KALUGA, July 22. /TASS/. Acting Governor of Russia’s Kaluga Region Vladislav Shapsha has invited SpaceX founder Elon Musk to visit the Tsiolkovsky State Museum of the History of Cosmonautics, he told reporters during a working visit of Russian Minister of Culture Olga Lyubimova to Kaluga.
"Kaluga is the homeland of cosmonautics, and many famous people have visited this museum," the acting governor said. "We welcome everyone who has anything to do with space, and, of course, Elon Musk. We are waiting for him, we invite him to come."
For her part, director of the museum Natalya Abakumova noted that Elon Musk often quotes prominent Soviet rocket scientist Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, so he is likely to be interested in visiting the museum.
Earlier, the family of Soviet rocket engineer Sergey Korolev invited Elon Musk to visit Moscow to show him historic cosmonautics sights. For his part, Musk invited Korolev’s family to visit SpaceX factories and to attend one of the company’s next launches.
The Tsiolkovsky State Museum of the History of Cosmonautics opened in 1967. This is the first space museum in the world. It was created with the direct participation of Sergey Korolev and first man in space Yuri Gagarin. The new building of the museum in Kaluga is set to open by April 12, 2021.
Pioneer of astronautic theory Konstantin Tsiolkovsky (1857-1935) wrote the bulk of his works in Kaluga.