Soviet spacecraft have landed in London's Science Museum for the largest exhibition of Russian space travel ever shown in the UK. "For many years we felt that Soviet and Russian space exploration was under-represented in the museum," says Doug Millard, deputy keeper of technologies and engineering at the museum. "We had some American rockets and British rockets, but nothing from Russia."
The display pieces have been transported from 18 locations, from military bases to aeronautical schools. Russia's space contractor Energia currently owns the most notable items - the Sputnik 3 engineering model and the Vostok 6 and Voskhod 1 capsules. These are from the era when the USSR achieved record after record (first satellite: Sputnik; first dog: Laika; first human: Yuri Gagarin), before being overtaken by the US.
According to Millard, this record-chasing mindset contributed to the Soviet space programme's decline. "They persevered using quite primitive spacecraft in order to grab many firsts, while the Americans were developing the Gemini [human spaceflight project], which was far more sophisticated," he says.
The stripped-down approach was behind some bold engineering choices, such as the landing system of Voskhod 1 (parachutes and retrorockets), designed because the craft was too small to have ejector seats. "In the mid 60s the Soviet programme ran out of money and became disorganised," Millard says. WIRED takes a nostalgic tour of its coolest relics.
SOYUZ TM
Launched in 1992 as the first space mission after the USSR's collapse the previous year, Soyuz TM-14 was designed to ferry cosmonauts to the Mir space station, and later to the International Space Station. The last Soyuz TM mission launched in 2002, but its successors are still shuttling astronauts of all nationalities around. "Soyuz is currently the only way to reach the ISS," Millard says. "It's the key to the station." Soyuz TM-14 - which took on a bronze colour after re-entering the Earth's atmosphere - was designed for three people. Its space positioning system is an analogue clockwork globe, which determined location by radar and radio waves.
LUNOKHOD
In 1970 and again in 1973, the USSR launched two unmanned Lunokhod ("moonwalker") rovers (pictured above). The solar-powered vehicles gathered data and carried out tests on the Moon's surface. They're still there; this is a model. The rovers were intended as part of Russia's secret manned lunar programme (aborted in 1970). "They were emergency vehicles to get cosmonauts from the Moon lander to a backup craft elsewhere on the Moon," says Millard. The Lunokhod also included a polonium-210 radioactive source to generate heat. "Important during the lunar night," Millard says.
SPUTNIK 3
The engineering model shows what the Sputnik 1 could have looked like. The actual craft, which in 1957 became the first satellite, was a backup solution put together to replace this more conical version. "The rocket to launch it wasn't quite ready," explains Millard. "So, in six months [chief USSR rocket scientist] Sergei Korolev and his team designed what we know as Sputnik 1, which was much smaller and simpler." This rejected predecessor eventually made it to space in May 1958, as Sputnik 3. Heavily equipped to research Earth's geophysical properties, it orbited for almost two years.
Cosmonauts is on display _at the_Science Museum in London from September 18.
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
