New Trail in Russia Leads to a Spacecraft Crash Site

‘Perm Space’ is a government-funded eco-trail project that has been constructed in Russia by volunteers under the charitable organisation Parma.

A wooden walkway has been built by the volunteers in the middle of a forest in the Perm region of Russia which leads to a place significant in Russian space history. The place in question is the site of a spacecraft crash landing 55 years ago – the famous Voshkhod-2 spacecraft.

Voshkhod-2 was launched on March 2, 1965 with cosmonauts Aleksey Leonov and Pavel Belyayev on board. During this journey, Leonov became the first human to complete a spacewalk. After re-entering the Earth’s atmosphere, the spacecraft malfunctioned due to a system failure and crash landed in the middle of a forest, far away from their intended landing location. Both cosmonauts survived the accident but it took more than a day for the rescuers from the Soviet government to find them. The craft was left behind at the spot and it is now the site for this new trail.

The site of Perm Space is fitted with a gazebo and bathroom and a campsite for visitors wanting to stay overnight. As visitors approach the end of the walkway they will be able to view the crash site which where a life-sized model of the space capsule will be installed by Parma. Vladimir Lipnyagov, head of Parma, has been quoted as saying that the “site is important not only to the Perm region,” but also “to Russia and to the whole world” because there are not many places where cosmonauts have landed.

People have always come here but it was difficult to reach as there was no straight path to reach the site of the crash marked by a plaque. The new 400-metre long walkway makes it much easier for visitors.