Academician in silence. Memories of Glushko

Academician, twice Hero Socialist Labor, laureate of the Lenin Prize

Have you ever thought about the contribution of the South of Ukraine to the national cosmonautics? The city of Nikolaev is proud of Konstantinov and Ryumin, Odessa is proud of Korolev and Glushko, Shonin and Dobrovolsky. In our wonderful city, which is somehow especially loved in Ukraine and distinguished from other wonderful cities, Korolev spent his youth, Glushko was born here.

Valentin Petrovich Glushko is a prominent scientist in the field of physical and technical problems of energy, academician, twice Hero of Socialist Labor, laureate of the State and Lenin Prizes, one of the largest specialists in the field of rocket technology. V. Glushko is the founder of domestic rocket engine building, the designer of the world's first electrothermal engine and the first serial domestic rocket engines.

Sergey lived on the Platonovsky Mole in the port, Valentin lived on Olgievskaya Street. It is unlikely that they met somewhere, in any case, neither one nor the other remembers such a meeting, and then there is also the difference in age: Valentin was two whole years younger, in childhood this is a huge difference. Yes, and the aspirations of these two Odessa boys were different: Sergei was fond of aviation, Valentin - astronomy. Now it will seem strange, but in those years the idea space flight was closer to astronomers than to aviators. Astronautics was more likely to be drawn as the future of astronomy than aviation. Maybe that's why it didn't occur to the young Korolev to write a letter to Tsiolkovsky.

And Glushko wrote. “Dear K. E. Tsiolkovsky! - wrote 15-year-old Valentine. - I am turning to you with a request and I will be very grateful if you fulfill it. This request concerns a project for interplanetary and interstellar travel. The latter has been of interest to me for more than two years. Therefore, I read a lot of literature on this topic.

More right direction I got by reading wonderful book Perelman "Interplanetary travel". But I felt the demand already in the calculations. Without any help, completely on my own, I began to calculate. But suddenly I managed to get your article in the journal "Scientific Review" (May 1903) - "The study of world spaces by jet devices." But this article is very short. I know that there is an article with the same title, published separately and more detailed - that's what I was looking for and what is my request to you.

A separate article "Investigation of world spaces with reactive devices" and also your essay "Out of the Earth" not only forced me to write you a letter, but also very much and very important issues, the answer to which I would like to hear from you ... ".

Tsiolkovsky answered the Odessa schoolboy, sent him his books, asking how seriously he takes his passion for astronautics. Joyful Valentine immediately replied:

"Regarding how interested I am interplanetary communications, I will only tell you that this is my ideal and the goal of my life, which I want to devote to this great cause ... ".

Active people and in childhood active people. They do not argue: "I'll grow up and show myself." They immediately begin to show themselves. Silly is an excellent student. Works at the observatory in the youth circle at the Odessa branch of the Russian Society of Lovers of the World (ROLM), conducts observations of Mars, Venus, Jupiter. He organizes a chemical laboratory at home, sets up experiments with explosives (I cannot recommend these experiments to readers: the thing is dangerous and Valentin may not be on the list of merits), collects books on explosives. He builds a model of a space rocket according to his drawings. Takes painting lessons. He studies music first at the Odessa Conservatory, then at the Odessa Academy of Music. Writes and publishes notes on the problems of interplanetary flights in newspapers and magazines.

"In 1924 I graduated high school- recalled Valentin Petrovich. - At the final exams, I was pleasantly surprised to learn that I was exempted from the exam in physics. To obtain a certificate of completion, I went through almost six months of practice (until the end of 1924), working first as a locksmith, then as a turner at the Odessa Electrometal Valve Plant named after Lenin. In very difficult, cold, hungry years, sounded by bullets, he is in constant physical and mental movement, in childhood, youth, and then in adult work, he sets himself a high pace of life, actively expanding the horizons of his knowledge, intellect and strength. Makes himself. And when in the summer of 1925 Valentin arrives in Leningrad and enters the university, he already knows for sure why he came, what he will do next. He meets Ya. I. Perelman, reads books by K. Tsiolkovsky, G. Oberth, R. Esno-Peltri, R. Goddard, V. Goman. Y. Kondratyuk. In the journal Science and Technology, 35 years before the flight of the world's first orbital station Salyut, the eighteen-year-old Glushko publishes an article "Station outside the Earth" and, predicting the program for future flights of such stations, writes that "not only astronomy and meteorology will be enriched with valuable contributions and the broadest horizons of new research. Everyone will be in the same position. natural Sciences". Is it surprising that the first theoretical work of a graduate of Leningrad State University "Metal as explosive”approved by expert scientists, and Tikhomirov invites Valentin Petrovich to the GDL?

Glushko called his memoirs “The Way in Rocket Engineering”. This long way was not always easy and festive. There were potholes of failures, and potholes of disappointments, and pits of cruel injustice. But it was always the straight path. From that clear, clean spring morning, when he arrived in Lesnoye near Leningrad, where "Papa Ioffe" set aside a room for him in his high-voltage laboratory, from that very May morning in 1929, Valentin Petrovich Glushko was always engaged in one thing - rocket engines, becoming the largest the world's preeminent authority in this field of rocketry.

Well, then he did not look like an academic at all. A thin, neat young man, in a tie, in an ironed shirt with a collar, the corners of which, in the fashion of that time, were pulled together with a metal cufflink, modest, quiet, well-mannered, attracts the attention of those around him with incredible perseverance and perseverance in work. For old man Tikhomirov, ERD is an end in itself, for Glushko it is a means to an end. And the goal is space flight. Calculations show, and he sees it in experiments, that an electric rocket engine has a limited thrust, it cannot launch a manned spacecraft into space. EJE is secondary, because it is an engine of weightlessness, but you must first get into weightlessness. When you are 21 years old, and you yourself came up with something that no one thought of doing before you, and “something” is accepted and approved by scientific authorities, and you were given funds, people, premises, equipment so that you could improve your idea, it is very difficult to say to yourself: “No, my ERD is not the main thing now. Perhaps I started from the end. Space technology something else is needed." It was not easy to say, but Valentine said it to himself. “It became clear to me,” Academician Glushko recalled, “that with all the prospects, we will need an electric propulsion engine only at the next stage of space exploration, and in order to penetrate into space, we need liquid propellant propulsion engines, about which Konstantin Eduardovich Tsiolkovsky wrote so much. Since the beginning of 1930, I have focused on the development of precisely these motors ... ".

Everything was new to him then and there was no one to teach him. Tsiolkovsky wrote about LRE, but he has neither calculations of thermal processes, nor drawings, much less designs. Zander is a staunch supporter of rocket engines, and his approach to them is engineering, concrete. But he is too keen on his idea of afterburning in engines of metal structures, and this problem is incredibly difficult in terms of its design design, and Zander's stubbornness unwittingly slows down all work. Very quickly, in the first year or two of work, Valentin understands that the problem of LRE is not just some unknown fortress of technology that can be taken by attack, by a frontal attack. Rather, it is a whole defensive line. a common problem It is divided into a number of separate problems, solving which successively it is possible, in the end, to build a liquid-propellant rocket engine, as the liquid-propellant rocket engine was then called.

But, perhaps, the hardest nut to crack in the riddles of rocket engines is the problem of engine cooling. The higher the temperature in the combustion chamber, the more efficient and powerful the rocket engine works. But high temperature do not withstand the metals of the structure. engineering intuition in the end it tells: no materials will survive. It is necessary to follow a completely different path: to resort to dynamic cooling of the engine: to remove heat from it, as water removes the heat of an automobile engine. But water is not suitable here ..... Then he still does not represent the complexity of the task facing him, he does not know that he will have to fight all his life with these monstrous heat flows, that a whole branch in the science of heat transfer will arise in this struggle - theory cooling liquid rocket engines and that, apparently, the end of this struggle, despite all the technical power of our space age, will never be seen.

Silently designs engines, tests them, burns them, blows them up, sometimes comes to a standstill, quickly understands this, returns and goes further, step by step goes to perfection. He believes that it is achievable; in technical reports, where any hint of emotion has long been considered almost a sign of bad taste, he calls LRE - "engines of advanced technology." The second sector, headed by Valentin Petrovich, creates a whole series of experimental rocket motors. The first one is quite primitive, with a cylindrical nozzle, water-cooled, with a thrust of only 20 kilograms. But the next one is something better.

In 1937 during mass repression arrested and shot the founders and leaders of the Reactive Research Institute, which arose on the basis of the GDL. In March 1938, Glushko was also arrested and sentenced to eight years. Even then, design bureaus began to be created in prisons, which were called "sharashki". In one of them, Glushko continued his research. Only in July 1944, he and a group of comrades were released ahead of schedule for the creation of the RD-1 engine.

Then there will be more engines for combat missiles, the first liquid-propellant rocket engine operating in a closed circuit with afterburning of generator gas, the RD-170 oxygen-kerosene engine for the super-powerful Energia launch vehicle, which has no equal in the world.

In 1957, by decision of the Higher Attestation Commission, Glushko was awarded the degree of Doctor of Technical Sciences without defending a dissertation. In 1958 he was elected a full member of the USSR Academy of Sciences. Until 1988, under the leadership of V.P. Glushko, more than 50 of the most advanced liquid-propellant rocket engines and their modifications on high- and low-boiling oxidizers were created, used on 17 combat and space rockets.

With the appointment in 1974 of the director and general designer of NPO Energia, Glushko began to play one of the main roles in determining the paths for the development of manned cosmonautics. Under his leadership, the long-term station "Mir" and unique system"Energy" - "Buran". In addition, he led the work on improving the Soyuz manned spacecraft and developing their Soyuz T and Soyuz TM modifications, as well as cargo ship"Progress", improvement orbital stations Salyut, the implementation of the program of manned flights, including international ones. All this was aimed at the realization of the main dream - the flight of man to other planets.

For his many years of activity, V.P. Glushko was twice awarded the title of Hero of Socialist Labor, awarded five orders of Lenin, orders October revolution, Red Banner of Labor and many medals. He is a laureate of the Lenin and State Prizes. He was elected a deputy of the Supreme Council of 7-11 convocations, a delegate of the XXI-XXVII congresses of the CPSU and a member of the Central Committee of the CPSU. In 1994 decision XXII The General Assembly of the International Astronomical Union named after V.P. Glushko a crater on the visible reserved side of the Moon.

222 scientific work published by V.P. Glushko, but the very first one was written and published back in Odessa, in 1924, in a newspaper that could not resist the pressure young man, which proved that this article the city will enter in world history. And so it happened. But how it was necessary to believe in yourself, in your strength, in the ideas of Tsiolkovsky!

“In Odessa there is some kind of ferment of life. I remember, - said Glushko, - after some of the solemn receptions in the Kremlin, Zhora Dobrovolsky came up to me and said: "Valentin Petrovich, according to our passport we are Muscovites, but we must never forget that Odessa sent us here." Glushko remembered these words when Dobrovolsky repeated in his (who could then guess that it was his last?) interview, the phrase that had spread all over the world: “Odessa will not forget us!”.

The cosmonauts called Glushko "the god of fire", because the power of the engine of the second stage, which lifted Yuri Gagarin in the "Vostok", is equal to the power of ... Dneproges. In 1934, Sergei Korolev wrote: “The focus is on the rocket engine!” And as if reading this entry, Valentin Glushko undertook to develop the design of the motor. And he did what no one else could do before him.

January 10, 1989 Valentin Petrovich Glushko, full of creative ideas, passed away. In his will, he ordered to donate to the State Art Gallery of Odessa the paintings he had acquired in 1957 for the Lenin Prize. This wonderful Odessa citizen is buried on Novodevichy cemetery in Moscow. his name in hometown named a beautiful avenue on which stands a monument to the famous designer.

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For the Buran space shuttle, Valentin Glushko created the most powerful liquid-propellant rocket engine in history.

Valentin Petrovich Glushko is from Odessa: he was born in the "pearl by the sea" in 1908. As a teenager, he read the novels of Jules Verne, although the idea of traveling to the moon in the early 1920s seemed nonsense even to his enthusiastic peers: why dream about space when there are enough white spots on the earth! Peers were inspired by the exploits of brave pilots and stern sailors, and the boy, following Vern, discovered the works of Konstantin Tsiolkovsky: sitting in the cold building of the Odessa public library, he made statements in a notebook. The library had only one work of the "Kaluga dreamer"; to read others, Valentine sent a letter to the idol with a request to send his other books. Tsiolkovsky replied, and a correspondence began that lasted seven years. At the age of 16, Glushko wrote his own "scientific" work - a work under the serious title "Problem of Exploitation of the Planets", which, nevertheless, the publishers did not take: the author's fantasies about the exploration of Mars and Venus seemed too naive. It is curious that in the book, the depletion of the Earth's resources appeared as the main rationale for the need to develop astronautics - the idea on which the plots of dozens of science fiction works (for example, the Hollywood film Interstellar) will subsequently be built: “The consequence of the progress of human culture is the depletion of the vital juices of the Earth than mankind ultimately puts itself in danger of the collapse of both its civilization and its existence. The way out of the impending crisis is the replenishment of the depleted reserves of energy and matter from outside, from the depths of world space, from other bodies. It is quite natural now to put the planets neighboring us in the same position as the continents previously unknown to us were. To colonize new planets, to organize operational units on them to supply the depleted Earth, is a completely natural and understandable step in the ever-expanding industry and the power of human intellect.

Nevertheless, Glushko began to publish, and on a regular basis: his popular science articles about the creation of stations on the Moon and on Earth appeared in newspapers and magazines. earth orbit. Then I managed to make my dream a little closer - to enter the Leningrad State University to the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics. Glushko remained true to his dream throughout his studies: his thesis was the project of the interplanetary spacecraft "Heliorocket" with electric rocket engines.

While he was studying, a lot has changed in the country: the defeated universities received funding again, the government no longer perceives rocket science as a marginal and interesting area only for enthusiasts. After graduating from the university, Glushko was accepted into the staff of the Gas Dynamics Laboratory (GDL), the first Soviet research and development laboratory. Here he began to work on the creation of the first domestic liquid rocket engine (LRE) ORM-1. During his work in the laboratory, Glushko designed several rockets of various series, and also tested engines of the ORM series on nitric acid kerosene fuel.

The talented engineer was noticed in the People's Commissariat of Defense and in 1934 he was transferred to Moscow, having been appointed head of the Missile Research Institute sector. Here he completed work on his second book, "Rockets: Their Design and Application", which, unlike his first brainchild, was published and was highly appreciated by his colleagues. However, the work that Glushko did at the Rocket Research Institute was primarily practical: for example, in 1936, under his leadership, official bench tests of the ORM-65 LRE up to 175 kg were carried out on liquid fuel for the RP-318 rocket plane and the 212 cruise missile. designs by Sergei Korolev.

scientist prisoner

Like most prominent scientists of his era, Glushko had a chance to work in a "sharashka": in March 1938 he was arrested. It took only two days for Lubyanka investigators to extract a confession: “I am a member of an anti-Soviet organization in defense industry, on the instructions of which he carried out wrecking subversive work. In addition, I was engaged in espionage work in favor of Germany. True, once in the Butyrka prison, Glushko immediately expressed disagreement with unfounded accusations and began to write letters to the state prosecutor Vyshinsky, and then to Yezhov and Stalin himself, asking him to reconsider his case.

Nobody was going to answer: Glushko became a cog in the system of slave scientific labor. A special meeting at the NKVD sentenced him to eight years, and until 1940 he worked as part of the design team of the 4th Special Department of the NKVD at the Tushino aircraft engine building plant. Here, the scientist led a group that developed a project for an auxiliary installation with a liquid-propellant jet engine for the S-100 twin-engine fighter. The use of rocket engines in the design of the aircraft made it possible to significantly increase the speed of its ascent. It was planned to equip the Stal-7 long-range bomber with the same rocket launcher, which would increase its speed when climbing by a third.

The work of the Glushko group, carried out in conditions comparable to the working conditions of serfs at Petrovsky factories, was awarded highly appreciated The Air Force Technical Committee, and the scientist was even offered a choice: to continue development work, stay in Moscow, move to Leningrad or Kazan to an aircraft engine plant under construction. "Prisoner Glushko" chose Kazan, because there were more freedom for research. He was even given the right to choose his employees. Of course, from among the same "inmates": having made a list of former colleagues, to whom he was going to give work, Glushko discovered with horror that most of them had already been shot. However, even with a team recruited from those who survived, Glushko during the war years managed to complete the development of auxiliary rocket engines for combat aircraft. By the way, it was at the request of Glushko that Korolev was transferred to Kazan in 1942.

Glushko's prison odyssey was the time when a liquid-propellant jet engine took its rightful place in Soviet rocketry. During the war years, the Pe-2, Yak-3, Su-7 and La-7 aircraft were equipped with a rocket launcher with a rocket engine, thereby gaining an increase in their speed up to 200 km / h. For contribution to development military industry USSR Glushko was “awarded”: on August 27, 1944, he was released ahead of schedule by decision of the Presidium of the Supreme Council. True, the scientist was rehabilitated only in 1956, after the death of Stalin and the 20th Congress. Glushko did not leave his comrades in misfortune: soon after he was released, he handed over to Stalin a list with the names of 30 specialists, on whose early release he insisted. When in 1945 Glushko headed the department of jet engines at the Kazan Aviation Institute, most of the engineers released at his request remained to work with him.

As part of the "Magnificent Six"

After the war, Glushko, as part of a special commission, went to Germany to study the German V-2 missiles. The successes of the Germans in the field of rocket technology, as is known, spurred the development of space programs in the USSR and the USA. Upon the return of the designers from Germany, Glushko joined the "magnificent six" of the founding fathers of the Soviet rocket and space program. He was transferred to aircraft plant No. 456 in Khimki (later, in the 1970s, the famous NPO Energia was created on the basis of this enterprise), reequipped for the production of liquid rocket engines. And already in September 1948, the first rocket R-1, equipped with a rocket engine, was launched. In 1953, Valentin Petrovich was elected a corresponding member of the USSR Academy of Sciences, and in 1957 the Higher Attestation Commission awarded him the degree of Doctor of Technical Sciences without defending a dissertation.

As a member of the informal council of chief designers, Glushko took part in the preparation of all major Soviet launches: his team developed and improved engines for the Vostok and Soyuz manned spacecraft, Progress cargo ships. In 1960-1970, he was the initiator of the most daring projects for the study and exploration of other planets. Many of them he bore from his student days. So, in articles published in the 1920s, Valentin Petrovich talked about an observatory located on natural satellite our planet: “An observatory built on the Moon, with a 354-hour night replacing the same lasting day, would give a lot of invaluable observations ... What great discoveries could be made by long-term observations and research, spectral analysis, photometry, photography and other tools for studying the secrets of the universe of the modern astronomer while conducting consistent studies of our companion. In the 1960s, Glushko (together with Korolev) was one of the initiators of the construction of a station on the Moon: in the Design Bureau of Academician Barmin they even began to design mock-ups of a lunar settlement. Alas, most of the bold ideas proposed by Valentin Petrovich (among them manned flights to Mars, Venus and the asteroid belt) were not implemented. And yet in Soviet cosmonautics some of the ideas set out in his early opus "Problems of the exploitation of the planets" were applied: for example, it spoke of "observation stations" constantly in orbit - this is the role played by the orbital complexes "Salyut" and "Mir", in the development which Glushko took part. In total, under the guidance of an outstanding designer, more than fifty rocket engines were created, which were used in 17 models of combat and space rockets.

Shuttle astronautics

In 1972, a program was launched in the United States to develop space "shuttles" that could make multiple flights into space. The authors of the program were guided by the ability to carry out launches with an unprecedented frequency. In the USSR, the problem of domestic reusable space system was discussed in the same year: at a meeting of designers headed by Glushko, the main issues of building such a system were identified. The main problem, paradoxical as it may seem, was that our cosmonautics could perfectly do without "shuttles" - launches of disposable rockets were more efficient and less costly. However, analytical studies conducted by the Institute of Applied Mathematics of the USSR Academy of Sciences and NPO Energia showed that after the commissioning Space programs Shuttle USA will have an advantage in terms of pre-emptive nuclear strike throughout our country. This decided the matter: in 1976, the strictly classified Energia-Buran program was approved. It is estimated that about a million people took part in its development - directly and indirectly. It should be noted that the cost of creating a reusable launch system turned out to be much lower than the American development: 16 billion rubles against $160 billion. days) - RD-170. Its capacity was about 20 million horsepower: enough to provide energy to a city with a population of up to a million inhabitants. As a result, "Buran" not only was not inferior to the "shuttles", but surpassed them in a number of technical parameters.

On November 15, 1988, in stormy weather, the first launch took place: having separated from the launch vehicle, the Buran spacecraft entered a circular orbit and, having completed two complete orbits around the planet, landed automatically on the Baikonur runway. Despite the complete success of the project, the first launch of Buran, alas, was the last: the program fell victim to the destruction of the USSR, in 1992 it was frozen due to lack of funding. The legendary developer did not live to see the inglorious collapse of an outstanding program: he died in 1989 at the age of 80. Five years later, the International Astronomical Union decided to commemorate Valentin Glushko by naming a crater on the Moon after him, where a Soviet base should have been.

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fans Soviet power proud of the achievements of the USSR, but they were made by the intelligentsia, most which was made up of class "enemies of the people": Vavilov, Korolev, Tupolev, Glushko, Landau, Sakharov and thousands of other lesser known. It can be said that everything is not so bad, because some talented people survived, and humiliation and broken jaws are not a problem. Yes, some of them (mostly physicists and engineers, they did not stand on ceremony with others) of them remained alive, but only because the Soviet government needed them as scientific slaves.

The guilt of the Queen was "proven", he was given 10 years in the camps. Instead of launching rockets, he was forced to start mining gold in the Kolyma. Closer to the war, the leadership became preoccupied with the development of bombers and “discharged” Korolev to the capital - in 1940 he was tried a second time and sent to the Moscow special prison of the NKVD TsKB-29. Ironically, the same Tupolev became its leader here - the teacher and student met no longer in freedom, but within the walls of the "sharashka". In the Tupolev team, Korolev took part in the development of the Pe-2 and Tu-2 bombers, projects of guided air torpedoes and a new missile interceptor. During the war, Korolev was transferred to another "sharashka" - OKB-16 at the Kazan Aviation Plant No. 16, where work was carried out on rocket engines that could be used for aviation needs.

In the short biographies of prominent Soviet engineers the word “arrested”, “arrested”, “arrested” is inevitably encountered ... As if the word “arrested” was eternal and immutable attribute any biography, as natural as "born" or "died" ... Many of the people listed here still enjoy worldwide fame and respect. Dirt and all kinds of accusations will never stick to their names, because they have proved their devotion to their fatherland with their whole lives. And when some next unscrupulous “historian” begins to claim that they were arrested correctly, that the victims of repression were indeed traitors and scoundrels, remember that we are talking about these people, whose biographies are given here.

Robert Bartini, little known to the general public and also to aviation specialists, was not only an outstanding designer and scientist, but also the secret inspirer of the Soviet space program. Sergei Pavlovich Korolev called Bartini his teacher. AT different time and in varying degrees with Bartini were associated: Korolev, Ilyushin, Antonov, Myasishchev, Yakovlev and many others. The main works on aerodynamics, the term "Bartini effect" is found in the literature.

The first manned space flight took place on April 12, 1961. Even before the pilot-cosmonaut Yuri Alekseevich Gagarin entered orbit, everyone realized that this event would forever be inscribed in the history of mankind, and those involved in it would gain symbolic “immortality” in the eyes of posterity. And since at that time manned flight also became the main breakthrough achievement Soviet Union, it seemed that nothing should interfere with the study of all its details and nuances. However, contrary to expectations, the concealment of information began almost immediately, in which Gagarin himself was forced to take part. The situation is such that even now, fifty years after the historic flight, there is no certainty that we know all its details.

In March 2002, the International Society "Memorial" and the Archive of the President of the Russian Federation released an electronic disk "Stalin's execution lists" (Stalin's execution lists. M.: Zvenya, 2002. ISBN 5-7870-0057-9). These are lists of persons whose fate was predetermined by members of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks - I.V. Stalin, V.M. Molotov, L.M. Kaganovich, K.E. Voroshilov, A. Mikoyan, S. Kosior and candidate members Politburo A.A. Zhdanov and N.I. Yezhov. The lists cover the period from February 27, 1937 to September 29, 1938, there are also two fragments of the October 1936 list and several lists of 1940, 1942 and 1950. Until December 1998, these lists were classified as "secret". Now, thanks to the efforts of "Memorial" and employees of the Archive of the President of the Russian Federation, historians have finally gained access to these lists.

Valery Soifer

Biophysicist, geneticist, historian of science and human rights activist Valery Soifer, author of the 2016 reprint of the book "Stalin and the scammers in science", read in a London club " Open Russia” a lecture on how science and scientists were destroyed in the Soviet Union and what role Stalin played in this.

Natella Boltyanskaya

This lecture by Natella Boltyanskaya is based on unique historical documents- CIA report on the potential for resistance within the communist bloc, congressional investigations into repressed peoples, known and unknown attempts to link international economic relations and human rights. The lecturer will tell details about real and imaginary American spies, about congressmen who visited the Permian camps, and senators expelled from the USSR, as well as about the participation of completely unexpected people in supporting Soviet citizens.

The largest Soviet scientist in the field rocket and space technology; one of the pioneers of rocket and space technology; founder of domestic liquid rocket engine building; general designer of the reusable rocket and space complex "Energia" - "Buran"

Biography

GLUSHKO VALENTIN PETROVICH - 02.09. (21.08.). 1908, Odessa - 10.01.1989, Moscow - the largest Soviet scientist in the field of rocket and space technology; one of the pioneers of rocket and space technology; founder of domestic liquid rocket engine building; general designer of the reusable rocket and space complex "Energia" - "Buran", academician of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR (1958; corresponding member since 1953), twice Hero of Socialist Labor (1956, 1961). Member of the CPSU since 1956.

In 1921, he began to take an interest in issues of astronautics; from 1923 he corresponded with K.E. Tsiolkovsky, from 1924 he published popular scientific and scientific works on astronautics. After graduating from Leningrad University (1925-1929), he worked at the Gas Dynamics Laboratory (1929-1933), where in 1929 he formed a division for the development of electric propulsion, liquid propellant rocket engines, and liquid-fuel rockets, who continued to work at the Jet Research Institute (NII No. 3 NKOP ) (1934-1938) and reorganized into OKB-SD (1941), then called OKB-456, now NPO Energomash named after academician V.P. Glushko. 1941-74 chief designer. From May 22, 1974 to January 10, 1989, General Designer of NPO Energia.

On March 23, 1938, he was arrested by the NKVD authorities of Moscow on the basis of information available to the NKVD authorities about the sabotage activities of V.P. Glushko in rocket technology. (Investigation file of the Central Archive of the FSB No R18935 (18102)). On March 28, 1938, the Decree was signed on the choice of a measure of restraint and the filing of charges under Art. 58-7-II, and his detention. On the basis of acts of technical expertise carried out at the institute on the instructions of the NKVD, as well as denunciations by A.G. Kostikova, Yukov, Pankina, M.K. Tikhonravova, L.S. Dushkina and others. 08/15/1939 A special meeting under the People's Commissar of the NKVD sentenced him to 8 years of correctional labor camps, but was subsequently left to work in the technical bureau.

First, he was sent to the Moscow Aviation Engine Plant in Tushino, where he was developing a project for an auxiliary installation of a liquid-propellant rocket engine on a twin-engine S-100 aircraft to speed up aircraft maneuvers, and then in 1941 to Kazan to continue work. Under the leadership of V.P. Glushko, for the period up to 1944, a family of auxiliary aviation LREs RD-1, RD-1KhZ, RD-2 and RD-3 was created with a pump supply of nitric acid and kerosene, with adjustable thrust and a maximum thrust near the ground from 300 up to 900 kg. These engines passed in 1943-1946. ground and flight tests on Pe-2R, La-7R and 120R, Yak-3, Su-6 and Su-7 aircraft. Engines RD-1KhZ and RD-2 passed state tests, reports on which were approved by I.V. Stalin.

According to the letter of L.P. Beria dated 07/16/1944 addressed to Stalin with a request for an honorary release of designers for performing work of great defense importance, 08/02/1944 V.P. Glushko was released and sent to Germany in order to familiarize himself with captured German rocket technology.

On May 30, 1956, the decision of the Special Meeting of the NKVD of the USSR was canceled and the case was dismissed for lack of corpus delicti. VP Glushko was fully rehabilitated.

The main works are devoted to theoretical and experimental research on the most important issues of the creation and development of LRE and spacecraft. Designer of the world's first electrothermal rocket engine, the first domestic liquid-propellant rocket engines, liquid-propellant RLA rockets. LRE designer: ORM, ORM-1 - ORM-70, -101, -102, RD-1 - RD-3, RD-100 - RD-103, RD-107 and RD-108 for Vostok launch vehicle, RD- 119 and RD-214 for the Proton launch vehicle, RD-301 and many others. etc. Under his leadership, powerful liquid-propellant rocket engines were developed on low-boiling and high-boiling fuels, which are used not in the first stages and most of the second stages of all Soviet launch vehicles, and many others. long-range missiles. In 1930, he proposed nitric acid, solutions of nitrogen tetroxide in nitric acid, tetranitpomethane, hydrogen peroxide, perchloric acid, beryllium (with hydrogen and oxygen), gunpowder with beryllium, developed a profiled nozzle and thermal insulation of the combustion chamber with zirconium dioxide. In 1931, he proposed chemical ignition and self-igniting propellant, a gimbal suspension of a rocket engine to control the flight of a rocket. In 1931-33 he developed units for supplying fuel to LRE - piston, turbopump with centrifugal pumps, and more. others

Golden medal them. K.E. Tsiolkovsky Academy of Sciences of the USSR (1958), Diploma. Paul Tissandier (FAI) (1967). Active member International Academy astronautics (1976). Deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of the 7th-11th convocations. Member of the Central Committee of the CPSU since 1976. Lenin Prize of the USSR (1957), State Prize of the USSR (1967, 1984). Awarded 5 Orders of Lenin (1956, 1958, 1961, 1968, 1978), Order of the October Revolution (1971), Order of the Red Banner of Labor (1945); medals: "In commemoration of the 100th anniversary of the birth of V.I. Lenin" (For labor valor) (1970), "XXX years of the victory of the Soviet people in the Great Patriotic War"(1975), "40 years of the victory of the Soviet people in the Great Patriotic War" (1985), "For Valiant Labor in the Great Patriotic War" (1945), "Veteran of Labor" (1984), "In memory of the 800th anniversary of Moscow" ( 1948).

Honorary citizen of 8 cities. In Odessa installed bronze bust on Primorsky Boulevard and a memorial plaque on the building at 10 Olgievskaya Street, where he lived from 1921 to 1925. In Kazan, a memorial plaque was opened on the building of the Aviation Institute. In 1994, by decision of the International Astronautical Federation, a crater was named after him, with a diameter of 43 kilometers on the reserved visible side Moon.

Books: "The problem of exploitation of the planets" (manuscript) 1924, Rockets, their design and application, M. - L., 1935 (together with G.E. Langemak); Liquid fuel for jet engines, part 1, M., 1936; Missile technology. Sat. articles, in 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, M. - L., 1937; "Sources of energy and their use in rocket technology", Moscow, Oborongiz, 1949; Rocket engines GDL-OKB, M., 1975, Path in rocket technology 1924-1946, selected works, M., Mashinostroenie, 1977; Development of rocket science and astronautics in the USSR, M., ed. 1st 1972, ed. 2nd 1981, ed. 3rd 1987, Encyclopedia "Cosmonautics", 1985 (chief editor), Handbook on thermodynamic and thermophysical properties substances in 10 volumes (chief editor).

encyclopedic reference

GLUSHKO Valentin Petrovich (b. September 2, 1908 - January 10, 1989); Academician of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR (1958; Corresponding Member 1953), twice Hero of Socialist Labor (1956, 1961)... scientific work on astronautics. After graduating from Leningrad University, he worked at the Gas Dynamics Laboratory (1929-1933), where in 1929 he formed a subdivision for the development of electric propulsion engines, rocket engines and liquid fuel rockets, which continued to work at the Jet Research Institute (1934-38) and reorganized into the Design Bureau ( 1941), then referred to as the GDL-OKB (in 1941-74 the chief designer). Since 1974 General Designer. The main works are devoted to theoretical and experimental research on the most important issues of the creation and development of liquid-propellant rocket engines and spacecraft. Designer of the world's first electrothermal rocket engine, the first domestic liquid-propellant rocket engines, liquid-propellant missiles RLA. LRE designer: ORM, ORM-1 - ORM-70, -101, -102, RD-1 - RD-3, RD-100 - RD-103, RD-107 and RD-108 for Vostok launch vehicle, RD- 119 and RD-214 for the Kosmos launch vehicle: RD-253 for the Proton launch vehicle, RD-301 and much more. Under the leadership of Glushko, powerful liquid-propellant rocket engines were developed on low-boiling and high-boiling fuels, which are used in the first stages and most of the second stages of all modern launch vehicles and many long-range combat missiles. In 1930, he proposed nitric acid, solutions of nitrogen tetroxide in nitric acid, tetranitromethane, hydrogen peroxide, perchloric acid, beryllium (with hydrogen and oxygen), gunpowder with beryllium as fuel components for rocket engines, developed a profiled nozzle and thermal insulation of the combustion chamber with zirconium dioxide. In 1931, he proposed chemical ignition and self-igniting propellant, a gimbal suspension of a liquid-propellant rocket engine to control the flight of a rocket. In 1931-33, he developed units for supplying fuel to a rocket engine - piston, turbopump with centrifugal pumps, and much more. Gold medal to them. K.E. Tsiolkovsky Academy of Sciences of the USSR (1958), Diploma. Paul Tissandier (FAI). Active member of the International Academy of Astronautics (1976). Deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR 7-11 convocations, ... Lenin Prize (1957), State Prize of the USSR (1967, 1984). Awarded 5 orders of Lenin, the Order of the October Revolution, the Order of the Red Banner of Labor and medals. Honorary citizen of the cities of Odessa, Kaluga, Elista and others. A bronze bust and a memorial plaque were installed in Odessa.

Academician, twice Hero of Socialist Labor, laureate of the Lenin Prize

Sergey lived on the Platonovsky Mole in the port, Valentin - on Olgievskaya Street. It is unlikely that they met somewhere, in any case, neither one nor the other remembers such a meeting, and then there is also the difference in age: Valentin was two whole years younger, in childhood this is a huge difference. Yes, and the aspirations of these two Odessa boys were different: Sergei was fond of aviation, Valentin - astronomy. Now it will seem strange, but in those years the idea of space flight was closer to astronomers than to aviators. Astronautics was more likely to be drawn as the future of astronomy than aviation. Maybe that's why it didn't occur to the young Korolev to write a letter to Tsiolkovsky.

I got a more correct direction by reading Perelman's excellent book Interplanetary Travel. But I felt the demand already in the calculations. Without any help, completely on my own, I began to calculate. But suddenly I managed to get your article in the journal "Scientific Review" (May 1903) - "The study of world spaces by jet devices." But this article is very short. I know that there is an article with the same title, published separately and more detailed - that's what I was looking for and what is my request to you.

A separate article “Investigation of world spaces with reactive devices” and also your essay “Out of the Earth” not only made me write you a letter, but also a lot of very important questions, the answer to which I would like to hear from you ... ".

Tsiolkovsky answered the Odessa schoolboy, sent him his books, asking how seriously he takes his passion for astronautics. Joyful Valentine immediately replied:

“Regarding how interested I am in interplanetary communications, I will only tell you that this is my ideal and the purpose of my life, which I want to devote to this great cause ...”.

“In 1924 I graduated from high school,” recalled Valentin Petrovich. “At the final exams, I was pleasantly surprised to learn that I was exempted from the exam in physics. To obtain a certificate of completion, I went through almost six months of practice (until the end of 1924), working first as a locksmith, then as a turner at the Odessa Electrometal Valve Plant named after Lenin. In very difficult, cold, hungry years, sounded by bullets, he is in constant physical and mental movement, in childhood, youth, and then in adult work, he sets himself a high pace of life, actively expanding the horizons of his knowledge, intellect and strength. Makes himself. And when in the summer of 1925 Valentin arrives in Leningrad and enters the university, he already knows for sure why he came, what he will do next. He meets Ya. I. Perelman, reads books by K. Tsiolkovsky, G. Oberth, R. Esno-Peltri, R. Goddard, V. Goman. Y. Kondratyuk. In the journal Science and Technology, 35 years before the flight of the world's first orbital station Salyut, the eighteen-year-old Glushko publishes an article "Station outside the Earth" and, predicting the program for future flights of such stations, writes that "not only astronomy and meteorology will be enriched with valuable contributions and the broadest horizons of new research. All natural sciences will find themselves in the same position. Is it surprising that the first theoretical work of a graduate of Leningrad State University "Metal as an explosive" is approved by expert scientists, and Tikhomirov invites Valentin Petrovich to the State Duma?

Glushko called his memoirs “The Way in Rocket Engineering”. This long journey was not always easy and festive. There were potholes of failures, and potholes of disappointments, and pits of cruel injustice. But it was always the straight path. From that clear, clean spring morning, when he arrived in Lesnoye near Leningrad, where "Papa Ioffe" set aside a room for him in his high-voltage laboratory, from that very May morning in 1929, Valentin Petrovich Glushko was always engaged in one thing - rocket engines, becoming the largest the world's preeminent authority in this field of rocketry.

Well, then he did not look like an academic at all. A thin, neat young man, in a tie, in an ironed shirt with a collar, the corners of which, in the fashion of that time, were pulled together with a metal cufflink, modest, quiet, well-mannered, attracts the attention of those around him with incredible perseverance and perseverance in work. For old man Tikhomirov, ERD is an end in itself, for Glushko it is a means to an end. And the goal is space flight. Calculations show, and he sees it in experiments, that an electric rocket engine has a limited thrust, it cannot launch a manned spacecraft into space. EJE is secondary, because it is a weightlessness engine, but you must first get into weightlessness. When you are 21 years old, and you yourself came up with something that no one thought of doing before you, and “something” is accepted and approved by scientific authorities, and you were given funds, people, premises, equipment so that you could improve your idea, it is very difficult to say to yourself: “No, my ERD is not the main thing now. Perhaps I started from the end. Space technology needs something else.” It was not easy to say, but Valentine said it to himself. “It became clear to me,” Academician Glushko recalled, “that with all the prospects, we will need an electric propulsion engine only at the next stage of space exploration, and in order to penetrate into space, we need liquid propulsion engines, about which Konstantin Eduardovich Tsiolkovsky wrote so much. Since the beginning of 1930, I have focused on the development of precisely these motors ... ".

Everything was new to him then and there was no one to teach him. Tsiolkovsky wrote about LRE, but he has neither calculations of thermal processes, nor drawings, much less designs. Zander is a staunch supporter of rocket engines, and his approach to them is engineering, concrete. But he is too keen on his idea of afterburning in engines of metal structures, and this problem is incredibly difficult in terms of its design design, and Zander's stubbornness unwittingly slows down all work. Very quickly, in the first year or two of work, Valentin understands that the problem of LRE is not just some unknown fortress of technology that can be taken by attack, by a frontal attack. Rather, it is a whole defensive line. The general problem is divided into a number of separate problems, solving which one can consistently, in the end, build a liquid-propellant rocket engine, as the rocket engine was then called.

But, perhaps, the hardest nut to crack in the riddles of rocket engines is the problem of engine cooling. The higher the temperature in the combustion chamber, the more efficient and powerful the rocket engine works. But the metals of the structure cannot withstand high temperatures. Engineering intuition eventually tells you that no materials will survive. It is necessary to follow a completely different path: to resort to dynamic cooling of the engine: to remove heat from it, as water removes the heat of an automobile engine. But water is not suitable here ... .. Then he still does not represent the complexity of the task facing him, he does not know that he will have to fight all his life with these monstrous heat flows, that a whole branch in the science of heat transfer will arise in this struggle - theory cooling liquid rocket engines and that, apparently, the end of this struggle, despite all the technical power of our space age, will never be seen.

Silently designs engines, tests them, burns them, blows them up, sometimes comes to a standstill, quickly understands this, returns and goes further, step by step goes to perfection. He believes that it is achievable; in technical reports, where any hint of emotion has long been considered almost a sign of bad taste, he calls the LRE - "engines of advanced technology." The second sector, headed by Valentin Petrovich, creates a whole series of experimental rocket motors. The first one is quite primitive, with a cylindrical nozzle, water-cooled, with a thrust of only 20 kilograms. But the next one is something better.

In 1937, during the mass repressions, the creators and leaders of the Jet Research Institute, which arose on the basis of the GDL, were arrested and shot. In March 1938, Glushko was also arrested and sentenced to eight years. Even then, design bureaus began to be created in prisons, which were called "sharashki". In one of them, Glushko continued his research. Only in July 1944, he and a group of comrades were released ahead of schedule for the creation of the RD-1 engine.

With the appointment in 1974 of the director and general designer of NPO Energia, Glushko began to play one of the main roles in determining the paths for the development of manned cosmonautics. Under his leadership, the long-term station "Mir" and the unique system "Energy" - "Buran" were created. In addition, he led the work on improving the Soyuz manned spacecraft and developing their Soyuz T and Soyuz TM modifications, as well as the Progress cargo spacecraft, improving the Salyut orbital stations, implementing the manned flight program, including including international ones. All this was aimed at the realization of the main dream - the flight of man to other planets.

For his many years of activity, V.P. Glushko was twice awarded the title of Hero of Socialist Labor, awarded five Orders of Lenin, Orders of the October Revolution, Orders of the Red Banner of Labor and many medals. He is a laureate of the Lenin and State Prizes. He was elected a deputy of the Supreme Council of 7-11 convocations, a delegate of the XXI-XXVII congresses of the CPSU and a member of the Central Committee of the CPSU. In 1994, by decision of the XXII General Assembly of the International Astronomical Union, the name of V.P. Glushko was assigned to a crater on the visible reserved side of the Moon.

222 scientific works were published by V.P. Glushko, but the very first was written and published back in Odessa, in 1924, in a newspaper that could not resist the onslaught of a young man who argued that with this article the city would go down in world history. And so it happened. But how it was necessary to believe in yourself, in your strength, in the ideas of Tsiolkovsky!

The cosmonauts called Glushko "the god of fire", because the power of the engine of the second stage, which lifted Yuri Gagarin in the "Vostok", is equal to the power of ... Dneproges. In 1934, Sergei Korolev wrote: "The focus is on the rocket engine!" And as if reading this entry, Valentin Glushko undertook to develop the design of the motor. And he did what no one else could do before him.

January 10, 1989 Valentin Petrovich Glushko, full of creative ideas, passed away. In his will, he ordered to donate to the State Art Gallery of Odessa the paintings he had acquired in 1957 for the Lenin Prize. This wonderful Odessa citizen is buried at the Novodevichy Cemetery in Moscow. A beautiful avenue is named after him in his native city, on which stands a monument to the famous designer.

The most important and most famous missiles of the production of the Soviet Union came into life with the help of the general designer, whose name stands in history along with the most important for the country. Glushko, who created many dozens of the most powerful jet engines. Valentin Petrovich, despite his many hobbies, determined the main thing in his life in childhood.

Start

The future academician Glushko was born in Odessa in 1908, and in 1924 he graduated from the Metal vocational school named after Trotsky. At the age of fifteen, he was already in a lively, eight-year-long correspondence with Tsiolkovsky himself, who sent the boy all his new works. This brilliant young man, still far from his age, had already published articles on space exploration and enthusiastically wrote a book about the problems of planetary exploitation. In the twenties of the twentieth century, when the main part of the population did not even see airplanes! And in 1925, young Glushko went to Leningrad to study there at the university, because he needed knowledge to make all his dreams come true.

It is difficult to study at the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics! Yes, and the time in the country was difficult - recovery after the monstrous devastation. But the future academician Glushko did not complain about the lack of money; already as a student, he did not unload wagons, but scientific work was doing. Hunger, cold and other hardships against this background worried him a little. And this, of course, bore fruit: already in 1933, Glushko Valentin Petrovich became the head of the rocket research institute, and three years later - the chief designer of jet engines.

Far from prying eyes

Starting in 1933, liquid-propellant engines built by brilliant designer, increased by the number of modifications. At the same time, the famous OPM-65 engine was born, which was planned to be installed on air torpedoes as weapons for aircraft, and as a prototype of modern missiles - for rocket planes. In 1938, the future academician Glushko was already appreciated.

He was hidden, condemned "for sabotage", like all the leading engineers and designers of the country. They were sentenced to eight years in the camps and sent "to a sharashka", that is, a closed design bureau for further development. First, in Tushino, at the aircraft plant No. 82, where Valentin Petrovich developed rocket launchers installed on aircraft. Actually, rocket science, in its purest form, has not yet been considered as a useful thing, but soon everything changed.

Before Victory

Glushko Valentin Petrovich was released in 1944. He immediately stood at the head of an experienced, or, rather, a special design office in Kazan, where special engines were developed. In 1946 he was among those who studied in Germany German developments in the rocket field.

Returning from there with new ideas, Glushko is already working in the transformed OKB-456 at the aircraft factory in Khimki, where by 1948 the first RD-100 engine for a rocket appeared, and then a huge number of them for a wide variety of flying objects. Glushko Valentin Petrovich, whose biography is entirely connected with jet engines, it was then that he became the undisputed leader in their creation.

Merits

In 1974, she began work completely new organization headed by Academician Glushko - NPO Energia, which included OKB-456 and OKB-1. The general designer changed the course of the enterprise entrusted to him radically. That is why all Russian cosmonautics, including the modern one, owes almost everything to this man. It was he who designed the engines of the Vostok spacecraft - from the first flight into space to the creation of stations in orbit. Without it, our space achievements would be very different. Perhaps they wouldn't exist at all.

That is why a monument to Valentin Glushko was erected in Odessa, on a beautiful avenue, also named after this "secret" person. And in Moscow, too, there is such a monument. However, his services to the fatherland cannot be overestimated. Valentin Petrovich Glushko - Hero of Socialist Labor (twice), he has five orders of Lenin, as well as the Order of the Red Banner of Labor and the October Revolution, many medals. He is a laureate of Lenin and State Prize THE USSR.

Korolev

Even in OKB-1, wonderful specialists worked with the outstanding designer, whom he recruited into the bureau on his own (imagine how much they appreciated this prisoner, who was allowed to do this). These are legendary people: Umansky, Zheltukhin, List, Vitka, Strahovich, Zhiritsky and many others. In 1942, at the request of the chief designer Glushko, the most legendary man who conquered the cosmos.

Glushko Valentin Petrovich and Korolev Sergey Pavlovich together developed the very military equipment which brought victory to the country. were installed on the Pe-2, and immediately its speed became 180 kilometers per hour higher. There were tests with Yak-3 fighters. The speed increase was impressive - up to two hundred kilometers per hour. Thus, with the help of a liquid-propellant jet engine, the very fate of rocket technology changed.

Relationship with power

Stalin "released" Glushko ahead of schedule and removed his criminal record in 1944. But in the life of a designer, practically nothing has changed from this decision. He was always, regardless of the courts, a secret person and protected from the rest of life by a huge wall. creative work which the country needs and which the soul and heart require. But Glushko correctly used this Stalinist gesture. He gave the leader a list of thirty people who also needed to be released ahead of schedule and left to work in the design bureau. And so it happened. Most of these people tied their fate with Glushko forever.

And since 1945, this man, who had been convicted for many years in the past, began to head the department in the Kazan aviation institute, where he was engaged in jet engines and prepared worthy assistants for himself and his design bureau. Even more interesting: yesterday's convict "for wrecking" has been studying rockets in Germany for a year and a half (1945-1947), while on a business trip. Trophies - German rocket science - the designer, of course, was impressed. But this case also told a lot about the relationship between the authorities and the creative contingent. Glushko had four lengthy personal meetings with Stalin, where domestic rocket science was discussed. The leader asked smart, sensible, qualified questions.

Space

In 1953, Glushko was elected to the Academy of Sciences as a corresponding member, and in 1957, without defending a dissertation, the Higher Attestation Commission awarded him doctoral degree. It's time to make your childhood dreams come true. Valentin Petrovich developed extensive programs of manned even lunar settlements, with his light hand reusable spacecraft appeared. He was seriously involved in the exploration of Venus and Mars, planned flights to asteroids.

And many of his dreams, carried through his whole life, came true. The launch of the first satellite into the orbit of the planet pushed the country to rapid development rocket science. Communication with the Earth began to be supported by the orbital complexes "Mir", "Salyut" by means of manned spacecraft "Soyuz" and transport ones, which were developed by Valentin Petrovich Glushko. But much has not come true, so far.

Moon

Glushko led the development of a lunar station that would have people on it all the time. The stamp of work "top secret" did not allow the public to inspire this idea, and therefore, when, after unsuccessful launches of N-1 lunar program closed, no one grieved about it, except for the general designer. And even all that great thing that happened could not console him to the end. Has it happened? More than fifty modifications of liquid engines, which are now used on seventeen models of space and combat missiles. It was under his leadership that the created engines of launch vehicles launched automatic stations to Mars, Venus and the Moon, they were also installed on the Soyuz and Vostok manned spacecraft, and how many artificial satellites The moon and the earth are launched into orbit with their help!

And the Buran spacecraft, developed under the leadership of Glushko, this spaceship, which easily took over the functions of an aircraft, with the latest heat-shielding materials, with computer calculations in tens of thousands of drawings, and with an engine that is still the most powerful today - the RD-170 liquid-propellant rocket engine, the brainchild of Glushko, which is not inferior, but superior in many respects even to the "Shuttle" ! The device is truly flawless! But ... apple trees do not bloom on Mars, there are no traces of us on the lunar paths. Valentin Petrovich did not wait. In 1989 he died, and his name international union astronomers named the crater on the visible side of the moon. Maybe just the one that attracted this great and active dreamer to him at night.

Women

Glushko Valentin Petrovich also loved women very much. Therefore, his family was far from alone, despite the "secrecy", a long term in "sharashka" and inhuman employment. The first time he married at the age of nineteen, as a student Leningrad University. He did not unload the wagons, but when he was especially hungry, he earned a little money repairing apartments, where the former Odessa girl Susanna Georgievskaya, the future writer, was found. What happened between the spouses, why they divorced, remained a mystery. But the circumstances are amazing. Valentine was wounded firearms. He said that the reason is careless handling. Then followed a divorce.

Appeared new woman, whom he did not have time to marry - Tamara Sarkisova. However, the daughter of Eugene managed to be born. The arrest of Glushko Tamara was very frightened and renounced all relationships. Therefore, when the opportunity arose, Glushko did not return to her - he did not forgive. In Germany, he had a teacher, whose name was Magda, and children were born - Yuri and Elena. Then there must have been something else that history is silent about. Glushko was an extremely interesting and purely outward man, and the halo of genius shone unbearably over him. But in 1959, when the designer turned fifty-one, Lydia Naryshkina appeared in his life, an eighteen-year-old girl who worked at his Energomash Design Bureau in Khimki, with whom he lived the remaining twenty-eight years, raising a wonderful son.

Portal for the student. Self-training