MOSCOW, April 12. /TASS/. A portrait of Yuri Gagarin, the first human in space, was projected onto the facade of Burj Khalifa in Dubai, the tallest building in the world, TASS reports from the site. The Dubai landmark honored Gagarin’s memory on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of his space flight. The event lasted about three minutes.

"Yuri Gagarin’s flight marked a new era in space conquest. There is not a country in the world where the name of our celebrated cosmonaut would not be known. We are very happy that the UAE Space Agency supported the initiative of the Russian side to shine light on the 60th anniversary of the first human space flight in such a beautiful and original way," Russia’s Consul General in Dubai Oleg Fomin told TASS.

"We are very grateful to our Arab partners for this great event, for blessed memory of the heroic feat of our illustrious compatriot and for considerate treatment of his feat. It is a clear mark for us that the UAE is seriously committed to bilateral and mutually beneficial cooperation [in space exploration]," representative of Roscosmos, Russian space agency, to the Persian Gulf Anatoly Krasnikov pointed out.

The tower’s facade lights up in honor of various holidays and anniversaries. For example, Burj Khalifa donned the colors of the Russian flag on June 12, 2020 on the occasion of Russia Day.

The tower does not display images of people often. In November though, shortly after Diego Maradona's death, the portrait of the Argentinian football superstar decorated the landmark's facade, which was largely done because he worked as a coach in the UAE in 2011-2012 and 2017-2018.

Burj Khalifa was opened in 2010. It is 828 meters tall. It has been the tallest building with the most floors in the world. It has 163 floors.

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.