Military Academy of Strategic Rocket Forces located in Moscow is one of the best institutes of higher military and technical education and a large research institute in Russia.

Today, its museum opened its doors, so let’s go in!

The building where the academy is situated, is the largest building built before the revolution (it’s 379 m long) and an architectural monument of the 18th – the 19th century.

The museum of the academy tells its visitors about the history of the academy and its employees and graduates.

A rockets control panel.

These keys had to be turned synchronously by two officers.

A giant globe.

In the academy, there is a large collection of literature a lot of museums ‘would kill for’. The oldest book here is ‘About Military Service’ and it was published in 1484! The collection also has the first book on military science which was released in 1649.

In the background there is a combustion chamber of the first Soviet ballistic rocket.

This calculation device was made in the 60s.

The guide.

A nuclear explosive detonating fuse. Without it, a nuclear bomb turns into radioactive trash.

Experimental laser guns designed to be used in space (against aliens) where regular guns can’t be applied.

In the space department, there are a lot of exhibits which are still prohibited from photographing.

On the ceiling you see a copy of the first artificial satellite launched by the USSR in 1957.

Under the satellite, there is a ‘Soyuz’ space ship. The first docking of space ships happened in 1969 (‘Soyuz-4’ and ‘Soyuz-5’) and this is what the cosmonauts saw when they opened the manhole.

This is a space ‘bathroom’.

Those green balls on the reconnaissance ship are mini engines which are used for turning the ship around and the violet window is a photographic camera.

Space cameras’ film is 0.5 m wide!

At first, to receive the shots, they had to bring the ship down to earth. Now, they use digital cameras and there is no such necessity anymore.

This is a real reconnaissance satellite which worked for the Soviet Union and after that made a safe landing. The empty space down there was for explosives which were to destroy the tape in case the satellite was captured by the enemy.

‘Do not touch! Fatally dangerous!’

Solar batteries.

This satellite launched in 1964 allowed people of Vladivostok to watch Brezhnev on TV.

This satellite preserved some space dust on it.

This is the equipment from capsules in which astronauts land on earth. Each seat is made individually for each astronaut.

This is the control panel Yury Gagarin worked on.

The upper buttons on the left were made to protect the ship from astronauts in case they went crazy in space (becasue they didn’t know for sure how space affects the human).

A window opening the view of the Earth.

A tank with pressed xenon.

Location: Moscow

via mmet