THEY WON THE SPACE RACE ON DAY ONE

Soyuz crew to blast off and mark 60 years of spaceflight

The anniversary of Yuri Gagarin's historic flight on April 12, 1961 is celebrated every year in Russia as Cosmonautics Day Natalia KOLESNIKOVA AFP

Almaty (Kazakhstan) (AFP)

A three-man crew will blast off to the International Space Station on Friday in a capsule honouring the 60th anniversary of Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin becoming the first person in space.

Reminders of Gagarin's achievement were everywhere at the Russia-operated Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan as Roscosmos cosmonauts Oleg Novitsky and Pyotr Dubrov and NASA astronaut Mark Vande Hei prepared for their half-year mission aboard the orbital lab.

The Soyuz MS-18 spacecraft that the trio take off in at 0742 GMT has been named after the legendary cosmonaut and Gagarin's portrait has been added to its exterior


Gagarin also came up more than once in the traditional pre-flight press conference, where the crew was asked how they planned to mark Monday's anniversary once in space.

"We'll celebrate it together," said 43-year-old Dubrov, who is flying to space for the first time. "And we'll work hard!"

The anniversary of Gagarin's historic flight on April 12, 1961 is celebrated every year in Russia as Cosmonautics Day.

Friday's blast-off will be from a different launchpad than the one used for Gagarin's one and only mission, which saw him spend 108 minutes in orbit.