On April 23, the “Cosmic Heritage” exhibition—featuring authentic artifacts from Russia’s aerospace industry—opened its doors at Samara Railway Station. This cultural and educational initiative marks the 65th anniversary of Yuri Gagarin’s historic first manned spaceflight, celebrating humanity’s enduring journey beyond Earth.
The exhibition showcases rare space hardware generously provided by leading industrial enterprises: JSC “Progress Rocket Space Centre,” PJSC “UEC-Kuznetsov,” and Samara University.
Visitors can explore full-scale models of iconic launch vehicles, including the Soyuz-2—currently ferrying cosmonauts to the International Space Station—as well as the next-generation Soyuz-5, the legendary Molniya, and the pioneering Vostok rocket that carried Gagarin into orbit. Also on display are models of Earth observation satellites Aist-2D and Resurs-P. A highlight of the exhibition is the celebrated reconstruction titled “Formula of Flight,” dedicated to the 80th anniversary of the Kuznetsov Design Bureau.
Samara University contributed a distinctive segment of the exhibit, featuring scale models of small spacecraft from the AIST family, including the AIST-ST radar observation satellite launched in 2025. The university’s display also includes functional components for gas turbine engines and nanosatellites produced via selective laser melting, alongside operational solid-fuel rocket models developed by the student design bureau RocketLAV.
The university’s exhibition section was curated by the Congress and Exhibition Activities Department under the leadership of Olga Kalashnikova.
The “Cosmic Heritage” exhibition will remain open to the public at Samara Railway Station through August 2026, offering travelers and residents alike a unique window into Russia’s rich aerospace legacy—and its bold vision for the future of space exploration.
