RETRO ROCKET FLIES AGAIN - LUNA FROM THE MOVIE ‘DESTINATION MOON’

WE’VE FEATURED THE LUNA rocket from the 1950 movie Destination Moon before, but this new kit from Pegasus Hobbies assembles to make the tallest model yet. Luna comes in the accepted rocket scale of 1:144, so can be stood next to a Space Shuttle or Saturn V for comparison.

FLYING HORSE AT iHOBBY EXPO 2014 - PEGASUS HOBBIES REVEALS SCI-FI KITS

Pegasus Hobbies continues with its eclectic range of kits, expanding on a range of subjects that includes plenty of science-fiction kits, many of them original Pegasus designs.

REVELL AIDA LINES CRUISE SHIP - DISPLAY PIX OF FINISHED KIT

Cruise liner progress:

We featured the Revell cruise ship kit before its release in November 2011, when the pix available were the plain test shots. Now Revell has released images of the ship in ready-to-show condition, and very handsome she looks too. The model shown here is the 1:400 scale version, and the 300-odd components assemble to make a model that measures some 629 mm (24.8 in) long. A simpler kit is also available, and this one is three times smaller, being made to 1:1200 scale.

AIRFIX VOSTOK ROCKET PART 3 - SPUTNIK OR LUNIK?

Mat Irvine discusses Vostok's background

To finish this three-part appraisal of the reissued Airfix Vostok launcher, it’s worth pointing out that you don’t just get the version that launched the Vostok spacecraft. Because 2011 is the 50th year of humans in space, the kit has been issued with cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin’s orbital version to the forefront, but other options have included Soyuz and Sputnik - or have they?

The first satellite

First, a bit of background. Sputnik 1 was the first artificial satellite to be launched, on October 4, 1957, and so began the ‘Space Age’. The launcher as a whole, usually called the A-type in the west, or R-7 or Semyorka (‘Seven’) by the Soviets, was based on the SS-6 Sapwood ICBM.

BIG AND SMALL ‘DESTINATION MOON’ ROCKETS FROM FANTASTIC PLASTIC

David Jefferis looks at some classic science fiction

It was couch potato time the other evening, with a chance to munch some sweetcorn while eyeballing a sci-fi movie from more than 60 years ago. George Pal’s Destination Moon of 1950 remains one of the best of its kind - a realistic future vision, dressed up as fiction by the addition of a lukewarm plot and wooden actors. Destination Moon may have been shot in black-and-white, with indifferent acting, but... it also featured a handsome spacecraft, the Luna, looking like a sleeked-up version of a World War II German V-2. And Luna became the prototype design for virtually all sci-fi rockets of that era, streamlined beauties that soared through the midnight depths of space. 

LUNOKHOD MOON LANDER - THE LITTLE ROVER THAT COULD

Mat Irvine reports
Today is the 37th anniversary of the second - and last - landing on the Moon by a Soviet automated rover, the eight-wheel Lunokhod 2, taken to the lunar surface by the Luna 21 carrier vehicle.

Following the Lunokhod 1 that landed on November 17, 1970, Lunokhod 2 performed even better, sending back more than 80,000 TV images and travelling nearly 37 km (23 miles) over a period of some four months, until it stopped working. The precise reason for this has never really been determined, but it’s thought that either moon dust covered the radiators and it overheated, or perhaps it fell into a crater - or both.

The Lunokhods (Russian for 'Moonwalker') are arguably the most delightful-looking spacecraft ever designed, fact or fiction. They actually look more as if they were created by Rowland Emett (famed for his whimsical creations) than as working scientific equipment. A Lunokhod would make a great model kit, and although none has appeared to date, there is the terrific battery-powered toy I show here, from the Russian Ogonjek company.

I’d heard rumours of a Lunokhod model kit, and as Ogonjek made kits of Soyuz and Vostok among others, it seemed perfectly feasible - but no one had ever seen one. Then a photo of the box was found, but there were still no details. Finally I managed to get my hands on the real thing, courtesy Tony James of Comet Miniatures in London. The Ogonjek Lunokhod is not a kit, but a toy, and comes with that classic ‘Russian toy’ look. It is motorised (six C-size batteries), and is ‘remote controlled’ via a stout cable - forget radio control!

The original Lunokhod 2 is of course still on the Moon, but it is now officially owned by Richard Garriott, the computer games developer and space tourist, and son of NASA astronaut Owen Garriott. Richard purchased Lunokhod 2 and Luna 21 in the 1993 Sotheby’s Soviet Space Sale in New York.

The pictures show, top to bottom:
1 A Soviet-era drawing showing how a Lunokhod sat atop its Luna carrier vehicle, before rolling down a long ramp.
2 A full-size Lunokhod replica on display at the Cosmosphere and Space Center in Kansas.
3, 4, 5 The Ogonjek Lunokhod, the name applied in both Russian and English, one on each side. The box is a typically Russian item with very basic colours, made from thick, but not exactly sturdy, card.

Visit Comet Miniatures here.

Visit the Cosmosphere here.

Look at Rowland Emett's work here.

DESTINATION MOON ROCKET FROM FANTASTIC PLASTIC

GEORGE PAL'S DESTINATION MOON MOVIE of 1950 was a classic of its kind. The acting was rather indifferent, but it did have a handsome spaceship, the Luna, looking like a sleeked-up version of a World War II German V-2.