For as long as I can remember, everyone knew the names of the cosmonauts, they were the main characters - as they would say now "supermen" - of peaceful Soviet times.
For the duration of the flights, all radio and television programs were interrupted, the brilliant Levitan solemnly announced a new flight, then photos of new astronauts were printed on the front pages of newspapers.
Belka and Strelka also flew long before my birth, but for some reason I also knew them.
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Routine flights into space began somewhere in the second half of the 70s.
Before interest faded, the last "surge" was Soyuz-Apollo. In Omsk, the live broadcast of the docking of American and Soviet ships was at night, I remember it through a dream, my cousin (10 years older than me) woke me up, he did not sleep, he really wanted to see this historical event.
Then the detachment of cosmonauts was replenished with new faces, there were a lot of cosmonauts, not everyone knew them anymore. Flights with cosmonauts from the socialist countries were more "promoted".
But the first - everyone knew!
The first cosmonauts of the USSR
Cosmonaut No. 1 - Yuri Alekseevich Gagarin (1934 - 1968)
Yuri Gagarin (1934-1968), fighter pilot, first space flight:
April 12, 1961 "Vostok".
He died on March 27, 1968 in a plane crash.
Gagarin's funeral
The historic flight of Yuri Alekseevich Gagarin took place on the morning of April 12, 1961.
The Vostok spacecraft was launched from the Baikonur cosmodrome and, having circled the Earth once, landed in the Saratov region.
Moreover, Gagarin ejected and landed with a parachute.
Cosmonaut No. 2 German Stepanovich Titov (1935 - 2000)
German Stepanovich Titov (1935-2000), air defense pilot, one space flight: August 6, 1961 Vostok-2. He left the cosmonaut corps on 06/17/1970.
Later he worked at the Institute of Space Research.
Cosmonaut No. 3 Andrian Grigorievich Nikolaev (1929 -2004)
Andriyan Grigoryevich Nikolaev (1929-2004), air defense pilot, two space flights: August 11, 1962 "Vostok-3"; June 1, 1970 "Soyuz-9". He left the cosmonaut corps on 01/26/1982.
Cosmonaut No. 4 Pavel Romanovich Popovich (1930 - 2009)
Pavel Romanovich Popovich (1930-2009), Air Force pilot, two space flights: August 12, 1962 Vostok-4; July 3, 1974 Soyuz-14. He left the cosmonaut corps on 01/26/1982.
Cosmonaut No. 5 - Valery Fedorovich Bykovsky (1934)
Valery Fedorovich Bykovsky (1934), Air Force pilot, three space flights: June 14, 1963 Vostok-5; September 15, 1976 "Soyuz-22"; August 26, 1978 "Soyuz-31". He left the cosmonaut corps on 01/26/1982.
Cosmonaut No. 6 - The first woman - cosmonaut - Valentina Vladimirovna Tereshkova (born 1937)
Space flight June 16, 1963, "Vostok-6", at the same time in orbit was Vostok-5, piloted by cosmonaut Valery Bykovsky.
Cosmonaut number 7. Vladimir Mikhailovich Komarov
Vladimir Mikhailovich Komarov (1927-1967), Air Force pilot-engineer, two space flights: October 12, 1964 Voskhod;
April 23, 1967 "Soyuz-1". On April 24, 1967, Vladimir Komarov died during landing after performing a flight on the Soyuz-1 spacecraft. (Yu.A. Gagarin was appointed his understudy in this flight).
We have a book about Komarov at home.
On October 12, 1964, the world's first multi-seat spacecraft flew into space. For the first time, the crew included not only a pilot, but also an engineer and a doctor.
For the first time in history, the crew flew without spacesuits.
For the first time, a soft landing system was used. The call sign "Rubin" sounded from orbit for a day. The total duration of the flight was one day and 17 minutes, during which time the ship circled the globe 16 times.
Cosmonaut number 8. Konstantin Petrovich Feoktistov
Konstantin Petrovich Feoktistov (1926 - 2009), USSR pilot-cosmonaut, researcher-cosmonaut of the Voskhod spacecraft, 8th cosmonaut of the USSR and 12th cosmonaut of the world, doctor of technical sciences.
K. P. Feoktistov was the first civilian cosmonaut and the only non-Party cosmonaut in the history of Soviet cosmonautics who made a space flight.
Member of the Great Patriotic War since 1941. Fought in the infantry, was a scout. In 1942 he was captured by the Germans and shot, but survived.
During the Great Patriotic War, Feoktistov dropped out of school and went to the front. He fought as a scout of a military unit. While performing reconnaissance in the city of Voronezh, Feoktistov was captured by a German patrol and miraculously survived after being shot:
After graduating from Moscow Higher Technical School in 1949, he worked at NII-1 in the group of M. K. Tikhonravov, then at OKB-1 (now NPO Energia).
Participated in the development of the first artificial Earth satellite, the Vostok, Soyuz, Soyuz T, Soyuz TM, Progress, Progress-M spacecraft, the Salyut and Mir orbital stations.
In the detachment of cosmonauts since 1964, on October 12-13, 1964, he flew into space on the Voskhod-1 spacecraft.
Cosmonaut No. 9 Boris Borisovich Egorov
Boris Borisovich Egorov (1937 - 1994). The doctor is an astronaut.He made one flight on the multi-seat Voskhod 1 spacecraft, lasting 1 day 0 hours 17 minutes 3 seconds.
Later he worked at the Institute of Biomedical Problems on the problems of weightlessness.
Doctor of Medical Sciences.
Cosmonaut No. 10 Pavel Ivanovich Belyaev
Belyaev Pavel Ivanovich (1925-1970), naval aviation pilot, one space
flight: piloted March 18, 1965 Voskhod-2.
He graduated from the Yeysk Military Aviation Pilot School in 1945, a participant in the Soviet-Japanese war in August-September 1945.
During the landing of the Voskhod-2 spacecraft, due to deviations in the operation of the spacecraft's orientation system to the Sun, P. I. Belyaev manually oriented the spacecraft and turned on the braking engine. These operations were performed for the first time in the world.
As a result, Voskhod landed in an undesignated area 180 km north of the city of Perm. In the TASS report, this was called a landing in a “reserve area”, which in fact was a deaf Permian taiga ..
The cosmonauts had to spend two nights alone in the wild forest in severe frost. Only on the third day, rescuers on skis made their way through the deep snow, who were forced to cut down the forest in the Voskhod landing area in order to clear the area for the helicopter to land.
Flight duration - 1 day 2 hours 2 minutes 17 seconds.
Cosmonaut No. 11. Alexei Arkhipovich Leonov.
The world's first spacewalk.
Alexei Leonov (1934), Air Force pilot, two space flights: March 18, 1965 "Voskhod-2"; July 15, 1975 Soyuz-19. He left the cosmonaut corps on 01/26/1982.
Leonov made the first ever astronautics spacewalk duration 12 minutes 9 seconds. During the exit, he showed exceptional courage, especially in an emergency situation, when a swollen space suit prevented the astronaut from returning to the spacecraft. Leonov managed to enter the lock only by relieving excessive pressure from the spacesuit, while he climbed into the hatch of the ship not with his feet, but with his head forward, which was forbidden by the instructions.
In 1975, on July 15-21, Leonov, together with V.N. Kubasov, made the second flight into space as the commander of the Soyuz-19 spacecraft under the ASTP program (another, often mentioned name of the program is Soyuz-Apollo) .
A.A. Leonov is the author of about 200 paintings and 5 art albums, including magnificent space landscapes, fantasy, earthly landscapes, portraits of friends (watercolor, oil, Dutch gouache).
April 15 - the birthday of the pilot - cosmonaut of the USSR No. 12 Georgy Timofeevich Beregovoy.
Georgy Timofeevich Beregovoy
was born on April 15, 1921 in the Ukrainian village of Fedorovka, Poltava province. He spent his childhood and youth in the city of Enakievo. It was here that he graduated from high school, took the first steps in his career as an electrician at the Enakievo Metallurgical Plant, and here he first took to the air, being a cadet of the Enakievo Aeroclub.
By the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, Georgy Beregovoy was a well-trained attack pilot. Fate kept him, although during the war years the brave pilot had to repeatedly look death in the face. He ended the war as a Hero of the Soviet Union.
After the war, he successfully completed the higher officer courses for test pilots. He worked as a test pilot of the USSR, having received the title of Honored Test Pilot of the USSR in 1961, and in 1963 he was admitted to the cosmonaut corps, despite his age.
Having completed a full course of training for flights on ships of the Soyuz type, October 26-30, 1968 - at the age of 47! - made a space flight on the Soyuz-3 spacecraft. In flight, there was the first ever attempt to dock with an unmanned Soyuz-2 spacecraft in the shadow of the Earth. The flight lasted 3 days 22 hours 50 minutes 45 seconds. On November 1, 1968, he was awarded the second Gold Star medal of the Hero of the Soviet Union for his space flight.
Having gone through the war without serious injuries, he almost died in peacetime: on January 22, 1969, in the Kremlin, during a solemn meeting of astronauts, officer Viktor Ilyin fired at the car in which Beregovoy was driving, mistaking it for Brezhnev's car. The slight external resemblance of Beregovoy to Brezhnev also contributed to the mistake. The driver sitting behind the wheel was mortally wounded, and Beregovoy received minor injuries from fragments of the windshield.
After the space flight, Lieutenant-General of Aviation Beregovoy worked for a long time as the head of the Cosmonaut Training Center and brought up a whole generation of space argonauts. He retired in 1987 with the rank of lieutenant general. But he continued active public work as a deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR.
Georgy Beregovoy died on June 30, 1995 during a heart operation. He was buried in Moscow at the Novodevichy Cemetery.
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More than 60 years have passed since the first man went into space. Since then, more than 500 people have been there, more than 50 of them women. Representatives of 36 countries visited the orbit of our planet. Unfortunately, there were some casualties on this glorious path of mankind.
In Russia and the United States, the first cosmonauts were recruited from among military pilots. But it soon became clear that other professions were in demand in space. There were doctors, engineers, biologists. Every astronaut is, without a doubt, a hero. However, in this detachment there are the most famous people, whose fame is truly world-wide.
Yuri Gagarin (1934-1968). On April 12, 1961, the Vostok-1 spacecraft was launched from Baikonur with the first cosmonaut in history on board. In orbit, Gagarin did the simplest experiments - he ate, drank, took notes. The control of the ship was almost completely automatic - after all, no one knew how a person would behave in the new conditions. The astronaut completed 1 revolution around the Earth, which took 108 minutes. The landing took place in the Saratov region. Thanks to this flight, Gagarin gained worldwide fame. He was awarded the extraordinary rank of major, as well as the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. The day of the historical flight began to be celebrated as Cosmonautics Day. April 12, 1961 forever changed the life of mankind and Gagarin himself. He became a living symbol. The first cosmonaut visited about 30 countries, received many prizes and awards. Social activities affected flight practice. In 1968, Gagarin began to catch up, but on March 27, his plane lost contact and crashed into the ground. Together with the first cosmonaut, the instructor Seregin also died.
Valentina Tereshkova (born 1937). The first successful flights of Soviet cosmonauts gave rise to the idea of the chief designer Sergei Korolev to launch a woman into space. Since 1962, applicants have been selected throughout the country. Of the five prepared candidates, it was Tereshkova who was chosen, also due to her working background. The woman-cosmonaut made her first flight on June 16, 1963 on the Vostok-6 spacecraft. Stay in space took three days. But in flight there were problems with the orientation of the ship. It turned out that Tereshkova did not feel the best way, since female physiology makes itself felt in space. Scientists knew about this, placing Valentina in the list of candidates only in 5th place because of this. However, Khrushchev and Korolev did not listen to the medical commission. Vostok-6 landed in the Altai Territory. Until 1997, Valentina Tereshkova served as an instructor-cosmonaut. Then she moved to the Cosmonaut Training Center. The first female cosmonaut led a rich public and state activity, being a people's deputy in the highest bodies of various convocations. Tereshkova manages to remain the only woman who has made a space flight alone.
Alexei Leonov (born 1934). He has number 11 on the list of Soviet cosmonauts. Glory to Leonov was brought by his flight into space in the status of co-pilot on the Voskhod-2 spacecraft on March 18-19, 1965. The astronaut made the first spacewalk in history, which lasted 12 minutes 9 seconds. During those historical moments, Leonov showed exceptional composure - after all, his spacesuit was swollen, which prevented him from going into space. The ship landed in the remote taiga, the astronauts spent two days in the cold. From 1965 to 1969, Leonov was part of a group of cosmonauts preparing to fly around the moon and land on it. It was this astronaut who was planned to become the first to set foot on the surface of the Earth's satellite. But the USSR lost that race, and the project was curtailed. In 1971, Leonov was supposed to fly into space on the Soyuz-11, but the crew was replaced due to health problems with one of its members. The flight of understudies - Dobrovolsky, Volkov and Patsaev ended in their death. But in 1975, Leonov again went into space, he led the docking of the ships of the two countries (the Soyuz-Apollo project). In 1970-1991, Leonov worked at the Cosmonaut Training Center. This man also became famous for his talent as an artist. He created a whole series of space-themed stamps. Leonov became twice Hero of the Soviet Union, several documentaries were shot about him. A crater on the Moon is named after an astronaut.
Neil Armstrong (b. 1930). By the time he was enrolled in the group of astronauts, Armstrong had already managed to fight in the Korean War, having won combat awards. In March 1968, Armstrong made his first trip to space as the commander of Gemini 8. During that flight, docking with another spacecraft, the Agena rocket, was made for the first time. In July 1969, Apollo 11 was launched and the historic mission - the landing on the moon. On July 20, Neil Armstrong and pilot Edwin Aldrin landed their lunar module in the Sea of Tranquility. In orbit, the main module with Michael Collins was waiting for them. Stay on the surface of the moon took 21.5 hours. The astronauts also made an exit to the lunar surface, lasting 2.5 hours. Neil Armstrong was the first person to set foot there. Having risen to the surface, the astronaut uttered the historical phrase: "This is only one small step for a person, but a huge leap for all mankind." The UST flag was planted on the Moon, soil samples were collected, and scientific instruments were installed. Aldrin became the second person to walk on the moon. Upon their return to Earth, the astronauts were awaited by world fame. Armstrong himself served at NASA until 1971, after which he taught at the university and was a member of the National Space Committee.
Vladimir Komarov (1927-1967). The profession of an astronaut is quite dangerous. Since the beginning of flights, 22 cosmonauts have died during preparation, takeoffs and landings. The first of them, Valentin Bondarenko, burned down in a fire in the pressure chamber 20 days before Gagarin's flight. The most shocking was the death of the Challenger in 1986, which claimed the lives of 7 American astronauts. However, the first cosmonaut who died directly during the flight was Vladimir Komarov. His first flight took place in 1964, together with Konstantin Feoktistov and Boris Yegorov. For the first time in the composition of the ship, the crew did without spacesuits, and in addition to the pilot, an engineer and a doctor were on board. In 1965, Komarov was a member of the Soyuz program preparation group. Gagarin himself became an understudy. Those years were marked by an insane political space race. Soyuz became its victim, having many shortcomings. April 23, 1967 "Soyuz-1" with Komarov on board rose into space. But at the end, the main parachute did not open, the descent vehicle crashed into the ground at great speed in the Orenburg region. Even the astronaut's remains were not immediately recognized. The urn with the ashes of Komarov was buried in the Kremlin wall on Red Square.
Toyohiro Akiyama (born 1942). There is no doubt that in the future astronautics will become commercialized. The idea of sending non-governmental tourists into space has been in the sky for a long time. The first sign could be the American Christa McAuliffe, however, during her first and last start, she died while on board the Challenger on January 28, 1986. The first space tourist to pay for his own flight was Dennis Tito in 2001. However, the era of paid travel outside the Earth began even earlier. On December 2, 1990, the Soyuz TM-11 took off into the sky, on board of which, together with the Soviet cosmonauts Afanasiev and Manarov, was the Japanese journalist Toyohiro Akiyama. He became the first representative of his country in space and the first for whose flight an NGO paid money. Television company TBS celebrated its 40th anniversary in this way, paying from 25 to 38 million dollars for the stay of its employee in orbit. The flight of the Japanese lasted almost 8 days. During this time, he showed the insufficiency of his training, which manifested itself in a disorder of the vestibular apparatus. Akiyama also did several reports for Japan, TV lessons for schoolchildren, and biological experiments.
Yang Liwei (b. 1965) Another superpower, China, could not interfere in the space race between the USSR and the SA. Taylor Wang was the first ethnic Chinese to go into space in 1985. However, Beijing has been running its own program for a long time, starting as early as 1956. At the end of the summer of 2003, three astronauts were selected, who were preparing for the first launch. The public learned the name of the first taikonaut only a day before the flight. On October 15, 2003, the Changzheng (Long March) launch vehicle launched the Shenzhou-5 spacecraft into orbit. The next day, the cosmonaut landed in the region of Inner Mongolia. During this time, he made 14 revolutions around the Earth. Yang Liwei immediately became a national hero of China. He received the title "Hero of Space", and even an asteroid was named after him. This flight showed the seriousness of China's plans. So, in 2011, an orbital station was launched, and even the United States was left behind in terms of the number of launches of space objects.
John Glenn (b. 1921). This pilot also took part in the Korean War, even making three victories in the sky. In 1957, Glenn set the record for a transcontinental flight. But he is not remembered for this. The glory of the first American astronaut is divided between John Glenn and Alan Shepard. But his flight, on May 5, 1961, became the first, but suborbital. And on July 21, 1961, Glenn made the first full-fledged orbital flight for the United States. His "Mercury-6" made three revolutions around the Earth in 5 hours. Upon his return, Glenn became a US national hero. In 1964, he left the astronaut corps, going into business and politics. From 1974 to 1999, Glenn was a Senator from Ohio, and in 1984 he even became a presidential candidate. On October 29, 1998, the astronaut again ascended into space, fulfilling the role of a payload specialist. At that time, John Glenn was 77 years old. He became not only the oldest cosmonaut, but also set a record for the time between flights - 36 years. The flight of a crew of 7 people took almost 9 days, during which time the Shuttle made 135 revolutions around the Earth.
Sergei Krikalev (born 1958). Two people - Jerry Ross and Franklin Chang-Diaz have been in space 7 times. But the record for time spent in orbit belongs to a Soviet and Russian cosmonaut. He launched into the sky 6 times, spending a total of 803 days in space. After graduating, Krikalev worked in ground flight control services. In 1985, he was already selected for space flights. His first start took place in 1988 as part of an international crew with Alexander Volkov and Frenchman Jean-Louis Chretien. For almost six months they worked at the Mir station. The second flight took place in 1991. Krikalev remained on the Mir contrary to his original plans, remaining to work with the new crew. As a result, during the first two flights, the cosmonaut had already spent more than a year and three months in space. During this time, he also made 7 spacewalks. In February 1994, Krikalev became the first Russian to take to the skies on the American Shuttle. It was our compatriot who was appointed to the first crew of the ISS, having been there in 1998 on the shuttle Endeavor. Even the new, XXI century, Sergei Krikalev met in orbit. The astronaut made his last flight in 2005, having lived on the ISS for six months.
Valery Polyakov (born 1942). Polyakov's profession is a doctor, he became a doctor of medical sciences and a professor. In the history of the USSR and Russia, Polyakov became cosmonaut No. 66. It is he who holds the record for the longest stay in space. Polyakov spent 437 days and 18 hours in Earth's orbit during 1994-1995. And the astronaut made his first flight back in 1988, being above the Earth from August 29, 1988 to April 27, 1989. That flight lasted 240 days, for which Valery Polyakov received the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. The second record has already become a record, for which the cosmonaut received the title of Hero of Russia. In total, Polyakov spent 678 days in space, yielding to only three people - Krikalev, Kaleri and Avdeev.
In 1959, the Central Committee of the CPSU and the Council of Ministers of the USSR decided to select and train cosmonauts for the first flight on the Vostok spacecraft. The Center for Military Research National Hospital was assigned to do this. It was decided to choose from fighter pilots, as it was assumed that they had the most suitable characteristics for this. The selection was tough both according to medical criteria and according to physical data - the candidate should not be older than 35 years old, up to 175 cm tall and weighing up to 75 kg. No one was told why they were being selected, it was reported that they were allegedly for testing new equipment.
The commission received 3461 applications from pilots and selected 347 people for the initial interview. Since the medical examination was very thorough, and the upcoming loads were serious, not everyone decided to become astronauts, and 72 pilots refused to participate in the program. 206 people were admitted for further tests. Only 29 people were able to complete all stages of the medical examination.
Detachment preparing for flight into space. (wikimedia.org)
Sitting in the photo (from left to right): P. Popovich, V. Gorbatko, S. Khrunov, Yu. Gagarin, S. Korolev, N. Koroleva with her daughter Popovich Natasha, 1st Head of the Cosmonaut Training Center E. Karpov, N. Nikitin , head of the department of TsNIIAK E. Fedorov. Middle row: A. Leonov, A. Nikolaev, M. Rafikov, D. Zaikin, B. Volynov, G. Titov, G. Nelyubov, V. Bykovsky, G. Shonin. Top row: V. Filatiev, I. Anikeev, P. Belyaev.
On January 11, 1960, a special military unit 26266 was created, which is now the Cosmonaut Training Center. Colonel of the medical service Yevgeny Karpov was appointed head. And the future cosmonauts formed the Air Force group No. 1.
First detachment of astronauts
On March 7, 1960, 12 people were enlisted in the corps of the first cosmonauts: Yuri Gagarin, Valery Bykovsky, Ivan Anikeev, Boris Volynov, Viktor Gorbatko, Vladimir Komarov, Alexei Leonov, Grigory Nelyubov, Andriyan Nikolaev, German Titov, Georgy Shonin and Pavel Popovich. Later, 8 more pilots joined them: Dmitry Zaikin, Evgeny Khrunov, Valentin Filatiev, Valentin Varlamov, Valentin Bondarenko, Pavel Belyaev, Mars Rafikov and Anatoly Kartashov. For preparation, they invited the pilot who saved the Chelyuskinites, Hero of the Soviet Union and participant in the Great Patriotic War Nikolai Kamanin.
By April 1961, three were selected for the flight: Titov, Gagarin and Nelyubov. They wrote down the appeal of the first cosmonauts to the Soviet people and on April 12 all three were at Baikonur. Titov was an understudy for Gagarin, Nelyubov was supposed to replace his comrades in case of force majeure.
Gagarin at Baikonur before the flight. (wikimedia.org)
Nelyubov never flew into space. Because of his quick temper, he was expelled from the detachment and ended his life very sadly - in 1966 he was hit by a train while drunk.
This is not the only time when the life of the astronauts from the first detachment was tragically cut short. Gagarin crashed during an unsuccessful training flight on an airplane in 1968, a year earlier Vladimir Komarov had died during the landing of the Soyuz-1 spacecraft.
Valentin Bondarenko. Astronaut who died in a fire
G. Titov and A. Nikolaev during training, 1964. (wikimedia.org)
The youngest member of the detachment, Valentin Bondarenko, burned down in the pressure chamber. On March 23, 1961, he completed a 10-day stay in the cell and, after wiping the places on the body to which the sensors were attached, threw away the cotton wool. She hit a red-hot spiral and flared up, rather the entire chamber was filled with fire. When Bondarenko was taken out, his body was severely burned. Doctors tried to save the astronaut, but to no avail.
Vostok program
Most of those who never flew into space went on to careers in aviation or stayed in the space industry. The same 12, who were still lucky enough to become the first astronauts, flew in this order:
According to the Vostok program: Yuri Gagarin on April 12, 1961, German Titov on August 6-7, 1961, Andriyan Nikolaev on August 11-15, 1962, Pavel Popovich on August 12-15, 1962, Valery Bykovsky on June 14-19, 1963.
According to the Voskhod program: Vladimir Komarov October 12, 1964, Pavel Belyaev and Alexei Leonov March 18-19, 1965.
Under the Soyuz program: Boris Volynov and Yevgeny Khrunov January 15-18, 1969, Georgy Shonin October 11-16, 1969, Viktor Gorbatko October 12-17, 1969.
V. Volkov and V. Gorbatko during training. (wikimedia.org)
It so happened that Gorbatko was the last of the detachment who first flew into space. However, unlike the rest, who accounted for only one or two flights, Viktor Gorbatko, like Valery Bykovsky, was lucky enough to fly into space three times - also on February 7-25, 1977 on Soyuz-24 and July 23-31, 1980 on Soyuz-37. Two years after his third flight, Gorbatko retired, like many of his comrades in the early 80s. Boris Volynov had the longest experience of the members of the first detachment, he served until 1990, having given 30 years to space. Together with Valery Bykovsky and the first man to walk in outer space, Alexei Leonov, Volynov remains one of the living members of the first cosmonaut corps of the USSR.
There are only about 20 people who gave their lives for the benefit of world progress in space exploration, and today we will tell about them.
Their names are immortalized in the ashes of cosmic chronos, burned into the atmospheric memory of the universe forever, many of us would dream of remaining heroes for humanity, however, few would like to accept such a death as our astronaut heroes.
The 20th century became a breakthrough in mastering the path to the expanses of the Universe, in the second half of the 20th century, after long preparations, a person was finally able to fly into space. However, there was a downside to this rapid progress - death of astronauts.
People died during pre-flight preparations, during takeoff of a spacecraft, during landing. Total during space launches, flight preparations, including cosmonauts and technical personnel who died in the layers of the atmosphere more than 350 people died, only astronauts - about 170 people.
We list the names of the cosmonauts who died during the operation of the spacecraft (the USSR and the whole world, in particular America), and then we will briefly tell the story of their death.
Not a single cosmonaut died directly in space, basically all of them died in the Earth's atmosphere, during the destruction or fire of the ship (the Apollo 1 cosmonauts died in preparation for the first manned flight).
Volkov, Vladislav Nikolaevich ("Soyuz-11")
Dobrovolsky, Georgy Timofeevich ("Soyuz-11")
Komarov, Vladimir Mikhailovich ("Soyuz-1")
Patsaev, Viktor Ivanovich ("Soyuz-11")
Anderson, Michael Phillip (Columbia)
Brown, David McDowell (Columbia)
Grissom, Virgil Ivan (Apollo 1)
Jarvis, Gregory Bruce (Challenger)
Clark, Laurel Blair Salton (Columbia)
McCool, William Cameron (Columbia)
McNair, Ronald Ervin (Challenger)
McAuliffe, Christa (Challenger)
Onizuka, Allison (Challenger)
Ramon, Ilan (Columbia)
Resnick, Judith Arlen (Challenger)
Scobie, Francis Richard (Challenger)
Smith, Michael John (Challenger)
White, Edward Higgins (Apollo 1)
Husband, Rick Douglas (Columbia)
Chawla, Kalpana (Colombia)
Chaffee, Roger (Apollo 1)
It is worth considering that we will never know the stories of the death of some astronauts, because this information is secret.
Soyuz-1 disaster
Soyuz-1 is the first Soviet manned spacecraft (KK) of the Soyuz series. Launched into orbit April 23, 1967. On board the Soyuz-1 was one cosmonaut, Hero of the Soviet Union Colonel-Engineer V. M. Komarov, who died during the landing of the descent vehicle. Komarov's understudy in preparation for this flight was Yu. A. Gagarin.
Soyuz-1 was supposed to dock with the Soyuz-2 spacecraft to return the crew of the first ship, but due to malfunctions, the Soyuz-2 launch was canceled.
After entering orbit, problems began with the operation of the solar battery, after unsuccessful attempts to launch it, it was decided to lower the ship to Earth.
But during the descent, 7 km to the ground, the parachute system failed, the ship hit the ground at a speed of 50 km per hour, the hydrogen peroxide tanks exploded, the cosmonaut died instantly, the Soyuz-1 almost completely burned out, the cosmonaut's remains were badly burned so that it was impossible to determine even fragments of the body.
"This crash was the first in-flight death in the history of manned spaceflight."
The causes of the tragedy have not been fully established.
Soyuz-11 disaster
Soyuz-11 is a spacecraft whose crew of three cosmonauts died in 1971. The reason for the death of people is the depressurization of the descent vehicle during the landing of the ship.
Just a couple of years after the death of Yu. A. Gagarin (the famous cosmonaut himself died in a plane crash in 1968), having already gone along the well-trodden path of conquering outer space, several more cosmonauts passed away.
Soyuz-11 was supposed to deliver the crew to the Salyut-1 orbital station, but the ship was unable to dock due to damage to the docking port.
Crew composition:
Commander: Lieutenant Colonel Georgy Dobrovolsky
Flight Engineer: Vladislav Volkov
Research Engineer: Victor Patsaev
They were between 35 and 43 years old. All of them were posthumously awarded awards, diplomas, orders.
What happened, why the spacecraft was depressurized, could not be established, but most likely we will not be told this information. But it is a pity that at that time our cosmonauts were "guinea pigs", which they began to release into space after the dogs without much reliability, security. However, probably, many of those who dreamed of becoming astronauts understood what a dangerous profession they were choosing.
Docking took place on June 7, undocking on June 29, 1971. There was an unsuccessful attempt to dock with the Salyut-1 orbital station, the crew was able to go on board the Salyut-1, even stayed at the orbital station for several days, a TV connection was established, however, already at the first approach to the station, the cosmonauts turned their footage for some smoke. On the 11th day, a fire began, the crew decided to descend on the ground, but problems were revealed that disrupted the undocking process. Space suits were not provided for the crew.
On June 29, at 21.25, the ship separated from the station, but after a little more than 4 hours, communication with the crew was lost. The main parachute was deployed, the ship landed in a given area, and the soft landing engines fired. But the search team found at 02.16 (June 30, 1971) the lifeless bodies of the crew, resuscitation measures were unsuccessful.
During the investigation, it was found that the astronauts tried to the last to eliminate the leak, but mixed up the valves, fought not for the broken one, in the meantime they missed the opportunity to save. They died from decompression sickness - air bubbles were found during the autopsy of the bodies, even in the valves of the heart.
The exact reasons for the depressurization of the ship have not been named, more precisely, they have not been announced to the general public.
Subsequently, engineers and creators of spacecraft, crew commanders took into account many tragic mistakes of previous unsuccessful flights into space.
Shuttle Challenger disaster
“The Challenger shuttle disaster occurred on January 28, 1986, when the Space Shuttle Challenger at the very beginning of the STS-51L mission was destroyed as a result of an external fuel tank explosion at the 73rd second of flight, which led to the death of all 7 crew members. The crash occurred at 11:39 EST (16:39 UTC) over the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of the central part of the Florida peninsula, USA.
In the photo, the crew of the ship - from left to right: McAuliffe, Jarvis, Reznik, Scobie, McNair, Smith, Onizuka
All of America was waiting for this launch, millions of eyewitnesses and viewers on TV watched the launch of the ship, it was the climax of the conquest of space by the West. And so, when there was a grand launch of the ship, seconds later, a fire began, later an explosion, the shuttle cabin separated from the destroyed ship and fell at a speed of 330 km per hour on the surface of the water, seven days later the astronauts will be found in a breakaway cabin at the bottom of the ocean. Until the last moment, before hitting the water, some crew members were alive, trying to supply air to the cabin.
In the video below the article there is an excerpt from the live broadcast with the launch and death of the shuttle.
“The crew of the shuttle Challenger consisted of seven people. Its composition was as follows:
The crew commander is 46-year-old Francis "Dick" R. Scobee. Francis "Dick" R. Scobee. US military pilot, US Air Force lieutenant colonel, NASA astronaut.
The co-pilot is 40-year-old Michael J. Smith. Test pilot, US Navy captain, NASA astronaut.
The scientific specialist is 39-year-old Allison S. Onizuka. Test pilot, US Air Force lieutenant colonel, NASA astronaut.
The scientific specialist is 36-year-old Judith A. Resnick. NASA engineer and astronaut. She spent 6 days in space 00 hours 56 minutes.
Scientific specialist - 35-year-old Ronald E. McNair. Physicist, NASA astronaut.
The payload specialist is 41-year-old Gregory B. Jarvis. NASA engineer and astronaut.
The payload specialist is 37-year-old Sharon Christa Corrigan McAuliffe. The Boston teacher who won the competition. For her, this was her first flight into space as the first participant in the “Teacher in Space” project.”
Last photo of the crew
Various commissions were created to establish the causes of the tragedy, but most of the information was classified, according to assumptions - the reasons for the crash of the ship were poor interaction between organizational services, violations in the fuel system that were not detected in time (the explosion occurred at launch due to burnout of the wall of the solid fuel booster) and even. . terrorist attack. Some have said that the shuttle explosion was staged to hurt America's prospects.
Columbia shuttle disaster
“The shuttle Columbia disaster occurred on February 1, 2003, shortly before the end of its 28th flight (mission STS-107). The last flight of the Space Shuttle Columbia began on January 16, 2003. On the morning of February 1, 2003, after a 16-day flight, the shuttle returned to Earth.
NASA lost contact with the spacecraft at approximately 14:00 GMT (09:00 EST), 16 minutes before the expected landing on runway 33 at the John F. Kennedy Space Center in Florida, which was scheduled to take place at 14:16 GMT. Eyewitnesses filmed the burning wreckage of the shuttle flying at an altitude of about 63 kilometers at a speed of 5.6 km / s. All 7 crew members were killed."
Pictured is the crew - From top to bottom: Chawla, Husband, Anderson, Clarke, Ramon, McCool, Brown
The Columbia shuttle was making its next 16-day flight, which was supposed to end with a landing on Earth, however, as the main version of the investigation says, the shuttle was damaged during launch - a piece of thermal insulation foam came off (the coating was intended to protect oxygen tanks from ice and hydrogen) as a result of the impact damaged the wing coating, as a result of which, during the descent of the apparatus, when the heaviest loads on the hull occur, the apparatus began to overheat and, subsequently, destruction.
Even during the shuttle expedition, engineers repeatedly turned to NASA management in order to assess damage, visually inspect the shuttle body with the help of orbital satellites, but NASA specialists assured that there were no fears and risks, the shuttle would safely descend to Earth.
“The crew of the Columbia shuttle consisted of seven people. Its composition was as follows:
The crew commander is 45-year-old Richard "Rick" D. Husband. US military pilot, US Air Force colonel, NASA astronaut. Spent 25 days 17 hours 33 minutes in space. Prior to Columbia, he was commander of the STS-96 Discovery shuttle.
The co-pilot is 41-year-old William "Willie" C. McCool. Test pilot, NASA astronaut. Spent 15 days 22 hours 20 minutes in space.
The flight engineer is 40-year-old Kalpana Chawla. Researcher, first female NASA astronaut of Indian origin. Spent 31 days 14 hours 54 minutes in space.
Payload Specialist - 43-year-old Michael F. Anderson (Eng. Michael P. Anderson). Scientist, NASA astronaut. Spent 24 days, 18 hours, 8 minutes in space.
Specialist in zoology - 41-year-old Laurel B. S. Clark (Eng. Laurel B. S. Clark). US Navy Captain, NASA Astronaut. Spent 15 days 22 hours 20 minutes in space.
Scientific specialist (physician) - 46-year-old David McDowell Brown. Test pilot, NASA astronaut. Spent 15 days 22 hours 20 minutes in space.
Scientific specialist - 48-year-old Ilan Ramon (Eng. Ilan Ramon, Heb.אילן רמון). First Israeli NASA astronaut. Spent 15 days 22 hours 20 minutes in space.
The shuttle descended on February 1, 2003, landing on Earth was supposed to occur within an hour.
“On February 1, 2003 at 08:15:30 (EST), the space shuttle Columbia began its descent to Earth. At 08:44 the shuttle began to enter the dense layers of the atmosphere. However, due to damage, the leading edge of the left wing began to overheat badly. From the period of 08:50, the ship's hull endures strong thermal loads, at 08:53, debris began to fall off the wing, but the crew was alive, there was still communication.
At 08:59:32, the commander sent the last message, which was interrupted in mid-sentence. At 09:00 eyewitnesses have already filmed the explosion of the shuttle, the ship fell apart into a lot of debris. that is, the fate of the crew was a foregone conclusion due to the inaction of NASA, but the destruction itself and the death of people occurred in a matter of seconds.
It is worth noting that the Columbia shuttle was operated many times, at the time of its death the ship was 34 years old (in operation with NASA since 1979, the first manned flight in 1981), flew into space 28 times, but this flight turned out to be fatal.
In space itself, no one died, in the dense layers of the atmosphere and in spacecraft - about 18 people.
In addition to the catastrophes of 4 ships (two Russian - Soyuz-1 and Soyuz-11 and American - Columbia and Challenger), in which 18 people died, there were several more disasters during the explosion, fire in pre-flight preparation , one of the most famous tragedies - a fire in an atmosphere of pure oxygen in preparation for the Apollo 1 flight, then three American cosmonauts died, in a similar situation, a very young USSR cosmonaut, Valentin Bondarenko, died. The astronauts just burned alive.
Another NASA astronaut, Michael Adams, died while testing the X-15 rocket plane.
Yuri Alekseevich Gagarin died during an unsuccessful flight on an airplane during a routine training.
Probably, the goal of the people who stepped into space was grandiose, and it’s not a fact that even knowing their fate, many would renounce astronautics, but still you always need to remember at what cost we paved the way to the stars ...
In the photo is a monument to the fallen astronauts on the moon
1. The very first astronaut in the history of mankind Yuri Gagarin went to conquer space on April 12, 1961 on the Vostok-1 spacecraft. His flight lasted 108 minutes. Gagarin was awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union. In addition, he was awarded the "Volga" with the numbers 12-04 SAG - this is the date of the flight and the initials of the first cosmonaut.
2. First female astronaut Valentina Tereshkova flew into space on June 16, 1963 on the Vostok-6 spacecraft. In addition, Tereshkova is the only woman who has made a solo flight, all the rest flew only as part of crews.
3.Alexey Leonov- the first person to go into outer space on March 18, 1965. The duration of the first exit was 23 minutes, of which the cosmonaut spent 12 minutes outside the spacecraft. During his stay in open space, his spacesuit swelled and prevented him from returning to the ship. The astronaut managed to enter only after Leonov bled excess pressure from the spacesuit, while he climbed inside the ship head first, and not legs, as was supposed to be according to the instructions.
4. The first American astronaut to set foot on the lunar surface Neil Armstrong July 21, 1969 at 2:56 GMT. Joined him 15 minutes later Edwin Aldrin. In total, the astronauts spent two and a half hours on the Moon.
5. The world record for the number of spacewalks belongs to a Russian cosmonaut Anatoly Solovyov. He made 16 exits with a total duration of more than 78 hours. Solovyov's total flying time in space was 651 days.
6. The youngest astronaut is German Titov He was 25 at the time of the flight. In addition, Titov is also the second Soviet astronaut in space and the first person to make a long (more than a day) space flight. The astronaut made a flight lasting 1 day 1 hour from August 6 to 7, 1961.
7. The oldest astronaut who has made a space flight is considered an American John Glenn. He was 77 years old when he flew on the Discovery STS-95 in October 1998. In addition, Glenn set a kind of unique record - he had a break between flights into space for 36 years (the first time he was in space in 1962).
8. American astronauts have been on the moon the longest. Eugene Cernan and Harrison Schmit as part of the Apollo 17 crew in 1972. In total, the astronauts were on the surface of the earth's satellite for 75 hours. During this time, they made three exits to the lunar surface with a total duration of 22 hours. They were the last to walk on the moon, and according to some reports, they left a small disk on the moon with the inscription "Here man completed the first stage of the exploration of the moon, December 1972."
9. The first space tourist was an American multimillionaire Dennis Tito, which went into space on April 28, 2001. At the same time, a Japanese journalist is considered de facto the first tourist. Toyohiro Akiyama, which was paid for by the Tokyo Television Company in December 1990. In general, a person whose flight was paid for by any organization cannot be considered a space tourist.
10. The first British astronaut was a woman - Helena Sharmen(Helen Sharman), which took off on May 18, 1991 as part of the Soyuz TM-12 crew. She is considered the only astronaut who flew into space as an official representative of the UK, all the others had, in addition to British citizenship, another country. Interestingly, before becoming an astronaut, Sharmain worked as a chemist-technologist at a confectionery factory and responded to an appeal for competitive selection of space flight participants in 1989. Of the 13,000 participants, it was she who was chosen, after which she began training in Star City near Moscow.
