On January 11, 1960, the Cosmonaut Training Center was formed in the Green (nowadays world famous Star) City. In the late 1960s, the Center was named after Yuri Gagarin in memory of the first cosmonaut of the planet.

Our Dear Readers! On behalf of RussianSpaceNews.com let us wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Today, on November 8, 2019, is a 15 years anniversary since the start of operation of the "Soyuz-2" launch vehicle of stage 1a.

State Corporation "Roskosmos" regretfully reports, that on the 86th year of life, cosmonaut № 11, the first man in the world to go into open space, Twice Hero of the Soviet Union Alexey Leonov, died.

On June 16, 1963, the world's first female cosmonaut made a solo flight into space. Valentina Tereshkova performed her flight on the "Vostok-6" spacecraft. The first "Chayka" of the Soviet cosmonautics (Sergey Korolev invented this call sign) is still the only woman on our planet, who has made a solo space flight.

May 30, 2019 marks the 85th anniversary of the famous Soviet cosmonaut № 11, the first man in the world, who step into open space - Alexey Leonov. On March 18-19, 1965 together with cosmonaut Pavel Belyaev, Alexey Leonov made a legendary flight, during which he performed the first spacewalk in the history of cosmonautics with a duration of 12 minutes 9 seconds. From RussianSpaceNews.com team we also wish all the best to Alexey Leonov!

The ceremony of presenting of State awards of the Russian Federation took place on May 23 in the Catherine Hall of the Kremlin. The govermental awards were presented for Russian cosmonauts Fedor Yurchikhin (who made five expeditions to the ISS and nine spacewalks), Andrey Borisenko and Oleg Novitsky (who performed two space flights each).

This year is a year of remarkable space anniversaries. And the main one is 85 years since the birth of the first cosmonaut of the Earth, Yuri Gagarin, celebrated in March. Having completed the flight, the descent module with Yuri Gagarin landed in the Saratov region. From that region on the Volga river, the first female cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova brought as a gift to GCTC the tree seedlings. And on April 18 Valentina Tereshkova with a cosmonauts, the management and staff of the Center, planted this tree seedlings on the alley near the monument, where the ceremonial farewell of the crews usually take place. Valentina Tereshkova suggested to make traditional planting of trees not only at Baikonur, but also at the GCTC. This will be not only as a honour to the name of Yuri Gagarin, but will also bring real benefits to the nature of Star City.

On the 12th of April the spaceship «Vostok-1» was launched into space with Yuri Gagarin on board and after orbiting our planet successfully returned to the Earth. It was 108 minutes that changed the world! From RussianSpaceNews.com team we congratulates all professionals of space industry and just the fans of the cosmonautics with this main holiday!

Every year, on March 27, the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center and Star City pay tribute to the Heroes of the Soviet Union, pilot-cosmonauts, Colonel Yuri Gagarin and military pilot, 1st class test pilot, Colonel Vladimir Seregin. On this day in 1968, a MiG-15 UTI fighter crashed near the village of Novoselovo, Vladimir region, Russia, killing Yuri Gagarin and Vladimir Seregin. Traditionally, on the Day of Memory of Gagarin and Seregin, on March 27, family members, cosmonauts, veterans and Center staff take part in a number of events.