Soviet Space Art: Soviet Space Program by Andrei Sokolov

For almost as long as I have had a serious interest in the Soviet space program, I have enjoyed Soviet space art. In addition to providing a different perspective of the vision of space exploration, these paintings frequently provide depictions of events of the Soviet space program that do not exist in the photographic record of these flights. Three decades ago, I was fortunate enough to get some collections of reproductions of Soviet space art from a friend of mine living in Lithuania (then part of the USSR), which I rediscovered while searching through my archives during my COVID-19 isolation. Among the postcards and books were a lot of artwork from the famous Russian space artist, Andrei Sokolov (1931-2007). In addition to painting scenes of the future of space exploration (see “Soviet Space Art: The Space Fantasy of Andrei Sokolov”), Sokolov is also well known for his accurate depictions of historical events from the Soviet space program. Presented here is a sample of these paintings from the 1970s and 1980s.

Above the Earth

Here is a view of an early R-7 rocket (used by the USSR as its first ICBM and its first satellite launch vehicle) after the engines of its Blok A core have shutdown.

The First Satellite Goes into Orbit

Sokolov depicts the separation of the first Sputnik from the core of its 8K71PS launch vehicle following its successful launch on October 4, 1957 (see “Sputnik: Launch of the Space Age”).

Launch at Baikonur

This is the night launch of a Soyuz from the Baikonur Cosmodrome. I recall reading some time ago that this depicts the liftoff of Soyuz 9 on June 1, 1970.

Parachute Above Mars

During the early 1970s, the Soviet Union launched pairs of landers to Mars in 1971 and 1973 hoping to beat the upcoming Viking missions. This painting shows that Soviet Mars lander during its parachute descent to the surface of the Red Planet.

Soyuz-Apollo Over the Caspian Sea

While most American space history buffs are familiar with Robert McCall’s (1919-2010) painting of the docking of Apollo and Soyuz spacecraft for the ASTP (known as the Soyuz-Apollo Test Project in the Soviet Union), other space artists have portrayed this scene as well. Here is Sokolov’s depiction of that historical event on July 17, 1975.

Approaching the Sun

Here is a depiction of an advanced 4V Venera lander on the surface of Venus like those in October 1975 as part of the Venera 9 and 10 mission (see “Venera 9 and 10 to Venus”).

The Morning of the Take-Off

This painting by Sokolov showing the Soviet Salyut 6 space station in orbit has the distinction of being the first artwork flown in space. It arrived at the Salyut 6 space station on March 3, 1978 aboard Soyuz 28 flown by Soviet cosmonaut Aleksey Gubarev and Vladimir Remek of Czechoslovakia as part of the first Interkosmos mission. The painting was returned to Earth aboard Soyuz 30 on July 5, 1978 by the crew of Pyotr Klimuk and Miroslaw Giermaszewski of Poland after spending 124 days in orbit spanning two long-duration Salyut missions.

Soyuz Sections Separate

This is a depiction of the separation of the modules on a 7K-T spacecraft used to ferry crews to the Soyuz prior to the spacecraft’s reentry.

Volcanoes on Io

In addition to portraying events in the Soviet space program, Sokolov painted those the US as well. Here is a view of NASA’s Voyager 1 during its flyby of the Jovian moon Io showing the volcanic plumes discovered by this mission (see “First Pictures: Voyager 1 Images Io’s Volcanic Plumes – March 8, 1979”).

“Phobos” Probes Phobos (with Alexei Leonov)

Sokolov was known to collaborate with others including Soviet cosmonaut Alexei Leonov (1934-2019) who was an accomplished space artist in his how right. This work from 1988 depicts the planned laser probing of the Martian moon Phobos by a Soviet Phobos spacecraft.

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Related Reading

“Soviet Space Art: The Space Fantasy of Andrei Sokolov”, Drew Ex Machina, September 24, 2020 [Post]

“Soviet Space Art: Star Way of Humanity”, Drew Ex Machina, May 29, 2020 [Post]