UNESCO Celebrates the Fiftieth Anniversary of the First Manned Mission to Space

Alan Shepard in capsule aboard Freedom 7 before launch—1961 (NASA photo)

Fish-eye view of the Space Shuttle Atlantis as seen from the Russian Mir space station during the STS-71 mission. (NASA photo)

1961 was a critical year in the history of space exploration.  Russian Cosmonaut Yuri Alekseyevich Gagarin became the first human to venture into space on April 12th and was followed by American Astronaut Alan Shepard on May 5th.  1961 was also the year that President John F. Kennedy made his historic speech to Congress, in which he challenged the nation to land "a man on the Moon and return him safely to Earth" before the end of the decade. 

To commemorate the 50^th anniversary of the first human journey into space, UNESCO hosted a series of events on April 21, 2011, designed to celebrate and encourage the "peaceful uses of outer space".  The events were organized by the Melody for Dialogue among Civilizations Association and the Permanent Delegation of the Russian Federation to UNESCO, in collaboration with the UNESCO Secretariat and the Permanent Delegations of the United States of America, the Federal Republic of Nigeria and Germany to UNESCO.

Iraqi-American Thomas Cuhane, founder of Solar CITIES, and Cynda Collins-Arsenult, President and Co-Founder of the Secure World Foundation, participated in an International Forum on the present state and future potential of space exploration.  An exhibition entitled "Reaching Out to the Stars" was also organized, with the support of NASA and the Hubble Space Telescope Science Institute. The celebration culminated in a special "Astro Ballet", a marriage of art and technology set to music by American composer, Andrew Kaiser, and featuring a group of multi-national dancers including American dancer, Nicola Ayoub.  The event aimed to give culture a special role in encouraging the peaceful uses of space technology.