An amazing set of old Russian Matchbox Graphics celebrating early Soviet success in the space race. These wonderful images are taken from an astonishing selection of over 1,000 Labels !! all featured via Flickr User Mariad http://www.flickr.com/photos/maraid/sets/72157594234429063/. The majority of the labels are of Eastern European origin, and of course not all space related, Maraid has a also put together a feature on her blog here: http://is.gd/Tylc
A little more on each of the featured labels…
Top: Luna 1 (Mechta)
Launched in 1959 Luna 1 was the first Spacecraft to reach the vicinity of The Moon and thus by doing so also become the first to fully achieve escape velocity from Earth… http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luna_1
2nd top: Sputnik 1
Launched in October 1957 the first man-made object in space was totally unanticipated in the West providing the spark the ignited the Space Race - Sputnik 1 spent 3 months in orbit emitting a radio signal for approx a third of that time… http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sputnik_1
3rd top: Sputnik 2 & Laika
Following on from Sputnik 1 came Sputnik 2 - the second man-made object launched to earth orbit, this time carrying “Laika” the first living animal to leave our biosphere and enter space - alas - of course never to return… http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sputnik_2
4th top: Solar Distances
The relative distances (in Kilometers) of the Earth, Moon, and Sun. Aside from measuring distance in light years, another major cosmic measuring unit is AU (Astronomical Unit) each AU is relative to 149 598 000 kilometers. To put that in context the nearest star to our Solar System is the Red Dwarf Proxima Centuri which is roughly 4.2 Light Years away, that’s 268 000 AU or 40 Trillion, 92 Billion, 264 Million Km’s away - at least that’s what Wolfram Alpha Says…. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astronomical_unit
5th top: Luna 2
Luna 2 launched Sept 12th was first space craft to reach the surface of the moon when it was purposely crash landed after 33 .5 hours of flight. Also noteworthy for confirming the existence of Solar Wind http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luna_2
Bottom: Radio Telescope
Caption reads “Radio Telescope” (cheers Uisgea / Lionel )
