"It's remarkable, totally remarkable," she said, holding a black X-ray sheet up to a studio light. Barnett pointed to a rocket, possibly used for flight control.

That is if the 1-ton spacecraft ever left the Earth's atmosphere -- the mystery Barnett hopes to solve before the craft goes on display in Fall 2005.

More than 230 Soyuz craft have been launched in the last 40 years. But because of the Cold War and the Soviets' meticulousness in keeping secrets, most of the space capsules were stripped and crushed upon their return to Earth to prevent the technology from leaking out.

Chabot received dozens of artifacts from the Russian space program in October, including the Soyuz capsule. The capsule was part of the first generation of Soyuz made, a 7K-0K model from the 1960s.

It spent at least 25 years in an outside central courtyard in a cultural palace in the former Soviet Republic of Georgia.

Chabot is restoring the capsule, which is deteriorating with age, before it becomes the centerpiece of a new space exhibit. Part of that process is finding out exactly what it is.

Enter the mystery of the Soyuz. It could have flown, most likely unmanned, in space and then been displayed in Georgia with few alterations to its original instruments. It could have been fitted with a menagerie of replacement instruments from other capsules.

It could have been a test capsule that was never flown, or a real capsule that was outfitted for display once it was made. Or it could just be a model with real instruments placed in it.

Chabot researchers have already found some clues. Numbers on the analog computer inside the capsule match with the Cosmos 613 mission, an unmanned mission launched in November 1973.

Chabot's capsule could have been used in that mission, or the computer from that capsule could have been just placed in the Soyuz. They will eventually remove the computer for cleaning and see if there is any evidence that it's not original.

"We've got a lot more clues to uncover," Barnett said.

She enlisted the help of John Powis of HESCO, a high-energy X-ray inspection firm for heavy industry. HESCO uses a portable machine to inspect very thick sections of steel to find cracks in bridges and refinery structures. Brad Klossner of Q.C. Services, which inspects airplane fuselage tanks for cracks among other services, also helped.

Barnett said she wanted to see what was inside before they start restoring the capsule and removing its parts. An X-ray was the perfect choice, she said.

The men taped black X-ray negatives to sections of the capsule where the jets, parachute and other features should be.

Everyone near the Chabot loading dock where the capsule is held was ordered to stand 100 feet away while Powis and Klossner zapped the capsule like an oversized tooth at a dentists office.

About an hour later, the first slides came out showing the engines and parachute material.

Barnett says the more equipment inside the capsule, the more likely it is to be an actual Soyuz rather than a model.

Chabot will use the process of finding more about the space capsule in its installation of a Soyuz educational display.

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