Soviet Space Museum

Went to the Russian Space Museum this weekend. A terrific museum project in all regards. They first planted a sweeping 30 story tall titanium obelisk on top of a little knoll back in 1964, adding a glorius titanium rocket at the end of it, and then some 20 years later buried a giant museum underneath it to celebrate their achievements in astronautic and aeronautical engineering, which certainly they have many of.

Curious timing on my part to be in the Russian Space Museum during the USA's 40th anniversary of landing on the moon. Leave it to say that the Russians are also very proud of their own many "Firsts" in pioneering space exploration - a list of achievements that is indeed very numerous and impressive in their own right:
* 1957: First satellite, Sputnik 1 (which was launched just a little over one year after both the USA and USSR announced intentions to send satellites to space).
* 1959: First probe to impact the Moon (and images of moons far side), Luna 2 & 3
* 1960: First probe launched to Mars, Marsnik 1
* 1961: First person in space and Earth orbit's, Yuri Gagarin on Vostok 1
* 1963: First woman in space, Valentina Tereshkova, Vostok 6
* 1965: First probe to hit another planet (Venus), Venera 3
* 1967: First unmanned rendezvous and docking, Cosmos 186/Cosmos 188. (Until 2006, this was their only major space achievement that the US had not fully duplicated.)
* 1970: First samples automatically returned to Earth from another body, Luna 16
* 1971: First space station, Salyut 1
* 1971: First probe to orbit AND reach another planet (Mars), Mars 2
* 1975: First probe to orbit Venus, first photos from surface of Venus, Venera 9
* 1986: First permanently manned space station, MIR, lasting from 1986 until 2001