Messages from space - Gagarin celebration at MOSI

We had a brilliant time yesterday. We were making and launching rockets with the museum's fabulous presenters and 'sending' messages to and from space at MOSI, all in celebration of Yuri Gagarin, the first man in space 50 years ago. Kids were asked to write messages that they would send back to Earth if they were the first person in space. Here are our favourites...

Festival Director, Natalie Ireland, making rockets.

"I have reached the moon. Let's get cake when I come back."



"Hello Mum. You are the Jupiter in my solar sytem. XXX"



"In the future we may discover bacterial life on Europa. Please can I be alive to see that."

 Check out the rest of the photos on our Flickr group. Thanks to everyone who came along and participated. We had over 200 messages and they were all fantastic!

50th anniversary of Yuri Gargarin's flight into space

It’s been three weeks since our last post, so here’s some epic history to make up for our absence.

Yuri Gagarin was the first man in space when he lauched from Kazakstan on April 12th 1961, and this month we’ll be honouring the 50th anniversary of this mission by taking part in a nationwide day of rocket launching - Rockets for Yuri. Come and make rockets and send them off into the sky with us at the Museum of Science and Industry. We'll be there between 11-1pm and 2-4pm but there will be other activities, including Planetarium shows, at the museum throughout the day. Check out the Festival website for details.

After orbiting the earth and returning safely, Gagarin promptly commenced a world tour. This included a visit to Manchester and Trafford three months after his flight and we’ve managed to uncover some photos of this appearance. 



Gagarin on Chester Road, near the Manchester United football ground.

Taken by Bill Wilcox, an amateur photographer, working for Smith's Autos on Chester Road in Stretford.






Gagarin greets the crowds in Manchester



Yuri Gagarin and Bernard Lovell