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Author Topic:   Bulgaria: spacecraft on public display
eurospace
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Posts: 2610
From: Brussels, Belgium
Registered: Dec 2000

posted 04-05-2012 01:25 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for eurospace   Click Here to Email eurospace     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
I will be travelling to Bulgaria this spring.

Bulgarian cosmonauts were present on two spaceflight missions:

  • Soyuz 33 in 1979
  • Soyuz T5 in 1988
Does anybody know in which museum the respective spacecrafts are being hosted?

eurospace
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Posts: 2610
From: Brussels, Belgium
Registered: Dec 2000

posted 05-03-2012 07:51 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for eurospace   Click Here to Email eurospace     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Too bad when I have to answer my own questions myself... the Soyuz 33 landing capsule is located in the Plovdiv Museum of Aviation.

Philip
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From: Brussels, Belgium
Registered: Jan 2001

posted 05-05-2012 05:43 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for Philip   Click Here to Email Philip     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Thanks for sharing the weblink!

eurospace
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Posts: 2610
From: Brussels, Belgium
Registered: Dec 2000

posted 05-05-2012 03:56 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for eurospace   Click Here to Email eurospace     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Well, I guess I'll be visiting this place in about ten day's time ....

eurospace
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Posts: 2610
From: Brussels, Belgium
Registered: Dec 2000

posted 05-17-2012 12:40 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for eurospace   Click Here to Email eurospace     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
It's a forlorn place, the Museum of Air at Plovdiv in central Bulgaria. It is located right next to the small Plovdiv airport south of the city, and luckily signposted from the major national road connecting Bulgaria's second largest city with the Rhodope mountains in the South of the country. Luckily I say because no travel guides mentions this museum and I would have had a hard time locating it without the signpost.

Obviously, one's gotta be a die-hard fan of aviation (and space) to go there. When I arrive, there is plenty of staff heading to the airport offices from the back door service entry, but no one heading to the museum. Only when I leave an elderly lady with a small boy enters the compound, clearly because the boy wanted to go there.

Obviously, I am looking for Georgi Ivanov's Soyuz 33 spacecraft. It is not difficult to find. When I enter the main hall, it is right opposite the entry door, together with the parachute that brought it back to Earth safely. Not a done deal in April 1979 when the flight took place - the mission failed miserably, the spacecraft could not dock to the Salyut 6 space station, and returned to Earth in a fierce ballistic entry, almost killing the two man crew of Nikolai Rukavizhnikov and Georgi Ivanov.

The outer skin looks a bit burnt, but all Soyuz return capsules look this way. There is just a short signpost relating to the mission and the fact that this is Georgi Ivanov's spacecraft, but no further explanation of the mission. On the left side of the exhibit, two glass containers show Ivanov's space suit and a training suit. On the right hand side, a whole range of space food is presented. And that is it.

Right after my entering the building, a slim moustached guy in his 50s comes out of a corridor, clearly heading for lunch. Whether I wanted to visit the museum, he asks. Yes, I confirm, and that costs me 5 Leva for a ticket, about $2.50. Hadn't he headed for lunch, I doubt anyone would have noticed my presence. We briefly chat about where I come from and why I'm here. He remembers an Arado aircraft of 1946 in the German Museum at Munich and asks where the German cosmonaut's space craft had ended up. In the same German Museum he mentioned, I reply. After it had first been shown at the Dresde Military Museum. Then he heads of - nice fella, but our conversation was a bit hindered by the fact that my Bulgarian is about as good as his English. I keep strolling over the open air exhibit. Plenty of old MiG's and Antonov's, a batch of MIL and other helicopters, all in urgent need of some color and repair.

Oh, by the way, the museum gentleman mentioned, later this year the museum would host an exhibit commemorating the 100th Anniversary of the Bulgarian Air Force. He points to the room next door. There is nothing in there as yet, just a few wooden structures, and the door is sealed off. The Bulgarian Air Museum has clearly seen better days throughout its history.

Straight from Plovdiv in Bulgaria (photos to be added later)...

APG85
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posted 05-17-2012 08:46 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for APG85     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Thank you for sharing your experience. You never know where a piece of space history might be tucked away. This is great stuff to read about. I look forward to any pictures you might post about your visit to the museum...

bwhite1976
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Posts: 281
From: Belleville, IL
Registered: Jun 2011

posted 05-18-2012 06:57 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for bwhite1976   Click Here to Email bwhite1976     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Yes, thanks for sharing and I look forward to the pictures as well. Thanks for that account.

eurospace
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Posts: 2610
From: Brussels, Belgium
Registered: Dec 2000

posted 05-19-2012 11:25 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for eurospace   Click Here to Email eurospace     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Thanks for the kind words. Pictures will come probably in about a week when I am back home.

eurospace
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Posts: 2610
From: Brussels, Belgium
Registered: Dec 2000

posted 05-31-2012 09:31 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for eurospace   Click Here to Email eurospace     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
quote:
Originally posted by eurospace:
Pictures will come...

APG85
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posted 05-31-2012 09:58 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for APG85     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Great pictures! Thanks for posting them.

MrSpace86
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Posts: 1618
From: Gardner, KS, USA
Registered: Feb 2003

posted 06-01-2012 11:51 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for MrSpace86   Click Here to Email MrSpace86     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Wow, no protection or anything! Is it usual for a Soyuz spacecraft to be out in the open like that?

Hart Sastrowardoyo
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Posts: 3445
From: Toms River, NJ
Registered: Aug 2000

posted 06-01-2012 12:44 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Hart Sastrowardoyo   Click Here to Email Hart Sastrowardoyo     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Greg Olsen's Soyuz capsule was kept behind a simple rope barrier when displayed at Princeton's Marketplace shopping mall. Part of me (a small part!) was tempted to take a few pieces of kapton or whatever foil it was hanging from the top....

eurospace
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Posts: 2610
From: Brussels, Belgium
Registered: Dec 2000

posted 06-02-2012 03:09 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for eurospace   Click Here to Email eurospace     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
The small things you could just take away (space food for the hungry man) are kept behind glass. They would, however, probably notice if you came along with a truck to pickup the spacecraft.

Cozmosis22
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Posts: 968
From: Texas * Earth
Registered: Apr 2011

posted 06-02-2012 07:40 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for Cozmosis22     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Great pics! Thanks for sharing. The second image view inside the spacecraft is quite revealing. Get a tinge of claustrophobia just looking at it. EEK!

eurospace
Member

Posts: 2610
From: Brussels, Belgium
Registered: Dec 2000

posted 06-02-2012 11:09 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for eurospace   Click Here to Email eurospace     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Sizewise I think a Soyuz is somewhere between a Gemini can and an Apollo command module. They stay inside the Soyuz for two days on their way up, and less than a day when landing - and up to 14 days in a Gemini craft.

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