Video: UAE Marks Anniversary of Gagarin’s Space Flight by Displaying His Image on Burj Khalifa

DOHA (Sputnik) - The United Arab Emirates has celebrated the 60th anniversary of Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin's historic space flight by displaying his image on the tallest building in the world, the Burj Khalifa skyscraper in Dubai, the UAE Space Agency (UAESA) has announced.

"The UAE Space Agency celebrates the 60th anniversary of the first human flight into space on the facade of the Burj Khalifa," UAESA said on Twitter, posting a video of Burj Khalifa with a video short on Gagarin projected on it.

On April 12, 1961, Gagarin pronounced his famous "Poyekhali!" (Let's Go!) as the Vostok spacecraft lifted off the ground, taking the first person ever to space. The anniversary of the first Soviet cosmonaut's flight is celebrated every year in Russia as Cosmonautics Day on April 12, and as International Day of Human Space Flight in the rest of the world.

Ahead of the International Day of Human Space Flight, the UAE announced that Noura Al-Matrooshi had become the first Arab female astronaut, having made it to the UAE's Mohammed Bin Rashid (MBR) Space Centre astronaut program, along with Mohammed Al Mulla.