Gagarin brought dreams from space
Fifty years ago this day, 27-year old Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first person to travel to space in a "Vastok-1" satellite space shuttle. He spun around the globe for an hour and 48 minutes and returned to Earth safe and sound. After his trip to space, Gagarin became the symbol of pride and admiration for millions of citizens of the Soviet Union.
According to head of the cosmonautics group at the state center for technologies Avetik Grigoryan, he also wasn't an exception and partially turned his dream into a reality. "I had two goals-astrology and cosmonautics, but since the school of astrology was more presentable, I chose that," the head of the group told "A1+". According to him, working with schoolchildren, he has noticed that though the new generation doesn't dream too much about space, the dream still remains.
"By sending the first man to space, the Soviet Union not only moved ahead of the United States, which was in a Cold War, but made a giant leap for all mankind as well," said Head of Byurakan Observatory Hayk Harutyunyan. He attached importance to the flight and mentioned that the time finally came for people to be able to leave and look at the planet from the outside.
According to Hayk Harutyunyan, in addition to this philosophical logic, man's flight to space paved a path for mankind to conquer the space surrounding Planet Earth.
Professor of the University of Cornell, astrologist Daniel Witman, who is currently in Armenia, also recalls the United States' competition with the Soviet Union and Gagarin's historical flight. According to him, though the Americans were left behind their Soviet colleagues with a feeling of jealousy, science won from that competition.
This year, the UN General Assembly has declared April 12 as the International Day of Aeronautics and Cosmonautics.
