| | |||
| With the level of nuclear crisis raised to the maximum, Japanese government has to focus on maintaining public trust. Last Modified: 13 Apr 2011 06:29 | |||
With the nuclear crisis at the earthquake-damaged Daiichi plant in Fukushima being upgraded to a level 7 - on par with the Chernobyl nuclear disaster - the Japanese government moved on the defensive. Naoto Kan, the country's prime minister, held a press conference early Tuesday afternoon, trying to assure the public that the amount of radiation leaking from the unstable plant, where workers have been struggling to cool fuel rods and failing to contain radioactive water, is decreasing. Then, later on the same day, the man many consider to be the government's front man for the crisis, Yukio Edano, the Japanese chief cabinet secretary, held a second press conference. "The upgrade was not due to a new emergency," said Edano. "It is based on the latest analysis of data for the international nuclear event scale." Edano on Monday vehemently denied that fear of leaking radiation had prompted his family to leave the country. The Japan Times newspaper reported that according to rumours, Edano's wife and twin kindergarten-age sons had flown overseas, but vehemently denied those rumours. "I have not been telling the people of Japan and those in Tokyo that there is something for them to be worried about and that goes for my family as well," Edano said in a press conference on Monday. Mistrust of government Still, despite the denials, there is a sense among the Japanese public that they're not being presented with all of the facts.
Al Jazeera's Harry Fawcett, reporting from Tokyo, said that the Japanese government has had to repeatedly state that it "has not been suppressing any information, they haven't been hiding anything". Fawcett said that Edano, who has been holding news conferences on an almost daily basis, specifically addressed the international media on Tuesday, when the questions focused on the elevated crisis level. "He said it was just an analysis of the data, that more radiation than initially thought had been pumped out of the plant or had been spewed out of the plant and that's why the event level had been raised to its maximum," said Fawcett. But our correspondent said Edano insisted that there was "no new emergency, and ... there was no need for any new measures and people shouldn't be in any way more worried that the situation was worse now than it was before." And that, said Fawcett, was a "difficult message to sell to people who are extremely concerned about what's happening at that plant." The Fukushima Daiichi plant, operated by the Tokyo Electric Power Co, was badly damaged by the March 11 earthquake, which also resulted in a tsunami. So far, over 13,000 people have been confirmed dead, over 14,000 are missing and about 140,000 are still in emergency evacuation centres. | |||
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| Source: Al Jazeera and agencies |
Wednesday, 13 April 2011
Japan hopes to minimise nuclear fears
Yemen violence claims more lives
| | ||
| Five people killed in Sanaa and two more in the southern city of Aden as protesters push for president's ouster. Last Modified: 13 Apr 2011 09:55 | ||
At least five people have been killed in the Yemeni capital Sanaa as forces loyal to a defected army general and pro-government fighters clashed, Al Jazeera's correspondents have said. Two more people were killed on Wednesday in the southern city of Aden in clashes between security forces and anti-regime demonstrators, who are pushing for the ouster of long-serving president Ali Abdullah Saleh. The defected general, Ali Mohsen, a kinsman of Saleh who has thrown his weight behind the opposition and whose military units are protecting protesters in Sanaa, has welcomed a mediation proposal by the six-nation Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC) to end the unrest. But on Tuesday tens of thousands of Yemenis staged protests against the proposal, with many saying it offers Saleh, in power since 1978, an immunity from prosecution. Protesters in Yemen have for months been calling for Saleh to step down over the country's lack of freedoms and extreme poverty. Up to 100 people have been killed in the unrest which shows no sign of subsiding. The mediation proposal calls on Saleh to transfer power to his deputy, but gives no specific timeframe for him to leave office. It also includes immunity from prosecution for Saleh and his family. "The initiative does not clearly mention the immediate departure of the head of the regime and it did not touch on the fate of his relatives who are at the top military and security agencies that continue killing the peaceful protesters," the anti-government Civil Alliance of the Youth Revolution said in a statement. The alliance, which includes 30 youth groups, said the GCC proposal was an attempt to abort the revolution. Saleh has accepted the Gulf framework as long as it's carried out "constitutionally," but state media had initially suggested the government would reject it. | ||
| | ||
| Source: Al Jazeera and agencies |
| Egypt detains Mubarak and sons |
| |
| Top prosecutor says ex-leader and two sons will be held for 15 days pending a probe into abuse of authority and graft. Last Modified: 13 Apr 2011 06:46 |
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Hosni Mubarak, Egypt's former president, has been detained along with his two powerful sons pending investigations into accusations of corruption and abuse of authority, the prosecutor general has said. Hours after the former leader was hospitalised as he was questioned, a statement from the prosecutor's office, posted on Facebook early on Wednesday, announced the detention of the three men. "The prosecutor general orders the detention of former President Hosni Mubarak and his sons Gamal and Alaa for 15 days pending investigation after the prosecutor general presented them with the current state of its ongoing investigations," it read. It said the ongoing investigation was into allegations of corruption, the wasting of public money, and the abuse of position for personal gain. "Brothers, whatever you wanted, you have got ... 15 days," said Major-General Mohammed el-Khatib, the head of provincial security in the South Sinai. Gamal, Mubarak's younger son, was a senior official in the ruling party and was widely seen as being groomed to succeed his father before popular protests brought down the regime. His increasing role in the government over the last decade and the belief that he might succeed his father helped galvanise Egypt's protest movement. Al Jazeera's Zeina Khodr, reporting from Cairo, said that Mubarak's sons have already been questioned for two days at a courthouse near Sharm el-Sheikh. They arrived in Cairo on Wednesday morning and were taken to a prison where they are expected to be detained for the duration of the investigation. At least 800 people are estimated to have been killed during the protests as police opened fire on the crowds. Authorities are now investigating government officials for their role in ordering the violence. Gamal is also believed to be the architect of Egypt's privatisation programme and economic liberalisation, which has brought in billions in foreign investment but has also widened the gap between rich and poor. Many of his close associates were billionaires and held senior positions in the ruling party and the government. There are allegations that they used their positions for personal gain. Mubarak hospitalised Earlier on Tuesday, Mubarak had been questioned in hospital by prosecutors at the Red Sea town of Sharm el-Sheikh, where he has been staying since he was ousted from power by a popular uprising on February 11. Mubarak, 82, was taken to an intensive care unit after suffering heart problems when he was being questioned during an investigation, state television reported. Asked if Mubarak was in good health, Mohammed Fathallah, the hospital's director, replied: "Somewhat." Our correspondent in Cairo said that doctors have now announced that Mubarak is reported to be unwell, but in stable condition. Khodr said that many people believe that Mubarak's illness was a ruse to escape prosecution, with many implicating the military in the rumoured plot. "A lot of Egyptians, particularly in Tahrir Square, said this is just ridiculous, this is a lie, it's a game ... they even accuse the army - the new rulers in this country in the interim phase - of actually orchestrating this to find some way out so Mubarak won't be prosecuted," said Khodr. News of the investigations, she said, will "ease tensions", especially at a time when the army is being viewed with some suspicion by the public, who, as of late have been "questioning the motives and actions of the army, especially since the army has been detaining hundreds of activists". Egyptian security officials told the AP news agency that Mubarak arrived under heavy police protection at the hospital, which was picketed on Tuesday by pro-democracy activists. Al Jazeera's Jamal Elshayyal, reporting from Sharm el-Sheikh, said that state security personnel and riot police continued to surround the hospital, where a small number of protesters were gathering on Wednesday morning, although the situation remained calm. |
| |
| Source: Al Jazeera and agencies |
Tuesday, 12 April 2011
Egypt blogger sentence slammed as 'serious setback'
HRW: Egypt blogger sentence 'severe', imposed by military tribunal after 'unfair trial'. | |||||
| Middle East Online | |||||
CAIRO - Human Rights Watch on Tuesday condemned an Egyptian military court's sentencing of a blogger as "a serious setback to freedom of expression" in post-Mubarak Egypt. Maikel Nabil was sentenced on Sunday to three years in prison on charges of insulting the military in a blog post. "The sentence is not only severe, but it was imposed by a military tribunal after an unfair trial," said Joe Stork, deputy Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. The Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) assumed power on February 11 after weeks of anti-regime protests forced president Hosni Mubarak to step down. The verdict is likely to cause concern among Egypt's large network of bloggers who had hoped Mubarak's overthrow in a popular uprising would usher in a new era of freedom of expression. Since SCAF took power, "the military has arrested at least 200 protesters and tried scores of them before military courts," HRW said. "State institutions, including the military, should never consider themselves above criticism," Stork said. "It is only through a public airing of abuses and full accountability measures that Egypt can hope to transition away from past human rights violations," he said. On Monday, Reporters Without Borders condemned the ruling, saying Nabil had become "the new government's first prisoner of conscience." "The methods used by the Egyptian military do not seem to have evolved since Hosni Mubarak's fall," the group's secretary general Jean-Francois Julliard said. |
Israeli foreign minister talks live... from the toilet
Israel's Lieberman heard flushing toilet in middle of radio interview discussing Gaza tensions. | |||||
| Middle East Online | |||||
JERUSALEM - Israeli officials often conduct radio interviews at home, but listeners got an unexpected insight into just where their foreign minister was when he punctuated his comments with a toilet flush. Israeli news site Ynet.com reported Tuesday that the unusual soundtrack to foreign minister Avigdor Lieberman's interview came as he was addressing the issue of a flare-up of violence with Palestinian Islamist group Hamas. During the Monday interview, the controversial head of the ultra-nationalist Yisrael Beitenu made reference to the group, telling the public radio station: "We know who we're dealing with." And then apparently flushed the toilet. Lieberman's Yisrael Beitenu is the third biggest party in the Israeli Knesset, with 15 seats in the 120-seat house. A recent poll showed the party could snap up two more seats if elections were held today. The foreign minister has frequently found himself in the headlines for his sometimes undiplomatic language, and is also facing the prospect of being indicted for corruption. |
Mubarak summoned for questioning over embezzlement, death of protesters
Egypt Interior Minister Mansour el-Essawy says Mubarak will give testimony on accusations directed against him at a court on the eastern outskirts of Cairo, according to state-run al-Ahram newspaper.
By ReutersEgypt's former President Hosni Mubarak received a summons to appear before a Cairo court for questioning and special security is being arranged, state-run al-Ahram newspaper quoted the interior minister as saying.
The public prosecutor issued the summons on Sunday as part of probes into the killing of protesters and the embezzlement of public funds, but the ousted president said allegations of wrongdoing levelled against him were lies.
 | Former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak rubs his eyes, March 5, 2004. |
| Photo by: Reuters |
The minister, Mansour el-Essawy, said Mubarak would give testimony on accusations directed against him at a court on the eastern outskirts of Cairo, Al-Ahram reported, without saying when he would appear or what the accusations were.
Essawy said he did not know what Mubarak's reply to the summons had been, the newspaper said on Tuesday.
Mubarak's sons Alaa and Gamal have also been summoned for questioning.
Several countries froze assets of Mubarak's family and some of their associates after he was forced from office by a wave of public uprising and dissent at corruption among the political elite.
Mubarak has been staying at his residence in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh since he was toppled from power on Feb. 11, and he and his family have been banned from travelling while state prosecutors investigate complaints against them.
Justice Minister Mohamed al-Guindy said an Egyptian delegation would travel to a number of foreign countries within days seeking to make an inventory of Mubarak's assets abroad, al-Ahram said.
The minister said Mubarak had agreed to provide to investigators a power of attorney over his bank accounts and assets.
Google Doodle marks anniversary of Yuri Gagarin's space flight
Yuri Gagarin: 50th anniversary of the first Human Spaceflight
Yuri Gagarin
| Yuri Gagarin Юрий Гагарин | |
|---|---|
 | |
 Soviet Union cosmonaut The first human in space | |
| Nationality | Russian Soviet Union |
| Born | 9 March 1934 Klushino, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union |
| Died | 27 March 1968 (aged 34) Novosyolovo, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union |
| Other occupation | Pilot |
| Rank | Colonel (Polkovnik), Soviet Air Forces |
| Time in space | 1 hour, 48 minutes |
| Selection | Air Force Group 1 |
| Missions | Vostok 1 |
| Mission insignia |  |
Yuri Alekseyevich Gagarin (Russian: Ю́рий Алексе́евич Гага́рин,[1] Russian pronunciation: [ˈjurʲɪj ɐlʲɪˈksʲeɪvʲɪtɕ ɡɐˈɡarʲɪn]; 9 March 1934 – 27 March 1968) was a Soviet pilot and cosmonaut. He was the first human to journey into outer space when his Vostok spacecraft completed an orbit of the Earth on April 12, 1961.
Gagarin became an international celebrity, and was awarded many medals and honours, including Hero of the Soviet Union. Vostok 1 marked his only spaceflight, but he served as backup to the Soyuz 1 mission (which ended in a fatal crash). Gagarin later became deputy training director of the Cosmonaut Training Centre outside Moscow, which was later named after him. Gagarin died in 1968 when a Mig 15 training jet he was piloting crashed.
Early lifeGagarin was born in the village of Klushino near Gzhatsk (now in Smolensk Oblast, Russia), on 9 March 1934.[2] The adjacent town of Gzhatsk was renamed Gagarin in 1968 in his honour. His parents, Alexey Ivanovich Gagarin and Anna Timofeyevna Gagarina, worked on a collective farm.[3] While manual labourers are described in official reports as "peasants", this may be an oversimplification if applied to his parents — his mother was reportedly a voracious reader, and his father a skilled carpenter. Yuri was the third of four children, and his elder sister helped raise him while his parents worked. Like millions of people in the Soviet Union, the Gagarin family suffered during Nazi occupation in World War II. After a German officer took over their house, the family constructed a small mud hut where they spent a year and nine months until the end of the occupation.[4] His two older siblings were deported to Nazi Germany for slave labour in 1943, and did not return until after the war. In 1946, the family moved to Gzahtsk.[4]
Career in the Soviet Air Force
While a youth, Yuri became interested in space and planets.[5] After studying for one year at a vocational technical school in Lyubertsy, Gagarin was selected for further training at a technical high school in Saratov. While there, he joined the "AeroClub", and learned to fly a light aircraft, a hobby that would take up an increasing portion of his time.
In 1955, after completing his technical schooling, he entered military flight training at the Orenburg Pilot's School. While there he met Valentina Goryacheva, whom he married in 1957, after gaining his pilot's wings in a MiG-15. Post-graduation, he was assigned to Luostari airbase in Murmansk Oblast, close to the Norwegian border, where terrible weather made flying risky. He became a Lieutenant in the Soviet Air Force on 5 November 1957 and on 6 November 1959 he received the rank of Senior Lieutenant.[6]
Career in the Soviet space program
Selection and training
In 1960, after the search and selection process, Yuri Gagarin was chosen with 19 other pilots for the Soviet space program. Gagarin was further selected for an elite training group known as the Sochi Six from which the first cosmonauts of the Vostok programme would be chosen. Gagarin and other prospective cosmonauts were subjected to experiments designed to test physical and psychological endurance; he also underwent training for the upcoming flight. Out of the twenty selected, the eventual choices for the first launch were Gagarin and Gherman Titov because of their performance in training, as well as their physical characteristics — space was at a premium in the small Vostok cockpit and both men were rather short. Gagarin was 1.57 metres (5 ft 2 in) tall, which was an advantage in the small Vostok cockpit.[3]
In August 1960, when Gagarin was one of 20 possible candidates, an Air Force doctor evaluated his personality as follows:
Modest; embarrasses when his humor gets a little too racy; high degree of intellectual development evident in Yuriy; fantastic memory; distinguishes himself from his colleagues by his sharp and far-ranging sense of attention to his surroundings; a well-developed imagination; quick reactions; persevering, prepares himself painstakingly for his activities and training exercises, handles celestial mechanics and mathematical formulae with ease as well as excels in higher mathematics; does not feel constrained when he has to defend his point of view if he considers himself right; appears that he understands life better than a lot of his friends.—Soviet Air Force doctor, [7]
Gagarin was also a favoured candidate by his peers. When the 20 candidates were asked to anonymously vote for which other candidate they would like to see as the first to fly, all but three chose Gagarin.[8] One of these candidates, Yevgeny Khrunov, believed that Gagarin was very focused, and was demanding of himself and others when necessary.[9]
Gagarin kept physically fit throughout his life, and was a keen sportsman. Cosmonaut Valery Bykovsky wrote:
| “ | Service in the Air Force made us strong, both physically and morally. All of us cosmonauts took up sports and PT seriously when we served in the Air Force. I know that Yuri Gagarin was fond of ice hockey. He liked to play goal keeper... I don't think I am wrong when I say that sports became a fixture in the life of the cosmonauts.[10] | ” |
In addition to being a keen ice hockey player, Gagarin was also a basketball fan, and coached the Saratov Industrial Technical School team, as well as being an umpire/referee.[11]
Space flight
On 12 April 1961, aboard the Vostok 3KA-3 (Vostok 1), Gagarin became both the first human to travel into space, and the first to orbit the earth. His call sign was Kedr (Siberian Pine, Russian: Кедр).[12]
In his post-flight report, Gagarin recalled his experience of spaceflight, having been the first human in space:
The feeling of weightlessness was somewhat unfamiliar compared with Earth conditions. Here, you feel as if you were hanging in a horizontal position in straps. You feel as if you are suspended.[13]
Following the flight, Gagarin told the Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev that during reentry he had whistled the tune "The Motherland Hears, The Motherland Knows" (Russian: "Родина слышит, Родина знает").[14][15] The first two lines of the song are: "The Motherland hears, the Motherland knows/Where her son flies in the sky".[16] This patriotic song was written by Dmitri Shostakovich in 1951 (opus 86), with words by Yevgeniy Dolmatovsky.
After the flight, some sources claimed that Gagarin, during his space flight, had made the comment, "I don't see any God up here." However, no such words appear in the verbatim record of Gagarin's conversations with Earth-based stations during the spaceflight.[17] In a 2006 interview a close friend of Gagarin, Colonel Valentin Petrov, stated that Gagarin never said such words, and that the phrase originated from Nikita Khrushchev's speech at the plenum of the Central Committee of the CPSU, where the anti-religious propaganda was discussed. In a certain context Khrushchev said, "Gagarin flew into space, but didn't see any god there".[18] Colonel Petrov also said that Gagarin had been baptised into the Orthodox Church as a child. It is also known that Gagarin has said the following words: "Someone who never met God on Earth, would never meet Him in space"[citation needed]. In 2011, Foma magazine quoted the rector of the Orthodox church in Zvyozdny Gorodok (Star City) saying, “Gagarin baptized his elder daughter Yelena shortly before his space flight; and his family used to celebrate Christmas and Easter and keep icons in the house." [19]
Rise to fame
After the flight, Gagarin became a worldwide celebrity, touring widely abroad. He visited Italy, Germany, Canada, Brazil, Japan and Finland to promote the Soviet Union of being the first country to put a human in space. He also visited the United Kingdom three months after the Vostok 1 success, during which he visited the cities of London and Manchester, the latter of which has been fondly remembered.[20][21]
Life after Vostok 1
In 1962, he began serving as a deputy to the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union. He later returned to Star City, the cosmonaut facility, where he spent seven years working on designs for a reusable spacecraft. He became Lieutenant Colonel (or Podpolkovnik) of the Soviet Air Force on 12 June 1962 and on 6 November 1963 he received the rank of Colonel (Polkovnik) of the Soviet Air Force.[6] Soviet officials tried to keep him away from any flights, being worried of losing their hero in an accident. Gagarin was backup pilot for Vladimir Komarov in the Soyuz 1 flight. As Komarov's flight ended in a fatal crash, Gagarin was ultimately banned from training for and participating in further spaceflights.
Gagarin had become deputy training director of the Star City cosmonaut training base. At the same time, he began to re-qualify as a fighter pilot.
Death
On 27 March 1968, while on a routine training flight from Chkalovsky Air Base, he and flight instructor Vladimir Seryogin died in a MiG-15UTI crash near the town of Kirzhach. The bodies of Gagarin and Seryogin were cremated and the ashes were buried in the walls of the Kremlin on Red Square.
Cause of jet crash
The cause of the crash that killed Gagarin is not entirely certain, and has been subject to speculation and conspiracy theories over the ensuing decades.
Russian documents declassified in March 2003 showed that the KGB had conducted their own investigation of the accident, in addition to one government and two military investigations. The KGB's report dismissed various conspiracy theories, instead indicating that the actions of air base personnel contributed to the crash. The report states that an air traffic controller provided Gagarin with outdated weather information, and that by the time of his flight, conditions had deteriorated significantly. Ground crew also left external fuel tanks attached to the aircraft. Gagarin's planned flight activities needed clear weather and no outboard tanks. The investigation concluded that Gagarin's aircraft entered a spin, either due to a bird strike or because of a sudden move to avoid another aircraft. Because of the out-of-date weather report, the crew believed their altitude to be higher than it actually was, and could not properly react to bring the MiG-15 out of its spin.[22]
In his 2004 book Two Sides of the Moon, Alexey Leonov recounts that he was flying a helicopter in the same area that day when he heard "two loud booms in the distance." Corroborating other theories, his conclusion is that a Sukhoi jet (which he identifies as a Su-15 'Flagon') was flying below its minimum allowed altitude, and "without realizing it because of the terrible weather conditions, he passed within 10 or 20 meters of Yuri and Seregin's plane while breaking the sound barrier." The resulting turbulence would have sent the MiG into an uncontrolled spin. Leonov believes the first boom he heard was that of the jet breaking the sound barrier, and the second was Gagarin's plane crashing.[23]
Another theory, advanced by the original crash investigator in 2005, hypothesizes that a cabin air vent was accidentally left open by the crew or the previous pilot, leading to oxygen deprivation and leaving the crew incapable of controlling the aircraft.[24] A similar theory, published in Air & Space magazine, is that the crew detected the open vent and followed procedure by executing a rapid dive to a lower altitude. This dive caused them to lose consciousness and crash.[25]
On 12 April 2007, the Kremlin vetoed a new investigation into the death of Gagarin. Government officials said that they saw no reason to begin a new investigation.[26]
In April 2011, documents from a 1968 commission setup by the Central Committee of the Communist Party to investigate the accident were declassified. Those documents revealed that the commission's original conclusion was that either Gagarin or Seryogin had maneuvered sharply, likely to avoid a weather balloon, leading the jet into a "super-critical flight regime and to its stalling in complex meteorological conditions". The report also suggested the jet may have been maneuvering sharply to avoid "entry into the upper limit of the first layer of cloud cover".[27]
Legacy and tributes
Legacy
Aside from his short stature at 5 ft 2 inches, one of Gagarin's most notable traits was his smile.[28] Many commented on how Gagarin's smile gained the attention of many in the crowd on the frequent tours Gagarin did in the months after the Vostok 1 mission success, particularly when he visited Manchester in the United Kingdom.[29] Sergei Korolev, one of the masterminds behind the early years of the Soviet space program later said that Gagarin possessed a smile "that lit up the Cold War".[30]
Tributes
There were two commemorative coins issued in the Soviet Union to commemorate 20th and 30th anniversaries of his flight: 1 ruble coin (1981, copper-nickel) and 3 ruble coin (1991, silver). In 2001, to commemorate the 40th anniversary of Gagarin's flight, a series of four coins bearing his likeness was issued in Russia: 2 ruble coin (copper-nickel), 3 ruble coin (silver), 10 ruble coin (brass-copper, nickel), and 100 ruble coin (silver).[31]
In 2008, the Kontinental Hockey League named their championship trophy the Gagarin Cup.[32]
In a 2010 Space Foundation survey, Gagarin was ranked as the #6 most popular space hero, tied with Star Trek's fictional Capt. James T. Kirk.[33]
In January 2011, Armenian airline Armavia named their first Sukhoi Superjet 100 in Gagarin's honour.[34]
From 14 July 2010 to 14 July 2011, a copy of the statue of Gagarin from outside his former school in Lyubertsy has been installed at the Admiralty Arch end of The Mall in London, opposite the permanent sculpture of James Cook.[35]
50th anniversary tributes
A series of tributes around the world coincided with 12 April 2011, the 50th anniversary of Gagarin's journey into outer space.
A film entitled First Orbit was created to mark the 50th anniversary. Footage was shot from the International Space Station, with engineers calculating that every six weeks the ISS crew would get good opportunity to film over the same ground at the same time of day as Gagarin did. The film would be made more authentic by combining the original flight audio to the footage filmed.[36]
On 12 April 2011, Google celebrated Gagarin's feat with a Google Doodle on its global homepage.[37]
Expedition 27 crew aboard the International Space Station sent a special video message to the world to wish them a Happy Yuri's Night on the occasion of the 50th anniversary. The crew, including Commander Dmitry Kondratyev, Flight Engineers Andrey Borisenko, Catherine 'Cady' Coleman, Alexander Samokutyaev, Paolo Nespoli and Ron Garan recorded their greetings in Russian, English and Italian while wearing black Gagarin T-shirts
Gagarin's Soviet Vostok-1 spaceship blasts off in Kazakhstan in 1961 (Picture: AFP/Getty) 
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