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We needed

something

unique –
like the Soviet space glider Buran.

Our technician colleagues spent months disas-
sembling and reassembling the aircraft. In 2003,
it was finally done: the Lufthansa Boeing 747 was
erected at a height of about 20 meters.
In the following years, the houseboat of the
Kelly Family, Sean O‘Kelley, and the two
Canadair firefighting aircraft followed, as did the
grand opening of the Sinsheim Hotel and the first
negotiations in Bahrain - because we already
had our sights set on the next exhibit. Finally, the
entire exhibition was still missing the technology
around space travel. And here we didn‘t want
to be the same again, we needed something
unique - like the Soviet space glider Buran.
Here, also, a museum‘s member drew our
attention to the possible exhibit.

From Bahrain to Speyer
What seemed unproblematic at first ended up in
a legal battle that lasted for years: the ownership
rights had to be clarified. Thanks to the
Russian as well as the German embassy and
the government of the Kingdom of Bahrain, the
transport from the other side of the world could
finally start on March 6, 2008. From the Arabian
Gulf, it headed for the Red Sea. Leaving the Suez
Canal behind, the ship set course for the Strait of
Gibraltar. It then sailed past Portugal and France,
through the English Channel to Rotterdam.
From there, the Buran sailed up the Rhine on
a pontoon to Speyer. In the meantime, we
prepared a hall for the new exhibit. Today, this
space hall houses Europe‘s largest exhibition for
manned space flight. On an area of more than
5,000 square meters, we show about 600
unique exhibits documenting the history of space
travel from its beginnings, in the early 1960s,
to the current International Space Station ISS.
In 2013, the space exhibition „Apollo and
Beyond“ was supplemented by the thematic
area „The Moon“ - with a 3.4 billion year old
moonstone as a highlight.

There was no end to the transports. So, for
Speyer‘s 20th birthday, there was a permanent
loan from the German Society for the Rescue of
Castaways: the rescue cruiser John T. Essberger.
Every year, this ship ceremoniously opens our
popular technology festival, the BRAZZELTAG,
with its signal horn. This event was created on
the occasion of the 30th and 20th anniversary of
the museums. Always on the second weekend in
May it is called „the museum becomes to life!“.