As the evening of 12 April 2011 approached, the International Space Station with TMA-21 space ship, docked to it, travelled accross the sky above South Africa. TMA-21 was named "GAGARIN" to commemorate the 50th anniversary of one of the most important dates in the history of space exploration.
The weather conditions couldn't be worse for imaging the Space Station, but it was a wonderful spectacle and I still managed to accuire few images
Yuri Gagarin
50 Years of the First Human Space Mission Celebration ROSCOSMOS April 12, 2011
“2011 is marked by an outstanding date in the history of the mankind. 50 years of the first human space mission will be celebrated this year. This space flight made by Russian Yury Gagarin took place on April 12, 1961.”
Proud Russia Marks 50 Years Since Gagarin Triumph
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev Orders to Make 50 Salute Fires on April 12
http://www.roscosmos.ru/main.php?id=2&nid=11651
Historic Video on YouTube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lU2DhUYZfMU&feature=player_detailpage
South Africa joins the Yuri's Night Celebration:
South African Astronomical Observatory, Cape Town
Herschel Girls Preparatory School, Cape Town
Grahamstown Botanical Gardens, Grahamstown
SAWDIS, Mossel Bay
For more details visit http://yurisnight.net/partylist/
http://yurisnight.net/about/
MNASSA, Astronomical Society of Southern Africa:
Greg Roberst, South African veteran Satellite Tracker wrote an article about Gargarin for the latest MNASSA http://assa.saao.ac.za/html/Apr2011/2011MNASSA..70..Apr..57.pdf
RUSSIAN ARCHIVES ONLINE
http://www.russianarchives.com/gallery/gagarin/
Yuri Gagarin - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yuri_Gagarin
ASTRONAUTICS.COM - Gagarin chronomlogy :
http://www.astronautix.com/astros/gagarin.htm
Popular Mechanics :
Short article and nice video clip http://www.popularmechanics.co.za/article/yuri-gagarin-first-man-in-space-2011-04-07
Google image search results:
http://www.google.co.za/search?q=Gagarin&hl=en&client=firefox-a&hs=43C&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&prmd=ivnsu&source=lnms&tbm=isch&ei=YRSfTeT7OoSevgO6-cz6BA&sa=X&oi=mode_link&ct=mode&cd=2&ved=0CBYQ_AUoAQ&biw=1280&bih=691
