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Published: November 20th 2014
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We set foot in Moscow on a crisp, cloudless evening, the cold winds driving away any lingering thoughts of our long journey. Dressed in bulky jackets, a few people fumbled for cameras as we waited for the shuttle that would take us from the airport to the city. Most of the class had made the journey as the trip coincided with our university’s spring break, but winter still reigned in Russia.
One of the perks of studying at a space university is being granted access to the facilities of national space agencies. In this case, it was to visit the premises of the one of the oldest and most successful space agencies – the Russian Federal Space Agency. Having grown up reading the stories of the space race, of Sputnik and Gagarin, we could hardly contain our excitement as we stepped into Energia (now S.P. Korolev Rocket & Space Corporation) corporation’s private collection. In their museum’s huge building were housed life-sized models of every craft launched during the soviet era and after, including the first man-made satellite Sputnik, the first (unmanned craft) to visit the moon, the first to carry a living being into space (Laika, the dog) and so
many more. One in particular brought the tour to a standstill.
In a corner of the museum, under the stairs, lay a slightly discolored brown, spherical capsule with a glass front. The only noticeable feature, that hinted at a more adventurous past, was the peeling and exposed layer of material at the back of the capsule. It was the descent module that had carried the first human being, Yuri Gagarin, into space and brought him back safely. Seeing it intact, lying there within arm’s reach (we were allowed to touch it!), sent chills through the body. Incredibly nondescript to the uninitiated, this marvel of engineering led to events that triggered the space race between USSR and USA. It is thus, indirectly responsible for so many of today’s technological advancements. A certificate next to it proudly pronounced the capsule’s originality. Also next to it was the original capsule that had carried the first woman into space, Valentina Tereshkova.
A prolonged photo session later, we marched into the Glory hall containing a wealth of documents and souvenirs. There were rows upon rows of shelves stocked with medals and patches commemorating every mission. Among the glittering racks, my eye was caught
by the lone Indian flag in the hall, fashioned for the joint Indo-Soviet mission that took the only Indian till date, Rakesh Sharma, into space.
Next day, we travelled 25 km to the east of Moscow to the aptly named Star City. It is the common name for the Gagarin cosmonaut training facility, one of very few in the world that trains humans to go into space. Our guide, one of the senior staff at the center, took us to the centrifuge room. A device that can produce extreme g-forces similar to what might be encountered during spaceflight, a centrifuge is an indispensable part of astronaut training. The Guinness records list the 18 meter long TsF-18 Centrifuge in Star City as the largest in the world used for human training. During the trip, we were lucky to spot astronauts who were being trained for their mission to the International Space Station. Unfortunately, we were not allowed to approach them for photos or autographs as they were in the middle of a critical test.
Moscow is also home to the immensely vast museum of cosmonautics, where we spent the better part of a day. Beginning with the early era
of space missions, the museum explains the development of rocketry and space flight under the Soviet Union and its continuation under the Russian regime, right up to the current missions to the International Space Station. It even has the original space suit worn by Apollo astronaut Michael Collins, which was donated by NASA.
A little known piece of space history is hidden in plain sight in the city. In Gorky park, a mainstream tourist location, a prototype of the Russian space shuttle is parked in a public space. In a tale of unfortunate timing, the Soviet Union broke up right around the time their shuttle program was taking off. The program did not survive the subsequent budget cuts and was later abandoned. This model is one of the few reminders of that endeavor.
We had a few more days to take a look around the city. But nothing else could recreate the highs of our first couple of days.
(For details on the Energia museum, visit
http://www.energia.ru/en/corporation/museum.html .)
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