%0 Journal Article
%T The Cosmonauts challenge
%A Ian Blatchford
%A Natalia Sidlina
%D 2015
%V 
%N Autumn 2015
%K CCCP
%K Cosmonauts
%K Gagarin
%K Korolev
%K Leonov
%K RKK Energia
%K Roscosmos
%K Rosizo
%K Russia
%K Soviet Union
%K space technology
%K Sputnik
%K Tereshkova
%K Titov
%K Tsiolkovsky
%K USSR
%K Voskhod
%K Vostok
%X Focusing on the experience of working with Russia’s cultural, industrial and political sectors, this paper investigates how the development of new contacts and partnerships has contributed not only to the loan of material of historic significance to the Science Museum’s exhibition, but more broadly changes perceptions about Russia and its space programme in the western world. Addressing the multiple challenges involved – legal, political and security, among others – it reveals the importance of many of the space objects themselves as well as demonstrating how the Science Museum has helped to maintain a dialogue with Russia even during the most testing times.
In September 2015 the Science Museum opened the most ambitious special exhibition it had ever undertaken: Cosmonauts: birth of the space age. Whilst the creation of a ‘blockbuster’ exhibition might be the normal expectation of a great art museum, the fact that a science museum should undertake such an endeavour is equally worthy of comment, and this article seeks to illustrate the exceptional curatorial, museological, logistical, legal and political hurdles that this project had to overcome. Indeed, they would astonish even the grandest and most experienced of the international art museums. Art museums are delighted when they can display the acclaimed works of Monet, but even the most valuable paintings cannot be said to be have been official state secrets in the way that so much Russian space technology has been.
The curatorial team kept its nerve because of a compelling sense that while the project delivery was high stress, the intellectual rewards would be considerable, and especially the opportunity to present a story of human endeavour in which cultural and scientific excellence are so intertwined. When the project team started out they could never have anticipated that they would be seeking to deliver an audacious exhibition set against a background of very serious strains in the UK-Russia relationship. In the end, they learned a great deal about Russia itself and the importance of sustaining cultural dialogue.
%Z Collection information file SCM/1991/0642

%Z Two highlight exhibits of the Science Museum’s Space Gallery, the Moon rock (from the Apollo 15 1971 mission) and the Apollo 10 command module (1969) are on long-term loan from the NASA’s Johnson Space Centre and the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum, respectively.

%Z In 2013 the statue found its permanent place by the Prime Meridian at the Royal Observatory at Greenwich. See http://www.rmg.co.uk/royal-observatory/astronomy-and-time-galleries/gagarin-statue

%Z S.P. Korolev Rocket and Space Corporation, or Energia (as it is known now), was founded in 1946 as Special Design Bureau No. 1 or OKB to carry responsibility for the Soviet space programme.

%Z Since 28 June 2015 the record is held by Gennady Padalka, with the total of 879 days.

%Z Collections information file SCM/2014/1010: Cosmonauts: birth of the space age: Creative Team: Stage 2 tender

%Z The first Venera mission to impact the planet was the 1966 Venera 3.

%Z Letter from Mr Romanov, Director General of the closed joint-stock company ‘Experimental engineering plant of RKK Energia’ to Dr Shevtsov, MAI, 1 September 2014 ref. 56/425-Ts

%Z Letter from Dr Shevtsov, MAI to Ms Zelfira Tregulova, Rosizo, 25 December 2014, ref. 601-16-131

%Z Letter from Mr Kaganov, Deputy Minister of Education and Science to Ms Milovzorova, Deputy Minister of Culture, 25 June 2014, ref. VK-1322/16

%Z From 2011 to mid-2015 the Proton launcher alone experienced seven major failures, including the Proton-M rocket carrying Glonass navigation system satellites in June 2013 and Russian and Mexican communications satellites in May 2014 and May 2015 respectively. In addition, a Soyuz launcher failure in April 2015 caused the loss of a Progress cargo ship – an unmanned spacecraft delivering supplies to the ISS. See: http://uk.businessinsider.com/back-to-back-rocket-launch-failures-just-dealt-russia-a-heavy-blow-2015-5?r=US&IR=T (accessed on 24 August 2015)

%Z Since 2011 we communicated with three Heads of Roscosmos, first with Vladimir Popovkin, then from October 2013 with Oleg Ostapenko, on whose watch the corporation was divided into two administrative bodies, and from January 2015 with Igor Komarov, who most likely will see Roscosmos through its transformation into a new structure, the State Corporation ‘Roscosmos’ later this year.

%Z On 13 May 1946 Stalin signed an order of the Soviet of Ministers of the USSR ‘Concerning Reactive Armament’ thus marking the beginning of the Soviet space programme.

%Z On the history of organisations and enterprises of the space industry see Rocket and space era, 2009, pp 34–185.

%Z Aleksandr Shevchenko, head of Exhibitions department, RKK Energia, conversation with.

%Z Full list could be found on the Arts Council England website: ULR
http://www.artscouncil.org.uk/what-we-do/supporting-museums/cultural-property/protecting-cultural-objects/immunity-seizure/ (accessed on 12 January 2015)

%Z The list of approved museums and links to the museums’ published information on loans for current and upcoming exhibitions is publicly available on the Arts Council website.

%I The Science Museum Group
%@ 2054-5770
%B eng
%U https://journal.sciencemuseum.ac.uk/article/the-cosmonauts-challenge/
%J Science Museum Group Journal