The Museum of Cosmonautics in Moscow is the city’s best space stop: it sits right beneath the huge titanium obelisk of the Monument to the Conquerors of Space, just as you step out of VDNKh metro station. It opens every day except Monday and admission costs 490 rubles (around €6), paid at the box office, in cash and in rubles. In a couple of hours you’ll see real descent capsules, spacesuits and even the dogs Belka and Strelka, stuffed and on display.
But Moscow doesn’t stop there. Around that very spot, and at a couple more places spread across the city, there’s a whole space Moscow you can cover almost entirely on foot in half a morning: the monument, Cosmonauts Alley, the house where Korolev lived, and a little further on the Vostok rocket and the Buran shuttle at VDNH. In this guide I’ll tell you what to see, how much it costs and how to organise it, with all the prices and opening hours checked.
Before you start, a practical tip that will save you headaches: in Russia foreign Visa and Mastercard cards don’t work. Almost all of these tickets are bought at the box office itself, so it’s best to carry rubles in cash. You can also get yourself a MIR card.
On this map you can see all the museums, monuments and points along the route:
The Museum of Cosmonautics: the must-see visit
If you only have time for one thing, make it this. The museum opened on April 10, 1981, on the 20th anniversary of Gagarin’s flight, and in 2009 it reopened after a three-year renovation that changed it completely. Today it no longer covers only the Soviet achievements: it also has rooms dedicated to the space programs of the United States, Europe, China and the International Space Station.
What grabs you most is how authentic it is. You’ll see real descent capsules, suits and helmets, space food in tubes, scale models of rockets and stations, and Belka and Strelka, the two dogs that came back alive from space in 1960, stuffed inside a display case. There are interactive areas and a spacecraft simulator called “Orion” (350 ₽ extra) in case the kids want to take the controls.
Practical information for your visit:
- Address: Prospekt Mira, 111. It’s at the base of the Monument to the Conquerors of Space.
- How to get there: VDNKh metro station (orange line). The museum is a couple of minutes from the exit.
- Opening hours: closed Monday. Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday and Sunday from 10:00 to 19:00; Thursday and Saturday from 10:00 to 21:00.
- Admission: 490 ₽ adults; 350 ₽ children (ages 7-18) and students; 300 ₽ pensioners; free for under-7s. Combined ticket with the Korolev Memorial House: 650 ₽ (valid for 10 days).
- How to buy: at the museum box office, in cash. There’s rarely a queue.
- Time needed: between an hour and a half and two hours.
- Official website: kosmo-museum.ru
The Monument to the Conquerors of Space
The museum is literally underneath this monument, so you can’t miss it. It’s a giant 107-metre obelisk, clad in titanium (the same material used in rockets), with a spacecraft at the top. The idea behind it is lovely: the obelisk represents the column of smoke a rocket leaves behind as it lifts off.
It was unveiled on October 4, 1964, on the seventh anniversary of the launch of Sputnik 1. Its design came out of a competition that drew more than 350 proposals, and the winning team was led by sculptor Andrey Faidysh.
At the base there are two inscriptions: one with a poem celebrating how the Soviet people, having vanquished oppression and darkness, forged “flaming wings” for their nation and their age; and below it, a dedication to the achievements of the Soviet people in space exploration, dated 1964.
On the sides it has two reliefs showing engineers, cosmonauts, scientists and workers from the space program going about their work, with an omnipresent Lenin behind them all.
The Sergei Korolev Memorial House
This is my tip for making your visit different from the average passing tourist’s. A few minutes’ walk from the museum, on a quiet street in Ostankino, stands the house where Sergei Korolev lived, the chief engineer who designed the rockets that put Sputnik and Gagarin into orbit. The two-storey villa with a garden was given to him by the Soviet government in gratitude for the launch of Sputnik in 1957, and Korolev spent his final years here.
It’s preserved exactly as he left it: his furniture, his library, his personal belongings. It’s a little humbling to think that the space race was cooked up, in good part, in this living room. It’s part of the same museum, so the best value is to get the combined 650 ₽ ticket and see it the same day or within the following 10 days.
- Address: 1st Ostankinskaya Street, 28. VDNKh metro, a short walk from the Monument to the Conquerors of Space.
- Opening hours: closed Monday and Tuesday. Wednesday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday from 10:00 to 18:00; Thursday from 11:00 to 21:00.
- Admission: 320 ₽ for the house only, or 650 ₽ combined with the Museum of Cosmonautics.
Cosmonauts Alley
The museum connects to VDNKh metro station via a beautiful pedestrian avenue: Cosmonauts Alley. Along its sides you’ll see the busts of the great names of the Soviet space age: Yuri Gagarin, Valentina Tereshkova (the first woman in space), Pavel Belyayev, Alexey Leonov (the first to do a spacewalk), Vladimir Komarov, Valentin Glushko and Mstislav Keldysh.
In 2008 the monument to Sergei Korolev was added; he appears deep in thought, his gaze fixed on the bronze Solar System arrangement right in front of him.
At the end of the alley, at the base of the obelisk, stands the statue of Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, the “father of cosmonautics”, the scientist who theorised space travel long before it was possible. He looks back, as if keeping watch over the whole journey behind him.
VDNH and the Cosmos Pavilion
Ten or fifteen minutes’ walk from the museum is the entrance to VDNH, the former Exhibition of Achievements of the National Economy: 235 hectares of spectacular Soviet pavilions, fountains, gardens and museums. Here you’ll find Industry Square, the space epicentre of the grounds.
The first thing you’ll see is the Vostok rocket, a replica of the rocket that took Gagarin into space, pointing at the sky as it has for decades. It’s one of the classic Moscow photos.
Right next to it is Pavilion No. 34, “Cosmos”, which after a major renovation now houses the Cosmonautics and Aviation Centre, one of the largest space museum spaces in the world. Inside they restored the original Soviet mosaics, and there are more than 120 models and real pieces of spaceflight and aviation hardware. They explain everything from a cosmonaut’s daily life in orbit to how a space station works.
- Admission: 700 ₽ standard; 350 ₽ reduced (pensioners, students, schoolchildren); free for under-6s.
- Opening hours: Tuesday to Sunday from 11:00 to 22:00. Closed Monday (box office until 21:00).
The Buran: fly a Soviet space shuttle
Very close by, on the same square, there’s a full-size model of the Buran shuttle that hides an interactive museum inside. The fun part is the reconstructed cockpit: you can sit in the pilot’s seat and try to “land” the Buran at the Baikonur cosmodrome from 80,000 metres up, recreating the spacecraft’s only real flight, on November 15, 1988.
- Admission: 300 ₽ adults; 150 ₽ reduced; free for under-6s. On some weekdays and one Sunday a month, admission is free.
- Opening hours: Tuesday to Sunday from 11:00 to 20:00. Closed Monday.
Up to here, everything above can be done on foot and in less than a day. It’s one of the most interesting itineraries in Moscow if you have time. The next two spots are farther out and you’ll need to take the metro or a taxi.
The Monument to Yuri Gagarin
Gagarin’s bust is on Cosmonauts Alley, but the real monument is in the southwest of the city, on the square that bears his name, along Leninsky Avenue. It’s far from the centre (too far, I’d say, for someone so important), but it’s impressive.
It’s a titanium column more than 40 metres tall, futuristic-looking, with the figure of Gagarin at the very top, styled almost like a superhero, ready to soar back into space. It was unveiled in 1980. In the 1960s Gagarin became the most famous person in the entire USSR without any political ambition: he was simply the first human being to reach space.
His remains, however, do rest in the heart of the city: in the Kremlin Wall Necropolis, which you pass on the way to Lenin’s Mausoleum. Stalin, Brezhnev, Chernenko and Andropov are also buried there.
Two more spots for space fans
If you’re left wanting more, there are two less touristy museums that are worth it.
The Museum of Aviation and Cosmonautics
North of the city, on Krasnoarmeyskaya Street, is the Central Museum of Aviation and Cosmonautics (run by DOSAAF), one of the oldest museums of its kind in the world, with almost a century of history. It’s very much aimed at local visitors and school trips, but it has unique pieces: models of planes and rockets, the first engines and satellites, a real Buran training cockpit and an office dedicated to Gagarin.
- Admission: 400 ₽ adults; 300 ₽ schoolchildren, students and pensioners; 250 ₽ preschoolers. Bought at the box office.
The Moscow Planetarium
To the west, next to the zoo, is the Moscow Planetarium, opened in 1929 and the oldest in Russia. Here you can run experiments in the “Lunarium” interactive museum, see ancient astronomical instruments in the “Urania Museum” and even touch real meteorites. It has a 4D cinema and the huge “Great Star Hall” for gazing at the sky. It’s a great family day out, but it can take up a good part of your day.
- Great Star Hall + Urania Museum: from 700 ₽ on weekdays, from 850 ₽ at weekends.
- Lunarium: 800 ₽ on weekdays, 1,100 ₽ at weekends.
- 4D cinema: 500 ₽ on weekdays, 600 ₽ at weekends. Small Star Hall: 200 ₽.
- Opening hours: open every day from 10:00 to 21:00 except Tuesday. Under-18s get a 10% discount.
And if real space is your thing, consider a trip to Star City, the centre on the outskirts of Moscow where Gagarin trained and where cosmonauts are still prepared today.
Cosmonautics Day (April 12)
If your trip falls in April, mark this date: on April 12 Russia celebrates Cosmonautics Day. It was established in 1962 to commemorate the first crewed spaceflight in history, Yuri Gagarin’s aboard the Vostok 1 spacecraft, which orbited the Earth for the first time on April 12, 1961. It’s not a public holiday (people work), but there are celebrations all over the city and the space museums usually organise special activities.
Where to stay nearby? The Cosmos Hotel
For full immersion, you can stay at the legendary Cosmos Hotel (now rebranded as Cosmos Moscow VDNH), right on Prospekt Mira, a stone’s throw from the monument and the museum. With its 1,777 rooms it’s one of the largest hotels in Russia. It was built for the 1980 Olympic Games, given the city’s shortage of hotel rooms, and in summer its curved façade reflects the sun spectacularly.
It’s not central, but it’s reasonably priced (three stars), has a spa with a pool and a gym, and from VDNKh metro you’re in the centre in about 15 minutes. The views from the upper floors are fabulous. That said, some of the facilities feel a bit dated: that’s the most repeated complaint among travellers.
If you’d rather compare areas and neighbourhoods before booking, I’ll help you decide in the guide on where to stay in Moscow.
Practical tips for your visit
- Watch out for closing days. The Museum of Cosmonautics, the Cosmos Pavilion and the Buran close on Mondays; the Planetarium closes on Tuesdays. If you only have one day, plan it well.
- Combine it all. Museum + monument + Cosmonauts Alley + Cosmos Pavilion can be done in one go in half a day starting from VDNKh metro.
- Getting around the city. To reach the Gagarin monument or the planetarium the metro comes in handy: I explain how it works in the Moscow metro guide.
- A geeky bonus. If you get hooked on the cosmonaut aesthetic, keep an eye out for vintage Soviet watch brands: some legendary models were worn by the cosmonauts themselves and make a great souvenir.
Frequently asked questions
How much does it cost to visit the Museum of Cosmonautics in Moscow?
General admission costs 490 rubles. Children aged 7 to 18 and students pay 350 rubles, pensioners 300 rubles, and under-7s get in free. The combined ticket with the Korolev Memorial House costs 650 rubles. You buy them at the museum box office, in cash.
What are the opening hours of the Museum of Cosmonautics?
It’s closed on Mondays. It opens Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday and Sunday from 10:00 to 19:00, and Thursday and Saturday from 10:00 to 21:00.
How do you get to the Museum of Cosmonautics?
Take the metro to VDNKh station (orange line). The museum is at the base of the Monument to the Conquerors of Space, at Prospekt Mira 111, a couple of minutes from the metro exit.
How much time do you need to see the museum?
For the museum itself, between an hour and a half and two hours. If you add the monument, Cosmonauts Alley and the VDNH Cosmos Pavilion, set aside half a day.
Are the Museum of Cosmonautics and the VDNH Cosmos Pavilion the same thing?
No, they’re two different places. The Museum of Cosmonautics is under the titanium obelisk. The Cosmos Pavilion, or Cosmonautics and Aviation Centre, is inside the VDNH grounds, about ten or fifteen minutes’ walk away, and is one of the largest space museum spaces in the world.
Is it worth visiting with kids?
Yes. There are interactive areas, full-size spacecraft and simulators. At VDNH, kids can also sit at the controls of the Buran and try to land the shuttle.
