Gagarin statue unveiled in London
July 14th, 2011 - 9:53 pm ICT by IANSLondon, July 14 (IANS/RIA Novosti) A statue of the world’s first man in space, Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin, was unveiled Thursday in London, Russian Space Agency Roscosmos said.
The monument is located near the British Council headquarters on The Mall.
Roscosmos chief Vladimir Popovkin thanked British authorities for choosing London as a place for erecting the monument.
“It was he who led the way to space,” Popovkin said.
Russia and Britain have designated this year the Year of Space, commemorating the 50th anniversary of Gagarin’s flight into space in 1961.
The London statue is a copy of the monument to Gagarin in Lyubertsy near Moscow where the cosmonaut went to vocational school.
Gagarin visited London in July 1961, three months after his legendary flight, and met then British prime minister Harold Macmillan and Queen Elizabeth II.
–IANS/RIA Novosti
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