Spent the afternoon reading about Russian space exploration. Three things will stick in my memory:

1. The building itself, or more specifically the Space Conquerors Monument attached to the building’s roof, a swooping 350-foot rocket covered in titanium panels.

2. The near total absence of mentions of a space race, or of the US. The Americans get basically one panel in a secondary room of the museum.

3. The preserved bodies of the first two dogs ever to return from space, sitting in a glass case near the front of the main room.