The Day of Cosmonautics

Apr 12, 2024

Today our country celebrates Cosmonautics Day!

63 years ago, the dream of many generations of people came true: the first man went up into space. On April 12, 1961, the era of cosmonautics began. On that day, the Vostok launch vehicle put into orbit the Vostok-1 spacecraft with Yuri Gagarin on board.

The history of space industry development is closely connected with the Stupino Metallurgical Company. On October 4, 1957, the first artificial Earth satellite was launched into orbit. The metal for its shell was created at CMK.

During 63 years of manned cosmonautics, 133 Russian cosmonauts have traveled to Earth orbit and the industry continues to grow. On April 6 this year, the Soyuz MS-24 manned spacecraft with three cosmonauts - from Russia, Belarus and the United States - returned to Earth. Yesterday, the Orion upper stage, launched by the first Angara-A5 launch vehicle from the Vostochny Cosmodrome, delivered a test payload into geostationary orbit. Now our cosmonauts continue to work in the 71st long-term expedition to the ISS.

We congratulate everyone on the Day of Cosmonautics - the holiday of achievements of Russian science and technology!