ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses how the idea of cosmic dimension and humankind's place in it has been represented visually. It illustrates how the Soviet Union produced and projected its new cosmic scale through visual representations, that is, through the photographs and other illustrations depicting the first cosmic triumphs. The chapter consists of space-related photographs published in popular media in the Soviet Union during the first decade of the space age. The cosmic dream was realized when Sputnik was launched by the Soviet Union on October 4, 1957, just a few weeks after the 100th birthday of Konstantin Tsiolkovskii. The Luna Program presented a stunning thought: an entirely new dimension of time and space, celestial and interplanetary. Little by little the cosmic landscape faded and in the end the cosmonaut remained as an earthbound figure. The importance of the cosmic heroes was now on the surface of the Earth, not in the skies.
