November 15, 2024
Space museum extraordinaire – with an 18+ twist at the end.
It’s been ages since the last time I wrote about outer space – too long; for space is cool far out!…
Exploration of extraterrestrial space in any form, manned or not – plus cosmonautics, astrophysics and telescopes at the top of volcanoes, it’s all extremely important for the whole of mankind – and fantastically interesting for the individual (for example, me). So when I was invited to the Museum of Cosmonautics in Moscow, I immediately accepted…
But before I get to describing the museum, I need to ask a question and issue a warning. The question is: What’s the connection between this space object and… Playboy magazine?!
And I warn you that my words here at the end will be in the 18+ category. Not that there’s anything risqué about the exposition itself – to which you can go with children. It’s just that my comments in this post are adult-rated. Ok, proviso out the way – let’s get to the museum!…
So, why the Museum of Cosmonautics? Simple. We’ve just formally announced our strategic partnership with this museum – one of the largest science-and-technology museums in Russia, and one of the most popular museums in Moscow. And we’ve got many plans – including scientific, educational and cultural projects. And, of course, we’ll help the museum with its digital security.
Space is just… cosmic! (sorry for the pun.) It’s not only an endless frontier – the cutting edge of scientific knowledge and technical capabilities; it’s not only a mysterious wonder to most earthlings; it’s not only the expansion of horizons and the plumbing of the depths of fundamental science; it’s not only about useful trickle-down items for everyone – like Velcro sneakers (this and many other technologies were first tested in space projects); and it’s not only the answer to the ultimate question of life, the universe and everything: “where is everybody?”. Space is also the history of the exploration of the cosmos.
And that history can be plunged into in the Museum of Cosmonautics…
The museum’s exhibits can be divided into four categories:
(i) Objects that have been in space, or personal belongings of the most prominent cosmonauts and designers of space equipment;
(ii) Duplicates of spacecraft (where two or more identical craft were created – but only one flew into space);
(iii) Exact replicas that didn’t participate in space programs (neither on the ground, nor in space);
(iv) scale models.
I can’t recall which exhibits belong to which category – so you’ll just have to guess when checking out these pics…
Yuri Gagarin’s landing module! ->
Alexei Leonov exited this here capsule to complete the first ever spacewalk! ->
Soviet Lunar program exhibits:
This reached the moon! ->
And so on…
This is an interesting story, which I’ve heard different versions of…
A famous French winemaker said he’d give a thousand bottles of expensive champagne (according to another version – only one case) to whomever could show him the dark side of the moon. And a while later – the Luna-3 mission did just that!
The Frenchman followed through with his promise, but since the identities of all the engineers were strictly classified, he sent his gift to the USSR Academy of Sciences, and from there it was transferred to the bureau for spacecraft development; however, according to one version of events, only one bottle reached the cosmonauts. And here’s that very bottle! ->
Personal effects of Sergei Korolev – the lead Soviet rocket designer:
Korolev personally named all the Soviet spacecraft – and, for some reason unknown to me, they all began with the letter V (Vostok, Vulkan…) ->
Space-themed funny wall newspapers:
A scale model of the Mir space station (whose copy sits in Star City) ->
Inside: WC, Sleeping quarters, treadmill! ->
Dinner table! ->
More Luna program ->
To the question: “Did the Americans walk on the moon?” the answer came back categorically: da!
And so on and so forth…
Mir:
Plenty of genuine landing modules that clearly were used for purpose:
Also here: Sputnik-1 (the first ever satellite), Belka and Strelka’s landing pod (and Belka and Strelka themselves – stuffed!), Michael Collins’ (Apollo 11) spacesuit, and a whole lot more…
Then there’s this…
And the reason for the androgyny? Neither the Soviets nor the Americans wanted to be the “female” of the docking systems of the two spacecraft; they insisted on being the “male”! That’s how the legend goes anyway. More likely it was needed to be able to link up the dissimilar Soviet earth-air and US pure-oxygen breathing systems!
Talk of “female-male”, and who’s going to be… inserting, and who… receiving, soon enough caught the attention of Playboy magazine. So when it wanted to depict its imagined cosmic Kama Sutra in its own inimitable way, well – this was the result ->
You see the “CCCP” on his gloves – and red, white and blue on her boots? This made Playboy readers think the Soviets had taken the lead in the space race (even though the Americans had already made it to the moon years before!). See – told you it’d be 18+ (note: a copy of the Playboy illustration isn’t featured in the museum:)…
Btw: can you guess the year? It’s at the end* of this post (no peeking!)…
More space:
I once dreamed of becoming a space tourist – but, alas, I didn’t pass the physical (. Still, I reckon that’s my only “mission impossible”. And anyway – that doesn’t stop me having plenty of still-to-do “mission possibles”!…
* 1975!
