Designed for being blasted into space and orbiting the Earth, the word Soyuz (in English, Union) has come into modern parlance and is synonymous with the Soviet space programme from the 1960s onwards.

This the earliest, most complete, example of Soviet space module on display outside of the former Soviet Union, although its exact provenance is not clear. It is plausible that this is a genuine Soyuz 7K-OK, taken off the production line incomplete due to an aborted mission or changes in the Soyuz design. Subsequently it was mocked up for display purposes outside a factory in Georgia, where it remained until it was acquired by the National Space Centre.