12 April 2017: International Day of Human Space Flight

International Day of Human Space Flight is celebrated annually on 12 April. The 2017 theme is: Space and Livelihood.

The United Nations General Assembly, on 7 April 2011, declared 12 April the International Day of Human Space Flight. The UN chose the date because on 12 April 1961 Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin was the first person to travel into outer space. In 2011 the UN celebrated space flight’s 50^th anniversary.

This year is the 56^th anniversary of human space flight.

The UN called it a day "to celebrate each year at the international level the beginning of the space era for mankind, reaffirming the important contribution of space science and technology in achieving sustainable development goals and increasing the well-being of States and peoples, as well as ensuring the realisation of their aspiration to maintain outer space for peaceful purposes."

Thousands of people from 16 nations worked together to build the biggest structure to ever float above Earth: the International Space Station (ISS). It is as large as two football fields and includes six separate science labs. More than 100 major pieces were assembled 230 miles above Earth.

In November 1998, the Russian Proton rocket made the first flight to the ISS, delivering the first module, Zarya Control Module. The United State’s Space Shuttle Endeavour followed in December 1998, and astronauts attached the Unity Node to Zarya. The first crew, consisting of one American and two Russians, arrived at ISS in October 2000. From that point on, ISS has been permanently staffed.

Astronauts, who work on the ISS for up to six months at a time, conduct experiments on board. They study the long-term effects of weightlessness on humans, invent substances that work best in very low gravity and more. One day, the ISS may be a launching place for exploratory missions to other planets, like Mars.

Participating countries are: the United States, Canada, Japan, Russia, Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and Brazil.

MARTINA NICOLLS is an international aid and development consultant, and the author of:- The Shortness of Life: A Mongolian Lament (2015), Liberia’s Deadest Ends (2012), Bardot’s Comet (2011), Kashmir on a Knife-Edge (2010) and The Sudan Curse (2009).

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