Gagarin's day

In Baikonur, April the 12th is celebrated each year to remember Yuri Gagarin maiden flight to space in 1961. It is a bank holidays for most of the workers of the cosmodrome. Due to the dramatic plane crash which killed the Polish President and the top army executives last Saturday near by Smolensk, Russian authorities declared April the 12th as a national day of mourning to show compassion to their Polish neighbours. Therefore all celebrations for the 49th anniversary of the Gagarin's day were canceled in Baikonur.
However, this morning the Korolev memorial was decorated with few flowers.
Here under is a picture of the memorial dedicated to the man, S. P. Korolev (kept under secrecy for a long time by the Soviet regime), without which the Russian space programme would not have reached its fame and the rank it still has today.

Another important point of commemoration today could have been the memorial the city of Baikonur devoted to Gagarin first flight just opposite to the Baikonur first school.

Credits Julio
"On 12/4/1961 for the first time in the world the launch of a spaceship with a man on board, citizen of the Soviet Union, was achieved".

The CryoSat-2 team was invited for a guided tour a Cosmonaut hotel. There are now many buildings on this historical area were the cosmonauts and politicians use to stay. Constructions are surrounded by a park where some open air sport facilities and swimming pool are available.
The main building we visited today was build in 1968. A nice monumental mosaic on the eastern immediately captures visitor's attention. This modern hotel accommodates today astronauts and cosmonauts just before their flight.

At the reception, stained glass window reminds the style of interior decoration as it was already seen at different places in the city and at the Orion swimming pool in particular.

The quarantine area is the section of the hotel reserved for accommodating the astronauts just before their mission. It is a tradition that astronauts write their names on the door of their room. Here is the door of suite where lived two of the three astronauts who took off April 2010 for the International Space Station.

Outside, the hotel, there is park which is certainly very nice when the spring is a bit more advanced. Anyway, despite the stormy weather, we had the chance for a last view on the Syr Daria river on the platform at the very end of the Cosmonaut Path. As you already now know each cosmonaut has his/her own tree along this path to commemorate his/her flight.

Today 12th April 2010 is the perfect day for a last picture aside the Gagarin tree which should be exactly...49 years!
Trees planted along this path are elms (Вяз)

C праздником и С днем рождения!