Just three months earlier, Gagarin had orbited the Earth aboard the Vostok 1 spacecraft, and the scientific community, especially the Soviet community, could begin, with his mission, a series of studies on the cosmos.

On that occasion, he was invited to the island to celebrate the eighth anniversary of July 26, National Rebelliousness Day in Cuba.

At Havana’s Revolution Square, then-President Osvaldo Dorticos granted Playa Giron Order, an award that is bestowed upon Cuban or foreign citizens with a remarkable fight against imperialism or who have performed great feats for peace and the progress of humanity.

“The Soviet Union was covered in glory and prestige by launching the first man into space, when the United States government launched its criminal invasion against our people,” Prime Minister Fidel Castro said then.

Gagarin expressed his gratitude for the recognition and foretold that “the time would come when these people would send their cosmonaut into space.”

Some years later, Cuban Arnaldo Tamayo reached space on September 18, 1980, on a crew alongside Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Romanenko.

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