News Soviet space odyssey lands in London

Your opinion after visiting the Soviet space exhibition:

  • This once-in-a-lifetime exhibition is simply awesome.

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Total voters
    15

Soheil_Esy

Fazanavard فضانورد
Joined
Apr 5, 2015
Messages
744
Reaction score
19
Points
18
Story of Russia's early space exploration comes to Science Museum

An unprecedented display of Soviet space artefacts opens at a Science Museum exhibition in London this week.


Open Monday–Sunday. Friday late night opening – last entry 20:45

Open seven days a week, 10.00-18.00. From 18 September 2015 to 13 March 2016. Entry to the Museum is free.

In 1957 Russia launched the world's first artificial satellite, Sputnik, into space and just four years later sent the first ever human – Yuri Gagarin. Discover the dramatic story of how Russia turned the dream of space travel into a reality and became the first nation to explore space in this once-in-a-lifetime exhibition.

Cosmonauts: Birth of the Space Age will reveal the most significant collection of Russian spacecraft and artefacts ever to be shown in the UK, including:

  • Vostok 6: the capsule flown by Valentina Tereshkova, the first ever woman in space
  • Voskhod 1: the capsule used on the first mission to carry more than one crew member
  • LK-3 Lunar Lander: a single cosmonaut craft built to compete with Apollo
  • a collection of gadgets that cosmonauts – and pioneering space dogs – need to live in space, including a shower, toilet, medical instruments and survival kits for crash landings.

Explore the historical, cultural and spiritual context of Russian space travel, shaped especially by the turbulent early decades of the twentieth century. See poignant testimonies and memorabilia belonging to some of the biggest names in spaceflight and discover the deeply personal stories of the pioneers who kick-started the space age.

ImageHandler.ashx


ImageHandler.ashx


ImageHandler.ashx


ImageHandler.ashx


ImageHandler.ashx



http://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/visitmuseum/Plan_your_visit/exhibitions/cosmonauts.aspx


Getting here

Location

Our main entrance is on Exhibition Road in South Kensington, London, SW7 2DD.

The Transport for London website can help you plan your journey by public transport.

By Underground

The nearest tube station is South Kensington. This is on the District, Circle and Piccadilly lines and is a 5 minute walk from the Museum.

A pedestrian subway connects South Kensington station to our main entrance.

Gloucester Road tube station is also on the District, Circle and Piccadilly lines and is a 15 minute walk.

Find out the latest Transport for London tube status updates.

By Bus

Bus routes 14, 49, 70, 74, 345, 360, 414, 430 and C1 stop outside South Kensington Underground Station.

Bus routes 9, 10, 52, 452 and 70 stop outside the Royal Albert Hall on Kensington Gore.

http://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/visitmuseum/getting_here.aspx

Space pioneer Alexei Leonov heralds Cosmonauts Exhibition

Half a century after he risked his life to become the first person to go on a spacewalk, Cosmonaut Alexei Leonov today joined Science Museum Director Ian Blatchford to announce the museum’s most ambitious temporary exhibition to date, Cosmonauts: Birth of the Space Age, supported by BP.

ANDERSON-COSMONAUT-11-520x339.jpg

Cosmonaut Alexei Leonov at the Science Museum for the announcement of the exhibition Cosmonauts: Birth of the Space Age

Tickets are now on sale for the exhibition, which opens on 18 September 2015 and will feature the greatest collection of Soviet spacecraft and artefacts ever assembled in once place, including eight that had to be declassified for this project, to provide a vivid insight into how the Soviet Union kick-started the space age.

Speaking at a news conference this morning at the Science Museum, Leonov told journalists he was convinced the Soviets could also have beaten the U.S. to the first manned orbit of the moon but for the conservatism of those running their highly secretive moon programme following the death in 1966 of Sergei Korolev, the lead rocket engineer and spacecraft designer on the Russian Space Programme.

Leonov told the audience that he and Yuri Gagarin argued for pressing ahead with the manned orbit but were overruled: “Both Yuri and myself went to the Politburo and asked that we go ahead. But our bureaucrats said it was too risky so let us try a sixth (unmanned) probe. And of course it landed a few hundred metres from where it was supposed to….so unfortunately it didn’t work out for me.”

lunar-346x520.jpg

Lunnyi Korabl (Luna Lander), 1969, at the Moscow Aviation Institute, (engineering model) c.

Cosmonauts: Birth of the Space Age will include the monumental five metre tall LK-3 lunar lander that Leonov trained on in Star City. Designed to take a single cosmonaut to the moon, three Soviet lunar landers were tested successfully in space although none ever touched down on the surface of the moon.

Ian Blatchford spoke of the honour of having Alexei Leonov alongside him (see Leonov’s dramatic account of his battle to reenter the spacecraft here) as he announced the “most audacious and complex exhibition in the history of the Science Museum and indeed one of the most ambitious projects ever presented by any great museum”.

He then invited journalists to see the first of 150 objects to arrive from Russia - including Vostok-6, the capsule that carried Valentina Tereshkova, the first woman to travel into space, and safely returned her to Earth in 1963.

The Science Museum Director described how the exhibition will explore a critical moment in the history of humankind, when people first set forth beyond the confines of their home world: “the Russian space programme is one of the great cultural, scientific and engineering achievements of the 20th century.”

Cosmonauts, which has drawn on the help and support of the first generation of Soviet space pioneers, will explore the science and technology of Russian space travel in its cultural and spiritual context, revealing a deep-rooted national yearning for space that was shaped by the turbulent early decades of the 20th century. The exhibition will feature rocket pioneer Konstantin Tsiolkovsky’s extraordinary 1933 drawings of space flight, depicting spacewalks, weightlessness and life in orbit almost thirty years before it became a reality.

Ian Blatchford also thanked all the cosmonauts, partners and funders who have made this exhibition possible. Cosmonauts represents a major collaboration between the Science Museum, the State Museum Exhibition Centre ROSIZO, the Memorial Museum of Cosmonautics and the Federal Space Agency, Roscosmos. The support of many other institutions and individuals in the UK and Russia has also been crucial in the development of the exhibition.

The exhibition opens on 18 September 2015 and will run until 13 March 2016 at the Science Museum in London. The Museum will be open until 10pm every Friday evening during this period to allow visitors more opportunities to see the exhibition.

Cosmonauts: Birth of the Space Age has had additional support from ART RUSSE (Major Funder) and the Blavatnik Family Foundation.


[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BuRN-V5mCFM"]The first teaser of the film "First Time" on the Alexei Leonov Spacewalk, COMING SOON IN 2016 - YouTube[/ame]
The first teaser of the film "First Time" on the flight of Alexey Leonov

http://blog.sciencemuseum.org.uk/in...-alexei-leonov-heralds-cosmonauts-exhibition/

leonov-spacewalk-2-520x377.jpg

Alexei Leonov, In Free Flow (1965). Oil on canvas. Painted by Alexei Leonov and reproduced by permission of the artist.

soyuz-apollo-301x520.jpg

Alexei Leonov, Soyuz-Apollo (1976) oil on canvas. Painted by Alexei Leonov and reproduced by permission of the artist.

Dr-Valentina-Tereshkova-and-Vostok-6-in-the-Cosmonauts-exhibition-c.-Science-Museum-520x339.jpg

Dr Valentina Tereshkova and Vostok 6 in Cosmonauts: Birth of the Space Age

Venera-7-lander-and-parachute-engineering-model-1970-in-the-Cosmonauts-exhibition-%C2%A9-Science-Museum-374x520.jpg

Venera 7 lander and parachute (engineering model, 1970) in Cosmonauts: Birth of the Space Age

Image-2-339x520.jpg

Konstantin Tsiolkovsky. Credit: Archive of Russian Academy of Sciences

TSIOLKOVSKY-11B-380x520.jpg

Drawing by Tsiolkovksy for the film ‘Cosmic Voyage’ showing a cosmonaut exiting a rocket via an airlock, 1932. Credit: Archive of Russian Academy of Science

http://blog.sciencemuseum.org.uk/in...iolkovsky-grandfather-of-soviet-space-travel/
 
Last edited:

PhantomCruiser

Wanderer
Moderator
Tutorial Publisher
Joined
Jan 23, 2009
Messages
5,600
Reaction score
165
Points
153
Location
Cleveland
Doggone it! I'd love to take a close look at this hardware. Maybe, somesay, eventaully the exibit can make it to KSC, or the Marshall site (Huntsville). I've seen a Soyuz at KSC and the Smithsonian, but that lander... She's pretty!
 

Andy44

owner: Oil Creek Astronautix
Addon Developer
Joined
Nov 22, 2007
Messages
7,620
Reaction score
6
Points
113
Location
In the Mid-Atlantic states
This being open into March, a visit is not beyond the realm of possibility.

That photo of Tsiolkovsy is great! I didn't know any existed.
 

Soheil_Esy

Fazanavard فضانورد
Joined
Apr 5, 2015
Messages
744
Reaction score
19
Points
18
This being open into March, a visit is not beyond the realm of possibility.

That photo of Tsiolkovsy is great! I didn't know any existed.

Image-2-339x520.jpg

Konstantin Tsiolkovsky

reeves.jpg

Astrophysicist Hubert Reeves, born July 13, 1932 (could be his son...:lol:)


History repeats itself, first time as tragedy, second time as farce.:rofl:
Karl Marx
 
Last edited:

Cosmic Penguin

Geek Penguin in GTO
News Reporter
Donator
Joined
Jan 27, 2011
Messages
3,672
Reaction score
2
Points
63
Location
Hong Kong
Well I sure would visit, if someone can sponsor me a two way flight ticket from HK to London. :p
 

martins

Orbiter Founder
Orbiter Founder
Joined
Mar 31, 2008
Messages
2,448
Reaction score
462
Points
83
Website
orbit.medphys.ucl.ac.uk
Hm, there seems to be a problem with the logic of the poll at the beginning of this thread:

The last three options are incompatible with the premise (the caption), so the intersection should be empty, i.e. nobody can possibly select these options (although I notice some have ;) )

The first two options are compatible, but they seem to convey the same opinion (positive), although possibly to a different degree, which could be argued over. They are however not mutually exclusive, so could both apply equally (and probably in most cases will).

Ah, it feels good to be a pedant every now and then :lol:

PS: Thanks for giving the heads up about the exhibition! I definitely intend to visit. Luckily, distance and visas are not an issue here.

Edit: I guess you can argue that the last option is not necessarily incompatible with the premise, but is rather a non-sequitur. You can agree with it without having any opinion on the exhibition.

Ok, I'll stop now.

Edit 2: On further reflection, it occurs to me that option 2 is not necessarily positive, but rather depends on your relationship with your friends and family. This poll is more complex than I thought ...

I'll really stop now.
 

Artlav

Aperiodic traveller
Addon Developer
Beta Tester
Joined
Jan 7, 2008
Messages
5,789
Reaction score
778
Points
203
Location
Earth
Website
orbides.org
Preferred Pronouns
she/her
The first teaser of the film "First Time" on the flight of Alexey Leonov
Not sure how good a translation that name is.
The Russian title is, literally, "The time of the first ones". But i can't come up with a short english version that would say the same...
 

TachyonDriver

Donator
Donator
Joined
May 14, 2008
Messages
168
Reaction score
0
Points
0
The UK visa burden is not a pain in the neck. Compared to the States and Australia, our immigration policy and safeguards are simply shocking!

We're only a 600 mile long island, yet it seems the UK is "come one, come all". Such a small island should not have difficulties in defending its borders..

OK I'll stop now... :( :(
 

Soheil_Esy

Fazanavard فضانورد
Joined
Apr 5, 2015
Messages
744
Reaction score
19
Points
18
Well I sure would visit, if someone can sponsor me a two way flight ticket from HK to London. :p

What is your nationality? I am willing to send you a one way HK-Heathrow ticket, and even help you pack!:lol:

The territory's 1,104 km2 make it 179th largest inhabited territory in the world , with a record population density of 6,544/km2.

Such small islands should not have difficulties in defending its borders..

S☫heil_Esy
 
Last edited:

Ravenous

Donator
Donator
Joined
Jul 19, 2013
Messages
275
Reaction score
0
Points
0
Location
sitting at the pointy end
I saw this at the weekend, it's a nice exhibition with plenty of interesting stuff.

I didn't get any photos because the rules were NO PHOTOGRAPHY. Actually I saw a few people taking sneaky pics on their phones, but I had my noisy SLR which I wouldn't get away with :)

There's a moon room containing the tall but very narrow lander (with a tricky looking folding ladder on the side, I couldn't see how it was meant to be opened in gloves) and my highlight of the exhibition was a Lunokhod. (Both of these were engineering models apparently so full size and intact.)

There were scale models of some Luna probes, including a 1/3rd or 1/5th scale model of the sample return version. These were models in stainless steel I think so not "real" but interesting to see the overall look.

Some nice artwork to see too - Leonov's oil painting of himself on the first EVA and his coloured pencils and sketch of a sunrise. Lots of posters, photos and pencil drawings from various people of different eras, some really interesting.

A large room of assorted more modern hardware - the dreaded Mir toilet (don't ask), various suits, kitchen and other living arrangements. There were several instrument panels around the exhibition too. (Wished I could get pics of those, though it turns out there are lots of photos on the net anyway. Not as well designed as Orbiter's MFD panels of course.)

And of course 3 well toasted capsules around the exhibition - a Soyuz, Tereshkova's capsule and another I couldn't remember (from one of Leonov's flights I think.)

So much stuff I wish I'd taken notes...
 
Top