Space and the Land of Soviets

Our country began to dream about flights to planets and stars even before the Revolution. The revolutionaries dreamed of a breakthrough to the stars, realizing that only the society of the Society of the Future, for which they were going to die, could do this. The brilliant inventor-revolutionary Kibalchich, sentenced to death on death row, does not write letters to his relatives, not petitions for pardon, but draws sketches of a jet interstellar apparatus, knowing that the royal chisel-makers can save it in the prison archive for posterity.

The most advanced people of Russia dreamed about the Cosmos, a whole trend in philosophy was formed - Russian Cosmism. The founder of cosmonautics, Konstantin Eduardovich Tsiolkovsky, also belongs to the cosmist philosophers, who laid the foundation for theoretical basis space flights, gave a philosophical and technical justification for space exploration by Mankind. Tsiolkovsky was so ahead of his time that he was simply not understood in the West at that time and ... forgotten! Only the Russians remembered and honored him.

Nevertheless, starting from the 60s in the West, prominent scientists began to put forward space exploration projects, one-to-one coinciding with Tsiolkovsky's projects, but fully appropriating the authorship of his ideas. This category includes the so-called "Dyson sphere", " Space settlements O'Neill" and much more. In the West, the legacy of the great scientist and philosopher is almost erased from history and is practically unknown even to specialists.

By 1917, the ideas of Tsiolkovsky's flight to other worlds, to the stars and the resettlement of Mankind throughout the Universe, were noticeably spread among the progressive intelligentsia. One of the admirers of this idea was the closest associate (and opponent) of Lenin - Alexander Bogdanov. Being a very extraordinary person, he not only was a fan of these ideas, but also became famous then for writing two very popular science fiction novels (in 1907!) About an expedition to Mars - "Red Star" and "Engineer Manny ". These novels were classically utopian in style.

The impact of his novels on the minds of his contemporaries was very strong, for example, Alexei Tolstoy's "Aelita" was largely written under the influence of Bogdanov's books. By placing socialism on Mars, he thereby set the standard and goal - to do it the way it was on that very “red star named Mars”. Well, implicitly, he indicated another goal for the future of mankind - to rise to the stars.

Tsarist Russia, as well as modern oligarchic Russia, did not need any Cosmos and was even harmful. The Great October Socialist Revolution gave a chance for the development of Tsiolkovsky's ideas. The enthusiasm for the construction of the New Society, which was overwhelming the Land of Soviets, was inseparable for a Russian person with a dream of other worlds.

There is even a semi-legend that the red star on the coat of arms of the country is none other than Mars. A planet you MUST go to! A ruined, impoverished peasant country dreamed of flying into space. In the 1920s, A. Tolstoy's wonderful science fiction book Aelita, about the flight of two enthusiasts to Mars on a homemade rocket, gained immense popularity in the USSR. An interplanetary rocket was fantastic for that time, but the reflection of the state of mind in Red Russia was absolutely real: groups of enuziast engineers lived with the idea of ​​creating real means of overcoming interplanetary spaces. By the end of the twenties of the twentieth century, it became obvious that only rocket technology with reactive thrust was suitable for space exploration. The prototype of the engineer Los from Aelita was a real Soviet engineer - Friedrich Arturovich Zander, teacher at the Moscow Aviation Institute. Mortally ill with an incurable form of tuberculosis, he manages to found a scientific and engineering group GIRD, lay the foundations for theoretical calculations of jet engines, rocket astrodynamics, calculate the duration of space flights, put forward the concept of a space plane - a combination of an aircraft and a rocket, theoretically substantiate the principle of a gliding descent from near-Earth space, prove the idea " gravitational sling, which is now used by almost all spacecraft sent to study groups of planets.

Almost all subsequent developments in rocket technology were based on Zander's work.
The Moscow GIRD group included the future Chief Designer of Soviet launch vehicles - Sergei Pavlovich Korolev. At the beginning of the work, our rocket scientists had only one idea: to build a spacecraft for flying into space, as Zander dreamed - to Mars, which was supposed to be habitable, and as an intermediate stage - to the Moon, as Tsiolkovsky believed.

But reality has shown that without the completion of Industrialization, there can be no chance of a flight to Mars. Therefore, not romantic plans began to be built, but more realistic, but executable ones: rockets were supposed to be used in two main areas: “geophysical rockets” for studying the upper layers of the atmosphere, where balloons and planes could not then rise, and also in military affairs.

Geopolitical and ideological opponents made no secret of plans to prepare for the military destruction of Soviet Russia. By the way, the result of the development of the military direction was simple in concept, but with terrifying efficiency of the system salvo fire - jet mortars"Katyusha" designed by Ivan Platonovich Grave, he is also the inventor of a solid rocket on smokeless powder. Unfortunately, due to the total falsification of history, the name of the real creator of the legendary weapon is now little known. After the outbreak of the War, it was clearly not up to the development of flights to Mars, things were done that could directly help defeat the enemy: jet fighters, rocket boosters for heavy bombers, heavy 300-mm rocket mines ("Andryusha"), etc. were designed.

The use of V-1 cruise missiles and V-2 ballistic missiles by the Germans against England showed their high efficiency. Practice has shown that ballistic missiles were invulnerable to air defense of that time and were an irresistible weapon.

By the way, the idea cruise missile and the priority of its creation belongs to Zander, from whose unpublished pamphlet S.P. inherited it. Korolev, who called it "aircraft projectile". Such a rocket was tested by the Moscow GIRD in 1936. The Germans repeated this idea, according to their statements, not knowing about the Soviet development, however, according to one of the versions, the promising development was nevertheless stolen by German intelligence.

The birth of the space program

The rapid development of rocket technology after the Great Patriotic War inevitably led to the development of the Soviet Space Program. Soviet Space Program was born as a natural continuation of defense programs.

The plan for the flight of man into space was proposed to Stalin in 1946, but the answer was: "Half the country is in ruins, we must wait 7-8 years until we rise." Stalin remembered these plans and the state plans for the creation of the R-7, the basis of all Soviet space exploration, were signed by Stalin and accepted for execution just a few weeks before his death. It was planned not only to send a man to near-Earth space, but also to create an unprecedented weapon delivery vehicle in history - an intercontinental ballistic missile. By that time, the USSR had managed to create nuclear bomb, but without a means of delivery to the target, it could not become a full-fledged weapon of retaliation. The Americans had a completely reliable means of delivery - B-52 heavy bombers, especially since the Americans surrounded the USSR on all sides with their military bases, from which they freely hit any city in the USSR, while the main American cities were out of reach of Soviet bombers. The territory of the United States, with the exception of Alaska, remained practically inaccessible for a retaliatory strike. The Americans believed that the USSR was in a hopeless situation and would be a practically defenseless victim.

The US plans to deliver nuclear strikes on the cities of the USSR and unleash a war were well known, but yesterday's allies did not particularly hide them - preparations for the destruction of the USSR and the Russian people were carried out in full swing in the USA. According to the Dropshot plan, it was planned to drop 300 atomic bombs on Soviet cities, destroying almost half the population and most of the industrial potential. Plans were seriously created for dividing Russia into zones of occupation, personnel were selected for this, and so on.

In order to frustrate these plans, it was vital to create such an atomic bomb delivery vehicle that could reach the opposite hemisphere, otherwise the Anglo-Saxon fascists' terrible blow to Russian civilization was inevitable. The reachability of the territory of the aggressor for a retaliatory nuclear strike would seriously cool the ardor of these non-humans, who always exterminate defenseless people with pleasure, but fear a formidable enemy. Which, by the way, confirmed the near future.
In the mid-40s, our engineers had two options for solving the problem: a long-range bomber and a ballistic missile that went into near space.

Calculations showed that the United States could well protect itself from bombers mainly because of military bases around the world, often almost on the border of the USSR. It was almost impossible to shoot down a rocket. Only now have relatively reliable means of intercepting warheads appeared, but even in the foreseeable future, they are still not able to repel a massive strike of thousands of missiles.

It is quite natural that it was the development of the rocket industry that received the maximum funding. But our engineers continued to dream about the stars. The rocket can not only deliver an atomic bomb to any point on the Earth, but can also put an artificial earth satellite (AES) into orbit. The Soviet people believed that the military theme of their developments was an inevitable but transient evil that was about to end. They believed in a bright future, when war and violence would go forever into the past, and it would be possible to directly study the secrets of the universe.

In the country that defeated fascism, such ideas were in the air. Works of fantastic literature of the 30s and postwar years directly testify to this.
Even before the launch of the First Artificial Earth Satellite (AES) in our country, Ivan Antonovich Efremov created a brilliant fantasy work "The Andromeda Nebula" about the people of the Future and flights to the stars. I.A. Efremov could not have known about the deeply classified work on the creation of powerful rockets capable of launching satellites into Earth orbit and launching vehicles to celestial bodies. He simply reflected the current state of mind of the people of the country, their dreams and specific ideas about the beautiful Future. And the fact that this Future is directly connected with the stars was very significant.

First steps for the atmosphere

Naturally, in the process of creating missiles, it could not do without test launches. These launches were often used to probe the upper atmosphere. Even a special direction in the design and use of ballistic missiles has emerged - a geophysical missile. Almost all the rockets before the "seven", which launched the first satellite into orbit, were geophysical. The numbering was unpretentious: the first letter "P" - "rocket", and then the model number. The seventh model is the one that brought out both the first satellite and the first ship with a man on board.

The more powerful rockets became, the higher they climbed into the upper atmosphere, which was already less and less different from outer space. Already R-5 could go into space along a ballistic trajectory. But for a full-fledged launch of the satellite, it was not yet suitable.

Our scientists were aware that the US was also working on rocket issues, especially since they brought the talented inventor of German rockets, Wernher von Braun, to the US and managed to kidnap a number of other prominent German scientists. But since the USA had carriers nuclear weapons B-52 aircraft, they were in no hurry with the development of powerful missiles. Apparently, they believed that it would not come to this - the USSR would fall earlier. Nevertheless, they announced quite noisily that they were going to launch the first artificial satellite of the Earth. They even demonstrated what they were going to launch - an apparatus the size of an orange. Around this case, as usual for Americans, an incredible propaganda noise was raised. It was believed that this launch would be an undoubted demonstration to the whole world of the absolute superiority of Anglo-Saxon science over all others, above all over Soviet science. They did not even doubt that they would be the first. Moreover, there was deafening silence on the part of the “Russians” in this area. US intelligence knew that work on missiles was being carried out in the USSR, but they did not know how successful it was. By default, it was believed that the Russians "always" lag behind the Americans.

The launch of the American rocket was timed to coincide with the International Geophysical Year. But they were followed by a series of failures.

We also thought about launching the first satellite.

A preliminary design of a rocket for launching a satellite was even carried out on the basis of already worked out, working models. In the course of these works, it became clear that already with the R-5 it is technically possible, although it was a missile medium range. It was supposed (according to the draft design) to link four of these rockets to launch a satellite.

But the most important goal at that time was the creation of an intercontinental ballistic missile capable of carrying an atomic bomb.

Therefore, the satellite launch project was put on hold until the R-7 arrived. "Seven" was successfully tested just in time for the geophysical year. Since it was absolutely not important for the rocket what kind of cargo to carry, it was decided to put Sputnik as a payload in one of the launches.

By the way, Sputnik, according to engineers, was made very interestingly: the shell of an atomic bomb with a completely removed filling served as its body. The filling for the first satellite was a simple radio transmitter.

The history of space exploration from the very beginning developed in a bipolar world. Space confrontation has become a good stimulus for both American and Soviet programs. The consequence of such a confrontation was that all successes became a cause for international pride and were advertised on a planetary scale. But this happened only with successes, and failures remained sealed, both for rivals and for their own citizens.

Captured rockets

At the beginning of World War II, there was no rocket technology in the USSR at all, while German scientists were developing several combat missile programs at once. The scientific material that went to the winners as a trophy formed the basis of Soviet developments. Captured German scientists adapted the famous V-2 for space needs, thanks to which in 1957 the first satellite was launched into Earth orbit.

The USSR space program arose by chance

Sergei Korolev, one of the leading scientists of the Soviet missile program, kept secret his developments, which were originally aimed at creating intercontinental ballistic missiles. Many at the top of the party did not take seriously the prospect of launching satellites and rockets. Only when Korolev outlined the propaganda prospects for space exploration did serious progress begin in this area.

Space dogs didn't return to Earth

Belka and Strelka are the first Soviet cosmonaut dogs to make an orbital space flight and return to Earth unharmed. The flight took place on the Sputnik-5 spacecraft. The launch took place on August 19, 1960, the flight lasted more than 25 hours, during which time the ship made 17 complete orbits around the Earth. But few people know that several more animals were sent before Belka and Strelka, which did not return. Many of the test subjects died during takeoff, from overloads and high temperatures. One of the experimental dogs - Laika - died a few hours after the start due to the failure of the thermoregulation system.

Yuri Gagarin may not be the first man in space

On April 12, 1961, Yuri Gagarin became the first man in space by orbiting the Earth at spaceship East. However, some historians believe that before the triumphant launch, several failed attempts during which Gagarin's predecessors died. But no data on this matter was made public, and it is quite possible that the documents were destroyed under a program of absolute secrecy.

The first satellite network in the world

The launch vehicles for the Vostok spacecraft, which launched the satellites and Gagarin into orbit, were originally developed in parallel with the spy satellite program.

Astronauts and wolves

Pavel Belyaev and Alexei Leonov entered orbit on the Voskhod spacecraft on March 18, 1965, during the mission during which Leonov made history by making the first spacewalk in outer space. Despite the historic achievement, the mission was fraught with danger: Leonov was at risk of heat stroke and decompression sickness as a result of errors in the design of the suit. Nevertheless, everything went well, but after landing 180 kilometers north of the city Perm cosmonauts had a hard time. In the TASS report, this was called a landing in a "reserve area", which in fact was a remote Permian taiga. After landing, the huge canopy of the parachute, stuck on two tall fir trees, fluttered in the wind. Wild forest it was teeming with bears and wolves, and Leonov and Belyaev had to wait about 12 hours before the rescue mission arrived.

USSR launched the first lunar rover

While the US was the first to land a man on the moon, the Soviets were the first to launch a lunar rover to the lunar surface. "Lunokhod-1" (Apparatus 8EL No. 203) is the world's first planetary rover that successfully worked on the surface of another celestial body - the Moon. Belonged to a series of Soviet remote-controlled self-propelled vehicles "Lunokhod" for lunar exploration (project E-8), worked on the moon for eleven lunar days(10.5 Earth months).

The USSR created the safest descent capsules in history

Despite safety failures in the early days of space exploration, the Soyuz capsule became the most reliable return system for astronauts to Earth, still in use today.

The USSR did not have relations with the Moon

The Soviet manned lunar programs, in contrast to their unmanned missions, were largely deficient, mainly due to disabilities missiles H1. In general, historians of Russian cosmonautics believe that the collapse of the Soviet lunar program with the participation of the N-1 rocket was largely due not only to the economic difficulties of those years and the split among the chief designers, but also to the installation of the country's leadership on this project. The government did not clearly calculate its financial side, and therefore, when it came to allocating the necessary funds for it, the country's leaders demanded that the designers observe the savings regime.

Luna-15

Buzz Aldrin said that when they flew away from the surface of the moon, they saw an object that was approaching the surface. The American conspiracy theory says that it was the Soviet Luna 15 probe that crashed on the surface of the satellite during landing.

Good afternoon, my dear reader. Your venerable servant, like millions of boys born in the Soviet Union, dreamed of becoming an astronaut. I did not become one, due to health and, strange as it may sound, growth. But the distant and unknown space attracts me to this day.

In this article, I want to tell you about such interesting and truly cosmic things as launch vehicles and the payload that they delivered into outer space.

Dense space exploration began in the middle of the third five-year plan, after the end of World War II. Active developments were carried out in many countries, but the main leaders were naturally the USSR and the USA. The championship in the successful launch and launch of a launch vehicle from PS-1 (the simplest satellite) into low Earth orbit belonged to the USSR. Before the first successful launch, there were already six generations of missiles and only the seventh generation (R-7) was able to develop the first cosmic speed at 8 km/s to overcome gravity and enter Earth orbit. Space rockets originated from long-range ballistic missiles, by boosting the engine. First, I'll explain something to you. A rocket and a spaceship are two different things.

The rocket itself is just a means of delivering a spacecraft into space. These are the first 30 meters in the figure. And the spaceship is already attached to the rocket at the very top. However, there may not be a spaceship there, anything can be located there, from a satellite to nuclear warhead. Which served as a great incentive and fear for the powers. The first successful launch and launch of a satellite into orbit meant a lot for the country. But above all else, the military advantage.

The launch vehicles themselves, until the first successful launch, have only an alphanumeric designation. And only after fixing the successful output of the payload to a given height, they get a name.

The 8K71 (R-7) intercontinental ballistic missile, as well as the well-known ball with four antennas, which she launched into space, also became an erudite’s piggy bank: “Sputnik” also became. It happened on October 4, 1957.


Here is the very first artificial satellite PS-1 undergoing a final check of all systems.


PS-1 in space. (the picture is not the original shooting)

Five months later, another launch vehicle (8A91) Sputnik 3 was launched. Such a short period in development is due to the fact that the first launch vehicles could lift a payload of several kilograms into space, and launch with PS-1 on board , was only the first goal against the United States. When the Americans accepted the fact that the USSR had overtaken them in the race for first place in spacewalks, they began to finish their rockets with a vengeance. The USSR needed to get ahead of the United States again and create a rocket that could launch a payload of a ton into space. And this is, after all, a real threat. Who knows how to stuff such a rocket and send it to Washington? And Sputnik-3 was just the first rocket, with a payload of 1300 kg.


Launch vehicle "Sputnik". On the left are three satellites that he put into orbit around the earth.

In the US, there was nuclear hysteria without it. In kindergartens, schools, factories and factories, endless exercises began in case of a nuclear strike. This was the first time that the Americans had nothing to oppose the USSR. Intercontinental ballistic missiles can reach the USSR in 11 minutes. A nuclear charge can fly from space much faster. Of course, all this is too complicated to really think so. But fear has big eyes.





By the way, here's something else to add to the piggy bank of an erudite: How long do you think a rocket flies into space? One hour, two? Maybe half an hour?
To reach an altitude of 118 km, the rocket takes approximately 500 seconds, which is less than 10 minutes. An altitude of 118 km (100 km) is the so-called Karman line, where aeronautics becomes completely impossible. It is generally accepted that a flight is considered space if the Karman line has been overcome.


The rocket is really American, but this picture very well reflects the atmosphere of the earth and the transition points.

The third rocket was the Luna. The USSR, seeing the futile attempts of the Americans, with their capitalist system, where the rocket is built not by the state, but by private companies that are more interested in profit than in the space race, began to think about flying to the moon. And already on December 2, 1959, the launch vehicle (8K71), by equipping the third stage (block "E"), successfully set off towards our cause of the ebb and flow. They could have done earlier, but due to the developing self-oscillations, the launch vehicles were destroyed in flight at 102-104 seconds. And only after the installation of hydraulic damper blocks in the fuel systems, the rocket successfully reached ... a heliocentric orbit and became the first artificial satellite of the sun. And all because of the failure to take into account the propagation time of the AMS radio command (automatic interplanetary station).

The next launch vehicle was Vostok 8K72. He then flew in September 1959 to the moon and successfully threw the Luna-2 AMS there, and a couple of pentagons with symbols of the USSR.


Launch vehicle "Vostok" standing on a pedestal at VDNKh in Moscow.


Two metal pentagons with the symbols of the USSR, sent along with AMS-2 to the moon.

(After this luck, the Americans began to build a pavilion where they decided to shoot a film about landing on the moon. Joke.) On October 4, the same year, a similar rocket was launched from the AMS Luna-3, which for the first time in the history of mankind, was able to photograph reverse side Moon. Making ordinary Americans cry, huddled in a corner. Since, unfortunately, the moon on the other side is absolutely the same and there are no lunar parks and lunar cities on it.


Another side of the moon. 1959

Korolev, on the other hand, was planning to launch a man into space at full speed, and therefore, in complete secrecy, a life support system for a man in space was being developed. Spacecraft of the Sputnik series, launched on May 15, 1960. It was the first prototype of the Vostok satellite, which was used for the first human space flight.


A copy of the spacecraft "Sputnik"

The Sputnik 2 spacecraft was not intended to return to earth. But still it was decided to send into orbit Living being. It was a beautiful mongrel named Laika. She was found in one of the dog shelters. They were selected according to the principle - white, small, not thoroughbred, as it should not be picky about food. 10 dogs were selected, of which only three were selected and tested. But one was waiting for offspring, and the other had congenital curvature of the paws and was left as technological. Scientists have developed a feeding system, twice a day, a system of sewage and made a small operation to implant sensors. One was placed at the ribs, and the other at the carotid artery, to monitor breathing and pulse. Laika was launched into space on November 3, 1957. Having made incorrect calculations in thermoregulation, the temperature in the ship rose to 40 ° C and within 5 hours the dog died of overheating, although the flight was calculated for 7 days (the oxygen supply of the ship). Laika was doomed from the start. Many of the workers who participated in the experiment were morally depressed very much. for a long time. The Western press reacted very negatively to this flight and TASS transmitted information about the dog's well-being for another seven days, although the dog was already dead.


Laika. She was the first living creature to travel into space, but without a chance to return.

The Sputnik-4 spacecraft was created to study the operation of the life support system and various situations, associated with the flight of man into space: a doll with a height of 164 cm and a weight of 72 kg was sent on it. After four days of flight, the satellite deviated from the planned course and, at the beginning of deceleration, instead of entering the atmosphere, it was thrown into a higher orbit, after which it was no longer able to return to the atmosphere in the planned mode. The wreckage of the satellite was found in the middle of the main street in the town of Manitewak in the US state of Wisconsin, which seemed to hint.


The remains of "Sputnik-4" in the middle of the main street in the town of Manitewak in the US state of Wisconsin.


Sputnik-4


1. Photographic equipment; 2. Descent module; 3. Cylinders of the orientation system; 4. Instrument compartment;
5. Antennas for telemetry systems; 6. Brake propulsion system; 7. Sun orientation sensor;
8. Vertical builder; 9. Program radio link antenna; 10. Antenna of the radio intelligence system

After this incident, every two months, there were launches on Vostok launch vehicles of any representatives of the earth's fauna. In July, the dogs Chaika and Chanterelle were launched, but unfortunately, at the 19th second of the flight, the side block of the first stage collapsed at the launch vehicle, as a result of which it fell and exploded. The dogs Chaika and Chanterelle died.


The first dogs to fly into space on a return spacecraft (descent vehicle).
Unfortunately, they were not destined to return.

And in August of the 60th, our two prides, Squirrel and Strelochka, made a successful flight! But write down the following information in your piggy bank: Together with Belka and Strelka, there were 40 mice and 2 rats on board. They spent 1 day and 9 hours in space. Shortly after landing, Strelka had six healthy puppies. One of them was personally asked by Nikita Sergeevich Khrushchev. He sent it as a gift to Carolyn Kennedy, daughter of US President John F. Kennedy.


Belka and Strelka, the first dogs to return from space.


There were not only dogs on board Sputnik 5, but also such cute rats.

In December of the same year, Sputnik-6 was launched. The crew of the ship were dogs Mushka and Pchelka, two guinea pigs, two white laboratory rats, 14 black mice of the C57 line, seven mice of hybrids from mice of SBA and C57 and five outbred mice. A series of biological experiments, including research on the possibility of flights of geophysical and space rockets living creatures, observation of the behavior of highly organized animals in the conditions of such flights, as well as the study of complex phenomena in near-Earth space.
Scientists have studied the effects on animals of most factors of a physical and cosmic nature: altered gravity, vibration and overloads, sound and noise stimuli of varying intensity, exposure to cosmic radiation, hypokinesia and hypodynamia. The flight lasted a little over a day. On orbit 17, due to a failure of the braking engine control system, the descent began in an off-design area. It was decided to destroy the device by detonating the charge, in order to exclude an unplanned fall into foreign territory. All living beings on board perished. Despite the fact that the apparatus was destroyed, the objectives of the mission were achieved, the collected scientific data were transmitted to Earth using telemetry and television.


Dogs Mushka and Pcholka before space flight.

After this incident, there were two more successful and one not very successful launches of Vostok missiles. The Americans were indignant and every day became gloomier and gloomier and in every possible way intercepted the encrypted signals and tried to decipher them, but tolerated the fails.


Spy photo obtained by US intelligence who deciphered the radio broadcast code from Sputnik-6

On April 12, 1961, the USSR delivered its final blow and sent Yura into space on the same launch vehicle, in the Vostok-1 spacecraft, which completed one revolution around the Earth and landed at 10 hours and 55 minutes. To understand what the Vostok-1 spacecraft is, I will give its overall characteristics:

The mass of the apparatus is 4.725 tons;
Diameter of the hermetic case - 2.2 m;
Length (without antennas) - 4.4 m;
Maximum diameter - 2.43 m

(As I wrote above, I am not an astronaut, I just had the opportunity to sit in a similar apparatus on earth.) This is very inconvenient aircraft I will tell you. With my height of 190 cm, it was extremely uncomfortable to sit in a bucket chair, and even in a spacesuit. According to this, Gagarin was selected for height, weight and health. (170/70/excellent) But even Gagarin probably felt uncomfortable in such a tiny capsule.


The descent module "Vostok" and next to it is an ejection seat.

I want to note that the first human flight was fully automatic, but Yura could switch the ship to manual control at any time. To do this, it was necessary to enter a special security code to turn off the automation, which was in a sealed envelope, which was in an egg, an egg in a duck, a duck .... in short, before the flight, Korolev whispered this code to Yurka, after all, you never know? And everything was done for the sake of the fact that no one knew how to behave nervous system man in space and whether he will go crazy. Therefore, the code for manual control was placed in an envelope that only a sane person could open.


Our universal pride!

I want to tell you some interesting details about the first human flight.

Gagarin was that still "Cedar".


Rocket launches always occur at irregular times.


At 9-57 Gagarin waved his hand personally to the President of America, flying over it.


Bus carrying astronauts to the rocket, blue.


The same bus.


Gagarin could cancel the flight at any moment and be replaced by Titov, who in turn could be replaced by Nelyubov.

Pencils in space are best tied. By the way, due to weightlessness, ordinary fountain pens do not write in space.

When descending spacecraft, due to problems in the propulsion system, the ship began to rotate for 10 minutes with a full revolution amplitude of 1 second. Gagarin, did not frighten the Queen and vaguely reported on an emergency situation, which speaks of his nerves of steel. All descent vehicles of the Vostok type land on a ballistic trajectory, which leads to overloads of up to 10 ji. In addition, the ship gets very hot and crackles wildly in the lower atmosphere, which can put a lot of pressure on the psyche. When the ship reaches a mark of 7 km above the ground, the astronaut ejects, who descends separately from the descent vehicle on his own parachutes. What is ejection on the ship Vostok? When the descent vehicle releases the parachute and the speed gradually drops from 900 km/h to 72 km/h, a pyrotechnic charge is triggered under the cosmonaut's seat and the seat, together with the astronaut, whistles into free fall. Then the cosmonaut must have time to detach from the seat and independently parachute down to earth. And this is with wild overloads, constant fear and distrust of automation. After the ejection, Gagarin's oxygen supply valve did not work and he began to suffocate. After a while, the valve opened and Yura took a deep breath. When the parachute opened, it began to be demolished straight into the Volga. Let me remind you that the water in April is a bit cold and he was again on the verge of death, and his ability to maneuver with the help of lines saved him. I think it is beyond words that he managed to endure a little during this hour. It was worth it. Yuri Alekseevich Gagarin, the most famous (contemporary) person on earth who ever lived.


During the descent, the capsule begins to burn in the lower atmosphere.


Parachute opens at 900 km/h


The capsule lands at a speed of 7m/s


This is how the descent vehicle burns.


Prelaunch check of all systems.


Korolev, without hiding his excitement, communicates with Gagarin during the flight.

Most famous person on the planet!

On the cover of Time magazine.


On the cover of Life magazine.


But he himself was very modest.

With this, I will finish the first part about the space exploration of the USSR. If you are interested in continuing, I will be happy to write. Later I will talk about other countries, including the United States, which have also done a lot in this area of ​​activity.

Our country began to dream about flights to planets and stars even before the Revolution. The revolutionaries dreamed of a breakthrough to the stars of the Society of the Future, realizing that only the society for which they were going to die could do this. Sentenced to death, the brilliant revolutionary inventor Kibalchich on death row does not write letters to his relatives, not petitions for pardon, but draws sketches of a jet interstellar apparatus, knowing that it can be preserved in the prison archive for posterity. The most advanced people of Russia dreamed of the Cosmos, a whole trend in the philosophy of Russian - Cosmism was formed. The founder of cosmonautics Konstantin Eduardovich Tsiolkovsky, who laid the theoretical foundations of space flights, gave a philosophical and technical justification for the exploration of space by Mankind, also belongs to the cosmist philosophers. Tsiolkovsky was so ahead of his time that he was simply not understood in the West at that time and ... forgotten! Only the Russians remembered and honored him.

Nevertheless, starting from the 60s in the West, prominent scientists began to put forward space exploration projects, one-to-one coinciding with Tsiolkovsky's projects, but fully appropriating the authorship of his ideas. This category includes the so-called "Dyson Sphere", "O'Neill Space Settlements" and much more. In the West, the legacy of the great scientist and philosopher is almost erased from history and is practically unknown even to specialists.

Tsarist Russia, as well as modern oligarchic Russia, did not need any and was even harmful. The Great October Socialist Revolution gave a chance for the development of Tsiolkovsky's ideas. The enthusiasm for the construction of the New Society, which was overwhelming the Land of Soviets, was inseparable for a Russian person with a dream of other worlds.

There is even a semi-legend that the red star on the coat of arms of the country is none other than Mars. A planet you MUST go to! A ruined, impoverished peasant country dreamed of flying into space. In the 1920s, A. Tolstoy's wonderful science fiction book Aelita, about the flight of two enthusiasts to Mars on a homemade rocket, gained immense popularity in the USSR. An interplanetary rocket was fantastic for that time, but the reflection of the state of mind in Red Russia was absolutely real: groups of enusiast engineers lived with the idea of ​​creating real means of overcoming interplanetary spaces. By the end of the twenties of the twentieth century, it became obvious that only rocket technology with reactive thrust was suitable for space exploration. The prototype of the engineer Los from Aelita was a real Soviet engineer - Friedrich Zander, a teacher at the Moscow Aviation Institute. Mortally ill with an incurable form of tuberculosis, he manages to found a scientific and engineering group GIRD, lay the foundations for theoretical calculations of jet engines, rocket astrodynamics, calculate the duration of space flights, put forward the concept of a space plane - a combination of an aircraft and a rocket, theoretically substantiate the principle of a gliding descent from near-Earth space, prove the idea " gravitational sling, which is now used by almost all spacecraft sent to study groups of planets. Almost all subsequent developments in rocket technology were based on Zander's work.

The Moscow GIRD group included the future Chief Designer of Soviet launch vehicles - Sergei Pavlovich Korolev. At the beginning of the work, our rocket scientists had only one idea: to build a spacecraft for flying into space, as Zander dreamed - to Mars, which was supposed to be habitable, and as an intermediate stage - to the Moon, as Tsiolkovsky believed. But reality has shown that without the completion of Industrialization, there can be no chance of a flight to Mars. Therefore, not romantic plans began to be built, but more realistic, but executable ones: rockets were supposed to be used in two main areas: “geophysical rockets” for studying the upper layers of the atmosphere, where balloons and planes could not then rise, and also in military affairs. Geopolitical and ideological opponents made no secret of plans to prepare for the military destruction of Soviet Russia. By the way, the result of the development of the military direction was simple in concept, but with terrifying efficiency, multiple launch rocket systems - Katyusha rocket launchers designed by Ivan Platonovich Grave, who is also the inventor of a solid-fuel rocket on smokeless powder. Unfortunately, due to the total falsification of history, the name of the real creator of the legendary weapon is now little known. After the outbreak of the War, it was clearly not up to the development of flights to Mars, things were done that could directly help defeat the enemy: jet fighters, rocket boosters for heavy bombers, heavy 300-mm rocket mines ("Andryusha"), etc. were designed.

The use of V-1 cruise missiles and V-2 ballistic missiles by the Germans against England showed their high efficiency. Practice has shown that ballistic missiles were invulnerable to air defense of that time and were an irresistible weapon.
By the way, the idea of ​​a cruise missile and the priority of its creation belongs to S.P. Korolev, who called her "aircraft projectile". Such a rocket was tested by the Moscow GIRD in 1936. The Germans repeated this idea, according to their statements, not knowing about the Soviet development, however, according to one of the versions, the promising development was nevertheless stolen by German intelligence.


The birth of the space program

The rapid development of rocket technology after the Great Patriotic War inevitably led to the development of the Soviet Space Program. The Soviet Space Program was born as a natural extension of defense programs. The plan for the flight of man into space was proposed to Stalin in 1946, but the answer was: "Half the country is in ruins, we must wait 7-8 years until we rise." Stalin remembered these plans and the state plans for the creation of the R-7, the basis of all Soviet space exploration, were signed by Stalin and accepted for execution just a few weeks before his death.

It was planned not only to send a man to near-Earth space, but also to create an unprecedented weapon delivery vehicle in history - an intercontinental ballistic missile. By that time, the USSR had managed to create a nuclear bomb, but without means of delivery to the target, it could not become a full-fledged weapon of retaliation. The Americans had a completely reliable means of delivery - B-52 heavy bombers, especially the Americans, surrounded the USSR on all sides with their military bases, from which they can freely reach any city in the USSR with their bombers, while the main American cities were out of reach Soviet bombers. The territory of the United States, with the exception of Alaska, remained practically inaccessible for a retaliatory strike. The Americans believed that the USSR was in a hopeless situation and would be a practically defenseless victim.

The US plans to deliver nuclear strikes on the cities of the USSR and unleash a war were well known, but yesterday's allies did not particularly hide them - preparations for the destruction of the USSR and the Russian people were carried out in the USA in full swing. According to the Dropshot plan, it was planned to drop 300 atomic bombs on Soviet cities, destroying almost half the population and most of the industrial potential. Plans were seriously created for dividing Russia into zones of occupation, personnel were selected for this, and so on.

In order to frustrate these plans, it was vital to create such an atomic bomb delivery vehicle that could reach the opposite hemisphere, otherwise the Anglo-Saxon fascists' terrible blow to Russian civilization was inevitable. The reachability of the territory of the aggressor for a retaliatory nuclear strike would seriously cool down these non-humans, who delight in exterminating defenseless people, but fearing a formidable enemy. Which, by the way, confirmed the near future.

In the mid-40s, our engineers had two options for solving the problem: a long-range bomber and a ballistic missile that went into near space.
Calculations showed that the United States could well protect itself from bombers mainly because of military bases around the world, often almost on the border of the USSR. It was almost impossible to shoot down a rocket. Only now have relatively reliable means of intercepting warheads appeared, but even in the foreseeable future, they are still not able to repel a massive strike of thousands of missiles.

It is quite natural that it was the development of the rocket industry that received the maximum funding. But our engineers continued to dream about the stars. The rocket not only can deliver an atomic bomb to any point on the Earth, but can also be put into orbit by an artificial earth satellite (AES). The Soviet people believed that the military theme of their developments was an inevitable but transient evil that was about to end. They believed in a bright future, when war and violence would go forever into the past, and it would be possible to directly study the secrets of the universe.

In the country that defeated fascism, such ideas were in the air. The works of science fiction literature of the 1930s and post-war years directly testify to this.
Even before the launch of the First Artificial Earth Satellite (AES) in our country, Ivan Antonovich Efremov created a brilliant fantasy work "The Andromeda Nebula" about the people of the Future and flights to the stars. I.A. Efremov could have known about the deeply classified work on the creation of powerful rockets capable of launching satellites into Earth's orbit and launching vehicles to celestial bodies. He simply reflected the current state of mind of the people of the country, their dreams and specific ideas about the beautiful Future. And the fact that this Future is directly connected with the stars was very significant.

First steps for the atmosphere
Naturally, in the process of creating missiles, it could not do without test launches. These launches were often used to probe the upper atmosphere. Therefore, even a special direction in the design and use of ballistic missiles stood out - a geophysical missile. Almost all the rockets before the "seven", which launched the first satellite into orbit, were also geophysical. The numbering was unpretentious: the first letter was "rocket", and then the model number. The seventh model is the one that brought out both the first satellite and the first ship with a man on board.
The more powerful the rockets became, the higher they climbed into the upper layers of the atmosphere, which were already less and less different from outer space. Already R-5 could go into space along a ballistic trajectory. But for a full-fledged launch of the satellite, it was not yet suitable.
Our scientists were aware that the US was also working on rocket issues, especially since they brought the talented inventor of German rockets, von Braun, to the US and managed to kidnap a number of other prominent German scientists. But since the United States had carriers of nuclear weapons, the B-52 aircraft, they were in no hurry to develop powerful missiles. Apparently, they believed that it would not come to this - the USSR would fall earlier. Nevertheless, they announced quite noisily that they were going to launch the first artificial satellite of the Earth. They even demonstrated what they were going to launch - an apparatus the size of an orange. Around this case, as usual for Americans, an incredible propaganda noise was raised. It was believed that this launch would be a triumph of American science and an undoubted demonstration to the whole world of the absolute superiority of Anglo-Saxon science over all others, above all over Soviet science. They did not even doubt that this would be the case - they would be the first. Moreover, there was deafening silence on the part of the “Russians” in this area. US intelligence knew that work on missiles was being carried out in the USSR, but they did not know how successful it was. By default, it was believed that the Russians "always" lag behind the Americans.
The launch of the American rocket was timed to coincide with the International Geophysical Year. But they were followed by a series of failures.
We also thought about launching the first satellite.
A preliminary design of a rocket for launching a satellite was even carried out on the basis of already worked out, working models. In the course of these works, it became clear that even with the R-5 it is technically possible, although it was a medium-range missile. It was supposed (according to the draft design) to link four of these rockets to launch a satellite.

Sputnik Photo

But the most important goal at that time was the creation of an intercontinental ballistic missile capable of carrying an atomic bomb.
Therefore, the satellite launch project was put on hold until the R-7 arrived. "Seven" was successfully tested just in time for the geophysical year. Since it was absolutely not important for the rocket what kind of cargo to carry, it was decided to put Sputnik as a payload in one of the launches.
By the way, Sputnik, according to engineers, was made very interestingly: the shell of an atomic bomb with a completely removed filling served as its body. The filling for the first satellite was a simple radio transmitter.

The political significance of the launch of the first satellite

Already the weight of the first satellite plunged American engineers into amazement. If they were counting on using their super-advanced launch vehicle to "launch an orange", then the Soviet satellite weighed almost a centner.

The second artificial satellite of the Earth is the first biological satellite in the world, in the pressurized cabin of which in November 1957 the dog Laika flew. And the launch of the third satellite was generally shocking - its weight was one and a half tons.

Second Sputnik Model

Photo of the third satellite.

Further detailing the space program

At first, the program as such was only in the minds of engineers and scientists directly involved in the creation of rocket technology. She wore a completely abstract character like: “It would be nice to fly to the Moon, to Mars, to the Stars,” but when it became absolutely clear that Sputnik would be launched in the next few years, Korolev sent a letter to the academicians asking them to express their opinion on the tasks, that could be solved and studies that could be carried out on board artificial satellite Earth. Some academicians thought that this was a stupid joke and answered in the spirit: “I'm not fond of science fiction!” - there were, unfortunately, retrogrades. But the proposals of those scientists who approached the issue seriously became the basis of the Soviet Space Program.
All proposals that were received were grouped into the following sections:

study of the upper layers of the Earth's atmosphere (ionosphere), and near-Earth space;
study of the Earth from space in the interests of cartography, meteorology, geophysics;
Study of near-Earth space;
extra-atmospheric astronomy;
Direct study of the Moon and the bodies of the solar system.
Subsequently, this Program was only supplemented in detail and concretized.
It was somehow taken for granted that this Program is forever, and that the study and exploration of outer space will be a continuous, planned process and completely abstracted from any purely "entertainment", ambitious goals, such as the naked pursuit of records. As always in the USSR, in relation to such areas of activity, the planning horizon was "for centuries", in contrast to the Western 4-5 years.

Clarifications from S.P. Queen
Korolev was an engineer, and, of course, he calculated those steps that led to the solution of the grandiose tasks laid down in the Space Program. Korolev had a specific goal-dream - a flight to Mars, and for its implementation he built his "stairway to heaven" - consistently, methodically, purposefully. All those steps that he outlined for the Martian expedition, the country subsequently carefully passed without an empty pursuit of records and useless spending of funds to achieve momentary benefits to the detriment of the main thing.
Everything was done by master plan compiled by S.P. Korolev, designed for decades to come, with which most engineers agreed, as well as those who were responsible for decision-making in the country's leadership. It is quite natural to forget about "Earthly affairs", and no one was going to take care of the current needs of the country. But setting long-term goals along with more immediate and purely pragmatic goals was the rule, because the country was building communism. social justice, and this plan was for the ages. And if so, now it was necessary to attend to the solution of those small and large tasks that are necessary for the implementation of such a superproject. Think over the steps by which Soviet science will be able to solve the problem of sending a manned expedition to Mars, to solve it without overstraining forces and resources. Hence the questions...

What do you need "for Mars"?
AMS or...?
Obviously, it was necessary to obtain reliable preliminary data on the nature of Mars in order to know what astronauts would face on this planet. It was extremely difficult to find out by purely astronomical methods. So, it was necessary to find out by flying there, but how? Reliable automatic spacecraft have already appeared, but they flew near the Earth. Is it even possible to send an apparatus to Mars and, by controlling it at a distance of hundreds of millions of kilometers, accurately “taxi” to Mars? This was a completely new question when celestial navigation was on the agenda. It was necessary to have a very clear idea in space and time where the spacecraft is located at distances unimaginable for humans. In addition, it was necessary to know a lot of things, for example, would the conditions of space flight kill a person? It turned out that there were two possibilities - a manned expedition and flights of automatic interplanetary stations. An interesting problem arose: where does what can be studied with the help of automatic stations end and what can only be done by a person begin?
Already from the most rough calculations it followed that the expedition itself was an extremely expensive business. After all, the apparatus with people not only needs to be launched towards Mars, but also to ensure its return, to ensure a minimum of comfort and safety for people, and much more.
With an automatic, everything was easier. It does not need to be returned back - it is made for a specific task. Consequently, AMS (automatic interplanetary station) is simpler, lighter and thousands of times cheaper. One way or another, it followed that the beginning of the direct study of the bodies of the solar system would be laid by Automatic Interplanetary Stations.

And what is needed for a manned expedition?

But one way or another, a person will still have to fly sooner or later. What is needed for this?
First, life support systems capable of working reliably for the required time and providing astronauts with clean air and water.
Secondly, to find out the influence on a person of the impact of all factors of a long-term space flight (primarily weightlessness) and neutralize them as far as possible.
Thirdly, to create efficient engines for interplanetary ships. The available chemical ones were not suitable due to the low velocity of the jet. As a result, the launch mass of the spacecraft turned out to be prohibitively large.
Immediately there were ideas to use nuclear energy for engine operation. There are two types of such engines:

Electric rocket (invented back in 30 g), but with a compact nuclear reactor - a current source
Actually a nuclear engine.
According to the last of all possible, three directions were singled out that can give results in the near future - solid-phase, liquid-phase and gas-phase nuclear engines.
In the first type, the core of the engine is a small nuclear reactor, where the fissile material is in a solid state, through which hydrogen is driven, which is heated and ejected, due to heating, at speeds of 8-10 km / s.
In the second, the fissile substance is in a liquid state and is pressed against the walls of the chamber by its rotation, and the speed of the outflow of hydrogen will be up to 20 km/s.
But the most promising, though the most problematic, is the gas-phase nuclear jet engine. His idea is based on the fact that if it is possible to isolate the gaseous fissile substance from contact with the walls nuclear engine, then hydrogen can be broken up to 70 km / s! If such engines were created, then travel within the solar system would become something very everyday, for example, it would be possible to make a manned expedition to Saturn in 1 year. The launch mass of the ship in near-Earth orbit would be very small - several hundred tons, and not hundreds of thousands, as for a chemical rocket. It should be noted that the USSR last years came very close to solving this problem. We were on the verge of intensive human exploration of the solar system and sending automata to the nearest stars. One of the reasons for such an urgent destruction of the USSR was the task of stopping the movement of the Red Project and all of humanity to the Stars. Consideration of causes last question goes far beyond the scope of this work.


Pragmatic tasks

Well, these are lofty and distant goals, so to speak. But what to use right now? This is also logically connected with distant goals - "near space" - near-Earth space

Providing satellites with reliable television and radio communications with all points of our vast country. Several satellites cost hundreds of times cheaper than building a permanent network of relay stations.
The study of the meteorological situation on a scale of the entire Earth in order to reliably predict the weather, warning of disasters for a sufficiently long period.
Watching natural resources Earth and natural hazards - forest fires, insect migrations, tsunamis and geological shifts ...
Production of unique materials in space. Ultra-pure vacuum and almost unlimited time weightlessness provide exceptional opportunities for the production of materials that are simply impossible to obtain on Earth.
And, of course, as long as there are countries that are actively nurturing plans to destroy the USSR, military satellites are needed - space reconnaissance, warning of aggression, and, if necessary, counterattack support.
To accomplish these tasks, it was necessary to provide the country with a whole complex of vehicles that completely cover all possible tasks here - from launching a satellite into orbit, to ensuring communication with them and the subsequent delivery of the received materials to Earth.
This meant:
Building heavy launch vehicles to put more payloads into orbit at a lower cost. Development of reusable systems.
Creation of a permanent outpost in near-Earth orbit, where it would be possible to carry out the whole range of research: from biomedical, technological, military to fundamental scientific research Space. Research into the behavior of materials in space was needed. This knowledge was necessary to create reliable, permanent objects in space. At that time, they did not know at all how terrestrial materials would behave in a vacuum under continuous long-term exposure to all types of radiation.
Automated robots can handle relatively simple experiments and measurements, which means they need to be created, which requires the development of applied mathematics, computer technology and many other industries. But challenging tasks required the presence of a person, that is, the creation of a permanent orbital station.
All this represented a single Soviet Space Program, interconnected to such an extent that it was often impossible to separate one direction from another.
One of the distant targets of this program was Mars.

The first manned flight into space. Space race.

After the triumph of the first satellite, only the first manned flight into space could really save the face of American science. The United States at that time did not have a sufficiently powerful launch vehicle to launch a spacecraft with a man on board into near-Earth orbit, so that it became an Earth satellite, so only a short-term launch of the vehicle into space along a ballistic trajectory was planned. American engineers figuratively called it "flea jump".
The ship started from the ground, emerged for about ten minutes from the atmosphere into space and fell back. It is quite natural that such a "space flight" could not be full-fledged. But for the United States, the main thing was to stake out space first and thereby save face.
Unlike the USA, the USSR already had a fairly powerful P7. Therefore, immediately after the launch of the satellite, it was the orbital, and not the ballistic flight of the ship with a person on board that began to be planned.
Here, it is true, one should mention the episode when the R-5 rocket was created. Soviet engineers calculated that a bunch of four of these rockets could take a cabin with a man into space (“a flea jump” in American). This worthless and very expensive option of setting an altitude record was abandoned in favor of a real, and not propaganda, goal - the launch of an artificial satellite and orbital flight.

After a successful experiment with the launch of the automaton, the following stages of space exploration unfolded - the second and third satellites were biological. The effect of space flight factors was studied on living organisms. The first animal astronauts flew into space. The name of the first dog in space - Laiki - has spread all over the world. Her mongrel muzzle was printed on the front pages of all the newspapers of the world, they played documentary footage with her in all cinemas. The next "cosmonauts" who returned to Earth alive were dogs - Belka and Strelka, not only a purely scientific program was worked out, but also technical problem return of a spacecraft from space to earth with a soft landing. Having worked out on dogs what a person later had to go through, the Soviet space program came close to solving the problem of human flight into space.
The first apparatus for manned space flight was created with preliminary testing of all nodes in an unmanned mode, and many of them are modular - in parts, this was the rule in Soviet Cosmonautics. After all the parts were worked out, Vostok unmanned ships flew. One of the flights was unsuccessful - due to incorrect processing of the deorbit impulse, instead of landing on Earth, the device moved to a higher orbit. Instead of an astronaut, a mannequin flew in the pilot's seat. Our engineers, who prepared it for flight, jokingly called the mannequin "Uncle Vanya".
Apparently, these unmanned launches of the Vostok spacecraft with dummies became the basis for a wild legend, according to which, before Y. Gagarin's flight, someone else allegedly flew, who even died.

Finally, when all the elements of the flight were successfully worked out, on April 12, 1961, starting from the cosmodrome, the Vostok spacecraft with a person on board made one complete revolution around the Earth and sat down in a given area of ​​the Soviet Union. Thus, the first manned flight into space in the history of mankind took place. Yuri Alekseevich became the first cosmonaut of the planet.

The second flight was the flight of German Titov on August 7, 1961 (he was Gagarin's understudy). Titov spent more than a day in orbit - 25 hours and 11 minutes.


Photo: at the Mission Control Center

After SUCH achievements, the American "flea jump" performed on the ship "Mercury", quite naturally, was not perceived as a full-fledged space flight (although they pompously announced two space flights performed between Gagarin's launch and Titov's flight).
For the Americans, this circumstance was no longer just a serious failure, but a shame. Trying to somehow wash it off and restore the completely destroyed legend of “the undeniable leadership of science and technology in the United States,” America violently joined the space race.

New manned flights and our priorities

Unfortunately, at present, a targeted campaign is being carried out in our country to tarnish the great victories of the past. Many young people often simply do not know anything about what really happened in the days of "totalitarianism". They hear only the slander of the enemies of the USSR, but real facts from them are "behind seven seals." The policy of slanderers Soviet Union here is elementary: to convince a person that there was nothing good "then" ... and in general there was nothing special - everything important and important happened only in the USA, and we only knew that we were lagging behind and repeating other people's achievements.
But in reality, it was quite the opposite. And a vivid example of this is the Soviet achievements in the exploration of outer space.
Here is just a small list of what was done and MADE FOR THE FIRST TIME IN THE WORLD by the Soviet Union in space.
The first female cosmonaut, Valentina Tereshkova. She flew 16-19.06.1963. on the Vostok-6 ship with a flight duration of 2 days 22 hours 50 minutes. This flight was not a purely political action, but was intended to obtain serious scientific information about the behavior female body in space flight conditions, which was later used during the flights of other female astronauts, including American women who flew much later than ours


Photo of Gagarin with Tereshkova

Since the Soviet Union intended to seriously explore near space, it was necessary to make ships on which it was possible to “carry” not one, but several astronauts, performing not only the functions of piloting the ship, but also full-scale scientific experiments. This first three-seat spacecraft was launched on 10/12/1964. The crew consisted of the spacecraft commander V.M. Komarova, researcher K.P. Feoktistov and doctor B.B. Egorova.


For the first time in the world, our Soviet cosmonaut Alexei Arkhipovich Leonov carried out a manned spacewalk as part of the Voskhod-2 flight on March 18-19, 1965 in order to find out for the possibility of human operations outside a spacecraft. Duration of stay in space - 12 min 9 s. Needless to say, for this it was necessary for the first time to create a special spacesuit, which was not equal then?

Photo: Leonov in space.

Leonov was not only an astronaut, but also an artist. Himself and together with the artist Sokolov, he painted many "space paintings". The legacy of these two artists is truly enormous and priceless. The artist can display such facets of the world and perception that no photo or film can reproduce.
Naturally, our achievements were not limited to these priority actions. And further, our science has more than once placed the Americans in an extremely difficult and unrespectable position of catching up and repeating other people's achievements. Our ability to do something first and for the first time in the world ended only in 1991 with the treacherous destruction of the USSR.


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