Vienna, Oct 8 (IANS): A sculpture of late Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin was presented to the UN office here Friday to celebrate "50 Years of Human Spaceflight", the theme of the World Space Week 2011.
The space week is observed every year Oct 4-10 following its declaration by the 55th UN General Assembly on Dec 6, 1999.
In 1961, Gagarin completed an orbit around the Earth aboard the Vostok 1 spacecraft, serving as a pioneer of human spaceflight.
The sculpture is a gift from the Russian government and would be placed at the Permanent Exhibit of the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA), Xinhua reported.
"Outer space is one of the most exciting and challenging topics, and perhaps of all the important topics on the agenda of the United Nations, none quite captures our imagination like outer space," Mazlan Othman, director of UNOOSA, said in a statement.