BAIKONUR, Kazakhstan - On April 11, 1961, in a small wooden hut in Baikonur cosmodrome, Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin spent the last night before his historical space mission.

"I'm leaving tomorrow, and I don't even believe it myself," he wrote that night.

Half a century has passed since then. On the eve of the 50th anniversary of Gagarin's space flight, posters of the world's first space traveler are seen everywhere in Baikonur, reminding people that this is the place where mankind's dream of space flight became true.