The exhibition follows five years of planning and talks with museums and the Russian space industry. When the Soviet Union launched Vostok 6 in 1963, cosmonaut Tereshkova exclaimed, “Hey sky, take off your hat, I’m on my way!” the BBC reports.
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Curator Doug Millard described the drama: “She noticed the orientation of her craft was way out and told mission control that if it wasn’t fixed, when she applied the brakes to start her descent it would do the opposite and fire her into a higher orbit – where she would undoubtedly die”.
“The exhibition demonstrates the essentiality and interest factor that space and ground people’s works have on humanity”, says Tereshkova.
“Cosmonauts can keep their word like men and women – particularly women”.
The disclosure is inconsistent with what the Soviet pioneer at the time, Nikita Khrushchev, said in a discourse at Red Square whilst remaining alongside Valentina Tereshkova on her arrival from space.
Tereshkova, now 78, became a global celebrity in the 1960s – and was reunited with her craft the Vostok-6 which comes complete with the scorched remains of its heat shield. “It creates the possibility to think about future cooperation between our scientists [and] our young people who want to fly into space”. She orbited Earth 48 times before safely returning three days later.
Another of the exhibition’s featured relics is the 16-foot-tall (5 m) LK-3 lunar lander. Kept secret for two decades, this lunar lander was declassified especially for “Cosmonauts”, according to the museum.
The turning point came in 1969 when United States astronaut Neil Armstrong became the first man to walk on the moon.
“Londoners, visitors to the museum, will be able to see it all as it happened in our country [and] see it with their own eyes”, said Leonov during a visit to the Science Museum in May. Other items on display include space toilet, fridge, shower, dog ejector seat and some Soviet space posters.
“Birth of the Space Age” is billed as the greatest exhibition of Soviet spacecraft and artefacts ever to be seen outside Russian Federation .
The exhibition opens for the public on September 18, 2015 and will continue until March 13, 2016. Tickets run £14 (about $22) for adults; children under 7 are free of charge.
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The exhibition is dedicated to Soviet exploration of the outer space.
