Elsewhere in the exhibit is Soyuz TM-14 capsule from a mission to Mir in the early 1990s. Sitting next to each other demonstrates that Voskhod 1 was no bigger than Vostok 6, yet crammed seats for three people inside. Sitting next to each other are the capsules for Vostok 6, flown by the first woman in space, Valentina Tereshkova and Voskhod 1, the first mission to carry three people in space.
There is also space-flown hardware in the exhibit. The level of detail visible, like cabling running along the vehicle’s exterior, makes it clear that this is not a model or low-fidelity mockup, but something close to actual flight hardware-hardware, though, that never flew as the Soviet Moon program stalled and was eventually cancelled. The lander, five meters tall, was designed to accommodate a single cosmonaut to land on the Moon and lift off again. The centerpiece of the display is, ironically, a piece of hardware that never flew in space: an engineering model of the LK-3, the Soviet equivalent of NASA’s Lunar Module. The Vostok 6 descent capsule, flown by Valentina Tereshkova. “Cosmonauts: Birth of the Space Age” is advertised by the museum as the “most significant collection of Russian spacecraft and artifacts ever to be shown in the UK.” In fact, it may be the most significant collection ever shown outside of Russia, including some rare items never before placed on public display from the early history of the Soviet human spaceflight program. However, there’s still a lot of space history treasures that remain largely out of view, which makes a new exhibit at London’s Science Museum so intriguing. A few Soyuz capsules have made their way to the West, including some bought by the space tourists who flew back from the ISS in them. Russian and Soviet-era human spaceflight hardware, by contrast, is harder to find. The exhibit is advertised by the museum as the “most significant collection of Russian spacecraft and artifacts ever to be shown in the UK.” In fact, it may be the most significant collection ever shown outside of Russia. Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo spacecraft, and now the Space Shuttle orbiters, can be seen in major museums like the National Air and Space Museum and NASA visitor centers, as well as smaller museums: Gemini 6, for example, is at the Oklahoma History Center in Oklahoma City. The history of American human spaceflight is on wide display throughout the country, and in some cases beyond.
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