Russia’s Soyuz spacecraft scheduled to fly to orbital outpost in April named after Gagarin

MOSCOW, March 23. /TASS/. Russia’s Soyuz MS-18 manned spacecraft scheduled to deliver the next crew to the International Space Station (ISS) in April has been named after the world’s first human in space Yuri Gagarin, Roscosmos said in a statement on Tuesday. "The Soyuz MS-18 spacecraft currently undergoing pre-launch preparations under the program of delivering members of the 65th basic expedition to the International Space Station has received its own name, Yu. A. Gagarin," the statement says. The carrier rocket’s nose cone will also feature official symbols of the 60th anniversary of Gagarin’s flight in space. As Roscosmos specified, the name of the first human who orbited Earth also decorates the surface of the screen vacuum thermal insulation in the spacecraft’s habitation module. Last time, the name Gagarin was assigned to the Soyuz-TMA spaceship that blasted off on April 5, 2011. April 12 is celebrated as Cosmonautics Day throughout the world. This year will mark 60 years since a Vostok rocket orbited a Vostok-1 spacecraft with Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin on its board. Gagarin became the world’s first human launched into outer space. After making one orbit of Earth, Gagarin made a landing in the Saratov Region in Russia’s south. Read more