Museum and Exhibition Center of Cosmic Samara

With more than a million inhabitants, Samara is a large industrial city with a rich history located on the Volga river, a thousand kilometers away from Moscow. Samara is proud of its numerous space technology plants, the best-known of which is “Progress” which has been building “R-7” family rockets since the late 1950s, including Gagarin's “Vostok” and the modern “Soyuz” spaceship. Closer to the center of Samara, there is the 68 meter-high “Soyuz” rocket, which used to serve as a training stand at the Plesetsk Military Cosmodrome (the Arkhangelsk Region) from 1984 until 2001. Nowadays, similar missiles are launched from the Baikonur, Vostochny and French Guiana cosmodromes.

In 2007, a museum was opened next to the rocket. The single hall of the museum displays space technology from Samara, ranging from rocket engines to biological satellites. Of particular interest is an interactive stand with the rocket’s “anatomy”, showing the manufacturers which made each of its components: each rocket is a product of dozens of factories across the country. All displays are equipped with interactive panels for tours.

Samara Oblast
21 Lenina Str., Samara
Web site: samaracosmos.ru

The “NK-33” engine designed for the “N1’ was a Soviet super heavy rocket that was intended to take cosmonauts to the Moon. A total of 38 engines were supposed to be installed on its 5 tiers.

the museum is accessible by public transport from the Rossiyskaya metro station, the railway station, the river Station and the central bus station