A Short History of the Museum

"Go always ahead, without stopping - ahead. The Universe belongs to Humanity !" (Tsiolkovsky-April 8,1930. From a letter.).

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The Konstantin E.Tsiolkovsky State Museum of The History of Cosmonautics, was opened on October 3,1967. It was the first museum in the world devoted to the history of space exploration. Sergey P. Korolev, "The Chief Designer" of Soviet space programs, played a major role in establishing the museum.

The special project for the design and construction of the museum's building was designed by the group of architects Boris G. Barkhin, Evgeniy I. Kireev, Nataliya G. Orlova, Valentin A. Strogy, and Kirill D. Fomin. They later received the State Prize for this job. Semen A. Semenov and Yury I. Antonov designed the museum's exposition.

Yury A. Gagarin, the Earth's first cosmonaut, laid the cornerstone of the future museum on June 13, 1961. In the museum's building there are the Main Exibition Hall, two halls with the main exposition and the Planetarium. The museum's complex also includes The Open Air Exposition with R-7 Booster and the Memorial House - Museum of Konstantin E.Tsiolkovsky.