Key to launch!
During the interactive part of the exposition in the Museum of History of Gagarin’s Start Governor Sergey Antufiev turned «the key to launch». In that way he opened a unique exhibition. More than 15 000 exhibits had been collected for this event: materials of building of The Baikonur Cosmodrome, of selection and preparation of the first group of cosmonauts, of works that had made a great contribution in the development and making of the space system «Vostok» and of up-to-date manned space exploration - photographs, documents, household goods, history of machinery, publications, special technical literature.
The exposition represented the rocket engine «RD-108» just like the one on the spacecraft «Vostok», the altitude chamber for preparation of the first group of cosmonauts, original control panels that were used at the first space launch with a man aboard.
«There are plenty of museums in the world dedicated to the developing of space but this is the only one of its kind. This is a unique museum», - emphasized Sergey Antufiev at the commencement meeting. «It is situated in the homeland of Gagarin. Any other museum can be dedicated to cosmonautics, victories of science and engineering but it won’t be the Museum of the Start. It won’t tell how the mankind and our compatriot Yuri Gagarin had been preparing for the Start».
The developing of the new exposition of the Museum of the Start is provided by the «Plan of principal events dedicated to the 50th anniversary of Gagarin’s Start» approved by the Government of the Russian Federation on March, 2010. The Museum of Gagarin’s Start is a part of the United Memorial museum for Yuri Alekseevich Gagarin. More than 10 million rubles were assigned from the regional budget for the developing of the exposition.