I‘ve been two days and three nights in Moscow staying in the Antihostel Cosmic, where you sleep in small capsule with at least 8 other people in same room, everyone in his own capsule. All of the #AlexTweetup people already arrived and we have been exploring the space side of Moscow. Btw. Moscow is certainly a trip worth, even if you not space interested, so many beautiful, old, aristocratic buildings. Lots of history & culture and very helpful people.

Buran @ Gorki Park with some of #AlexTweetup group

On Saturday morning we went to Gorki park to see the Russian shuttle Buran. The Russian shuttle program was not successful, the Buran flew only once unmanned. The Buran in Gorki park is a early prototype test system (no able to fly) and underneath it you can rent bicycles.

Olivia at the Korolev city sign

In the afternoon we went to Korolev, a city nearby Moscow, named in 1996 after the Great Russian rocket engineer Sergei Korolev. Before that it was called Kaliningrad. We went to the city museum where we got a good impression about the history of the city and don‘t be surprised if you get a guided tour in a Russian museum, the guide will only talk in Russian ;-)
The city has a history of production of anti-tank and air-defense guns. During World War 2 they had to move the whole artillery plant by train to a safer place. After World War 2 the industry changed to produce rockets and launch vehicles and is still doing. One of the biggest space industries RKK Energia is still there.
So in the museum we did not only see a lot of historic documents and old weapons, well in the backyard there were 2 Soyuz capsules just lying there. The guide told us, they don‘t have door big enough to put them inside. Well this is how things work in Russia.

This is a flown Soyuz rocket in the backyard of the city museum in Korolev.

In the evening we had the privilege to enjoy a barbeque at a housing area, where lots of houses belonged to cosmonauts and engineers. Our host Anton is also the son of the engineer who designed the Apollo-Soyuz docking system. You can imagine that we heard a lot of interesting stories that evening. I‘m wondering what it was like during the late 1950‚s and 1960‚s to live and work in Korolev. Must have been exciting times, exploring new frontiers, launching humans into space and dreaming of going to the moon.

#AlexTweetup group listening to Anton and his interesting stories.