarin is shown during training in 1961. TASS/AP/File
The monument to Yuri Gagarin is seen behind a traffic light near Gagarin Square in Moscow on April 12. Sergei Karpukhin/Reuters
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The head of Russia's space agency said it is 'suspicious' that most of the program's accidents occur in places that Russian radars can't reach.
A humiliating string of accidents that has beset Russia's space program over the past year, and only seems to be getting worse, may be the result of foreign sabotage, the head of the Russian Space Agency (Roskosmos), Vladimir Popovkin, hinted on Tuesday.
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