Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center

The Cosmonaut Training Center is the only training base for cosmonauts in Russia. It is located in Zvyozdny Gorodok, a settlement in the forests to the east of the Moscow region, which resembles more of a forest hotel.

Regular excursions are held there. During the tour, you can see, for example, G-loading centrifuges, operating simulators of the “Soyuz” spacecraft and the International Space Station. The simulator of the “Mir” station, which was liquidated in 2000, has been preserved and actually serves as a museum now. There are small expositions at other sites, too.

Moreover, the Cosmonaut Training Center is engaged in space tourism. For a fee, you can join a class on how to put on a spacesuit, or taste space food to complement your tour. For as much as 200,000 rubles, you can fly a plane with short-term weightlessness, and for several tens of millions of dollars you can complete a one-year training course and take a space flight.

Due to the specific requirements of the facility, the list of participants, along with their passport data, has to be submitted 45 business days prior to the visit.

Moscow Oblast
Zvyozdny Gorodok, Moscow Region
Web site: www.gctc.su

hydrolaboratory, a pool where astronauts learn to operate in zero gravity

by train from the Yaroslavsky Railway Station to the Tsiolkovskaya platform (1 hour 10 minute trip) or by minibus No. 380 from the Shchelkovskaya metro station (40 minute trip)