To my gleeful amazement, I unexpectedly ran across Gagarin’s Vostok-1 capsule yesterday!
I was out wandering in Moscow and at the VDNKh exhibition center I discovered a newly opened museum “Cosmos”. It turns out to be a big new Space Technology museum. And sitting in the lobby was the original Gagarin Vostok-1 capsule. Oh wow! I’ve been trying to visit this for years and I was really pleased to finally and unexpectedly see it!
The Vostok-1 capsule is normally kept at the restricted-access RSC Energia Museum, which until recently was closed to foreigners. I am amazed that the Cosmos Museum guys managed to pry the Vostok-1 capsule away from RSC Energia, who normally guard it like a particularly suspicious mother bear with its favorite cub.
By an odd coincidence, I had finally managed to arrange a private visit to the RSC Energia Museum today (for a princely 580 Euros). Here they explained, rather grumpily, that the Vostok-1 capsule was on a temporary loan to the new Cosomos museum and they were expecting it back imminently, if not sooner.
Even with Vostok-1 away, the RSC Energia Museum has lots of other good stuff, including:
- The Vostok-style capsule that had been used for Belka and Strelka. This Vostok-style capsule had held a smaller capsule with the two dogs. After re-entry, the smaller capsule with the dogs was ejected, just as a human cosmonaut would be before the main capsule landed. Both the larger and smaller capsules landed safely. The RSC Energia exhibit includes both the larger capsule and the in-situ dog capsule. My guide assured me that both are the originals.
- Another similar dogs-in-space Vostok-style capsule.
- The Vostok-6 capsule of Valentina Tereshkova, the first woman in space.
- A three-crew Vostok variant, the Voskhod-1(1964).
- The Voskhod-2, which had been used with 2 crew and an airlock for the first space walk.
- The Soyuz-3 capsule, the first successful Soyuz mission.
- No less than five other Soyuz capsules, including the capsule used in the Soyuz-Apollo mission.
So a total of five Vostok style capsules and six Soyuz capsules!
I very much enjoyed the RSC Energia tour, even without Vostok 1.
Finally, note that Moscow now has three Cosmonautics museums:
- The new Cosmos Museum inside VDNKh. This is a good large museum, but almost all the exhibits are mockups or replicas. The Vostok-1 is only there temporarily.
- The older Museum of Cosmonautics, just outside VDNKh. This is mostly replicas, but has a few original pieces, notably two Soyuz capsules and Michael Collin’s Apollo-11 spacesuit.
- The restricted-access RSC Energia Museum out at Korolev City, which has many original capsules.