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This thing is just amazingly cool and clever. I am curious if this was a critical piece of capsule instrumentation or more of an onboard backup? I have no idea how Russian space missions are run so it’s not clear to me how much is done at their equivalent of ground control vs. what is done on board.

In particular I am wondering about that landing mode.

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At least on the early Soviet space missions, the cosmonauts had almost no control by default and most of the control was by onboard sequencing. The controls were actually locked with a combination lock. The Globus was more of a backup. The landing mode feature wasn't added until 1967.

Based on the book "Beyond" (Walker) about the early Soviet space program and Yuri Gagarin. A very interesting book and I recommend it.

It is custom made for each spacecraft, since it can only rotate on the planned flight path. I think it's a good guide for the astronaut where they are in the globe and the globe also have markers of communication tower they can contact.

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