Top 10 Facts about Memorial Museum of Cosmonautics in Moscow

Every 3rd of our guests asks us to include Museum of Cosmonautics into their tour in Moscow.

April 12 is Cosmonautics Day – or International Day of Human Space Flight. And if Cosmonautics is not in your Moscow bucket list yet, then you’re better change your bucket list, as Russian Cosmonautics has something to impress you with!

Moscow Memorial Museum of Cosmonautics

Why: To feel the era of space race

When: All year round

Fun Facts:

1. Museum of Cosmonautics in Moscow is one of the largest science and technology museums in the world.

2. The history of the museum began in the second half of the XX century, with building a 107 m titanium obelisk ‘To the Conquerors of Space’ in 1964, the seventh anniversary of the launch of the first satellite.

3. The exposition of the Space Museum was opened to the public on April 10, 1981, in the 20th anniversary of the world’s first manned space flight. The museum presented the first achievements of Soviet Space: first spacesuits, first artificial satellite, as well as the spacecraft to study the moon and the planets of the solar system.

4. In 2009, the museum was opened after reconstruction (2006-2009.). The area of the exhibition space was increased by four times.

5. Nowadays modern exposition of the museum consists of eight exhibition halls, cinema (for 98 persons) and conference rooms (for 130 people). The museum’s collection includes more than 93,000 items: samples of rocket and space technology, real relics, documents, philately, numismatics, decorative and applied art collection of paintings and graphics.

6. In 2009 opened the hall with space simulators, so where you can test your space capabilities. One more cool and fun thing to do in Moscow!

7. Modern exhibition consists of the following rooms:

The morning of the space age
Creators of the Space Age
Space House in orbit
Studies of the Moon and the planets of the solar system
Space – humanity
International cooperation in space
The International Space Park (cosmic states of the world, aerospace industry of Russia)
The history and culture of the space age
The Geography of the Exhibition: Russia, CIS countries, UK, USA, India, Australia, Mongolia, Germany, Spain, France, China.

Memorial Museum of Cosmonautics. Photo: dorogimira.livejournal.com

8. The first ever spacewalk made Soviet cosmonaut Alexei Leonov on March 18, 1965. His free floating in space lasted 12 minutes 9 seconds. The Exhibition for the 50th anniversary of the first spacewalk by Leonov opened at the Museum of Cosmonautics on March 19, 2015. (up to September 6, 2015)

9. One more exhibition – “Our home – Earth!” presents retrospective photos by cosmonaut Fyodor Yurchikhin (December 1, 2014-1 December 1, 2015)

“Our home – Earth!” – These are the words that all cosmonauts say after they see our home planet from afar, beautiful, vulnerable and alone in the vast space. This image forever changes their ideas about themselves, the world and our place in the universe. And now, these photos share with us the great idea of the Earth as our common home.

158 photographs of the exhibition are all unique shots of terrestrial and lunar surface, rare natural phenomena, cities and technical facilities in the world – all this is reflected in the images taken from the orbit of the International Space Station.

10. October 2, 2014 Space Museum presented the exhibition “The point of your life …”, which is about the life story of the people bound by a common dream of space. (up to 31 December 2015).

The lives of seven Chief Engineers at Baikonur are chronologically shown in the photographs: from a little boy – to the great engineer. The exhibition “The point of your life” is about the difficult fate of prominent scientists, complex scientific and engineering problems and achievements in the field of space exploration.

Don’t miss a fantastic Cosmonautics experience on a city tour St Petersburg as well!.