The museum is located in the building of the former flight school where the first cosmonaut, Yuri Gagarin, studied. Its creation was initiated by an order from the Minister of Defense of the USSR in 1960. Initially, the museum was a Room of Military Glory of the Orenburg Higher Military Aviation School of Pilots. With the increase in exhibits and the search for Heroes of the Soviet Union, graduates of the school, it transformed into the Museum of the History of the School in the mid-1960s. The modern appearance of the museum was acquired after reconstruction in 1991. In 2007, it became a branch of the Museum of the History of Orenburg and received a new name, the Cosmonautics Museum.