Cosmonauts Day was established in the former Soviet Union (U.S.S.R.) in April 9, 1962. Just a year earlier, on April 12, 1961, 27-year-old Russian cosmonaut Yuri Alekseevich Gagarin made one complete orbit around the Earth aboard his spacecraft Vostok 1. He was also the first human to fly in space.

At that time, Gagarin (1934-1968) become an international hero. He was awarded the highest Soviet honor by Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev: the title of Hero of Soviet Union. Gagarin died on March 27, 1968 while on a training flight.

On Cosmonauts Day—sometimes also called Cosmonautics Day—a ceremonial visit to Gagarin’s statue starts in the city of Korolyov. Participants then walk to Gagarin’s grave in the Kremlin Wall Necropolis. The festivities proceed to Cosmonauts Alley and ends at the Novodevichy Cemetery.

This year a special celebration will occur on the space station. Participating in the celebration are ISS Expedition 15 commander Fyodor Yurchikhin and flight engineer Oleg Kotov, both of Russia’s Federal Space Agency, They just arrived at the station on April 9. ISS Expedition 14 U.S. commander Michael Lopez-Alegria, Russian flight engineer Mikhail Tyurin, and U.S. flight engineer Sunita Williams are also on the space station.

Bringing the food for the celebration is billionaire spaceflight participant and U.S. software developer Charles Simonyi, who also arrived with Yurchikhin and Kotov. The six-course meal was a gift from his girlfriend Martha Stewart who provided such delicacies as quail roasted in Madrian wine, duck breast confit with capers, shredded chicken parmentier, apple fondant pieces, rice pudding with candied fruit, and semolina cake with dried apricots.

Yurchikhin said recently in a NASA interview (as quoted in Space.com): “John Glenn, Neil Armstrong, Yuri Gagarin, [Valentina] Tereshkova, those were my heroes, the heroes of my time. I remember the time and I know I wanted to be a cosmonaut since I was very little…so for me it was not a question to debate whether I wanted to be a cosmonaut or not.”

Later, Yurchikhin adds, “It’s a good fate for us, because we hope that on our greatest holy day in space, the Cosmonautics Day …when Yuri Gagarin had his historic first flight human’s first flight in space, we will be on ISS,”  [Space.com]

Yurchikhin also mentioned that NASA’s first space shuttle flight occurred on April 12 in 1981. He added, “It’s like, now, a twice holiday for us.” [Space.com] STS-1 involved Space Shuttle Columbia, which was commanded by John W. Young and piloted by Robert Crippen. The two men orbited the Earth 36 times in the 54.5-hour mission. They returned to the Earth on April 14.

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