Who are they - the first people in space? The second half of the twentieth century is significant for many events. One of the most grandiose was the discovery of outer space by man. The Soviet Union played a leading role in this qualitative leap that humanity made when it began to explore space. Despite the intense rivalry between the leading powers of the world, the USSR and the USA, the first people in space were from the Soviet Union, which caused bouts of impotent anger in the rival country.
1961
The twelfth of April 1961 is a date that is known to any schoolchild. On this day, a man flew into space for the first time. It was then that all the people of Earth learned from the astronaut that our planet is really round. It was then, on April 12, that the first man visited space. The year 1961 will forever go down in the history of earthlings.
In those years, there was fierce rivalry between the USSR and the USA. Both there and there actively sought to explore outer space. The United States was also preparing to fly into space. But it so happened that the first cosmonaut to fly was from the Soviet Union. It turned out to be Yuri Gagarin. Experiments had already been carried out before, and dogs, the famous Belka and Strelka, flew into space, but not humans. The whole world applauded the first cosmonaut, despite all the US attempts to reduce the significance of his flight.
How it was
The Vostok-1 spacecraft launched at 9:07 a.m. from the Baikonur Cosmodrome, with Yuri Gagarin on board. His flight did not last long, only 108 minutes. This is not to say that it was completely smooth. Communication failures occurred during the flight; the leakage sensor, which prevented the unit compartment from being disconnected, did not work; there was also a jamming of the spacesuit.
But the optimism of the astronaut and the technology as a whole did not disappoint. He landed, catapulting to Earth. But due to a failure in the braking system, the device descended not in the planned area (110 kilometers from Stalingrad), but in Saratov, not far from the city of Engels.
It is because of this that the United States for a long time tried to impose on the world its opinion that the flight could not be called complete. However, the attempts were unsuccessful. Gagarin was greeted in many countries as a hero. He was awarded a huge number of various awards in different countries peace.
Yuri Gagarin: short biography
He was born on March 9, 1934 in the village of Klushino, Gzhatsky district (currently Gagarinsky district, Smolensk region) into a simple peasant family. There he survived a year and a half of occupation fascist troops, when the whole family was kicked out of the house and was forced to huddle in a dugout. At this time, the boy did not study, and only after the liberation by the Red Army did school resume. Gagarin graduated with honors from a vocational school and entered the Saratov Industrial College. In 1954, he first came to the Saratov flying club, and in 1955, after graduating, he made his first flight. There were subsequently 196 in total.
He then graduated from the military aviation school and served as a fighter pilot. And in 1959 he wrote an application to be included in the group of astronaut candidates.
Yuri Gagarin passed away very early, at the age of 34. But during his short life, he left a great memory of himself in the hearts of many people, who remembered him as the person who first visited extraterrestrial space.
After Yuri Gagarin's flight this direction began to develop at an even more active pace. Man and space attracted each other with renewed vigor. Scientists are now eager for a woman to visit there. Perseverance and intelligence helped the fair sex Valentina Tereshkova. On June 16, 1963, having launched on the Vostok-6 spacecraft, the first woman visited space, and has since become famous throughout the world.
Valentina Tereshkova: short biography
She was born on March 6, 1937 in the Tutaevsky district of the Yaroslavl region in ordinary family. Her father was a tractor driver and died at the front, and her mother worked at a weaving factory. In 1953, Valya graduated from seven classes and got a job as a bracelet maker at a Yaroslavl factory. At the same time, she received her education at evening school. In 1959, young Tereshkova began parachuting and made about a hundred jumps.
She cast her lot in with astronautics in 1962, when it was decided to send a woman into space. Out of many applicants, only five candidates were selected. After joining the cosmonaut squad, Valentina began intensive training and education. And a year later, she was chosen for the flight.
The first astronaut in open space
He was the first to leave the spacecraft into open extraterrestrial space. It was March 18, 1965. At that time, no rescue systems were provided for astronauts. It was impossible to dock or move from one ship to another. One could only rely on himself and the equipment that flew with him. Alexey Arkhipovich decided to do this, thereby realizing the dream of the legendary Tsiolkovsky, who proposed using an airlock chamber to enter open space.
And again the USSR was ahead of the USA. They also wanted to implement this. But the first man in space was carried out by a Soviet man.
How it was
At first they wanted to send the animal into open space, but later abandoned this idea. After all main task The problem, which consists in finding out how a person will behave in space, would not have been solved. In addition, the animal would not be able to tell about its impressions later.
There were various assumptions on the lips of the public regarding the entry of man into open extraterrestrial space. And, despite the fact that the first people had already been in space, no one had exact confidence in how a person would behave outside the ship.
The crew composition was selected most carefully. In addition to excellent physical data, coherence and teamwork of the entire team was required. Belyaev and Leonov became cosmonauts, two people who complement each other in their qualities. The astronaut stayed overboard for twelve minutes, during which he flew away from the ship and returned back five times. The problem arose when he needed to return to the cockpit. The suit in the vacuum swelled so much that he could not squeeze into the hatch. After a number of unsuccessful attempts, Leonov decided, contrary to instructions, to swim inside with his head and not his feet. He succeeded.
Alexey Arkhipovich Leonov: short biography
He was born on May 30, 1934 in a Siberian village, near the city of Kemerovo. His father was a miner, and his mother was a teacher.
Alexey grew up in large family and was the ninth child. While still at school, he began to become interested in aviation technology, and after high school entered pilot school. Then he graduated from fighter pilot school. And in 1960, having passed a strict selection process, he was enrolled as an astronaut.
Leonov carried out his flight in 1965. From 1967 to 1970, he led the lunar group of astronauts. In 1973, he was selected for a joint flight with US astronauts, when spacecraft docked for the first time in history.
Alexey Leonov is an international member of the astronaut corps, an academician of the RAA and co-chairman of the association of space flight participants.
Man and space
Touching on the topic of space, one cannot fail to mention such people as S. P. Korolev and K. E. Tsiolkovsky. They are not the first people in space and have never been there. However, largely thanks to their efforts and labors, man still achieved it.
Sergei Pavlovich is the creator of the rocket and space science. It was on his initiative that the first artificial Earth satellite and Vostok-1 with Yuri Gagarin on board were sent. When a photo of Sergei Pavlovich was found in his jacket.
Konstantin Eduardovich is a self-taught scientist, considered the founder of theoretical cosmonautics. He is the author of many scientific and science fiction works, and promoted the ideas of space exploration.
the first successful human flight into space, Yuri Gagarin - he said “Let’s go”
History of astronautics, first flights into space. Who flew into space before Gagarin. First flights into space- territories of cold and weightlessness, and peace big secrets. April 12, the official holiday of astronautics, in honor of Yuri Gagarin's first flight.
On April 12, 1961, Yuri Gagarin, a cosmonaut of the Soviet Union, accomplished first manned space flight, lasting 108 minutes. It was a huge success. A colossal step in the exploration of outer space.
It was a time of great achievements by Soviet scientists. Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin makes a manned flight into space in Earth orbit! The whole country rejoiced and celebrated!
This is how it was remembered in the history of space exploration….
Yu. Gagarin's flight into space was extremely important for the Union, because there was a race for space conquests between two superpowers, the USSR and the USA. And it was necessary to prove to the whole world that only in the Union is everything most advanced, and only under the control of the Communist Party are great things accomplished.
But before the first cosmonaut made a historic flight, animals were the first to go into space. These are world famous dogs, Belka and Strelka. Having made the first orbital flight around the Earth, and having spent a day in weightlessness. But as academician Oleg Georgievich Gazenko, an employee of a special laboratory at the Air Force Institute of Aviation Medicine, says, they were not the first to go into space.
— In 1948, the special laboratory was tasked with preparing dogs for space flights. To do this, animals were caught on the streets, selecting 4-5 kilograms by weight. And already in 1951 we began work in earnest. These are multi-level training systems - getting dogs used to wearing a vest with sensors for reading bioparameters.
Accustom them to the cramped cabin of a ship so that the animals do not develop the fear of claustrophobia. Almost all kinds of tests that could be foreseen during the launch and flight of a rocket in space, of course, except for the conditions of weightlessness. It was weightlessness that worried scientists a lot about what its effect on the body would be. The experimental animals answered this question.
But before the successful flight of Belka and Strelka, many will remember that Laika was sent into orbit in 1957. Preparations for this flight took 10 years. But the artificial satellite was not equipped with a system for returning to Earth, and the dog died.
And the dogs Gypsy and Desik were the first to go into space, albeit on a high-altitude rocket, but the dogs’ flight was successful, and they returned safely to Earth. Oleg Georgievich remembers the dog Zhulka, who went to space three times. This is a little-known, white and fluffy heroine of astronautics. Twice she successfully launched into space on high-altitude rockets. For the third time, Zhulka went into orbit in December 1960, on a ship that was the predecessor of Gagarin’s spacecraft.
But this time, she faced many dangers. Due to technical equipment failures, the ship does not reach orbit. In this case, the destruction of the ship was prescribed. But again there is a misfire in the operation of the systems, and the ship does not explode. And the satellite falls to Earth, in the vastness of Siberia, in the Podkamennaya Tunguska region. It took two days for the rescue team to reach the fallen vehicle.
All this time, Zhulka, who survived all the vicissitudes of the fall of the spacecraft, was in the cold, without food or drink. But she survived, and was then “written off” from the space program participants. Oleg Georgievich took pity on the brave astronaut and took the dog to his home, where Zhulka lived for about 14 more years.
It must be said that not only dogs and mice, but even turtles have been in space. By the way, little known fact, but it was the turtles who were the first to fly around the Moon, on the Soviet Zond-5 apparatus. The turtles returned safely to Earth after splashing down in the Indian Ocean.
And just before the flight of Senior Lieutenant Gagarin, a dog named Zvezdochka went into space. All future cosmonauts were invited to the launch of the spacecraft in March 1961, with Zvezdochka on board. To see and be convinced, the development of space technology allows a person to make a safe flight into space. Yuri Gagarin, whose successful flight took place in April, was also present.
During this flight, Senior Lieutenant Gagarin uttered the word known to several generations of earthlings: “ Let's go". Gagarin landed when he was already a major. Some people even now express doubts whether Yuri himself said “ Let's go“, or it was “necessary”. — But is this important for the history of astronautics? I think not.
Some researchers, looking closely at the history of Soviet cosmonautics, talk about other cosmonauts. Who supposedly went into space before Gagarin, but died during unsuccessful launches, burning up in spaceships.
according to researchers, archival documents, hide the names and faces of people who will never see the spotlight. These are people who flew into space even before Gagarin. They were the pioneers, the first people to overcome the gravity of the Earth.
But the names of the first cosmonauts who searched for the paths of space roads do not appear among the names of astronauts. They died in spacecraft searching for a way into orbit. And unsuccessful launches space rockets They are not needed for history, just like people. — the researchers say.
Of course, I’m getting a little ahead of myself now, but I want to say right away official point views on this issue. Both officials and historians.
Here's what A. Pervushin said about it: “Perhaps the secrecy surrounding the space program is not entirely justified. And it gave rise to many rumors and speculations. But in the history of Soviet cosmonautics there are no hidden corpses and never have existed.” And he calls this “the fruit of a wild fantasy generated by a strict regime of secrecy” and also - “no matter how cynical it may sound, but the interest was not in the successful return of the astronaut - this did not matter, in the conditions of the race the main thing was to declare one’s own priority«
Historians also talk about this. As already mentioned, in the space race with the Americans, it was very important that the Soviet cosmonaut be the first to fly into space. As an example refuting unknown flights, a document of the CPSU Central Committee is given, signed 9 days before Gagarin’s launch, on April 3, 1961. The document ordered the preparation of two TASS messages about the launch of a manned spacecraft.
One of them was laudatory, about the successful launch of a Soviet ship with a pilot on board, and the great achievement of the USSR. Another message was about the death of Gagarin. That is, there was no concealment of information whatever the outcome of the flight. According to historians allowed to study the documents, the surnames of the often mentioned dead cosmonauts Ledovsky, Shiborin, Mitkov and Gromov did not exist in reality; these were fictitious names by someone unknown. In any case, according to historians, there was no connection with the people behind these names.
The story of the dead cosmonauts who allegedly made the first flights into space before Gagarin.
We should probably start with famous photograph on the cover of Ogonyok magazine, October 1959. The image shows five people, Kachura, Mikhailov, Zavadovsky, Belokonev, Grachev, testers from the Institute of Space Medicine. In the photo they are wearing pressure helmets, and many decided that these were the future cosmonauts. However, their surnames are not found among the names of astronauts. And the Western press puts forward the version that they died during the first flights into space.
Allegedly, cosmonauts Grachev and Belokonev went into space in September 1961 with the goal of circumnavigating the Moon in a two-seater spacecraft. According to journalists (in particular the Western press), a breakdown occurs on the ship, and the astronauts cannot return. A ship with astronauts on board, having lost control, turns into a space wanderer, getting lost in the cold depths of space. — Tragic story death.
However, at that time, space technology did not allow manned flights to the Moon. Otherwise, the USSR would have defeated the USA in the exploration of the Moon. But this does not confuse journalists, the main thing is more smoke on the territory of an ideological enemy. The death of Gennady Mikhailov was completely timed to coincide with the unsuccessful launch of an automatic Venus probe. On February 4, 1961, the launch of the station was unsuccessful, due to an accident in the upper stage, the automatic station “stuck” in low-Earth orbit.
True, sometimes there are records that Kachura died this way. But the station was unmanned, fully automatic. However, everything is clear here, from the name of the Institute it is clear what the people mentioned were doing. In addition, within the framework of the same secrecy regime, the persons who appeared on the covers of the magazine could not participate in space flights.
But there is still one case of unknown astronauts that researchers in the dark corners of astronautics can point to. This is Vladimir Ilyushin, the son of a famous designer, they point to him as the first cosmonaut. Officially, Ilyushin was in a car accident a few months before Gagarin was launched into orbit.
After being cured in his homeland, he went to China to improve his health with the help of oriental medicine. His health problems were immediately counted as an unsuccessful flight into space. Allegedly, the ship, completing its flight, made an unsuccessful landing in which the astronaut was injured. And for the sake of the same notorious secrecy, the astronaut’s injuries were officially “recorded” as a car accident.
However, this version does not stand up to criticism; not only does it lack logic, it is also funny. What can you hide here? Even in this version, the launch of the ship was successful - it is easier to hide its difficult landing - and one can safely report to the whole world about the achievements of Soviet scientists.
Pyotr Dolgov, a test pilot, burned to death in the ship during a launch failure in September 1960. Yes, he died, but not during the launch into orbit. And two years later, in November 1962, jumping from a stratospheric balloon using a parachute. Presumably died while testing a new model of a spacesuit.
Other facts cited by researchers of the alternative history of astronautics and the secretly buried dead astronauts are identical. But there were losses among the 20 cosmonauts of the “Gagarin” set. These are Grigory N., Ivan A., and Valentin F., expelled from the detachment for resisting an army patrol while drunk (surnames are not indicated based on ethical standards).
It is known that Grigory N., while serving in Far East in a regular air regiment, he said that it was he who should have flown into space instead of Gagarin. True, his colleagues did not believe him. In 1966, Grigory died after being hit by a train. It remains unknown whether it was an accident, suicide, or, as the researchers wonder, a regime of secrecy overtook him.
Another one, the story of the disastrous “before Gagarin” launches, as well as the subsequently killed cosmonauts, is told by the Italians - Cordilla brothers. I'll start with the technical capabilities of the brothers. Maybe now the design engineers will laugh, but the Cordilla brothers, alone, using only photographs of NASA ground tracking stations, were able to assemble their own device. With the help of which they listened to the negotiations of astronauts in orbit with the MCC.
It was the brothers who managed to accomplish the impossible, while all the countries, following the actions of the Soviet cosmonauts, were trying to listen to the broadcast and do it only the Cordilla brothers could. In particular, only they were able to hear how the dying cosmonauts communicated with the Earth in the last seconds of their lives. In the press, including on television, the story of the Cordilla brothers is retold in some detail.
Therefore, we will not dwell in detail on how many distress signals in orbit, screams and groans of dying cosmonauts were recorded by the Italians of Cordiglia. But even a person who is not familiar with the details of special communication devices knows that it is impossible to listen to a communication channel on a “closed” frequency, even if you have a triple supercomputer of the future, you will not be able to “sit in” to listen to this channel. Here we can add that the operation of the special equipment used is strikingly different from the currently known scramblers (a device for encrypting information from unauthorized persons).
So is it really within the framework space program, the military used open frequencies for communication? And they were able to discover it only the Cordilla brothers, and technical employees of the intelligence services of other states turned out to be completely incompetent? At the same time, the Italians had been listening to communications since the time of Laika’s flight. But they shared information only in 2007, publishing their observation diary.
But what’s interesting is that, as the Italian brothers report, the first flight into space was made by the dog Laika, whose heart function they were able to record. And indeed, they could not know that the dogs Gypsy, Desik, and Zhulka had been in space; this information, due to the lack of any importance, was not disseminated. And the brothers could not know about this. This means that everything else can be considered fiction.
And repeating known cases of death of cosmonauts, in terms of hiding space secrets “before Gagarin’s” flights, is of no interest, they are well known.
America's space history comes to mind. After all, as it appears in the press, a manned rocket launch was carried out in Germany back in 1945. This happened under the leadership of the famous inventor Fau, Dr. von Braun. Allegedly last option V-2 rockets, was a full-fledged spacecraft. It was on it that one of the pilots went into outer space. Moreover, he subsequently landed safely.
Another very funny story tells how in the mid-80s, a spacecraft crashed into the coastal waters near Miami, sometimes referred to as the Canary Islands. The police who arrived at the splashdown site freeze; in front of them are three people dressed in German uniforms. and they confirm that they are pilots of great Germany. And they were launched into orbit in 1945. But due to a malfunction of the suspended animation chamber, their sleep lasted longer.
Thus, they also claim to be the first astronauts. However, in reality, you need to pay attention to one fact, and then all these stories will burst more easily than a soap bubble. Dr. von Braun defected to the United States and took part in the space race against the Soviet Union. Then why, the inventor who has already sent astronauts into orbit, has been painstakingly working for decades to create a manned spacecraft. The answer is simple, there was no necessary technology, and all the stories are fiction.
***
Of course, there were unsuccessful launches of Soviet spacecraft. And many astronauts died during unsuccessful launches. But no one hid their names. Another thing is that little has been said about this, but that's a completely different story.
Some achievements of space technology are also interesting for use in everyday life, so to speak, in civilian life. For example, the Penguin space suit, developed to help astronauts cope with weightlessness, was later used to cure cerebral palsy.
Another space development is “Bifidum-bacterin”, which has hit the store shelves. It was originally developed for astronauts as a preventative against dysbacteriosis.
the first successful human flight into space, Yuri Gagarin - he said “Let's go”
History of astronautics, first flights into space. Who flew into space before Gagarin. First flights into space- territories of cold and weightlessness, and a world of great secrets. April 12, the official holiday of astronautics, in honor of Yuri Gagarin's first flight.
On April 12, 1961, Yuri Gagarin, a cosmonaut of the Soviet Union, accomplished first manned space flight, lasting 108 minutes. It was a huge success. A colossal step in the exploration of outer space.
It was a time of great achievements by Soviet scientists. Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin makes a manned flight into space in Earth orbit! The whole country rejoiced and celebrated!
This is how it was remembered in the history of space exploration….
Yu. Gagarin's flight into space was extremely important for the Union, because there was a race for space conquests between two superpowers, the USSR and the USA. And it was necessary to prove to the whole world that only in the Union is everything most advanced, and only under the control of the Communist Party are great things accomplished.
But before the first cosmonaut made a historic flight, animals were the first to go into space. These are world famous dogs, Belka and Strelka. Having made the first orbital flight around the Earth, and having spent a day in weightlessness. But as academician Oleg Georgievich Gazenko, an employee of a special laboratory at the Air Force Institute of Aviation Medicine, says, they were not the first to go into space.
- In 1948, the special laboratory was tasked with preparing dogs for space flights. To do this, animals were caught on the streets, selecting 4-5 kilograms by weight. And already in 1951 we began work in earnest. These are multi-level training systems - getting dogs used to wearing a vest with sensors for reading bioparameters.
Accustom them to the cramped cabin of a ship so that the animals do not develop the fear of claustrophobia. Almost all kinds of tests that could be foreseen during the launch and flight of a rocket in space, of course, except for the conditions of weightlessness. It was weightlessness that worried scientists a lot about what its effect on the body would be. The experimental animals answered this question.
But before the successful flight of Belka and Strelka, many will remember that Laika was sent into orbit in 1957. Preparations for this flight took 10 years. But the artificial satellite was not equipped with a system for returning to Earth, and the dog died.
And the dogs Gypsy and Desik were the first to go into space, albeit on a high-altitude rocket, but the dogs’ flight was successful, and they returned safely to Earth. Oleg Georgievich remembers the dog Zhulka, who went to space three times. This is a little-known, white and fluffy heroine of astronautics. Twice she successfully launched into space on high-altitude rockets. For the third time, Zhulka went into orbit in December 1960, on a ship that was the predecessor of Gagarin’s spacecraft.
But this time, she faced many dangers. Due to technical equipment failures, the ship does not reach orbit. In this case, the destruction of the ship was prescribed. But again there is a misfire in the operation of the systems, and the ship does not explode. And the satellite falls to Earth, in the vastness of Siberia, in the Podkamennaya Tunguska region. It took two days for the rescue team to reach the fallen vehicle.
All this time, Zhulka, who survived all the vicissitudes of the fall of the spacecraft, was in the cold, without food or drink. But she survived, and was then “written off” from the space program participants. Oleg Georgievich took pity on the brave astronaut and took the dog to his home, where Zhulka lived for about 14 more years.
It must be said that not only dogs and mice, but even turtles have been in space. By the way, a little-known fact, but it was turtles who were the first to fly around the Moon, on the Soviet Zond-5 apparatus. The turtles returned safely to Earth after splashing down in the Indian Ocean.
And just before the flight of Senior Lieutenant Gagarin, a dog named Zvezdochka went into space. All future cosmonauts were invited to the launch of the spacecraft in March 1961, with Zvezdochka on board. To see and be convinced, the development of space technology allows a person to make a safe flight into space. Yuri Gagarin, whose successful flight took place in April, was also present.
During this flight, Senior Lieutenant Gagarin uttered the word known to several generations of earthlings: “ Let's go". Gagarin landed when he was already a major. Some people even now express doubts whether Yuri himself said “ Let's go“, or it was “necessary”. - But is this important for the history of astronautics? I think not.
Some researchers, looking closely at the history of Soviet cosmonautics, talk about other cosmonauts. Who supposedly went into space before Gagarin, but died during unsuccessful launches, burning up in spaceships.
According to researchers, archival documents hide the names and faces of people who will never see the spotlight. These are people who flew into space even before Gagarin. They were the pioneers, the first people to overcome the gravity of the Earth.
But the names of the first cosmonauts who searched for the paths of space roads do not appear among the names of astronauts. They died in spacecraft searching for a way into orbit. And unsuccessful space rocket launches are not needed for history, just like people. - researchers say.
Of course, I’m going to get ahead a little now, but I want to immediately state the official point of view on this issue. Both officials and historians.
Here's what A. Pervushin said about it, - “Perhaps the secrecy surrounding the space program is not entirely justified. And it gave rise to many rumors and speculations. But in the history of Soviet cosmonautics there are no hidden corpses and never have existed.” And he calls this “the fruit of a wild fantasy generated by a strict regime of secrecy” and also - “no matter how cynical it may sound, but the interest was not in the successful return of the astronaut - this did not matter, in the conditions of the race the main thing was to declare one’s own priority«
Historians also talk about this. As already mentioned, in the space race with the Americans, it was very important that the Soviet cosmonaut be the first to fly into space. As an example refuting unknown flights, a document of the CPSU Central Committee is given, signed 9 days before Gagarin’s launch, on April 3, 1961. The document ordered the preparation of two TASS messages about the launch of a manned spacecraft.
One of them was laudatory, about the successful launch of a Soviet ship with a pilot on board, and the great achievement of the USSR. Another message was about the death of Gagarin. That is, there was no concealment of information whatever the outcome of the flight. According to historians allowed to study the documents, the surnames of the often mentioned dead cosmonauts Ledovsky, Shiborin, Mitkov and Gromov did not exist in reality; these were fictitious names by someone unknown. In any case, according to historians, there was no connection with the people behind these names.
The story of the dead cosmonauts who allegedly made the first flights into space before Gagarin.
We should probably start with the famous photograph on the cover of Ogonyok magazine from October 1959. The image shows five people, Kachura, Mikhailov, Zavadovsky, Belokonev, Grachev, testers from the Institute of Space Medicine. In the photo they are wearing pressure helmets, and many decided that these were the future cosmonauts. However, their surnames are not found among the names of astronauts. And the Western press puts forward the version that they died during the first flights into space.
Allegedly, cosmonauts Grachev and Belokonev went into space in September 1961 with the goal of circumnavigating the Moon in a two-seater spacecraft. According to journalists (in particular the Western press), a breakdown occurs on the ship, and the astronauts cannot return. A ship with astronauts on board, having lost control, turns into a space wanderer, getting lost in the cold depths of space. - A tragic story of death.
However, at that time, space technology did not allow manned flights to the Moon. Otherwise, the USSR would have defeated the USA in the exploration of the Moon. But this does not bother journalists, the main thing is more smoke on the territory of the ideological enemy. The death of Gennady Mikhailov was completely timed to coincide with the unsuccessful launch of an automatic Venus probe. On February 4, 1961, the launch of the station was unsuccessful, due to an accident in the upper stage, the automatic station “stuck” in low-Earth orbit.
True, sometimes there are records that Kachura died this way. But the station was unmanned, fully automatic. However, everything is clear here, from the name of the Institute it is clear what the people mentioned were doing. In addition, within the framework of the same secrecy regime, the persons who appeared on the covers of the magazine could not participate in space flights.
But there is still one case of unknown astronauts that researchers in the dark corners of astronautics can point to. This is Vladimir Ilyushin, the son of a famous designer, they point to him as the first cosmonaut. Officially, Ilyushin was in a car accident a few months before Gagarin was launched into orbit.
After being cured in his homeland, he went to China to improve his health with the help of oriental medicine. His health problems were immediately counted as an unsuccessful flight into space. Allegedly, the ship, completing its flight, made an unsuccessful landing in which the astronaut was injured. And for the sake of the same notorious secrecy, the astronaut’s injuries were officially “recorded” as a car accident.
However, this version does not stand up to criticism; not only does it lack logic, it is also funny. What can be hidden here? Even in this version, the launch of the ship was successful - it is easier to hide its difficult landing - and one can safely report to the whole world about the achievements of Soviet scientists.
Pyotr Dolgov, a test pilot, burned to death in the ship during a launch failure in September 1960. Yes, he died, but not during the launch into orbit. And two years later, in November 1962, jumping from a stratospheric balloon using a parachute. Presumably died while testing a new model of a spacesuit.
Other facts cited by researchers of the alternative history of astronautics and the secretly buried dead astronauts are identical. But there were losses among the 20 cosmonauts of the “Gagarin” set. These are Grigory N., Ivan A., and Valentin F., expelled from the detachment for resisting an army patrol while drunk (surnames are not indicated based on ethical standards).
It is known that Grigory N., while serving in the Far East in an ordinary air regiment, said that it was he who was supposed to fly into space instead of Gagarin. True, his colleagues did not believe him. In 1966, Grigory died after being hit by a train. It remains unknown whether it was an accident, suicide, or, as the researchers wonder, a regime of secrecy overtook him.
Another one, the story of the disastrous “before Gagarin” launches, as well as the subsequently killed cosmonauts, is told by the Italians - Cordilla brothers. I'll start with the technical capabilities of the brothers. Maybe now the design engineers will laugh, but the Cordilla brothers, alone, using only photographs of NASA ground tracking stations, were able to assemble their own device. With the help of which they listened to the negotiations of astronauts in orbit with the MCC.
It was the brothers who managed to accomplish the impossible, while all the countries, following the actions of the Soviet cosmonauts, were trying to listen to the broadcast and do it only the Cordilla brothers could. In particular, only they were able to hear how the dying cosmonauts communicated with the Earth in the last seconds of their lives. In the press, including on television, the story of the Cordilla brothers is retold in some detail.
Therefore, we will not dwell in detail on how many distress signals in orbit, screams and groans of dying cosmonauts were recorded by the Italians of Cordiglia. But even a person who is not familiar with the details of special communication devices knows that it is impossible to listen to a communication channel on a “closed” frequency, even if you have a triple supercomputer of the future, you will not be able to “sit in” to listen to this channel. Here we can add that the operation of the special equipment used is strikingly different from the currently known scramblers (a device for encrypting information from unauthorized persons).
So is it really within the framework space program, the military used open frequencies for communication? And they were able to discover it only the Cordilla brothers, and technical employees of the intelligence services of other states turned out to be completely incompetent? At the same time, the Italians had been listening to communications since the time of Laika’s flight. But they shared information only in 2007, publishing their observation diary.
But what’s interesting is that, as the Italian brothers report, the first flight into space was made by the dog Laika, whose heart function they were able to record. And indeed, they could not know that the dogs Gypsy, Desik, and Zhulka had been in space; this information, due to the lack of any importance, was not disseminated. And the brothers could not know about this. This means that everything else can be considered fiction.
And repeating known cases of death of cosmonauts, in terms of hiding space secrets “before Gagarin’s” flights, is of no interest, they are well known.
America's space history comes to mind. After all, as it appears in the press, a manned rocket launch was carried out in Germany back in 1945. This happened under the leadership of the famous inventor Fau, Dr. von Braun. Allegedly, the latest version of the V-2 rocket was a full-fledged spacecraft. It was on it that one of the pilots went into outer space. Moreover, he subsequently landed safely.
Another very funny story tells how in the mid-80s, a spacecraft crashed into the coastal waters near Miami, sometimes referred to as the Canary Islands. The police who arrived at the splashdown site freeze; in front of them are three people dressed in German uniforms. and they confirm that they are pilots of great Germany. And they were launched into orbit in 1945. But due to a malfunction of the suspended animation chamber, their sleep lasted longer.
Thus, they also claim to be the first astronauts. However, in reality, you need to pay attention to one fact, and then all these stories will burst more easily than a soap bubble. Dr. von Braun defected to the United States and took part in the space race against the Soviet Union. Then why, the inventor who has already sent astronauts into orbit, has been painstakingly working for decades to create a manned spacecraft. The answer is simple, there was no necessary technology, and all the stories are fiction.
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Of course, there were unsuccessful launches of Soviet spacecraft. And many astronauts died during unsuccessful launches. But no one hid their names. Another thing is that little has been said about this, but that's a completely different story.
Some achievements of space technology are also interesting for use in everyday life, so to speak in civilian life. For example, the Penguin space suit, developed to help astronauts cope with weightlessness, was later used to cure cerebral palsy.
Another space development is “Bifidum-bacterin”, which has hit the store shelves. It was originally developed for astronauts as a preventative against dysbacteriosis.
Attention, ready in a minute!
Key to start!
There is a key to start!
Broach one!
There is a broach!
Purge!
There is a purge!
The key is drainage!
There is a key for drainage!
Ignition!
I understand you, ignition is given.
Preliminary!
There is a preliminary one!
Intermediate!
Home!
Rise!
35 seconds, normal flight. Height 19 kilometers. The temperature outside is 55°C. Here the water boils at the temperature of the human body, and stars are visible in the blue-black sky during the day.
60 seconds, normal flight. Height 32 kilometers. In the minute that passed from the moment of launch, the V-2 rocket picked up a speed of about 1600 m/s (about 6 thousand km/h).
At this moment, observers on Earth see how the second stage, called “VAK-Corporal”, separated and, sharply increasing its speed, began to storm the maximum altitude.
100 seconds, normal flight. The VAK-Corporal rocket reached an altitude of 110 km. The “Karman line”, which defines the boundary between cosmonautics and aeronautics, has been passed: at this altitude all the laws of aerodynamics become meaningless, because to create lift, it will be necessary to exceed the first escape velocity (7.9 km/s).
145 seconds, normal flight. Height 160 kilometers. Temperature outside + 1500°C. But ultra-low air pressure, close to a vacuum, makes the very concept of temperature meaningless - here it only indicates a very high speed of movement of air molecules. A person who finds himself in the thermosphere without a spacesuit will feel only the icy cold of outer space.
150 seconds from the moment of start. The first stage - the V-2 rocket - reached an altitude of 161 km and fell down into the abyss of the earth's atmosphere... At this time, VAK-Corporal flies into space at a speed of 2.5 km/s.
200 seconds, normal flight. An altitude of 250 km has been reached. The limit of the lowest possible orbit with short-term stability. An artificial Earth satellite can exist here for several weeks.
300 seconds from the moment of start. The V-2 rocket crashed in the desert 36 kilometers north of the launch site. At this time, VAK-Corporal continues to rise to the stars.
Discovered wreckage of the V-2
390 seconds, normal flight. The second stage reached an altitude of 402 kilometers. At this altitude, the vacuum is so deep that it cannot be achieved even in the most modern laboratories on the ground. Thus, the VAK-Corporal rocket reached airless space.
12 minutes, end of flight. The VAK-Corporal rocket crashed on earth's surface. Despite the fact that radars accurately determined the area where the second stage fell, its remains were found only a year later, 135 kilometers from the launch site.
So, on February 24, 1949, the American rocket and space system “Bumper” opened the way to the Stars for Humanity. The reader probably smiled after reading this phrase - after all, everyone knows that the first space satellite was launched in the Soviet Union. On October 4, 1957, the R-7 ballistic missile, the legendary “Royal Seven,” carried a steel ball with a diameter of 58 centimeters into the night sky of Baikonur, which became a symbol of the beginning of the Space Age. Humanity has defeated the gravity of the Earth.
In pursuit of sensation
Legends about the space program of the Third Reich and secret fascist bases on the Moon still do not leave the pages of the “yellow press”. Indeed, who was the first to go into outer space? German “astronaut” Kurt Keller, who claims to have made a suborbital flight on a V-2 back in 1944? Or maybe the first in space was the fantastic rocket plane of Dr. Zenger? In the end, is the team of American researchers that launched a rocket to an altitude of 400 kilometers in 1949 worthy of the palm?
It depends on what is meant by “launch into space.” If this is an ordinary suborbital flight along a parabolic trajectory, then, undoubtedly, the Germans were the first - back in the Second World War, 4,300 V-2 ballistic missiles fell on London!
Here the question immediately arises: where is the boundary of the earth’s atmosphere and where does Space begin? For example, in the United States the airspace boundary is officially drawn at an altitude of 50 miles (80 km). Russia puts the figure at 100 kilometers. Theodor von Karman brought an end to the heated debate by proposing, in my opinion, a brilliant solution - Space begins where the first escape velocity is required to create a minimum aerodynamic lift force. This happens just at an altitude of about 100 kilometers. The top flight path of the V-2 ballistic missile exceeded 100 km, in other words, the German missile was the first to enter outer space. Let it be just for a few seconds.
Note. Secret developments of the Third Reich are often given unfair credit great value. In fact, German "fantasy" projects largely reflected intentions rather than possibilities. After the war, not a single operating nuclear reactor was discovered on German territory. German jet aircraft in reality turned out to be unreliable “wunderwaffles” with flaming engines and jammed guns - at the same time, the Allies appeared their own jet machines, in no way inferior to the German “Schwalbe” and “Blitzbombers”. Soviet school tank building surpassed the German one, and the Americans were a decade ahead of the Reich in radar and communications systems. Of the thousand “ultra-modern” German submarines, 783 remained lying on the bottom of the Atlantic. The vaunted Wasserfall anti-aircraft missiles did not shoot down a single plane, and there was no harm from V-2 launches. more benefits, than from the Society for the Study of the Aryan Race.
What then is the meaning of the achievement of American rocket scientists who raised a container with scientific equipment to a height of 400 kilometers above the Earth? After all, this is an ordinary suborbital flight, which differs from the V-2 flights only in a higher trajectory - VAK-Corporal rose to where the ISS is currently plowing through outer space (which, of course, is impressive - after all, it was 1949 year). The only important advantage of the Bumper project (a wild symbiosis of a captured V-2 and an American meteorological rocket) is its two-stage design, which made it possible to increase the maximum lift height of the rocket many times over. However, when the humorous question is asked: “Who was the first in space?” American space enthusiasts often cite the VAK-Corporal flight as an example.
It’s probably not worth telling for a long time in which country the first artificial Earth satellite was created and who was the first cosmonaut. The fundamental difference between Sputnik 1 and VAK-Corporal was the elliptical flight path of the Soviet spacecraft.
Launch trajectories for the Bumper project. In addition to flights into outer space, launches were carried out to the maximum flight range.
As for the level of their technological performance, the two-stage Bumper and the R-7 launch vehicle were as different as the Chinese firecracker and the Hellfire guided missile. By the end of the 40s, the great-grandmother of all modern V-2 missiles was already in many ways an outdated project, with a bunch of shortcomings and unsatisfactory characteristics. Due to the lack of necessary knowledge and technology at that time, American specialists were never able to ensure effective separation of the rocket stages. From a logical point of view, the separation of the first stage should occur at the moment when the fuel in its tanks is completely consumed, alas, this was impossible on the Bumper, because the acceleration of the V-2 in the last seconds of its engine operation exceeded the initial acceleration that VAK-Corporal could develop. Many questions arose with the automatic start of the second stage engine at an altitude of 30 kilometers - the fuel components burned perfectly in ground conditions, but in the rarefied atmosphere they instantly evaporated and mixed, which led to a premature explosion in the fuel lines and destruction of the rocket. Many problems arose with stabilizing the rocket in the upper part of the trajectory - all aerodynamic surfaces turned out to be useless in a vacuum. It would be a stretch to call VAK-Corporal a space system; by none of the criteria does it fit this title.
In a word, the truth remains unshakable - the primacy in the space race belongs to the USSR.
The first images of the Earth received from near space:
Animals were the first to be sent into space - cats, dogs, turtles and many others, and only later people.
The first animals in space.
The world's first living creatures (and not just one, but two at once) to fly into space were dogs. Two mongrel dogs - Gypsy and Desik. The rocket with the dogs rose to a height of 101 km. The goal of the scientists was to study the possibility of flight and observe the behavior of highly organized animals under rocket flight conditions. Their flight was successful on July 22, 1951. After this, many flights into space were made with other dogs on board.
In 1957, Laika became the first astronaut dog launched into Earth orbit. At that time, Laika was about two years old, she was a mongrel dog. The return of Laika to Earth was not included in the design of the spacecraft. The dog died during the flight 5-7 hours after launch from overheating, although it was expected that it would live in space orbit for about a week. Lisichka and Chaika, who followed her, died in an accident at the time of launch, but the following dogs, Belka and Strelka, were the first living creatures to return safely from orbit. In 1960, Soviet cosmonaut dogs Belka and Strelka completed a space flight that lasted more than 25 hours. During this flight, the ship with them made 17 complete orbits around the Earth and successfully returned home.
In 1959, the United States sent the first monkey into orbit, Sam. The Americans also launched other monkeys into space. Besides the Americans, monkeys were sent into space Soviet Union, France, Argentina. And the Iranian monkey-cosmonaut Aftab returned safely from a flight just recently - on January 28, 2013.
In addition to these animals, cat astronauts have been in space. They were used only in France to practice space flights. The first cat astronaut was Felisseta, who on October 18, 1963, safely flew into a suborbital flight to an altitude of 200 km and returned to Earth alive and healthy.
But the first animals to reach another cosmic body were two Central Asian turtles. In September 1968, they flew around the Moon in a very motley company. Along with them on board the Soviet spacecraft were fruit flies, beetles, a Tradescantia plant with buds, seeds of wheat, pine, barley, chlorella algae and various microorganisms.
The first people in space.
The first person to fly into space was Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin. On April 12, 1961, Yuri Gagarin flew in orbit around our planet on the Vostok spacecraft; he was in space for 108 minutes and returned successfully.
The first manned space flight aroused great interest throughout the world, and Yuri Gagarin became a world celebrity. In orbit, Gagarin reported on his feelings, the state of the ship and observations, and also carried out simple experiments - he drank, ate, and made notes in pencil. He observed the Earth through the window, he really liked this view, in particular, he recorded it on the on-board tape recorder the following words: “I observe the clouds above the Earth, small cumulus, and the shadows from them. Beautiful, beautiful!... Attention. I see the horizon of the Earth. Such a very beautiful halo. First, a rainbow from the very surface of the Earth and down. Such a rainbow passes. Very beautiful!"
In March 1965, Alexey Leonov flew into space; on this flight he made the first spacewalk in the history of astronautics, lasting 12 minutes 9 seconds. During the exit he showed exceptional courage, especially in an emergency situation when a bloated space suit prevented him from returning to the spacecraft. Leonov managed to enter the airlock only by releasing excess pressure from the suit, while he climbed into the ship's hatch not with his feet, but with his head first, which was prohibited by the instructions.
The first female cosmonaut to complete a three-day flight in orbit around the Earth in June 1963 was Valentina Tereshkova. Tereshkova did not tolerate space flight well, but despite nausea and physical discomfort, Tereshkova survived 48 revolutions around the Earth. And in space, she kept a logbook and took photographs of the horizon, which were later used to detect aerosol layers in the atmosphere. On the day of her flight into space, she told her family that she was leaving for a parachute competition; they learned about the flight from the news on the radio. Valentina Tereshkova - the only woman in the world who has made a space flight alone.
To date, it has already been in space large number people and various animals and they all make a huge contribution to the development of astronautics.