Page from Brothers of the Cosmos, 1969, featuring images of Laika, 1957 [top],by V.M. Baturin and N. K. Filippov; and Belka and Strelka, 1960 [bottom], by Baturin and V. Zhiharekno

N. K. Filippov|V. M. Baturin|V. Zhiharekno

1969 · Gelatin silver prints · Photographs

This personal album, assembled by a cinematographer hired to document cosmonaut training, offers an intimate view of the triumphant visual culture surrounding the Soviet space program. Until the mid-1960s, the Soviet Union appeared to be winning the space race. Under the direction of the pioneering rocket engineer Sergei Korolev, the program achieved a string of headline-making "firsts." They were the first to send into orbit an earthborn creature (the canine cosmonaut Laika in 1957), a man (Yuri Gagarin in 1961), and a woman (Valentina Tereshkova in 1963). These and other Soviet space pioneers appear in the album's pages.

Artist

N. K. Filippov|V. M. Baturin|V. Zhiharekno

Date

1969

Medium

Gelatin silver prints

Department

Photographs

Credit line

Joyce F. Menschel Fund, 2019