The first drawing in space on show at the Science Museum’s Cosmonauts exhibition

The first picture drawn in space by Alexei Leonov is on show now at the Science Museum’s Cosmonauts: Birth of the Space Age exhibition which opens today. Alexei Leonov was the first person to walk in space in 1965, but despite fulfilling his dream of becoming a cosmonaut, he also had ambitions to be come an artist and used his time in space to explore this passion. The coloured pencil drawing of an abstract sunset sits alongside 150 other artefacts in the exhibition, including Alexei’s 1973 oil-painted self portrait titled Over the Black Sea.

Other artefacts in the show date from the 19th Century to the 1990s starting with Russian and Soviet rocket scientist Konstantin Tsiolkovsky’s Album of Cosmic Journeys, a series of drawings illustrating his ideas on astronautic theory. As well as photographs, propaganda and spacesuits, the original Vostok-6 space craft that safely returned Valentina Tereshkova (the first woman and civilian in space) from orbit in 1963 is shown for the first time in London.

The show has been five years in the making, and many of the artefacts on show have rarely been seen outside of Russia. This mammoth exhibition provides a glimpse into the pioneering technology and spirit of the Russian cosmonauts. Cosmonauts: Birth of the Space Age is on at the Science museum now until 13 March 2016.