WIKIARCHIVES.SPACE

Dr. George M. Low, acting administrator of NASA, presented to the USSR on January 21, 1971, a plaque in memory of Soviet Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin who made the first flight into space on April 12, 1961. Accepting the plaque at the Moscow ceremony was Soviet Gen. Kuznetsov, commander of the USSR's Star City space base, where cosmonauts have been training since 1960. Gagarin, who made history with his 1 hour and 48 minute flight, lost his life in a training accident on March 27, 1968.