Soyuz crew blasts off; marking 60 years of spaceflight

Almaty, Kazakhstan (AFP) April 9, 2021

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 prepare