Soviet space stations. Interesting facts about the Soviet space program
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. Now, decades later, some of the information has been made public. We found unknown facts about the Soviet space program that many have not heard about before.
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.
2. The USSR space program came about by accident
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.
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.
4. Yuri Gagarin may not be the first man in space
On April 12, 1961, Yuri Gagarin became the first man in space by entering the Earth's orbit on the Vostok spacecraft. However, some historians believe that before the triumphant launch, several unsuccessful attempts could have taken place, during which Gagarin's predecessors were killed. 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 launch vehicles for the Vostok spacecraft, which launched the satellites and Gagarin into orbit, were originally developed in parallel with the spy satellite program.
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 of Perm, the 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. The wild forest was teeming with bears and wolves, and Leonov and Belyaev had to wait about 12 hours before the rescue mission arrived.
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).
8. 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 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.
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.
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MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND SCIENCE OF RUSSIA
Federal State Budgetary Educational Institution of Higher Education
Kamyshinsky Technological Institute (branch) of the Federal State Budgetary Educational Institution of Higher Education
Volgograd State Technical University
Faculty of secondary vocational education
Department "Electricity Supply (By Branches)"
abstract
discipline: "History"
on the topic: "Soviet space program"
Completed by student: group KELS-172(z)
Kobelev M.V.
Checked by: teacher
Morozov M.G.
Kamyshin 2018
Introduction
1. About the space program of the USSR
2. Retrospective and prerequisites for the creation of the program
3. Launch of unmanned vehicles
4. Development of manned space programs
5. The space program of the USSR in the 1970s - 1980s
6. Animals in space
7. The first manned space flights
8. Rocket launches to planets
9. Group flights
10. New generation of satellites
11. new era in astronautics
12. Reusable spacecraft
13. Station Mir
Conclusion
Literature
Introduction
manned flight space man
Since ancient times, man has been drawn to look at the starry sky. This inexplicable craving fascinated and inspired. Sometimes a person could watch a light fly across the dark night sky and then disappear somewhere. And he did not know what it was, did not know physics, astronomy, but it fascinated him. He felt that something unusual was happening, something magical, enchanting and inexplicable. Some peoples worshiped the stars, considering them reflections of the gods. Others predicted the future from them. Probably, then people had a desire to reach out to them.
Centuries passed, civilizations changed, some peoples were conquered by others, new knowledge appeared in people, technologies developed, but the craving for the stars did not disappear, but only became stronger. And then one day people developed so much that they were able to make the dream a reality. It happened in the 20th century. It will forever go down in history as the century of space achievements.
The development of rocket technology took place at the height of the Cold War, when the USSR and the USA fought for the right to be called the strongest country on the planet.
Now the flight of a rocket into space does not surprise anyone, and space programs are scheduled for many years to come, but half a century ago, when the first spacecraft first appeared, people could hardly believe in what was happening. Space flights are one of the most important achievements of mankind.
The program for the development of outer space, carried out by the USSR from 1955 to 1991.
How did it all start...
1. About the USSR space program
The space program of the USSR started in 1955 with the beginning of the practical implementation of the plan to launch the first artificial satellite Land and the creation of the Ministry of General Engineering (IOM). The space program operated for about 35 years until the collapse of the Soviet Union. During this period, she achieved such successes as the launch of the first and second artificial earth satellites (the second one with a living being on board) in 1957, the world's first manned space flight in 1961, and the first manned spacewalk in 1965.
2. Retrospective and prerequisites for the creation of the program
The basis of developments in rocket technology and the future space program of the USSR was the research of K. E. Tsiolkovsky, N. I. Kibalchich, I. V. Meshchersky, F. A. Tsander, Yu. V. Kondratyuk and other Russian and Soviet scientists. The first in the USSR research and development organization for the development of rockets was the Gas Dynamics Laboratory (GDL), organized by the chemical engineer N. I. Tikhomirov. The GDL was patronized by the head of armaments of the Red Army M.N. Tukhachevsky. He also supported the Leningrad and Moscow groups for the study of jet propulsion (GIRD). With the help of Tukhachevsky, in 1933, the Jet Research Institute (RNII) was created in Moscow, created on the basis of the GDL and Mosgird. The future academician S.P. Korolev and many other specialists took part in the work of the above organizations. After Tukhachevsky's arrest in 1937, many Soviet rocket scientists shared his fate. In 1938, the RNII stopped all work with a completion date of more than three years, concentrating on the development of rockets and rocket boosters for aircraft.
The Soviet leadership forced the use of the A-4 ballistic missile, better known as the V-2 (“V-2”), by the armed forces of Nazi Germany to focus on long-range missiles. Enthusiasts in the field of rocket science were attracted to the large-scale state rocket program. In 1944-1945, groups of specialists were formed in the country to study German captured materials on the V-2 rocket. After the victory in World War II, both the USSR and its former allies in the Anti-Hitler coalition began active work on creating their own missile weapons, and the advantage was in the hands of the United States, which managed to get a few ready-made Vs and attract many German scientists to cooperate. Realizing the importance of new weapons, the Soviet leadership spared no expense to work in this direction. The People's Commissar for Armaments D. F. Ustinov, who during the war years was responsible for the production of artillery systems, took up the development of ballistic missiles. On May 13, 1946, the Council of Ministers of the USSR approved the state missile program. In the Ministry of Armaments, the head organization for the development of liquid rockets, NII-88, was created on the basis of artillery plant No. 88 in Kaliningrad, Moscow Region. To develop methods of acceptance, testing and use of missile weapons within the Ministry armed forces In the USSR, a military NII-4 was formed, and in the Astrakhan region a State central training ground appeared near the village of Kapustin Yar. The first operational missile unit ("special purpose brigade") was created on the basis of a regiment of rocket-propelled mortars. The administrative management of the work was carried out by the Committee on Rocket Technology (later Special Committee No. 2) under the Council of Ministers of the USSR, headed by G. M. Malenkov. Under the auspices of the Ministry of State Security of the USSR, the development of long-range missiles was supervised by Deputy L.P. Beria Sedov.
3. Launch of unmanned vehicles
In 1952, the process of preliminary design of the first two-stage intercontinental-range missile R-7 began. In September 1953, the rocket designer S.P. Korolev spoke in Committee No. 2 about including work on an artificial Earth satellite in the R-7 creation program. On May 26, 1954, he submitted a memorandum to D. F. Ustinov with a proposal to create a scientific satellite weighing 2-3 tons, a return satellite, a satellite for a long stay of 1-2 people, an orbital station with regular communication with the Earth. Korolev's initiatives did not find a response until the need to launch an artificial satellite was raised by the world scientific community. In October 1954, the organizing committee of the International Geophysical Year urged the world's leading powers to consider launching artificial earth satellites in 1955 for scientific research. On July 29, 1955, US President D. Eisenhower made a promise to launch a satellite, and the very next day, a similar promise was made by Soviet side. On January 30, 1956, the Council of Ministers adopted a resolution on the creation of a geophysical artificial earth satellite and its launch in 1957. In August 1956, Experimental Design Bureau No. 1 for rocket technology, headed by S. P. Korolev, separated from the NII-88. A design department appeared in OKB-1 to develop a future satellite under the leadership of M.K. Tikhonravov. Technical proposals for the implementation of various space projects were developed in OKB-1, after which they were submitted for approval to higher authorities. The scientific expertise of the projects was carried out by the Special Commission of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR headed by M. V. Keldysh.
If until the mid-1950s, Soviet rockets were single-stage, then in 1957, a combat intercontinental multi-stage ballistic missile "R-7" was successfully launched from the new Baikonur cosmodrome. With a length of about 30 m and a weight of about 270 tons, the rocket consisted of four side blocks of the first stage and a central block with its own engine, which served as the second stage. At the start, all engines were switched on simultaneously and developed a thrust of about 400 tons. After running out of fuel, the blocks of the first stage were discarded, and the engines of the second stage continued to work further. In October 1957, it was R-7 that launched the first ever artificial Earth satellite into orbit, launching the era of astronautics. Later, this rocket was modified and turned into a three-stage one.
The first satellite was a small ball with a diameter of 58 cm and a weight of 83.6 kg. Inside its structure were two radio transmitters and a power source. The second satellite was launched into space a month later, in November 1957. It weighed 508.3 kg and was equipped with a pressurized cabin, which was the dog Laika - the first creature that has left the Earth. In May 1958, a third satellite entered Earth orbit. Its length was 3.5 m, diameter - 1.5 m, and weight - 1327 kg, of which 968 kg were scientific equipment. The design of this satellite was worked out much more carefully than in the two previous cases. It was equipped not only with an onboard power supply, but also with a solar battery, thanks to which it was operated much longer than its predecessors. The satellite was in flight for 691 days, and the last signal from it was received in 1960, at the height of another space program - to explore the moon. In January 1959, the automatic station "Luna-1" went towards the Earth's satellite. In September and October, the Luna-2 and Luna-3 stations were launched, respectively. The first delivered a pennant with the image of the Soviet coat of arms to the surface of the Earth's satellite, and the second - for the first time in history photographed the invisible side of the Moon.
In 1959-1960, SKB-458 headed by M.K. Yangel and OKB-52 headed by V.N. Chelomey joined the work on space topics. The expansion of space activities provoked competition between designers, in view of which, in 1961, NII-88 was assigned the functions of a "head scientific institution" that provides internal expertise.
4. Development of manned space programs
From automatic flights, Korolev and his colleagues moved on to preparing a manned flight. For this purpose, the Vostok launch vehicle was developed, and the construction of the spacecraft of the same name began. The main problem was the development of a reliable method for returning the apparatus to Earth. Before achieving the desired result, it took seven times to start the "Vostok" in automatic mode. On April 12, 1961, the first manned flight into space took place: on the Vostok-1 spacecraft, cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin orbited the Earth and returned safely. The entire flight lasted 108 minutes. For this achievement, Korolev received the second star of the Hero of Socialist Labor. In subsequent years, under his leadership, new launches were carried out: in August 1961, Vostok-2, piloted by G. Titov, went into space, a year later - two spacecraft Vostok-3 and Vostok-4, piloted by Nikolaev and Popovich, in June 1963 - "Vostok-5" and "Vostok-6" with Bykovsky and Tereshkova. In October 1964, the multi-seat Voskhod-1 went into orbit with three cosmonauts on board at once, and in March 1965, during the flight of Voskhod-2, for the first time in history, a man exited into open space (this was done by an astronaut A. A. Leonov). In total, during the life of Korolev, eleven people visited his spaceships. The designer and a group of institutions coordinated by him designed spacecraft of the Venera, Mars, Zond series, artificial earth satellites of the Elektron, Molniya-1, Kosmos series, developed the Soyuz spacecraft.
In 1965, UR-500 carrier rockets were launched from the Baikonur cosmodrome with Soviet satellites Proton (in July) and Proton-2 (in November). In 1968, the Proton-K launch vehicle with the D upper stage brought the Soviet unmanned spacecraft Zond-4 onto the flight path to the Moon. He flew around the Moon and returned to Earth. In the same year, a similar journey was made by Zond-5, on board of which were living creatures: turtles, fruit flies, worms, plants, bacteria, and Zond-6. During both flights, photographs of the lunar surface were taken. In 1969, the Zond-7 spacecraft circled the moon.
If in the United States the space program was divided into military and civil back in 1958, then in the USSR all space exploration activities took place in a single direction. Research and development (R&D) and production were carried out by enterprises of the military-industrial complex, united in 9 ministries subordinate to the Military Industrial Commission (MIC) of the Council of Ministers of the USSR. The acceptance and operation of equipment was under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Defense, and was carried out by the Main Directorate of Space Facilities of the USSR Ministry of Defense (GUKOS), also known as the Office of the Chief of Space Facilities (UNKS). The work of the military-industrial complex and the Ministry of Defense, in turn, was controlled by the defense department of the Central Committee of the CPSU and the secretariat of the Central Committee. Of the defense nine ministries, the Ministry of General Mechanical Engineering (MOM) was the leader in the creation of rocket and space technology, whose enterprises were engaged in the development and production of rockets, rocket engines and spacecraft. The remaining ministries of the military-industrial complex were engaged in the supply of components, devices or systems.
The UNCS, created in the 1960s, united all departments not directly related to combat duty, including the Baikonur and Plesetsk training grounds. The “space units” subordinated to the chief of space facilities carried out pre-launch preparation and launch of spacecraft, and also controlled them in orbit. Combat space systems were not under the jurisdiction of the UNCS.
The scientific side of space research was coordinated by the Interdepartmental Scientific and Technical Council for Cosmonautics, headed by the President of the USSR Academy of Sciences. The Institute for Space Research, established in the mid-1960s, played the role of the leading scientific research institute for space research. In the field of planetology, he competed with the Institute of Geochemistry and Analytical Chemistry. Vernadsky (GEOKHI). Biomedical research was first carried out by the State Scientific and Testing Institute of Aviation and Space Medicine, and then, since the 1970s, by the Institute of Biomedical Problems under the 3rd Main Directorate of the USSR Ministry of Health.
5. The space program of the USSR in the 1970s - 1980s
In 1970, automatic interplanetary stations "Luna-16" and "Luna-17" were launched from Baikonur to the flight path to the Moon, the Lunokhod-1 apparatus was on board the latter. At the end of 1971, the descent vehicle of the Mars-3 automatic interplanetary station made a soft landing on the surface of Mars. A minute and a half after landing, the station began transmitting video signals to Earth. In 1987, the Energia launch vehicle was successfully launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome, and in 1988, the Energia-Buran launch vehicle, which launched the Buran reusable spacecraft into low Earth orbit. This device was the first in the world to carry out an automatic landing on Earth and in many respects significantly surpassed American analogues of space technology.
The question of the reorganization of Soviet cosmonautics was raised as early as the late 1960s, but real changes in this direction appeared after perestroika. In October 1985, the “Main Directorate for the Creation and Use of Space Technology in the Interests of National economy, scientific research and international cooperation in the peaceful exploration of outer space" (Glavkosmos of the USSR). Abroad, this institution was perceived as an analogue of NASA. The primary task of Glavkosmos was to search for foreign clients for the commercial use of the RCT, that is, launches of foreign satellites by Soviet carriers and flights of foreign cosmonauts on Soviet ships. In 1988, the activities of the IOM ceased to be a state secret. The defense nine ministries remained intact until 1991, except for the merger of Minsredmash and Minatomenergo into Minatomenergoprom (this was due to the Chernobyl disaster).
The beginning of radical economic transformations in the country worsened the position of the defense industry. The space program also found itself in a difficult political situation: having previously served as an indicator of the advantage of the socialist system over the capitalist one, with the advent of glasnost, it revealed its shortcomings. In 1990, the Supreme Soviet of the USSR reduced spending on cosmonautics by 10%, and left it at the same level in 1991, which in comparable prices meant a fall of 35%. By the end of 1991, the management of the space program, together with the entire previous structure government controlled ceased to exist. The ministries of the military-industrial complex were disbanded.
6. Animals in space
It is not easy to select dogs for flight. We need animals that would simultaneously meet many requirements, combine various qualities.
You definitely need a female. The size of the selected dogs must be unusual. For flights, dogs are selected slightly larger than cats, their weight should not exceed 6-7 kg. You need a wild dog. The age of the dogs is important. Based on experience, it was found that for experiments it is best to take dogs aged from one and a half to 5-6 years. The color of the coat is also very important. It is desirable that the coat be white.
When dogs are selected for all these traits, their training begins: training animals for overloads, for vibration and noise, and much more.
In September 1957, all the advantages and disadvantages of different dogs, finally selected for space flight, were discussed.
The most favorable marks are received by a white dog with black symmetrical spots on semi-hanging ears - Laika. It is this animal that is destined to become the first "cosmonaut".
The flight of the spacecraft with Laika can be schematically divided into two stages.
The first is the so-called active section of the trajectory. This is the leg of the journey when the booster engines are running.
The second stage is the movement of the satellite in orbit, when the spacecraft rushes with the speed communicated to it in outer space, in complete silence, in the absence of any visual stimuli. All this time the dog was in a state of weightlessness.
Only two minutes passed, and the speed of the rocket increased so rapidly that the weight of all objects in it increased four and a half times.
Immediately after the start, the heart rate increased, compared with the initial one, by about three times. Subsequently, the heart rate decreased.
With an increase in g-forces, the dog's respiratory rate also increased greatly. But all this did not last very long. The last powerful push of the rocket engines, and the satellite begins to move by inertia. Suddenly, there is an unusual silence in the animal's cabin. Vibrations disappear. Gradually, the weight of the dog becomes equal to zero.
Finding itself at a great distance from the Earth, the satellite's radio installation continuously sent its signals into the air. These signals were picked up.
The physiological processes of a space traveler, significantly changed in the active site when the overloads were in effect, return to normal under weightless conditions.
The animal lived. It breathed, its heart beat, its brain functioned. It was wonderful. This means that in space it was possible to create a small island of earth on which highly organized animals can successfully live.
The data obtained in this flight were of fundamental importance for space medicine and biology. They showed for the first time that the prolonged action of weightlessness does not cause disturbances in the basic physiological functions of the animal.
In August 1960, it was decided to repeat the experiment. Again, the best of the best trained dogs are selected. Squirrel and Strelka are the animals on which the choice fell.
Patiently Belka and Strelka endure all the preparations for the flight. There are far more instruments now than there were in 1957. A feature of the cabin in which the animals will fly is that it is equipped like a cabin for a person: the same equipment ensures vital activity, thermoregulation takes place in the same way, etc.
And in space, at an altitude of more than 300 km, Belka and Strelka circle the Earth over and over again. I just could not believe that they make each such revolution around our planet in just an hour and a half. The dogs felt good during the orbital flight.
Everyone was sure that Belka and Strelka would return to Earth, but there were many unrest. Not a single creature, having been in space for several hours, has ever returned from there.
The sixteenth revolution, the seventeenth revolution of the spacecraft above the Earth. On the eighteenth orbit, the command to descend was given. The ship obediently went down.
The descent is a particularly crucial moment. There should not be a single, even the most insignificant mistake, because it can lead to the death of the satellite. In a few seconds, the speed of the ship drops sharply.
Here the instrument compartment on the trajectory of the descent separated from the cockpit.
Here the cabin is already at an altitude of 7 km from the Earth. Then a container with animals is separated from it, it is rapidly approaching the Earth.
The scientists congratulated each other. The successful descent of dogs to Earth was a triumph of the peaceful labor of the Soviet people.
The animals removed from the container did not have any injuries.
After the return to Earth of the second spaceship-satellite with living creatures on board, the practical possibility of manned flight into space was created. However, it was necessary again and again to check the operation of all systems installed on the ship that provide normal conditions for human life. It was also important to obtain additional information about the effect of weightlessness and the transition from it to g-forces, as well as the effect of possible cosmic radiation on living beings.
During the time from the safe landing of Belka and Strelka to the unprecedented flight in the history of Yu.A. Gagarin on the ship Vostok-1, the launches of the third spacecraft-satellite (experimental dogs Pchyolka and Mushka), the fourth spaceship-satellite (Chernushka) and, finally, the fifth spaceship-satellite (Asterisk) were launched.
The launch of the fifth satellite ship on March 25, 1961 was the last control experiment before the flight into human space. The ship landed on Earth in a precisely defined area. Zvezdochka had a great flight.
7. The first manned space flights
The first astronaut should be a person who, in addition to good health, has a strong will, quick reactions, the ability to make instant decisions in a tense flight environment and immediately implement them. This should be a person familiar with the air ocean, with the action of factors close to those with which he will meet in space flight.
On April 12, 1961, the whole world learned the name of Yuri Alekseevich Gagarin, and on August 6 of the same year, the name of German Stepanovich Titov, who successfully flew into space.
The first cosmonauts went through a series of special trainings and tests, in which many factors of the upcoming space flight were imitated. These were studies on a centrifuge, when the corresponding overloads were created, tests on a vibration stand, in an isolation chamber with isolation from external stimuli. Yuri Alekseevich and German Stepanovich also trained at special stands, where they worked out options for a flight mission. They went in for sports a lot and purposefully, and so on.
For the whole world, the historic event of April 12, 1961 began at nine o'clock in the morning, when the first radio message was made about the launch of a spacecraft with a man on board.
Gagarin entered the elevator, and he took him to the site, located at the hatch of the ship "Vostok". He raised his hand and said goodbye again.
The final pre-launch commands sounded, and, finally, the last one: “Let's go!”. Everything at the spaceport was drowned in the roar of rocket engines. The first man on Earth launched into space.
“I heard a whistle and an ever-increasing rumble, I felt how the giant ship trembled with its entire hull and slowly, very slowly pulled away from the launcher,” cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin recalled about the first seconds of his flight. - Congestion began to grow. I felt some irresistible force pushing me into the chair more and more. The seconds ticked by like minutes.
Taking off, the first cosmonaut of the planet reported to Earth: “He is in excellent health. The overload, vibration grows a little, I endure everything normally. The mood is upbeat. Through the porthole I see the Earth, I distinguish the folds of the terrain, snow, forest "...
Finally, the ship went into orbit. Weightlessness has set in. “At first this feeling was unusual,” Gagarin later recalled, “but I soon got used to it, got used to it.”
And here he is flying on a satellite ship called "Vostok" in the silent void of space. He is the first person who sees our planet from the side, in the blue halo of the atmosphere. He is the first to take in the continents and the seas with one glance. Now he knows exactly what will bring the news from outer space to Earth that a person can and will fly into space. He will reach other planets, unravel the mysteries of the universe, subjugate the mysterious forces of the Universe to the power of his mind.
In the meantime, ground tracking stations, worried about the pilot, ask how the flight is going, how he feels. The voice of the first cosmonaut comes from space heights:
“Feeling great. I hear you perfectly. The flight is going well." The first manned flight into space lasted 108 minutes. When, having circled the planet, the cosmonaut reappeared over the territory of his country, a command was given from the Earth to descend.
“The ship began to enter the dense layers of the atmosphere,” Yuri Gagarin later said. - Its outer shell quickly heated up, and through the curtains covering the portholes, I saw an eerie crimson reflection of the flames raging around the ship. But the cabin was only 20 degrees Celsius. It was clear that all the systems worked perfectly and the ship was heading exactly to the assigned landing area.
During the entire flight of the Vostok-1 spacecraft, extensive medical and biological information was transmitted from its board to the ground according to a certain program, and the nature of human reactions was recorded.
The flight showed that under conditions of weightlessness all vegetative processes were carried out normally, the cosmonaut's brain functioned in exactly the same way as on Earth.
So, the first flight proved the most important thing - the fundamental possibility of human travel in space, confirmed the correctness of the scientific path that Soviet cosmonautics is following. But he only laid the foundation, opened a window through which one can see the distant prospects of future flights to the boundless expanses of the universe.
How a person will feel in conditions of prolonged weightlessness remained a mystery even after Gagarin's flight. The good condition of Gagarin was a kind of "ticket", allowing a longer flight.
And this flight took place.
twenty-five hour space flight German Titov surpassed the most daring scientific expectations.
Flight performance was studied in the broadest sense of the word. Titov was given tasks that made it possible to broadly and diversify the possibilities of human activity under conditions of weightlessness. He had to negotiate with the Earth, perform simple motional operations, control the ship's attitude control system, which requires complex coordinated movements, and keep records (the astronaut succeeded in all this).
As is known, during Titov's flight, for the first time, it was possible to study the features of the daily cycle of human life in spacecraft conditions.
Here is the command to descend. The ship is correctly oriented. Started the rocket engine, gradually increasing, there was a slowdown in speed. The satellite went down. During the entry of the ship into the dense layers of the atmosphere, Titov tried to follow in more detail what was happening outside.
The end of the flight, when the spacecraft was moving in the dense layers of the atmosphere and the cosmonaut was again subjected to overloads, and the landing process, which required considerable effort of will and physical strength, everything was well tolerated by Titov.
The twenty-five-hour space flight was successfully completed - the ship landed exactly in the given area.
A careful study of the scientific data obtained in these two flights made it possible a year later - in August 1962 - to take a new big step forward. The Vostok-3 and Vostok-4 spacecraft, launched one after the other (with an interval of one day), with pilot-cosmonauts Andriyan Grigorievich Nikolaev and Pavel Romanovich Popovich, made the first group flight into space.
Vostok-3 made more than 64 revolutions around the Earth and was in space flight for 95 hours. Vostok-4 made more than 48 revolutions and spent 71 hours in space flight. This flight proved that the astronaut training system developed by our scientists allows them to develop such physical qualities that ensure normal life activity and full performance in long-term space flight conditions. This was the main result of the flight.
According to a correspondent for The New York Times, Allan Shepard's 15-minute jump was carried out using a rocket, the power of which was "only one tenth of the power of a Soviet rocket, and the weight of the capsule was only one fifth of the weight of the cabin of the Vostok ship."
8. rocket launches to planets
Along with flights of spacecraft to the USSR and the USA, test launches of rockets to the planets were also carried out. On February 12, 1961, the Soviet automatic interplanetary station "Venus" was launched from an artificial satellite of the Earth in the direction of Venus.
The design of the ship "Venera-1" was a cylinder with a spherical top. The length of the apparatus was 2.035 meters, diameter - 1.05 meters. The ship was equipped with two solar panels, fixed in the radial direction on both sides of the cylindrical body and providing charging of silver-zinc batteries. A parabolic antenna with a diameter of 2 meters was fixed on the outer surface of the ship's hull, designed to transmit data to Earth at a frequency of 922.8 MHz (wavelength 32 cm). Scientific instruments were installed at the station: a magnetometer, two ion traps for measuring solar wind parameters, a micrometeorite detector, a Geiger counter, and a scintillation detector for measuring cosmic radiation. In the lower part of the spacecraft, a KDU-414 propulsion system was installed, designed for flight trajectory corrections. The mass of the station is 643.5 kg.
The launch of the Venera-1 automatic interplanetary station was an important stage in the development of space technology. It was the first apparatus designed to explore the planets. For the first time, the technique of orientation along the three axes of the spacecraft along the Sun and the star Canopus was applied. For the first time, a parabolic antenna was used to transmit telemetric information.
In November 1962, the Soviet space rocket "Mars-1" was launched towards Mars. Its orbit was the longest compared to the orbits of all previous spacecraft flights. Stretching out in an ellipse from the Earth, it touched the orbit of Mars. The flight lasted seven and a half months only until the meeting with Mars: Mars-1 covered 500 million km during this time.
The Mars-1 flight gave new data on the physical properties of the outer space between the orbits of the Earth and Mars (at a distance of 1-1.24 AU from the Sun), on the intensity of cosmic radiation, the intensity of the magnetic fields of the Earth and the interplanetary medium, on the flows ionized gas coming from the Sun, and the distribution of meteoric matter (the spacecraft crossed 2 meteor showers).
Thus ended the first space five-year plan.
Mars 2 was launched almost 10 years later. And it was the first lander to reach the surface of Mars.
The station was launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome using a Proton-K launch vehicle with an additional 4th stage - upper stage D on May 19, 1971 at 19:22:49 Moscow time. Unlike the AMS of the previous generation, Mars-2 was first launched into an intermediate orbit of an artificial satellite of the Earth, and then transferred to an interplanetary trajectory by upper stage D.
The flight of the station to Mars lasted more than 6 months. Until the moment of approach to Mars, the flight proceeded according to the program. The flight path passed at a distance of 1380 km from the surface of Mars.
9. Group flights
A new stage in the study of the vast expanses of the universe was the launch on October 12, 1964 in the USSR of the three-seat Voskhod spacecraft. The crew of the ship consisted of three people: the commander of the ship, engineer-colonel Vladimir Mikhailovich Komarov, research assistant of the candidate of technical sciences Konstantin Petrovich Feoktistov and doctor Boris Borisovich Egorov. Three specialists of different profiles conducted extensive space research. The ship "Voskhod" differs significantly from the ships of the "Vostok" type. Its orbit lay higher, for the first time the astronauts flew without spacesuits, and landed without leaving the cabin, which was smoothly lowered by the “soft landing” system and literally “put” gently on the Earth’s surface. The new television system transmitted from the ship not only the image of the astronauts, but also the picture of the observations.
As Academician V. Mishin recalls, Khrushchev demanded that Korolev launch three cosmonauts at once. But the Voskhod cabin was designed for two people in spacesuits, so the astronauts had to be seated in light training suits without spacesuits. There was also no place to place three catapults, so they flew without the possibility of emergency rescue in the event of a rocket explosion at the start ...
Despite the short duration of the flight, the astronauts started under Khrushchev, and reported on the results of the flight already to Brezhnev, since the next day after their landing, Khrushchev was dismissed (October Plenum). As a result, after landing, the cosmonauts were not immediately received by the head of the Soviet Union, as was the practice during previous flights.
10. New generation of satellites
Every year the front of peaceful exploration of outer space is expanding. Following the satellites, "rigidly" tied to their orbits, vehicles capable of fairly wide maneuvering entered space.
The Soviet spacecraft Polet-1 and Polet-2, maneuvering in space, moved from orbit to orbit, changing not only the height, but also the plane of inclination of the orbit. These are the first steps towards connection, or, as engineers say, docking, of spacecraft directly in space, in orbit. Approaching the ship, tanker rockets will be able to reload non-combustible and construction parts. From the structures delivered into orbit, the cosmonauts will first assemble space laboratories, and then, probably, entire scientific cities ...
In January 1964, the USSR also launched the most interesting satellites - Electron-1 and Elektroya-2. Two satellites were launched from one rocket at once, one to a higher orbit, the other to a lower one.
The value of such a launch lies in the fact that simultaneous measurements at different heights will make it possible to better study the spatial structure of radiation belts and their change over time. Launched through the poles "Electron-3" and "Electron-4" continued at the same time a comprehensive study of the upper layers of the atmosphere.
11. A new era in space exploration
In 1965, with their flight, Pavel Belyaev and Alexei Leonov assured the glorious working biography of the spacecraft of the Vostok and Voskhod series. The next stage in the exploration of outer space began, associated with transitions to more advanced space technology. Since the spring of 1967, the Cosmonaut Training Center began to master the new Soyuz spacecraft. The Soyuz differed in many ways from its orbital predecessors and was a more advanced machine in all respects.
The Soyuz-1 spacecraft was put into orbit on April 23, 1967 with the aim of testing the spacecraft and testing the systems and elements of its design in space flight conditions. piloted pilot-cosmonaut V.M. Komarov, who had previously flown on the Voskhod spacecraft. The height of the perigee of the orbit is 201 km., The apogee is 224 km. During the test flight, which lasted more than a day, V.M. Komarov carried out a program for testing the systems of the new ship. On April 24, during the descent, the Soyuz-1 spacecraft successfully passed the deceleration section in the dense layers of the atmosphere and extinguished 1 space velocity. However, when opening the main parachute bath, a failure occurred from a height of about 7000 m. The ship was descending at a very high speed, which led to an emergency landing and the death of V.M. Komarov. But despite the tragic outcome and the death of the cosmonaut, it was decided to continue the development of spacecraft of the Soyuz series.
12. reusable spacecraft
31 years after the launch of the first in the history of mankind artificial Earth satellite weighing about 83.6 kg, our newest launch vehicle Energia launched a cargo weighing over 100 tons into near-Earth orbit. This is the Buran spacecraft, which made its first 2 orbits and landed beautifully at Baikonur. "Energy" - base rocket whole system launch vehicle. The decision to create the Energia - Buran system was made back in 1976. May 15, 1987 - Soviet launch vehicle Energia launched for the first time. A model of a spacecraft was used as a payload. The main goal of the launch: obtaining experimental data on the operation of the structure, its on-board systems in real flight conditions - was achieved.
November 1988 - 2nd launch of Energia launch vehicle.
This time, the Buran orbital spacecraft was simultaneously launched as a payload for it.
Outwardly, the system "Energy" - "Buran" resembled the American "Space" - "Shuttle".
"Buran" is a reusable ship with a return from space, built according to the scheme of a "tailless" aircraft. The length of the Buran is 36.4 m, the wingspan is about 2.4 meters, and the height is over 16 meters. The launch weight is about 100 tons (fuel accounts for 14 tons.). Energia-Buran and Energia launch vehicle blocks were transported by a huge Mriya aircraft. (November 1989)
The Energia-Buran complex opened up great opportunities at a new stage in the development of cosmonautics: launching into orbit, returning from orbit large artificial Earth satellites, blocks of orbital stations, rescue of astronauts in emergency situations, installation work to create huge power plants and launch pads in space . This is a serious base for the realization of a cherished dream - manned expeditions to Mars.
In addition to the basic version of the rocket, three main modifications were designed, designed to output a payload of various masses.
Energia-M was the smallest rocket in the family. The number of side blocks was reduced from four to two; instead of four RD-0120 engines, only one was installed on the central block. In 1989-1991, it underwent complex tests, it was planned to launch in 1994. However, in 1993, Energia-M lost the state competition (tender) for the creation of a new heavy launch vehicle; according to the results of the competition, preference was given to the Angara launch vehicle (the launch of which has been repeatedly postponed since 2005, and as of 2012 is planned for the first half of 2013). A full-sized model of the rocket, with all its constituent components, was stored at Baikonur.
"Energy II" (also called "Hurricane") was designed to be completely reusable. Unlike the basic Energia modification, which was partially reusable (like the American Space Shuttle), the Hurricane design made it possible to return all elements of the Energia - Buran system, similar to the Space Shuttle concept. The central unit of the Hurricane was supposed to enter the atmosphere, plan and land on a conventional airfield.
The heaviest modification: its launch weight was 4747 tons. Using eight side blocks and the central block of Energia-M as the last stage, the Vulkan rocket (by the way, this name coincided with the name of another Soviet heavy rocket, the development of which was canceled for a few years before) or "Hercules" (which coincides with the design name of the heavy launch vehicle RN N-1) was supposed to launch up to 175 tons into low Earth orbit.
13. Station Mir
In February 1986 at 00:28 a long-term orbital station (DOS) was launched in the Soviet Union. To launch the Mir station into a low reference orbit, a Proton launch vehicle (LV) was used, launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome. The subsequent transfer to a working orbit with a height of about 350 km was carried out using the propulsion system of the DOS itself.
The first crew consisting of commander Leonid Kizim (third flight) and flight engineer Vladimir Solovyov (second flight) arrived at the station on March 15, 1986 in the Soyuz T-15 cargo-passenger transport ship (the last ship of this series), which was launched on March 13 from the Baikonur Cosmodrome. All subsequent launches of the DOS modules (Proton launch vehicle), Soyuz and Progress transport vehicles (Soyuz launch vehicle) were carried out from here. The mentioned crew carried out a unique space expedition, setting a kind of space record of work at two stations in one flight. Having worked at the Mir station until May 5, the cosmonauts undocked and went to the Salyut-7 station, which was flying at that time in orbit around the Earth. Having carried out scientific experiments there (from May 6 to June 25; a total of 49 days 22 hours), the crew on the Soyuz T-15 returned to the Mir station, taking with them about 300 kg of the most valuable scientific equipment. Research at the Mir station was continued until July 16, the total time of the work of the first main expedition (EO-1) on it was 70 days 11 h 58 min.
One of the most important advantages of the constructive and layout scheme of the Mir station is the high maintainability incorporated in the design. Thanks to a well-chosen strategy of routine and preventive maintenance, it was possible to significantly increase the resource of its active existence.
An important result of the program is the creation of a system for the transport and technical support of space objects in orbit. This system is intended for launching SO into the specified orbits, increasing the period of active existence, increasing the efficiency, reliability and safety of the serviced SO. It is obvious that without TTO it was impossible to ensure a long flight of the DOS. A unique achievement of world cosmonautics is the successful long-term efficient functioning of the Mir station for more than fifteen years. At the same time, the TTO system solves the following main tasks:
Delivery and change of crews of the main DOS expeditions;
Delivery to the station and return to Earth of visiting crews;
Logistics support of the station, i.e. supply of consumables, spare parts, etc.;
Regular and prompt return to Earth of the results of the expedition's activities in orbit;
Maintenance (prevention, repair, replacement of blocks);
Carrying out installation and assembly work (solar batteries, radio antennas, research equipment, truss structures);
Assembly of multiblock DOS. For the first time, the need to create transport and space systems (TSS) arose after the appearance in 1971 of long-term orbital stations of the Salyut type. TCS were intended to improve the efficiency and increase the service life of DOS by solving TTO problems using transport spacecraft (TSV). To solve these problems, a complex of cargo-passenger (Soyuz, Soyuz-T) and cargo (Progress) spacecraft, as well as descent cargo capsules (SGK) was created. In KB "Salyut" and at the machine-building plant. M.V. Khrunichev, a functional cargo module was developed that solved the tasks of a universal transport supply ship (UTKS). It passed successful flight tests in autonomous flight (Cosmos-929) and was used (Cosmos-1267, Cosmos-1443, Cosmos-1686) to expand the capabilities of the Salyut-6 and Salyut-7 stations ". Currently, units of the international station "Alfa" are being created on the basis of UTKS. At the same plant, all stations of the Salyut type and blocks of the Mir station were manufactured, one of the most reliable Proton launch vehicles in the world is mass-produced here.
As the Salyut-type stations, equipped with two docking nodes, became more complex, and the Mir station with seven nodes was created, the range of tasks they solved expanded, the requirements increased markedly, and new TTO tasks were put forward. New transport ships appeared: the modernized Soyuz TM and Progress M. In addition, taking into account the extreme conditions of space flights, the tasks of emergency rescue and urgent return of crews to Earth were experimentally worked out. Since 1987, the Mir station has operated within the framework of international programs. Since 1995, the transport and space system has also become international, after the American Atlantis orbital stage was functionally included in its structure. During the long-term operation of the TCS, invaluable experience in managing long-term orbital flights has been accumulated. And during the operation of the station, 104 astronauts from 12 countries of the world visited it.
Conclusion
In the USSR, he spared no funds for the development of the space program, and won this race. The first artificial satellite was launched and the first man into space. All these achievements position the country as a great superpower, which has been and remains the conqueror of space.
Literature
· Aviation and cosmonautics in the USSR. M., 1968.
· Alexandrov A. A. Way to the stars. From the history of Soviet cosmonautics. M., 2006.
· Glushko VP Development of rocket science and astronautics in the USSR. M., 1987.
· Road to Space: Memoirs of Veterans of Rocket and Space Technology and Cosmonauts. In 2 vols. M., 1992.
· From the history of Soviet cosmonautics. M., 1983.
· Soviet space initiative in state documents 1946-1964. M., 2008.
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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. 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 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 airplanes 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. 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 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. 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 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 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 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 research that could be carried out on board an artificial Earth satellite. 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 was forever, and that the study and exploration of outer space would 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 according to the master plan drawn up 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 closer and more purely pragmatic goals was the rule, because the country was building communism - the Society of Universal Social Justice, and this plan was for centuries. 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 material from contact with the walls of a nuclear engine, then hydrogen can be dispersed 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 the causes of the latter question is 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.
Observation of the Earth's natural resources 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 entire range of research: from biomedical, technological, military to fundamental scientific research of 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 complex 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 - flew around 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 the technical problem of returning a spacecraft from space to earth with a soft landing was also solved. 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 the real facts from them turn out to be "with 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 aimed at obtaining serious scientific information about the behavior of the 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. Komarov, researcher K.P. Feoktistov and doctor B.B. Egorova.
In order to find out for the possibility of human operations outside a spacecraft, 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. 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.
The first flight outside the earth's atmosphere on the Vostok spacecraft was made by our compatriot Air Force Major Yuri Alekseevich Gagarin on April 12, 1961. Since then, about […]
They were created under the leadership of the general designer of OKB-1 Sergey Pavlovich Korolev from 1963 to 1963.
The first manned "Vostok", which was launched on April 12, 1961, became at the same time the first spacecraft in the world that allowed a man to fly into outer space. This day (April 12) is celebrated in Russia and in many other countries of the world as World Aviation and Cosmonautics Day.
Subsequently, five more ships of the series flew, including two group ships (without docking), including with the world's first female cosmonaut Tereshkova. The planned 4 more flights (including longer ones, with the creation of artificial gravity) were canceled.
Sunrise
The ship actually repeated the ships of the Vostok series, but had an enlarged front instrument compartment, its descent vehicle was reconfigured for flight and landing inside the SA of two or three astronauts (for which ejection seats were excluded and to save space, the astronauts were located without spacesuits), and the variant for spacewalks had a hinged lock chamber.
The flight of Voskhod-1 in 1964 was the world's first multi-seat flight, Voskhod-2 with the world's first spacewalk. After two flights, several more planned flights (including low-orbit, longer, group flights, with the first mixed female-male crew, the first spacewalk by a woman) were still ahead.
Union
The Soyuz ship began to be designed in 1962 at OKB-1, first to fly around the moon. A bunch of spacecraft and boosters were supposed to go to the moon 7K-9K-11K. Subsequently, this project was closed in favor of flying around the Moon on the L1 spacecraft, launched on the Proton launch vehicle, and on the basis of 7K and the closed project of the Sever near-Earth spacecraft, they began to make 7K-OK- a multi-purpose three-seat orbital ship (OK) with solar panels, designed to practice maneuvering and docking operations in near-Earth orbit, to conduct various experiments, including the transfer of astronauts from ship to ship through outer space.
Spiral
Buran
The only one of the 5 under construction, the first ship of the series made the only unmanned flight in 1988, after which the program was closed in 1993 due to the collapse of the USSR and the difficult economic situation. In post-Soviet Russia, projects were developed for the reusable spacecraft MAKS (cancelled) and the partially reusable spacecraft Clipper (cancelled) and Rus (ongoing).
Unmanned space programs
Mars- the name of Soviet interplanetary spacecraft launched to the planet Mars since 1962. At first, Mars-1 was launched, then simultaneously Mars-2 and Mars-3. In 1973, four spacecraft launched to Mars at once ("Mars-4", "Mars-5", "Mars-6", "Mars-7"). Launches of the Mars series spacecraft were carried out by the Molniya launch vehicle (Mars-1) and the Proton launch vehicle with an additional 4th stage (Mars-2 - Mars-7).
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An excerpt characterizing the USSR Space Program“Ah, don’t tell me about my regiment,” Pierre answered, kissing the hostess’s hand and sitting down beside her. - He bored me so much!"Are you sure you'll be in charge of it yourself?" - said Julie, exchanging sly and mocking glances with the militia. The militia in the presence of Pierre was no longer so caustique, and his face expressed bewilderment at what Julie's smile meant. Despite his distraction and good nature, Pierre's personality immediately stopped all attempts at ridicule in his presence. “No,” Pierre answered, laughing, looking at his big, fat body. “It’s too easy for the French to hit me, and I’m afraid that I won’t get on a horse ... Among the people being sorted out for the subject of conversation, Julie's society fell on the Rostovs. “Very, they say, their deeds are bad,” said Julie. - And he is so stupid - the count himself. The Razumovskys wanted to buy his house and the suburban area, and all this is dragging on. He is valued. - No, it seems that the sale will take place one of these days, - someone said. – Although now it’s crazy to buy anything in Moscow. - From what? Julie said. – Do you really think that there is a danger to Moscow? - Why are you going? - I AM? That's strange. I'm going because ... well, because everyone is going, and then I'm not John d "Arc and not an Amazon. - Well, yes, yes, give me more rags. - If he manages to conduct business, he can pay all the debts, - the militia went on about Rostov. – Kind old man, but very pauvre sire [bad]. And why do they live here for so long? They have long wanted to go to the village. Natalie seems to be well now? Julie asked Pierre with a sly smile. “They are waiting for a younger son,” said Pierre. - He entered the Obolensky Cossacks and went to Belaya Tserkov. A regiment is formed there. And now they have transferred him to my regiment and are waiting every day. The count has long wanted to go, but the countess will never agree to leave Moscow until her son arrives. - I saw them the third day at the Arkharovs. Natalie got prettier and happier again. She sang one romance. How easy it is for some people! - What's going on? Pierre asked indignantly. Julie smiled. “You know, Count, that knights like you only exist in the novels of Madame Suza. What knight? From what? – blushing, asked Pierre. - Well, come on, dear count, c "est la fable de tout Moscou. Je vous admire, ma parole d" honneur. [All Moscow knows this. Really, I'm surprised at you.] - Fine! Fine! the militiaman said. - Well, OK. You can't say how boring! - Qu "est ce qui est la fable de tout Moscou? [What does all of Moscow know?] - Pierre said angrily, getting up. - Come on, Count. You know! “I don’t know anything,” said Pierre. - I know that you were friendly with Natalie, and therefore ... No, I am always friendly with Vera. Cette chere Vera! [That sweet Vera!] - Non, madame, [No, madam.] - Pierre continued in an unhappy tone. - I did not take on the role of the knight of Rostov at all, and I have not been with them for almost a month. But I don't understand cruelty... - Qui s "excuse - s" accuse, [Whoever apologizes, he blames himself.] - Julie said smiling and waving lint, and in order for her to have the last word, she immediately changed the conversation. - What is it like, I found out today: poor Marie Volkonskaya arrived in Moscow yesterday. Did you hear she lost her father? - Really! Where is she? I would very much like to see her,” said Pierre. “I spent the evening with her last night. Today or tomorrow morning she is going to the suburbs with her nephew. - Well, how is she? Pierre said. Nothing, sad. But do you know who saved her? It's a whole novel. Nicholas Rostov. She was surrounded, they wanted to kill her, her people were wounded. He rushed and saved her... “Another novel,” said the militiaman. - Decisively, this general flight is made so that all the old brides get married. Catiche is one, Princess Bolkonskaya is another. “You know that I really think she is un petit peu amoureuse du jeune homme. [slightly in love with the young man.] - Fine! Fine! Fine! - But how can I say it in Russian? .. When Pierre returned home, he was served two posters of Rostopchin brought that day. On the 24th there was a battle at the Shevardinsky redoubt, on the 25th not a single shot was fired from either side, on the 26th the Battle of Borodino took place. | |||||||||||||||||||
The USSR deservedly held the title of the most powerful space power in the world. The first satellite launched into the orbit of the Earth, Belka and Strelka, the flight of the first man into space are more than good reasons for this. But were in Soviet space history scientific breakthroughs and tragedies unknown to the general public. They will be discussed in our review.
1. Interplanetary station "Luna-1"
The interplanetary station "Luna-1", which was launched on January 2, 1959, became the first spacecraft to successfully reach the vicinity of the moon. The 360-kilogram spacecraft carried a load of Soviet symbols that were supposed to be placed on the surface of the Moon to demonstrate the superiority of Soviet science. However, the craft missed the moon, passing within 6,000 kilometers of its surface.
During the flight to the Moon, an experiment was carried out to create an "artificial comet" - the station released a cloud of sodium vapor, which glowed for several minutes and made it possible to observe the station from Earth as a 6th magnitude star. Interestingly, Luna-1 was at least the fifth attempt by the USSR to launch a spacecraft to a natural satellite of the Earth, the first 4 ended in failure. Radio signals from the station ceased three days after launch. Later in 1959, the Luna 2 probe reached the lunar surface with a hard landing.
Launched on February 12, 1961, the Soviet space probe Venera-1 launched towards Venus to land on its surface. As in the case of the Moon, this was not the first launch - the device 1VA No. 1 (also dubbed "Sputnik-7") failed. Although the probe itself was supposed to burn up upon re-entry into the atmosphere of Venus, the descent capsule was planned to reach the surface of Venus, which would make it the first anthropogenic object on the surface of another planet.
The initial launch went well, but communication with the probe was lost after a week (presumably due to overheating of the direction sensor on the Sun). As a result, the unmanaged station passed 100,000 kilometers from Venus.
The Luna-3 station, launched on October 4, 1959, was the third spacecraft successfully sent to the Moon. Unlike the previous two probes of the Luna program, this one was equipped with a camera that was designed to take pictures of the far side of the Moon for the first time in history. Unfortunately, the camera was primitive and complex, so the pictures turned out to be of poor quality.
The radio transmitter was so weak that the first attempts to transmit images to Earth failed. When the station approached the Earth, having made a flight around the Moon, 17 photos were obtained, in which scientists found that the “invisible” side of the Moon is mountainous, and unlike the one that is turned towards the Earth.
4The First Successful Landing On Another Planet
On August 17, 1970, the Venera-7 automatic research space station was launched, which was supposed to land a descent vehicle on the surface of Venus. In order to survive in the atmosphere of Venus for as long as possible, the lander was made of titanium and equipped with thermal insulation (it was assumed that the pressure at the surface could reach 100 atmospheres, the temperature - 500 ° C, and the wind speed at the surface - 100 m / s).
The station reached Venus, and the apparatus began its descent. However, the descent vehicle's drag parachute exploded, after which it fell for 29 minutes, eventually crashing into the surface of Venus. It was believed that the craft could not survive such an impact, but later analysis of the recorded radio signals showed that the probe transmitted temperature readings from the surface within 23 minutes after a hard landing.
5. The first artificial object on the surface of Mars
"Mars-2" and "Mars-3" are two automatic interplanetary stations - a twin, which were launched in May 1971 to the Red Planet with a difference of several days. Since the US had beaten the Soviet Union to orbit Mars first (Mariner 9, which also launched in May 1971, beat two Soviet probes by two weeks to become the first spacecraft to orbit another planet), the USSR wanted to make the first landing on the surface. Mars.
The Mars 2 lander crashed on the surface of the planet, and the Mars 3 lander managed to make a soft landing and began transmitting data. But the transmission stopped after 20 seconds due to a severe dust storm on the surface of Mars, as a result of which the USSR lost the first clear images taken on the surface of the planet.
6. The first automatic device that delivered extraterrestrial matter to Earth
Since the American astronauts of Apollo 11 had already brought the first samples of lunar matter to Earth, the USSR decided to launch the first automated space probe to the Moon to collect lunar soil and return to Earth. The first Soviet apparatus, Luna-15, which was supposed to reach the surface of the Moon on the day of the launch of Apollo 11, crashed while trying to land.
Before that, 5 attempts were also unsuccessful due to problems with the launch vehicle. However, Luna 16, the sixth Soviet probe, was successfully launched after Apollo 11 and Apollo 12. The station landed in the Sea of Plenty. After that, she took soil samples (in the amount of 101 grams) and returned to Earth.
7. The first three-seat spacecraft
Launched on October 12, 1964, Voskhod 1 became the first spacecraft to have a crew of more than one. Although the Voskhod was touted as an innovative spacecraft, it was actually a slightly modified version of the Vostok, which Yuri Gagarin first flew into space. The United States at that time did not even have two-seater ships.
"Voskhod" was considered unsafe even by Soviet designers, since the place for three crew members was freed up due to the fact that ejection seats were abandoned in the design. Also, the cabin was so cramped that the astronauts were in it without spacesuits. As a result, if the cabin had depressurized, the crew would have died. In addition, the new landing system, consisting of two parachutes and an antediluvian rocket, was tested only once before launch.
8. The first astronaut of African descent
September 18, 1980, as part of the eighth expedition to the orbital scientific station"Salyut-6" launched the spacecraft "Soyuz-38". Its crew consisted of Soviet cosmonaut Yury Viktorovich Romanenko and explorer Arnaldo Tamayo Méndez, a Cuban aviator who became the first person of African descent to go into space. Mendez stayed aboard the Saluat-6 for a week, where he took part in 24 experiments in chemistry and biology.
9. First docking with an uninhabited object
On February 11, 1985, after a six-month absence from the Salyut-7 space station, communication with it was suddenly interrupted. The closure resulted in all electrical systems Salyut-7 turned off, and the temperature at the station dropped to -10 °C.
In an attempt to save the station, an expedition was sent to it on a Soyuz T-13 spacecraft converted for this purpose, piloted by the most experienced Soviet cosmonaut Vladimir Dzhanibekov. The automated docking system did not work, so manual docking had to be carried out. The docking was successful, and work to restore the space station took place over several days.
10. The first human sacrifice in space
On June 30, 1971, the Soviet Union was looking forward to the return of three cosmonauts who spent 23 days at the Salyut-1 station. But after the landing of the Soyuz-11, not a single sound came from inside. When the capsule was opened from the outside, three astronauts were found dead inside, with dark blue spots on their faces, and blood flowing from their noses and ears.
According to investigators, the tragedy occurred immediately after the separation of the descent vehicle from the orbital module. A depressurization occurred in the cabin of the spacecraft, after which the astronauts suffocated.
Spaceships that were designed at dawn space age, seem like rarities compared to . But it is possible that these projects will be implemented.
