Cosmonauts v astronauts: with these Space Race treasures, everyone wins

Russian and American adventures in space are revealed in vivid detail in the spectacular Cosmonauts exhibition at London's Science Museum, and in a massive new collection of photographs from Nasa's moon missions

London's Science Museum has boldly gone where no science museum has gone before. In Cosmonauts: Birth of the Space Age it has created a dazzling, unprecedented exhibition devoted to the Russian space program. To do so, the museum has borrowed a cornucopia of treasures from no fewer than 18 different institutions. Many of the objects on show have never been seen outside Russia. Some even had to be declassified to be to be brought to London. Science museum director Ian Blatchford has described it as "unique and unrepeatable". He is not exaggerating.

The exhibition explores uncharted territory, as fascinating and unfamiliar as any alien world. On show are not just the outlandish technologies that the Russians flung into orbit - and to the moon, and to the planets - but also the vision and the political ambition that fuelled their national space adventure.