At the Heritage Centre University De Montfort opened an exhibition dedicated to the achievements of the Soviet Union in space exploration

A new exhibition dedicated to the successes of the Russians in the conquest of space opened in the center of Heritage of the University De Montfort (DMU) in Leicester.

The exhibition takes place during the end of the first semester of study students, and it was based on the materials submitted to the University as a graduate student, Andy Thomas. Andy studied the history of the Soviet space program while studying for master's degree DMU and collected a lot of memorabilia related to the launch of the first Sputnik in 1957 and the flight in 1961, Yuri Gagarin – Russian cosmonaut, who acquired worldwide fame after the first in the history of mankind flight into space.

The space race between the USSR and USA during the cold war were devoted to making headlines in the international media. Each of the two superpowers tried to break into the leaders of space exploration. The Soviet Union launched the first artificial satellite, and then sent a man into space.

A collection of Andy Thomas showcases the efforts and the passion with which Russian took over space exploration. It contains a large number of exhibits of everyday objects – lighters, models, toys depicting national heroes who became astronauts, to very valuable original drawings by the founder of the theory of space flight, Konstantin Tsiolkovsky.

Andy, who is studying in the PhD program at the faculty of politics and public policy and works part-time as a teacher, said: "I started collecting exhibits while studying for master, working on the topic of Soviet space program. I found various artifacts while traveling the countries of the former USSR: Crimea, in Ukraine, in Belarus. I also spent a lot of time in Russia, studying Russian language at MSU."

"Drawings Tsiolkovsky are the jewel of my collection. They demonstrate the brilliant foresight of the great scientists of the current stage of space exploration".

The exhibition also shows original Soviet posters of the era, the model of the first satellite and a Rover and a unique collection of matchbox labels, owned by the grandfather of the woman who helped Andy gather the materials in his journeys. She reported that the grandfather began to collect labels, as a little boy, and her family decided to transfer his collection Andy for saving.

"When I was growing up, the theme of space excites our minds and has always been in the news," says Andy. "I was 15 when people first landed on the moon. I remember my father woke me up early in the morning, as soon as reported the news. He said I have to see the broadcast of this exciting event."

This defined a life-long fascination with Andy theme of space exploration, which culminated in the writing of the diploma for the master's degree. Now in graduate school, working on his thesis, he became interested in the Chinese space program.

Curator of the exhibition centre and Heritage Centre Elizabeth Wheelband said that she was delighted with sentences Andy to organize an exhibition at the end of the first semester. Before the collection of the University of De Montfort consisted mainly of documents and all were very happy to revive her popular artifacts.

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