Today marks the 50th anniversary of a most historic and memorable event in the history of mankind as it was on this day, 27-year old Russian cosmonaut Yuri Alekseyevich Gagarin boarded the spacecraft Vosttok-I and made a single orbit around the earth in an epic 108-minute flight and became the first human to enter into space triggering the take off of the Space Age and the revolutionizing of the space industry.
It was indeed a remarkable and amazing feat of bravery, bearing in mind that there was no previous experience to fall back on and death was a certain possibility. It was also truly a scientific, technological and engineering marvel. However, it was not surprising that a Russian achieved this feat because the then Soviet Union recognising the huge impact of space exploration, research on global scientific and technological and economic development placed tremendous emphasis on this area of human endeavour. In fact, Russia and the Soviet Union have a rich and proud history in the field of rocketry and space technology. Konstantin Eduardovich Tsiolkovsky (17 September 1857– 19 September 1935) was an Imperial Russian and Soviet rocket scientist and pioneer of the astronautic theory. Along with the German Hermann Oberth and the American Robert H. Goddard, he is considered to be one of the founding fathers of rocketry and astronautics. His works later inspired leading Soviet rocket engineers such as Sergey Korolyov and Valentin Glushko and contributed to the early success of the Soviet space programme.
Inspired by the fiction of Jules Verne, Tsiolkovsky theorized many aspects of space travel and rocket propulsion. He is considered the father of spaceflight and the first man to conceive the space elevator, becoming inspired in 1895 by the newly-constructed Eiffel Tower in Paris.
Tsiolkovsky was also an adherent of philosopher Nikolai Fyodorov, and believed that colonizing space would lead to the perfection of the human race, with immortality and a carefree existence.
Nearly deaf, Tsiolkovsky worked as a high school mathematics teacher until retiring in 1920. Only from the mid 1920s onwards was the importance of his work acknowledged by others, and Tsiolkovsky was honoured for it. He died on 19 September 1935 in Kaluga and was buried in state.
It was therefore not surprising that the former Soviet Union not only sent the first human into space, but also launched the first satellite-Sputnik I in 1957 and the first inter-continental ballistic missile-R-7. In that same year as well the Soviets sent the first animal into space-the dog Laika.
Since those days numerous impressive records have been made in space exploration and technology. With the collapse of the Soviet Union, Russia is continuing an aggressive and massive space programme.
The achievements of the Soviet Union, which led the world in space technology, triggered a space race with its Cold War adversary the United States which worked feverishly to catch up.
This was a race which was beneficial to mankind as it catalysed scientific and technological development and advancement and resulted in tremendous benefits to other fields of scientific endeavour including medicine, climatology, engineering etc.
Today, many products which consumers enjoy are actually by-products of the space industry and mankind would forever be grateful  to Yuri Gagarin for being the pioneer of a fantastic field of human endeavour. His love for mankind and commitment to space research and development were reflected in his words: “I could have gone on flying through space forever. I see earth! It is so beautiful! “