Yuri Gagarin statue to take up residence at Royal Observatory

http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2012/oct/03/yuri-gagarin-statue-royal-observatory

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A statue of Yuri Gagarin, the Russian astronaut who in April 1961 became the first man to look down on Earth from outer space, is to find a permanent home in London at the Royal Observatory in Greenwich.

The statue was a gift to the people of Britain from Roscosmos, the Russian federal space agency, to mark the 50th anniversary of manned space flight.

It was given temporary planning permission for a site on the Mall, and was unveiled there by his daughter Elena Gagarina 50 years to the day after cheering crowds gathered to greet the hero on 14 July 1961. The astronaut had been on his way to Buckingham Palace to meet the Queen, a highlight of a visit to Britain twice extended when the wild enthusiasm of the crowds at every stop overwhelmed the government's original modest plans.

Gagarina said her father had remembered the warmth of the crowds for the rest of his life. In Manchester thousands of people waited for hours in pouring rain for his arrival: the astronaut insisted on the roof of his car being opened, saying "if all those people are getting wet to welcome me, surely the least I can do is get wet too".

The statue, showing Gagarin in his spacesuit standing on the globe, is a copy of one by Anatoly Vovikov originally commissioned by the small Russian town of Lyubertsky, where the young Gagarin trained as a foundry worker.

To his anguish, Gagarin was too precious to Soviet propaganda ever to be allowed into space again. He died seven years later in a MiG fighter jet training flight crash, in circumstances that are still debated.

At Greenwich he will stand at the prime meridian of the world, a site whose importance in the history of astronomy has won it world heritage status. Subject to planning permission, the British Council, which brought the statue to London, and the Royal Museums Greenwich plan to unveil it in its new home on 9 March next year, which would have been Gagarin's 79th birthday.