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The Museum of Soviet Space Travel

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87 pointsrayascott24 comments

I’ve always been impressed with their successful rescue mission of Salyut 7[0]. And of Salyut program in general [1]. There is also a pretty good Russian dramatized movie about Salyut 7 rescue[2].

[0] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salyut_7 [1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salyut_programme [2] https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/salyut_7

movie is pretty good, but it has so much fictional elements, it probably should've been called something else.

Many people in Russian think it was unique and never heard about a very similar Skylab rescue mission, although in that case, Skylab overheated while Salyut froze.

FWIW the Kansas Cosmosphere supposedly has the most extensive Soviet space collection outside of Russia. So if you are driving across on I-70, it’s definitely worth a diversion.

The rumor is the stuff was on tour in the USA in the 90’s with some scientists, during which the Soviet Union fell apart, and they sold all of it.

I don't know if there was only one tour or multiples, but I do remember going to see the display in Little Rock. This was 1995 or 1996.

The display was interesting. There was the hardware mixed with some very fanciful paintings of cosmonauts by a Russian artist. The paintings were in a flat style, almost like Orthodox icons, and featured several scenes of cosmonauts with halos descending from heaven like angels into villages where the peasants were awestruck.

If this description reminds anyone of the artist, please let me know. These paintings have haunted my memories for the past 20+ years but I cannot find the artist. Even asked in groups and subreddits specializing in imaginary astronaut / cosmonaut art but no one's ever seen it nor knows the artist.

This sounds almost similar to the exhibit at the Museum of Jurassic Technology on Nikolai Fyodorov?

Maybe this?

https://soviet-art.ru/yuri-gagarin-in-soviet-palekh-lacquer-...

Thanks for linking, but that's not the one I'm trying to remember. It is, however, very beautiful. I have a book of those prints.

Would you tell me details of that book please -- it sounds interesting.

If you're in southern California, the slightly surreal Museum of Jurassic Technology in Culver City has an exhibit called The "Lives of Perfect Creatures: Dogs of the Soviet Space Program" (a reference to a Tsiolkovsky quote)

I have a lot of appreciation for the Soviet space program (this might be my favorite space story ever [0]) but it never ceases to amaze me how absolutely hideous Soviet architecture was. The concrete buildings are absolutely soulless.

[0] https://arstechnica.com/science/2014/09/the-little-known-sov...

Brutalist architecture has a charm all of its own :-)

Yes in a few cases it does. The DC subway is my favorite example.

Weird. I've always hated how the Metro stations look. They've always felt like a bad science fiction scene to me.

One of the things that might not be obvious is besides being examples of 1970s concrete brutalism, the waffled arched ceilings in the Metro are meant to evoke the similar waffled ceiling of DC's historic Union Station (which in turn are a reference to ancient Roman architecture). So you can pretend you are living in a world where Rome didn't fall while waiting for a train (not sure if that's better than bad SF).

And was common world wide in the 70s, my hometown (in a “western” country) has lots of it. I wonder if it’s particularly associated with the Soviet Union because it fell by the end of the 80s?

It is called Bauhaus style. And is in fact applied everywhere now but with more glass.

What is that last thing [1]? Surely that’s where Fallout got its inspiration for the eyebot?

[1] https://main-designyoutrust.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/upload...

Edit: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sputnik_1

Looks like Sputnik, the first satellite.

It's actually Luna, not Sputnik: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luna_1

Briljant angles, compositions, and colors in these photographs.

Is it accurate to say this is the Russian equivalent of the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum? If not, what would be? I'll put it on my bucket list.

I think the Museum of Cosmonautics in Moscow near VDNKh would fit that better. I'm very biased as I've been dozens of times due to it being free to students and conveniently located to where I lived in Moscow, but it's massive and directly under a huge monument to the space program, plus the park around it is full of dedications and smaller monuments to various figures in the program.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memorial_Museum_of_Cosmonautic... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cosmonauts_Alley

This. I was surprised article doesn't mention it but its just an amazing place to visit. The so-called "Monument to the Conquerors of Space" is unlike anything you may ever encounter elsewhere and that itself is worth a visit. You cannot possibly stand under that monument and not admire the massive courage, perseverance and ambition of these trail blazers. This monument is so huge that its hard to even capture in single frame and if you manage to do somehow, photos don't convey its full magnificence.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monument_to_the_Conquerors_of_...

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