CAIRO, April 12. /TASS/. The space flight of Yuri Gagarin marked a new civilizational leap for humanity, opening a new world and doors to further technological progress, CEO of the Egyptian Space Agency Mohamed El-Koosy said in an interview with TASS Monday as the world celebrates 60 years since the first human space flight took place.

"It has become a major civilizational leap in the history of humanity on all levels," he said. "The Yuri Gagarin flight opened a new world and doors to future technological progress in this direction. Moon landing and later a Mars lunar probe launch happened later. They are all evolution and continuation of what happened on April 12, 1961."

On April 12, the world celebrates Cosmonautics Day. This year, 2021, marks 60 years since Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin’s historic spaceflight. Gagarin who was the first man in space circled the Earth once in his Vostok 1 spacecraft and returned safely, landing in the southeastern part of European Russia.