Amidst the backcloth of the Cold War and the blank race , the training facilities for Russia ’s cosmonauts were once shroud in mystery . In a project calledDirection - Space ! , London - based Russian photographerMaria Gruzdevatakes an inner feel at the once secretive history of the Russian blank program .
Her photo written document the two sites where the soul of Russian space exploration was born and carry on to fell : BaikonurandStar City . Baikonur is the blank space center in Kazakhstan that was the launching site of Sputnik 1 , the world ’s first orbital spaceflight of any sort , and where Yuri Gagarin set off to be the first adult male in space . Star City is home to the Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center . Along with zero - gravity simulators and full - sizing mock - up spacecraft , the site is grace with murals , statues , court to foregone cosmonauts and the officeof the first virtuoso nestling , Yuri Gagarin .
The facilities are still up and running , even though Russia ’s space exploration program has interchange a draw since the Soviet Clarence Day . Americans and Russians now work side - by - side on the International Space Station andcollaborate on projectstogether .
However , the isolation of these areas has left them almost unchangedsince the Soviet - earned run average sixties . Gruzdeva ’s picture taking not only read a close looking at the technology and retro aesthetics of these facilities , but also the lives of the cosmonauts , scientists , applied scientist and workers who still live and work there . It ’s a powerful compounding of scientific discipline , account and humanity .
ikon credit entry : Maria Gruzdeva
you may look into out more of the photographs from the project on Maria ’s websitehere . All the pic are also uncommitted in abook , which you’re able to purchasehere .
