Article: Uncertainty Plagues NASA at 50th Anniversary of Human SpaceflightClara Moskowitz, SPACE.com Senior WriterDate: 12 April 2011 Time: 06:00 AM ET
It's a banner day for space exploration today (April 12), as the era of human spaceflight marks its 50th anniversary while NASA celebrates its own 30th anniversary of the first space shuttle flight.
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By coincidence ( :):):) - Alex~1), NASA's first shuttle launch blasted off 20 years after the very first human spaceflight, the liftoff of Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin on his Vostok 1 spacecraft.
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"It’s a wonderful coincidence that [the first shuttle flight] also coincided with the 50th anniversary of the first human in space," said current space station flight engineer Ron Garan of NASA. "We're going to celebrate in probably the best place you possibly can — that's on orbit, looking at our beautiful planet."