Flown Space Navigation System from First Successful Crewed Soyuz Flight in 1968

Removed from Soyuz-3 after it returned to Earth, having failed to dock with the uncrewed Soyuz-2 target.

Update: now a cool video of a revived unit spinning up, and a detailed reverse engineering by the amazing Ken Shirriff.

Ken started with an amazing teardown analysis of the analog clockwork computer inside: “The Globus INK is a remarkable piece of machinery, an analog computer that calculates orbits through an intricate system of gears, cams, and differentials. It provided cosmonauts with a high-resolution, full-color display of the spacecraft’s position, way beyond what an electronic space computer could provide in the 1960s. The globe rotated while fixed crosshairs on the plastic dome indicated the spacecraft’s position. Thus, the globe matched the cosmonauts’ view of the Earth, allowing them to confirm their location. Latitude and longitude dials next to the globe provided a numerical indication of location. Meanwhile, a light/shadow dial at the bottom showed when the spacecraft would be illuminated by the sun or in shadow, important information for docking. The Globus also had an orbit counter, indicating the number of orbits.

The Globus had a second mode, indicating where the spacecraft would land if they fired the retrorockets to initiate a landing. Flipping a switch caused the globe to rotate until the landing position was under the crosshairs and the cosmonauts could evaluate the suitability of this landing site.

The cosmonauts configured the Globus by turning knobs to set the spacecraft’s initial position and orbital period. From there, the Globus electromechanically tracked the orbit. Unlike the Apollo Guidance Computer, the Globus did not receive navigational information from an inertial measurement unit (IMU) or other sources, so it did not know the spacecraft’s real position. It was purely a display of the predicted position.”

This particular INK-2S Globus (Инк-2с Глобус) space navigation indicator was removed from the Soyuz-3 spacecraft by Cosmonaut Beregovoy after his day-long flight of 81 orbits. Intended to dock in space with the orbiting Soyuz-2, the mission, which launched on October 26, 1968, failed after several complications. He retained this unit and built a power supply for it, finally selling it from his personal collection in a Sotheby’s Russian Space History auction in 1996.

Essentially an analog mechanical computer, the space navigation indicator displayed the nadir of the spacecraft on a rotating terrestrial globe, indicating the spacecraft’s location relative to Earth coordinates. It was also used to calculate day and night while in orbit, to predict landing coordinates, and to calculate open windows for communication.

The orbit counter, control and calibration switches, digital gauges, and latitude and longitude gauges are translated in the comments below.

Essential to navigation and reentry, this Soyuz Globus was the first that was used and recovered (Soyuz 1 crashed on reentry killing Komarov, and Soyuz 2 was not crewed).

The Soviets concealed the fact that docking had been unsuccessfully attempted on this mission, calling it a “successful rendezvous” and the failure was disclosed only after the breakup of the Soviet Union. The Soyuz program was intended to rejuvenate the Soviet space program by developing space rendezvous and docking capability. Soyuz still flies today, albeit with a number of navigation system upgrades over the past 55 years.

An artifact in the Future Ventures 🚀 Space Collection.