The monument is located outside the main entry to today's Exhibition of Achievements of the National Economy (VDNKh), in the northeastern part of Moscow, near Prospekt Mira ("Peace Avenue").

Since the 1960s, this part of Moscow in general has had a high concentration of space-themed sights and names: besides the monument and the museum under it, the grand "Cosmos" pavilion in the Exhibition Centre displayed many artifacts of the Soviet space program.

Many streets in the area have been named after the precursors of the space program (Nikolai Kibalchich, Friedrich Zander, Yuri Kondratyuk) and its participants (Sergey Korolyov).

However, it took until April 10, 1981 (two days before the 20th anniversary of Yuri Gagarin's flight) to complete the preparatory work and open the Memorial Museum of Cosmonautics.

Both sides of the monument base, in their front parts, are decorated with haut- and bas-reliefs depicting men and women of the space program: scientists, engineers, workers, their occupations indicated by appropriate accoutrements of the professions.

The Monument to the Conquerors of Space is featured on the 1967 10 kopeck piece, one of the series of the commemorative coins issued to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the October Revolution.

The monument was depicted on the home kit for the Russia national football team for the 2014 FIFA World Cup on the front of the shirts in different shades of maroon.

A copy is also exhibited in the park of the United Nations Office in Geneva, a gift donated by the USSR and designed by the architect Alexander Koltchin and sculptor Yuri Neroda.