"Zvezda" Museum

Thursday 16th June

A tour of the Zvezda Museum

	At just after 16:30 our guide took us down stairs to a basement museum commemorating some of the companies contributions to the Soviet space program.

The KP-B-3A ejection seat for the Vostok spacecraft. The pilot sat in an aircraft-type ejection seat with a parachute and communications equipment. Small rockets at its base could propel the seat through a circular hatch in the module in case of emergency.

	A Vostok spacecraft, with entry hatch on the right and on the left I think is the parachute compartment.

A look inside the spacecraft. It looks like the single ejection seat has been replaced by fixed seating for two suited cosmonauts, making this a Vostok 3KD (Voshkod) from 1965.

	I'm not sure what this odd looking device is, but the Vostok 3KD had an inflatable airlock added to it to allow one cosmonaut to exit for a spacewalk, so if I had to guess I would say this might be something like that.

I think these are "Kazbek" shock absorbing seats for "Soyuz" spacecraft, allowing more cosmonauts to be carried in the same size capsule.

	Next we are introduced to Zvezda's Krechet (tame falcon) Soviet Lunar Extravehicular Activity Spacesuit, designed for the Soviet manned lunar program.

A closeup of the instrumentation on the fold out panel of the Krechet suit. If you want to know what all the controls do, there is a key here

	A perfect fit..

One of the innovative features introduced by this suit is that rather than putting it on you enter through a rear door. This is possible because of the semi-rigid design with a hard shell torso and flexible arms and legs.

	A cosmonaut's eye view through the visor.

Next we move on to some intra-vehicular attire, for use when working inside a spacecraft or space-station.

	The odd looking suit with the bulky red bottom section is the Penguin suit, one of the counter measures garments used to mittigate the effects of prolonged exposure to microgravity. It was by Salyut and Mir cosmonauts aboard Russian space stations to provide pressure and tension to the lower limbs. This helped prevent deterioration of the body in zero-gravity.

Is it just me, or is there a Wallace and Grommit connection here?...

	He's wearing the wrong trousers...

Next there were cabinets containing the spacesuits belonging to a number of famous soviet cosmonauts. This is the SK-1 space suit worn by Yuri Gagarin in the historic Vostok 1 first manned flight into space. The orange coverall was apparently to provide contrast after a snowy landing.

	This looks like another Vostok era suit, I think belonging to Valentina Tereshokova.. Appart from the boots it is almost indistinguishable from the previous one.

Alexi Leonov's space suit - I think it is a modified Vostok Sokol space suit called a Berkut worn on the Voskhod 2 flight. In front would be the metal backpack which was a simple open-cycle environmental control system containing Oxygen used for both breathing and cooling.

	Another Berkut, this time in EVA configuration including the outer garment which was shown separately in the previous picture.

Space Dogs

A photograph of space dogs Laika, Chernooshka, Strelka and Belka, in front of a Soviet space-dog capsule.

	The full-pressure space suits with life support systems and ejection sledges for Space Dog test lights.

Belka("Squirrel")and Strelka("Little Arrow") were launched into space on board Sputnik 5 on August 19, 1960. They were accompanied on their historic flight by 40 mice, 2 rats and a number of plants. Belka and Strelka were safely recovered after spending a day in orbit. Strelka eventually gave birth to a litter of 6 healthy puppies, one of which was given to President Kennedy as a gift.

	Can't imagine anyone relaxing with a newspaper while using these hygiene facilities.

Marisa test flies a SPK/YMK Manned Manuevering Unit.

	At 17:22 it was almost time to leave, so there was just time for Caroline to do some last minute ejection seat testing..

Ulf doing his Top Gun impression.

Return to my Home Page