21st century cosmonautics

This year saw the 50th anniversary of Yurii Gagarin’s famous spaceflight, which opened the epoch of human exploration of space. Over the time that has passed since that day, cosmonautics has leaped way ahead, and Russia, along with the United States, has made a decisive contribution to progress in this field. The epochmaking event in the history of our science and technology, which affected the development of all humanity, was at the center of discussion at the RAS Presidium’s visiting meeting at the Energiya Rocket and Space Corporation (city of Korolev) on April 13, 2011. We introduce the presentations from this meeting to our readers.