Cosmonautics Day is celebrated in Kazakhstan

On April 12, Cosmonautics Day is celebrated in the world — a memorable date dedicated to the first human flight into space. It received world status in 1968 at the conference of the International Aviation Federation.

On April 7, 2011, in honor of the fiftieth anniversary of human spaceflight, the UN General Assembly, by its resolution A/RES/65/271, proclaimed April 12 the International Day of Human Spaceflight.

Cosmonautics Day, celebrated annually on April 12, is a special holiday for Kazakhstan. It was from the Kazakh land that the first cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin flew into space. It was Baikonur that became the main harbor from where Soviet, and then Russian and foreign ships left for space navigation.

Kazakhstanis can also be rightfully proud of their cosmonautics heroes.

The first cosmonaut of kazakh nationality, Toktar Aubakirov, flew in 1991 and spent 7 days, 22 hours and 13 minutes in space. Aubakirov is not only cosmonaut number one, he was also one of the first to participate in the experiment, in which he first tasted freeze-dried dishes of Kazakh national cuisine - ayran, irimshik and meat in kazakh, specially developed by scientists to feed astronauts.

Talgat Musabayev made three flights and spent 341 days, 9 hours, 48 minutes and 41 seconds in space. Talgat Musabayev is listed in the Guinness Book of Records: before him, no one had been in outer space for more than a day during one flight.

Kazakh cosmonaut Aydin Ayymbetov is the first citizen of the Republic of Kazakhstan to fly into space. Aydin Aimbetov spent time in outer space from September 2 to September 12, 2015 as a flight engineer of the Soyuz TMA-18M spacecraft.