Astronautics and Aviation Center

The Exhibition of Achievements of National Economy (VDNH), consisting of many different pavilions, is a renowned masterpiece of Soviet architecture. Looking at this multicolored eclectic ensemble, you can't help but notice the Cosmos Pavilion and the circus with the “Vostok” rocket in front of it. The building was erected in 1934–58, but it was only in 1964 that a display of cosmonautics – the major achievement of the Soviet economy – was established there.

The renovated Cosmos Pavilion was opened to the public in 2018. Its display, which is located under the high arches, looks tremendous, and the vast space of a single hall has room for lots of huge exhibits. However, there are plenty of small devices, compact satellites, models of cosmodromes and rockets on display.

Here you can see the Almaz military orbital station with a reusable landing vehicle, the history’s most powerful RD-170 rocket engine, fragments of MAKS (a rocket airplane to be launched from an airplane; it was never launched in production) and the largest handful of moon soil in Russia.

Moscow
119 Mira Ave., VDNH, Industrial Square, Pavilion No. 34 “Cosmos”, Moscow
Web site: cosmos.vdnh.ru

life-size model of the “Mir” Space Station

VDNH metro station – bus No. 533, exit at the Matrimonial Palace stop