Cosmonaut Museum

The Cosmonaut Museum was built in 1964 to commemorate the launch of Sputnik twenty years earlier and to celebrate the achievements of Soviet Russia in astronautics. The small museum is housed in the base of the highly impressive 'Conquerors of Space' monument, an enormous silver rocket soaring into the sky on a 100m stream of glistening Titanium. Once you have stopped gawping at this wonderful projection, make your way inside to the museum itself where you will find a fascinating collection of engines, moon-walkers, model satellites and space suits (including that of the legendary Yuri Gargarin!). The depictions of constellations and atmospheric lighting (or lack of it) help recreate an aura of outer space.

"Fantastic old museum. Retro but cool. Fantastic socialist reliefs on the rocket monument outside. Worth the trip north for the Cosmonaut museum"

Larry
United States
May.17.2007
Overall rating 5/5

"Nice museum, in a curious kind of way. A lot of the exhibits are models rather than the real things (presumably because they are 'lost in space'), but still worth the short trip north. Amusingly when we tried to take a photo we were told we had to buy a special pass, but only seconds after we politely demurred, the very same attendant was insisting that we posed for a shot in front of Yuri Gargarin - while she manned the camera! Then she went off and fined an American guy with a cam-corder!!! Must be our English charm.... "

Duncan Rhodes
United Kingdom
Aug.19.2005
Overall rating 4/5