1 The Gagarin museum is located in the historic centre of the cosmodrome, not far from the launch pad #1 from where Sputnik and Gagarin were launched. This launch pad is still active. It is an old fashion museum, full of documents, photographs, models and space equipment.
2 Drawings from Arkadiy Tiourin who worked on the cosmodrome. Unfortunately photographed with bad lighting.
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5 In the foreground, mock-ups of the "Gagarin" and "Korolev" houses. A bit further, a space capsule for a rabbit. Above, a Sputnik mock-up (in Russian Sputnik means satellite).
6 The Vostok capsule ejection seat used for the first spaceflight. During these flights, the cosmonauts ejected at high altitude to descend by parachute.
7 In the foreground, the ejection seat, in the background the control panel of the first manned flight
8 Soyuz, in service since 1967 and still used to serve the international space station. Cosmonaut Vladimir Kamarov, perished during the maiden flight in April 1967.
9 Inside of a Soyuz capsule
10 I have no clue about the origin of this plate..
11 The Gagarin House Beside the museum are located the so-called "Gagarin" and "Korolev" houses. Gagarin spent the night before the launch in the first house, with the back-up cosmonaut Titov. By tradition the next cosmonauts also spent their "last" night in this house. The house is very small and has only three rooms: a living room, a bedroom and a medical office.
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13 The room where Gagarin spent the night before the launch, with the back-up cosmonaut Titov (there is another bed on the opposite side!). It was only on the morning of the launch day (April 12, 1961) that Gagarin was chosen to be the first cosmonaut.
14 Living room of the "Gagarin" house.
15 The “Korolev” house, Identical to the “Gagarin” one.
Korolev is the father of the rocket that carried Gagarin into space. He lived here from 1956 to 1965. At the time, the trip from the city of Baikonur to the assembly and launch sites took several hours. It is quite impressive that he could live here so long in such harsh conditions (+45˚C in summer and -35˚C in winter). This was maybe facilitated by his many years’ experience in the Gulag and the likely return there in case of failure. This is his office with the telephone directly connected to the Kremlin.
