We’ve already told you about several of Ukraine’s incredible aerospace museums, in particular the great institutions in Zhytomyr, Dnipro, Poltava, and Pereyaslav. Today, we will continue our story, because there is much more to our country’s space heritage than just those four amazing museums. This time, we will explore places that remain largely unknown to the general public, but which everyone interested in space should visit at least once.
Leonid Kadenyuk’s Two Space Museums
Leonid Kadenyuk was independent Ukraine’s first, and so far only, cosmonaut. Even though he only traveled to space one time, spending 15 days in orbit, his importance is such that he inspired the establishment of two museums named after him in his native Chernivtsi region.
The L.K. Kadenyuk Museum of Aviation and Cosmonautics in Chernivtsi is located at 220 Holovna Street. It opened on October 2, 1999, which is Chernivtsi’s City Day, and Kadenyuk himself attended the ribbon-cutting ceremony, drawing a large crowd.

Source: cyt.cv.ua
The museum’s exposition consists of two permanent displays and several rotating exhibits dedicated to particular dates in the history of cosmonautics and special events in the field of astronomy.
The first exhibit, called “The History of the Development of Aviation,” as its name suggests, is devoted to aircraft. Here the public can visit one of the largest collections of miniature aircraft models in Ukraine. It ranges from the earliest biplanes and monoplanes, such as models of the first Wright Brothers plane and Otto Lilienthal’s glider, to more modern civilian and military aircraft.
Models of planes from nearly every country in the world can be seen. Representatives from the museum have repeatedly participated in international modeling competitions and have received prestigious awards and honors, including 43 medals, 70 prizes, and more than 300 honorary degrees.

Source: Ukrinform
In addition to scale models, the aviation department of the museum also has elements from real aircraft on display: for example the black box from a civilian aircraft and a fragment from the propeller of a German Fokker aircraft manufactured in 1928.
The other permanent exhibition of the museum is called “Space Exploration” and covers the entire period of the development of cosmonautics, from the first works of theoretical scientists like Tsiolkovsky, Kondratyuk, and Goddard, the creator of liquid-fueled rockets, to Leonid Kadenyuk’s space mission. Here, visitors can follow the whole story of Soviet cosmonautics and see models of almost all of the famous Soviet launch vehicles and spacecraft: the PS-1 (“Sputnik”) satellite, the Voskhod, Vostok, and Soyuz spacecraft, and the automated lunar research station Luna-9.
This display is complemented by another one detailing the achievements of the American space program. A separate part of the permanent exhibition tells the story of NASA’s lunar missions, Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo, and introduces visitors to the first American astronaut, John Glenn.
Of course, one whole hall of the museum is dedicated to Ukraine’s most famous cosmonaut, Leonid Kadenyuk. Here, visitors can learn about the details of his mission as part of the crew of the Space Shuttle Columbia, which launched into space on November 19, 1998.
On November 11, 2011, in honor of the rocket designer Mykola Yangel, the museum opened a hall called “Ukraine: A Space State,” where organizers gathered significant space-related inventions by Ukrainian engineers. Here, visitors can learn about various international projects in the field of rocket engineering and learn about the lives of Ukrainian cosmonauts.

Source: cyt.cv.ua
Furthermore, on February 21, 2018, on the 21st anniversary of Kadenyuk’s historic mission, a second space museum was opened in the village of Revakivtsi in the “Bukovynska Troya” cultural center at Kyivska Street, 17A. This much smaller museum, which is also named after the famous cosmonaut, includes only one hall. However, its exposition is as diverse as one could hope for: here, visitors can see models of launch vehicles, spacecraft, books, and historical photographs from past space missions. The museum itself functions as a branch of the S.P. Korolev National Museum of Cosmonautics in Zhytomyr.
The museum places special emphasis on its photo exhibition, the main gem of which is a photo of Leonid Kadenyuk bearing an inscription in the cosmonaut’s own hand which reads: “The universe is an inexhaustible source of knowledge, so necessary for the progress and preservation of earthly civilization.”
It’s hard to disagree.
Pervomaisk Museum of Strategic Missile Forces
Perhaps in other, more peaceful times, this article might not have included the Pervomaisk Museum of Strategic Missile Forces (SMF), only because it is only indirectly related to cosmonautics. But now, when the peace and safety of Ukrainian civilians depend directly upon the work of anti-missile forces, we think it is appropriate to tell you about this strange and, in a certain sense, somewhat unsettling institution.
The museum was founded in 2001 as a branch of the Central Museum of the Armed Forces of Ukraine at the former location of the command post of the 309th Regiment of the 46th Missile Division of the Soviet SMF. This made the museum significant from the point of view of realism because it preserved the base’s original command post and did not require artistic renditions or models as in other museums.
The museum allows visitors to view more than 30,000 exhibits, including decommissioned missile silos, prototypes of ballistic missiles, and a partially preserved unified command post. The only other museum in the world constructed around a real missile site is in the United States, which makes this institution quite unique.

Source: wikimedia.org
One of the largest museum exhibits, a MAZ-537 tractor, was designed to deliver ballistic missiles to the range, load them into launch silos, and transport rocket fuel. The weight of one such machine (without payload) is 21.6 tons, with the capability to transport missile systems weighing up to 75 tons. To better control this huge machine, each of its eight wheels is equipped with an electric motor to assist its movement, especially during ascents and descents.
In its fully loaded state, the MAZ-537 was too heavy to cross the bridges over the Southern Bug River, so engineering troops had to build pontoon bridges on the river to facilitate its deliveries.

Source: mapio.net
The largest part of the Strategic Missile Forces Museum is devoted to ballistic missiles. Here you can see with your own eyes the non-working hulls of R-12 missiles (NATO classification SS-4 Sandal), RS-22s (SS-24 Scalpel), UR-100Ns (SS-19), R36-M2s (SS-18 Satan), X-22s, and many others. Next to the ballistic missiles, visitors can see various rocket components, including elements of missile nozzles and engines, navigation electronics, etc. In the open courtyard of the museum, there are also samples of Soviet-made artillery systems, as well as several Soviet-era tanks.

Source: nikvesti.com
Of particular note is the unified command post at the site, which consists of a metal structure buried underground to a depth of 35 m. Inside the command post, there are 12 floors, each of which was assigned a particular set of functions.
The first 10 floors of the silo were filled with sensors and equipment for the automation of missile maintenance, as well as equipment for communicating with decision centers. The bottom two floors were allocated to the command post itself, as well as for living quarters for the personnel on duty (usually consisting of 2-3 officers who were constantly present at the facility).
The hatch, which tightly seals the entrance to the launch silo, weighs 120 tons. It was capable of protecting inhabitants from a nuclear explosion: under such circumstances, oxygen and provisions would have lasted for 45 days. Currently, visitors can only look inside one such silo. During the decommissioning of the missile range in the 1990s, the shaft was filled with concrete to almost 70% of its depth. Other silos were filled in completely, leaving only their titanic protective doors on display.

Source: wikimedia.org
The unified command post, called “Perimeter,” was equipped with a direct two-channel communication link with Moscow. The frightening genius of the engineers who designed the site was impressive in its attention to detail: Perimeter’s automation could make decisions about conducting retaliatory nuclear missile launches even if all the facility’s service personnel were killed as a result of an enemy attack.
A true doomsday device.
The Strategic Missile Forces Museum in Pervomaisk can, without exaggeration, be called a “ghost from the red past.” Today, it reminds visitors of the terrible threat of nuclear war. It is worth visiting if only to understand this fact. Indeed, there is no shortage of visitors, even during the full-scale war: the museum averages 100,000 visitors per year.
The Nearly Lost Museum of the History of Cosmonautics in Kyiv
On April 27, 1991, the I.I. The Sikorsky Museum of the History of Cosmonautics was opened at the Kyiv Polytechnic Institute (KPI). Now known as the Research Department of Aviation and Cosmonautics History, the institution is notable not only for its museum collection but also for its founders, which consisted of a group of veteran officers who, in Soviet times, worked at the USSR’s most famous cosmodrome, “Baikonur,” in present-day Kazakhstan.
During the Soviet period, Ukrainian veterans of the space industry together initiated the creation of the Cosmonautics Federation of Ukraine (CFU), which was later key to the construction of the museum. The CFU brought together over 20 Ukrainian enterprises involved in the development and assembly of rocket technology, including Kyivprylad, Chervonyi Ekskavator, Tochelektroprylad, Pivdenmash, the Pivdenne Design Bureau, the Arsenal Central Design Bureau, the Kyiv Radio Plant, and others. This guaranteed the space museum direct access to rare pieces and technical samples, which later appeared in its main exhibition.
The museum was primarily conceived by its founders as a showcase to inspire students to pursue careers in the rocket and space industry. In this regard, it was a success, attracting tens of thousands of students and schoolchildren from around the world annually. One of the most interesting features of the museum was a hall dedicated to the study of UFOs and aliens, which sparked considerable interest among younger visitors.

Source: kpi.ua
At the end of the 1990s, during a period of financial crisis, the CFU was faced with a lack of funding and was no longer able to afford to rent the space for the museum. To save it, the CFU ultimately made the difficult decision to move the exposition to the building of the Kyiv Republican Planetarium, where it functioned for five years, from 2001 to 2006. However, due to a continuing lack of funding, the planetarium was no longer able to host the museum. Its priceless collection of space history was one step away from being left on the street.
Thankfully, the management of KPI learned about these unfortunate circumstances and offered the Baikonur veterans a chance to host their exhibits in one of the buildings of the Polytechnic Museum, which had been recently restored. On May 14, 2008, a solemn opening ceremony for the Scientific Research Department of the History of Aviation and Cosmonautics was held. This was to be the third life for the Kyiv Museum of the History of Cosmonautics.

Source: kpi.ua
The new premises accommodated the various exhibits that had been accumulated over the past 17 years, including a propulsion system from an R-12 (8K63) combat missile manufactured at Pivdenmash in Dnipro and donated by the S.P. Korolev Space Museum in Zhytomyr, the launcher of the automatic interplanetary station “Venus-4,” a unique simulator complex for cosmonaut training, a space sextant used by the crews of Soviet spacecraft to determine their location, a space communication operator’s console, and simulators of the starry sky.
Here, visitors can study space suits, helmets, and gloves that have been in orbit. There is even a descent module from the unmanned spacecraft “Zenit,” which the USSR used as a spy satellite: inside the capsule were powerful cameras. Its design closely resembles the descent capsules from the “Vostok” spacecraft developed under the guidance of Sergei Korolev. The exterior of the descent module bears traces of soot from its re-entry through Earth’s atmosphere, having reached temperatures of up to 2000°C. The capsule made its first and last flight in 1989, after which it was put in storage in a special arsenal. With the assistance of Soviet cosmonaut Herman Titov, it was later transported to the museum in Kyiv.

Source: kpi.ua
At the Research Department of Aviation and Cosmonautics History, you can also see space developments from the period of Ukrainian independence. Models of the PolyITAN-1, PolyITAN-2-SAU, and PolyITAN-HP-30 nanosatellites, which were developed by KPI students and faculty and launched into orbit in 2014 (1), 2017 (2), and 2023 (3), respectively, are exhibited here.

Source: zakusilov.livejournal.com
The story of the Kyiv Museum of Cosmonautics is a remarkable tale of rescuing Ukraine’s national aerospace heritage, which endured countless trials and crises that threatened the complete loss of the collection. In light of these circumstances, we recommend not delaying your visit to the Research Department of Aviation and Cosmonautics History, located at 37 Beresteiska Street, Building No. 6.