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'In Space We Trust' is a Beautiful History of Exploration

The Russian space agency's interactive history is a visually stunning and informative look at humanity's exploration of the cosmos.
Image: screengrab from ‘In Space We Trust’

They say history is written by the victors—but when it comes to the history of space, everyone who participated in humanity's exploration of the cosmos is, in a way, a victor.

Although space exploration began as the pinnacle of animosity and military flexing between two superpowers, it has since evolved into one of the most beautiful and instructive examples of international collaboration and trust. It is this history that is so artfully captured in In Space We Trust, an interactive timeline of space exploration supported by Roscosmos, the Russian space agency.

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In the timeline (which for all its beauty will entirely monopolize your CPU usage) you navigate the history of space as a young cosmonaut. The timeline begins with the October 4, 1957 launch of Sputnik and takes the user through all the major space milestones: first spacecraft, journeys to other planets, landings on celestial bodies.

Each milestone is accompanied by a series of stunning animations, a brief description of the event and a link to a Wikipedia page on the topic in case you want to read more. Your journey is orchestrated with an ethereal soundtrack that is overlaid with sounds from space like cosmonauts on a radio or rocket engines igniting.

The final entry in the interactive history is the

New Horizons mission

to the Pluto-Charon system, and despite the timeline's historical robustness, one can't help but wish we'd done more space exploration so this beautiful art project wouldn't have to end.