News about Yuri Gagarin

With two US astronauts - Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams - unable to leave the ISS until February next year, MailOnline has volunteered to replicate ISS life down here on Earth, kitted out in UK Space Agency gear. The trapped space travellers were only due to be on the space station for eight days, but ongoing issues with Boeing's Starliner capsule mean they could be there for the best part of a year.

The Baikonur Cosmodrome, which is rented by Russia, is located deep within Kazakhstan's desert steppe. It is a restricted area and guarded closely by security teams from Russia's Ministry of Internal Affairs. Baikonur was the world's first space launch facility and today is still used to send Putin 's astronauts to and from the International Space Station. But the mysterious space base is also home to restricted areas that house a treasure trove of decommissioned Soviet-era spacecraft and tech. A Frenchman died this week of apparent of dehydration after illegally entering the territory and spending at least three days hiding from law enforcement.

The 25-year-old Frenchman died from dehydration on Monday, according to Russia's RIA news service citing an anonymous official at Baikonur. A second French citizen, 27, who accompanied the deceased is now reportedly in custody. The cosmodrome, which is rented by Russia, is a restricted area and guarded closely by security teams from Russia's Ministry of Internal Affairs - although tours are sold for those who want to witness a spacecraft launch. The enormous facility is located deep within Kazakhstan's desert steppe, more than 20 miles away from the nearest town after which the spaceport is named. Temperatures at the cosmodrome are fluctuating between 33 and 39 degrees C this week. Guards at Baikonur are intermittently forced to contend with daring explorers desperate to sneak into restricted areas and access a treasure trove of decommissioned Soviet-era spacecraft and tech still residing there (bottom right).

In a recent video shot in Moscow today, the Russian president can be seen standing on a stage surrounded by a choir. Both on and off stage, the teenagers were yelling 'Russia' over and over again. Eventually, one of the choir's onstage girls began singing the national anthem while Putin held his microphone toward her, and hundreds of people followed in. The Russian president began to sing as he awkwardly as he muttered the words off-key. As the performance ended, he continued to give the microphone to various members of the youth choir and even hugged two of them.

Following the crash of the Luna-25 spacecraft into the Moon's surface, a top astronomer who worked on Russia's failed space mission was admitted to the hospital. Following the disaster, Mikhail Marov, 90, who had been billed as a key consultant to the mission, suffered a'sharp deterioration' in his health. During Russia's first lunar mission in 47 years, the Luna-25 unmanned space vessel spiralled out of control and crashed into the lunar surface on 19 August. Marov's health condition arose after he ordered an inquiry into the expedition's demise. The mission's demise has been blamed on endemic mismanagement within the country's space ministry.

Roskosmos, Russia's state space corporation, reported that it had lost touch with the craft shortly after a disaster was reported shortly after it was shaken into a pre-landing orbit on Saturday. 'The device soared into an unstable orbit and died as a result of a collision with the Moon's surface,' Roskosmos said in a tweet.' Moscow had earlier reported a "abnormality" with the craft (left and right). 'During the operation, an unusual occurrence occurred on board the automatic station, which did not allow the manoeuvre to be carried out with the specified parameters,' the department said in a tweet.' Failure of the prestige mission highlights Russia's space power's decline since the Cold War era, when Moscow was the first to launch a satellite to orbit the Earth in 1957 - Sputnik 1, 1957 - and Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first man to fly into space in 1961. When the craft was built, a small village (top right) had to be evacuated due to fears of rubble falling on it.

Brown, a naval test pilot of remarkable talent and dedication, flew more hours (well over 6,000) than any other pilot in 487 different planes and helicopters, a record that will never be beaten. His nerves of steel and limitless courage in World War II, as well as his service as a senior test pilot, will never be forgotten. It was an incredibly varied and full life. He had a seemingly insatisible appetite for risk, and as an indefatigable senior aviator with the Fleet Air Arm, he helped to produce planes and aircraft carriers that were vital to winning the war. He was a brilliant pilot and a shrew of highly uneven landings on the narrow deck of aircraft carriers (he now holds the world record for the most landings), and he was, if you like, Britain's very own Top Gun.

TOM UTLEY: One of my few lasting regrets is that I didn't keep up with my childhood library of historically important journals, chronicling the most significant events of my life as they occurred. If I was born in the year of the last Coronation, it might have developed into a rich archive of the New Elizabethan Age that has influenced the lives of my children and grandchildren. If I recall correctly, the first newspaper I kept chronicled the first human space flight by Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin in 1961, when I was not eight years old. Among the rare items in my collection were books relating the Cuban missile crisis of 1962, J. F. Kennedy's assassination in 1963, Sir Winston Churchill's death and burial in 1965, England's World Cup win in 1966, and the Apollo 11 moon landing in 1969. I also bought special editions, including those from Angus Ogilvy's 1963 wedding to Princess Alexandra of Kent, the granddaughter of George V and Queen Mary, which were also kept special editions.

CAINER: Mercury's connection with a tense Neptune means that listening, with empathy, to the words' meanings gives insight and understanding. Yuri Gagarin became the first person to see Earth from space 62 years ago today. He experienced the 'overview effect': a state of awe is seeing our planet from a slew of political divisions. We don't have to fly on a rocket to understand the importance of rising above discord.

On a November night in 1989, two weeks after the Berlin Wall's fall, seven people hurriedly but ostensibly toward the border between Romania and Hungary. The frozen furrows of a ploughed field crackled underfoot. They heard barking in the distance from nearby villages. The temperature had plummeted so low that the cold was a real threat, but it wasn't the only one. The seven people were embarking on their lives' most treacherous journey: they were going to cross a hardline communist state to another that was in the process of revolting and transforming itself.

Despite the late Duke of Edinburgh's service as a dependable, competent pilot, then Prime Minister Harold Macmillan was summoned to consult on safety issues. Prince Philip obtained his wings in 1953, his helicopter wings in 1956, and his private pilot's license in 1959. He lived for 5,986 hours in 59 different aircraft during his lifetime. According to the National Archives, Mr Macmillan accepted a series of rules concerning the date of the Duke's solo flights in light aircraft. Prince Philip captains a flight to El Asnam, Algeria, in 1954, clockwise; Yuri Gagarin, a Soviet cosmonaut, meets prime minister Harold Macmillan at RAF White Waltham, Berkshire, where he trained for his 'wings,'; and David Cameron arrives from a Harvard Trainer plane in May 1956; and Peter Scott looks on in May 1957.

Queen Elizabeth's message was etched on a small disc that was carried by the Apollo 11 crew to the moon in 1969 and was left on the lunar surface. The queen's complete message reads: "I salute the British people's skills and courage that brought man to the moon.' May this project contribute to humanity's growing understanding and well-being. The Queen also spoke with Michael Collins, Neil Armstrong, and Buzz Aldrin three months after they returned to Earth.

Nasa's space shuttle flight has come to an end: Nasa will need to ask Russia for a lift to the Space Station from now on. In an America too broke to go after the Moon, live reports on the ghosts left behind.