The Soviet space program gave the world the first artificial satellite of Earth (in the left hand), the first planetary rover, and the first orbital station. On April 12, 1961, the era of space exploration began for all humankind.
But its origins lie deeper — at the end of the 19th century — with a humble schoolteacher from Kaluga, Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, the founder of theoretical cosmonautics (the Great Spirit, at the center). His ideas were forged into metal through the designs of engineer Sergei Korolev — the “Cosmic Father,” as he was called by Alexei Leonov, the first man to walk in space (to the left). And they were carried into the heavens by our beloved Yuri Gagarin.
The branch alludes to the song “And apple trees will bloom on Mars,” while at the center bench sits Icarus, a symbol of humanity’s ancient Hellenic dreams made real at last. Crowning the composition is the motto “Above and Beyond” — “To the heights and beyond the limits” — the distilled essence of the ideas and deeds of this truly cosmic trinity.
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