The very first astronauts in the world. The first cosmonauts of the USSR

There are only about 20 people who gave their lives for the benefit of world progress in the field of space exploration, and today we will tell you about them.

Their names are immortalized in the ashes of cosmic chronos, burned into the atmospheric memory of the universe forever, many of us would dream of remaining heroes for humanity, however, few would want to accept such a death as our cosmonaut heroes.

The 20th century was a breakthrough in mastering the path to the vastness of the Universe; in the second half of the 20th century, after much preparation, man was finally able to fly into space. However, there was a downside to such rapid progress - death of astronauts.

People died during pre-flight preparations, during the takeoff of the spacecraft, and during landing. Total during space launches, preparations for flights, including cosmonauts and technical personnel who died in the atmosphere More than 350 people died, about 170 astronauts alone.

Let us list the names of the cosmonauts who died during the operation of spacecraft (the USSR and the whole world, in particular America), and then we will briefly tell the story of their death.

Not a single cosmonaut died directly in Space; most of them all died in the Earth’s atmosphere, during the destruction or fire of the ship (the Apollo 1 astronauts died while preparing for the first manned flight).

Volkov, Vladislav Nikolaevich (“Soyuz-11”)

Dobrovolsky, Georgy Timofeevich (“Soyuz-11”)

Komarov, Vladimir Mikhailovich (“Soyuz-1”)

Patsaev, Viktor Ivanovich (“Soyuz-11”)

Anderson, Michael Phillip ("Columbia")

Brown, David McDowell (Columbia)

Grissom, Virgil Ivan (Apollo 1)

Jarvis, Gregory Bruce (Challenger)

Clark, Laurel Blair Salton ("Columbia")

McCool, William Cameron ("Columbia")

McNair, Ronald Erwin (Challenger)

McAuliffe, Christa ("Challenger")

Onizuka, Allison (Challenger)

Ramon, Ilan ("Columbia")

Resnick, Judith Arlen (Challenger)

Scobie, Francis Richard ("Challenger")

Smith, Michael John ("Challenger")

White, Edward Higgins (Apollo 1)

Husband, Rick Douglas ("Columbia")

Chawla, Kalpana (Columbia)

Chaffee, Roger (Apollo 1)

It is worth considering that we will never know the stories of the death of some astronauts, because this information is secret.

Soyuz-1 disaster

“Soyuz-1 is the first Soviet manned spacecraft (KK) of the Soyuz series. Launched into orbit on April 23, 1967. There was one cosmonaut on board Soyuz-1 - Hero of the Soviet Union, engineer-colonel V. M. Komarov, who died during the landing of the descent module. Komarov’s backup in preparation for this flight was Yu. A. Gagarin.”

Soyuz-1 was supposed to dock with Soyuz-2 to return the crew of the first ship, but due to problems, the launch of Soyuz-2 was canceled.

After entering orbit, problems began with the operation of the solar battery; after unsuccessful attempts to launch it, it was decided to lower the ship to Earth.

But during the descent, 7 km from the ground, the parachute system failed, the ship hit the ground at a speed of 50 km per hour, tanks with hydrogen peroxide exploded, the cosmonaut died instantly, Soyuz-1 almost completely burned out, the remains of the cosmonaut were severely burned so that it was impossible to identify even fragments of the body.

“This disaster was the first time a person died in flight in the history of manned astronautics.”

The causes of the tragedy have never been fully established.

Soyuz-11 disaster

Soyuz 11 is a spacecraft whose crew of three cosmonauts died in 1971. The cause of death was the depressurization of the descent module during the landing of the ship.

Just a couple of years after the death of Yu. A. Gagarin (the famous cosmonaut himself died in a plane crash in 1968), having already followed the seemingly well-trodden path of conquest of outer space, several more cosmonauts passed away.

Soyuz-11 was supposed to deliver the crew to the Salyut-1 orbital station, but the ship was unable to dock due to damage to the docking unit.

Crew composition:

Commander: Lieutenant Colonel Georgy Dobrovolsky

Flight engineer: Vladislav Volkov

Research engineer: Viktor Patsayev

They were between 35 and 43 years old. All of them were posthumously awarded awards, certificates, and orders.

It was never possible to establish what happened, why the spacecraft was depressurized, but most likely this information will not be given to us. But it’s a pity that at that time our cosmonauts were “guinea pigs” who were released into space without much security or security after the dogs. However, probably many of those who dreamed of becoming astronauts understood what a dangerous profession they were choosing.

Docking occurred on June 7, undocking on June 29, 1971. There was an unsuccessful attempt to dock with the Salyut-1 orbital station, the crew was able to board the Salyut-1, even stayed at the orbital station for several days, a TV connection was established, but already during the first approach to the station the cosmonauts stopped filming for some smoke. On the 11th day, a fire started, the crew decided to descend on the ground, but problems emerged that disrupted the undocking process. Spacesuits were not provided for the crew.

On June 29 at 21.25 the ship separated from the station, but a little more than 4 hours later contact with the crew was lost. The main parachute was deployed, the ship landed in a given area, and the soft landing engines fired. But the search team discovered at 02.16 (June 30, 1971) the lifeless bodies of the crew; resuscitation efforts were unsuccessful.

During the investigation, it was found that the cosmonauts tried to eliminate the leak until the last minute, but they mixed up the valves, fought for the wrong one, and meanwhile missed the opportunity for salvation. They died from decompression sickness - air bubbles were found during autopsy even in the heart valves.

The exact reasons for the depressurization of the ship have not been named, or rather, they have not been announced to the general public.

Subsequently, engineers and creators of spacecraft, crew commanders took into account many tragic mistakes of previous unsuccessful flights into space.

Challenger shuttle disaster

“The Challenger disaster occurred on January 28, 1986, when the space shuttle Challenger, at the very beginning of mission STS-51L, was destroyed by the explosion of its external fuel tank 73 seconds into flight, resulting in the death of all 7 crew members. The crash occurred at 11:39 EST (16:39 UTC) over the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of central Florida, USA."

In the photo, the ship's crew - from left to right: McAuliffe, Jarvis, Resnik, Scobie, McNair, Smith, Onizuka

All of America was waiting for this launch, millions of eyewitnesses and viewers watched the launch of the ship on TV, it was the culmination of the Western conquest of space. And so, when the grand launch of the ship took place, seconds later, a fire began, later an explosion, the shuttle cabin separated from the destroyed ship and fell at a speed of 330 km per hour on the surface of the water, seven days later the astronauts would be found in the broken cabin at the bottom of the ocean. Until the last moment, before hitting the water, some crew members were alive and tried to supply air to the cabin.

In the video below the article there is an excerpt of a live broadcast of the launch and death of the shuttle.

“The Challenger shuttle crew consisted of seven people. Its composition was as follows:

The crew commander is 46-year-old Francis “Dick” R. Scobee. US military pilot, US Air Force Lieutenant Colonel, NASA astronaut.

The co-pilot is 40-year-old Michael J. Smith. Test pilot, US Navy captain, NASA astronaut.

The scientific specialist is 39-year-old Ellison S. Onizuka. Test pilot, Lieutenant Colonel of the US Air Force, NASA astronaut.

The scientific specialist is 36-year-old Judith A. Resnick. Engineer and NASA astronaut. Spent 6 days 00 hours 56 minutes in space.

The scientific specialist is 35-year-old Ronald E. McNair. Physicist, NASA astronaut.

The payload specialist is 41-year-old Gregory B. Jarvis. Engineer and NASA astronaut.

The payload specialist is 37-year-old Sharon Christa Corrigan McAuliffe. A teacher from Boston who won the competition. For her, this was her first flight into space as the first participant in the “Teacher in Space” project.”

Last photo of the crew

To establish the causes of the tragedy, various commissions were created, but most of the information was classified; according to assumptions, the reasons for the ship’s crash were poor interaction between organizational services, irregularities in the operation of the fuel system that were not detected in time (the explosion occurred at launch due to the burnout of the wall of the solid fuel accelerator), and even. terrorist attack Some said that the shuttle explosion was staged to harm America's prospects.

Space Shuttle Columbia disaster

“The Columbia disaster occurred on February 1, 2003, shortly before the end of its 28th flight (mission STS-107). The final flight of the space shuttle Columbia began on January 16, 2003. On the morning of February 1, 2003, after a 16-day flight, the shuttle was returning to Earth.

NASA lost contact with the craft at approximately 14:00 GMT (09:00 EST), 16 minutes before its intended landing on Runway 33 at the John F. Kennedy Space Center in Florida, which was scheduled to take place at 14:16 GMT. Eyewitnesses filmed burning debris from the shuttle flying at an altitude of about 63 kilometers at a speed of 5.6 km/s. All 7 crew members were killed."

Crew pictured - From top to bottom: Chawla, Husband, Anderson, Clark, Ramon, McCool, Brown

The Columbia shuttle was making its next 16-day flight, which was supposed to end with a landing on Earth, however, as the main version of the investigation says, the shuttle was damaged during the launch - a piece of torn off thermal insulating foam (the coating was intended to protect tanks with oxygen and hydrogen) as a result of the impact, damaged the wing coating, as a result of which, during the descent of the apparatus, when the heaviest loads on the body occur, the apparatus began to overheat and, subsequently, destruction.

Even during the shuttle mission, engineers more than once turned to NASA management to assess the damage and visually inspect the shuttle body using orbital satellites, but NASA experts assured that there were no fears or risks and the shuttle would descend safely to Earth.

“The crew of the shuttle Columbia consisted of seven people. Its composition was as follows:

The crew commander is 45-year-old Richard “Rick” D. Husband. US military pilot, US Air Force colonel, NASA astronaut. Spent 25 days 17 hours 33 minutes in space. Before Columbia, he was commander of the shuttle STS-96 Discovery.

The co-pilot is 41-year-old William "Willie" C. McCool. Test pilot, NASA astronaut. Spent 15 days 22 hours 20 minutes in space.

The flight engineer is 40-year-old Kalpana Chawla. Scientist, first female NASA astronaut of Indian origin. Spent 31 days, 14 hours and 54 minutes in space.

The payload specialist is 43-year-old Michael P. Anderson. Scientist, NASA astronaut. Spent 24 days 18 hours 8 minutes in space.

Zoology specialist - 41-year-old Laurel B. S. Clark. US Navy captain, NASA astronaut. Spent 15 days 22 hours 20 minutes in space.

Scientific specialist (doctor) - 46-year-old David McDowell Brown. Test pilot, NASA astronaut. Spent 15 days 22 hours 20 minutes in space.

The scientific specialist is 48-year-old Ilan Ramon (English Ilan Ramon, Hebrew.‏אילן רמון‏‎). NASA's first Israeli astronaut. Spent 15 days 22 hours 20 minutes in space.”

The shuttle's descent took place on February 1, 2003, and within an hour it was supposed to land on Earth.

“On February 1, 2003, at 08:15:30 (EST), the space shuttle Columbia began its descent to Earth. At 08:44 the shuttle began to enter the dense layers of the atmosphere." However, due to damage, the leading edge of the left wing began to overheat. From 08:50, the ship's hull suffered severe thermal loads; at 08:53, debris began to fall off the wing, but the crew was alive and there was still communication.

At 08:59:32 the commander sent the last message, which was interrupted mid-sentence. At 09:00, eyewitnesses had already filmed the explosion of the shuttle, the ship collapsed into many fragments. that is, the fate of the crew was predetermined due to NASA’s inaction, but the destruction itself and the loss of life occurred in a matter of seconds.

It is worth noting that the Columbia shuttle was used many times, at the time of its death the ship was 34 years old (in operation by NASA since 1979, the first manned flight in 1981), it flew into space 28 times, but this flight turned out to be fatal.

No one died in space itself; about 18 people died in the dense layers of the atmosphere and in spaceships.

In addition to the disasters of 4 ships (two Russian - "Soyuz-1" and "Soyuz-11" and American - "Columbia" and "Challenger"), in which 18 people died, there were several more disasters due to an explosion, fire during pre-flight preparation , one of the most famous tragedies is a fire in an atmosphere of pure oxygen during preparation for the Apollo 1 flight, then three American astronauts died, and in a similar situation, a very young USSR cosmonaut, Valentin Bondarenko, died. The astronauts simply burned alive.

Another NASA astronaut, Michael Adams, died while testing the X-15 rocket plane.

Yuri Alekseevich Gagarin died in an unsuccessful flight on an airplane during a routine training session.

Probably, the goal of the people who stepped into space was grandiose, and it is not a fact that even knowing their fate, many would have renounced astronautics, but still we always need to remember at what cost the path to the stars was paved for us...

In the photo there is a monument to the fallen astronauts on the Moon

Since time immemorial, humanity has strived to fly. This was probably their most desired dream. With the emergence of modern civilization, people wanted not just to fly, but to reach the enchanting darkness of outer space. And finally we were able to realize humanity’s desire to go into outer space!

The first cosmonaut of the Soviet Union was, and this is how he entered world history forever. Preparations for the flight of the world's first man lasted a little over a year and, on April 12, 1961, this historical moment took place. We met the pilot on Earth, as befits one to meet the heroes of the fatherland. Gagarin was later awarded many ranks and awards. The flight into space was soon repeated by an astronaut from the United States. After this, the struggle began to launch the first female astronaut into space.

An event of unprecedented scale was the flight of the first girl of the Soviet cosmonaut. Her journey to the stars began when, at the age of 25, she was enrolled in the ranks of astronauts and, along with other girls, was preparing to fly into orbit. During the training, the project leaders noticed Valentina Tereshkova’s activity and hard work, as a result of which she was appointed senior in the women’s group. After just 1 year of preparation, she set off on a space journey that will remain forever in the history books - the first flight into outer space by a woman.

The Soviet Union did not just launch the first cosmonaut into orbit, but opened a new milestone in the evolution of human technology and the level of development of humanity as a whole. were the first in everything related to astronautics. Our state had the best technologies in the field of astronautics. We were the first not only in launching astronauts. The state continued to maintain world leadership in the field of launching manned flights and operating orbital stations.

We must pay tribute to the heroes of the Soviet Union - the cosmonauts for their courage and dedication to their dream. They marked the beginning of a new era of humanity - the cosmic one. But we should not forget about those outstanding ones who invested not only work and time into this business, but also a part of their soul. The achievements of Russian cosmonautics are worthy of being written about in textbooks.

Boris Valentinovich Volynov (b. 1934) - Soviet pilot-cosmonaut, twice awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.

early years

Boris Volynov was born in Irkutsk on 12/18/1934. However, soon his mother was transferred to another place of work - to the city of Prokopyevsk, Kemerovo region, and the whole family moved there. Until 1952, the boy studied at a regular high school, and already in his youth he became obsessed with the idea of ​​becoming a pilot.

No sooner said than done: after school, Volynov went to Pavlodar, to the local military aviation school. Then he continued his education at the Stalingrad (now Volgograd) military aviation school. After training, he served as a pilot in Yaroslavl, later becoming a senior pilot.

Pavel Ivanovich Belyaev (1925 - 1970) - Soviet cosmonaut number 10, Hero of the USSR.

Pavel Belyaev is also known as an athlete and participant in the 1945 Soviet-Japanese War.

early years

Pavel Belyaev was born in the village of Chelishchevo, which today belongs to the Vologda region on June 26, 1925. He studied at school in the city of Kamensk-Uralsky, after which he went to work as a turner at a factory. However, a year later he decided to devote himself to military affairs, as a result of which he entered the Yeisk Military Aviation School. So he became a pilot.

The Great Patriotic War had ended by that time (1945), but military operations against Japan were still underway in the Far East, and the young pilot went there.

Vladimir Dzhanibekov (Krysin) (b. 05/13/1942) is a very interesting representative of Russian cosmonautics.

This is a man who has achieved several records in space flights. Firstly, he made a record number of flights in the USSR - five. Cosmonaut Sergei Krikalev flew as many as six times, but this was after the collapse of the USSR.

Secondly, in all five of his flights he was the commander. This record has not yet been surpassed by any cosmonaut in the world, and was repeated only by James Weatherby, and even then only in his sixth flight, since he was not the commander in the first. Thus, Vladimir Dzhanibekov is the most experienced Soviet cosmonaut.

Valery Kubasov (1935 - 2014) - famous Soviet cosmonaut. He is known as a space flight engineer, and also as a participant in the famous Soyuz-Apollo program, during which the space stations of the two “superpowers” ​​docked.

Biography

Valery Kubasov was born in the city of Vyazniki, in the Vladimir region. He also attended school there. Since childhood, he dreamed of building airplanes, so after school he went to the Moscow Aviation Institute. Like many cosmonauts, Kubasov was an aviator in the early stages of his life.

Svetlana Savitskaya - test pilot, cosmonaut, Hero of the USSR (twice).

Probably everyone in the world knows who Valentina Tereshkova is. However, even after her, women continued to conquer space. Just next, after Tereshkova and the second female cosmonaut, was Svetlana Evgenievna Savitskaya.

She was a brilliant pilot, participated in two space expeditions, was the first woman to go into outer space and carried out work there, and became the only woman twice awarded the Hero of the Soviet Union award. But first things first.

Viktor Gorbatko pilot cosmonaut of the USSR, major general of aviation.

Quite recently, on May 17, 2017, pilot cosmonaut Viktor Vasilyevich Gorbatko, famous not only in Russia but also abroad, passed away.

This man participated in three space expeditions during his life, and was one of the first chess players to play games between space and Earth. He is the 21st Soviet pilot-cosmonaut, twice Hero of the Soviet Union.

In addition to a huge number of Soviet awards, he received awards from five countries, and for the last 16 years of his life he was the president of the Russian Philatelists Union.

Komarov Vladimir Mikhailovich (1927 - 1967) cosmonaut, twice Hero of the USSR, test pilot

Childhood and years of education

Vladimir Mikhailovich was born on March 16, 1927. He grew up in a poor family of janitors. From an early age I watched airplanes flying in the sky and flew kites from the roof of my house. Hometown - Moscow.

From the age of 7, he studied at school 235, which currently bears the number 2107. Having completed a seven-year course of general education there in 1943, at the height of the Great Patriotic War, he makes the fateful decision to become a pilot.

He made two space flights and stayed in space for 28 days and just over 17 hours.

short biography

Vladislav Nikolaevich Volkov was born on November 23, 1935 in Moscow into a family whose members were all professional aviation professionals. His father was a leading design engineer at a major aviation enterprise, and his mother worked in the design bureau there.

It is natural that Vladislav dreamed of aviation since childhood. Having graduated from Moscow school number 212 in 1953, he simultaneously entered the famous MAI - the forge of Soviet aviation engineers and the flying club.

Classes both at the institute and at the flying club were very successful.

Popovich Pavel Romanovich - Soviet pilot-cosmonaut number 4 from the first “Gagarin” detachment, a legend of Russian cosmonautics. Twice Hero of the Soviet Union.

short biography

The biography of cosmonaut Popovich is not much different from the biography of his peers. Pavel Popovich was born in October 1929 in the village of Uzin, Kyiv region in Ukraine. His parents were simple people.

Father Roman Porfirievich Popovich comes from a peasant family; all his life he worked as a fireman at a local sugar factory. Mother Feodosia Kasyanovna was born into a wealthy family, but wealthy relatives abandoned her after her marriage, and it was quite difficult for the large Popovich family.

From early childhood, Pavel learned what hard work was - he had to work as a shepherd, be a nanny in someone else's family. The difficult years of the German occupation left their mark on Pavel's appearance - at the age of 13 he became gray-haired. But, despite all the hardships of his post-war childhood, the boy grew up very smart, inquisitive and was an excellent student.

USSR cosmonauts became the first in the mysterious and beautiful space. Humanity has always dreamed of making contact with other civilizations.

Cosmonautics preserves the knowledge of where the universe itself and man came from. Is there another planet in observable space with similar conditions for life, and perhaps with its own history?

Anyone who says that outer space is only black does not know much about the world beyond the known planets. Modern residents may not remember where the history of space exploration began. Science fiction writers all over the world are coming up with the possibility of time travel (from the point of view of modern physics, portals are possible).

However, without the memories of the discoverers, we are unlikely to cross the limits of accessible (visible) space. If we don’t go out into other galaxies, cosmonautics will die.

Space nation, our country received such a “title” after Gagarin’s successful flight. This was not just a national achievement or pride, but a bid for global dominance. The Russians brought down to earth from the black depths of space not only glory.

Nations around the world have recognized the existence of a new "space" tactical advantage for any ongoing military operation, which in modern realities could be called "space wars".

The first space warrior

He became Yuri Gagarin, born in the Kashin village at the beginning of the twentieth century. His studies were interrupted during the Patriotic War. Six years after the end of the German attempts to conquer the Union, the future pilot entered the Saratov technical school, where he became interested in air flights. Five years later, Yura enters flight school.

By the time of his first flight into dark space, Yuri managed to fly over two hundred hours. In April of the sixty-first year (twentieth century), he spent a little more than a hundred minutes (108) outside our planet on the Vostok-1 ship. The landing was successful.

The need to make themselves known to the public forced Americans to invest a lot of money in the fight against the “red country.” Victory could bring spiritual uplift to the losing country.

The Soviets did not seek approval for funding space programs, but chose to cover only successful missions. Soviet citizens decided that the USSR program was not capable of failure. They were wrong.

The table below lists the cosmonauts of the USSR, the names of their spacecraft, the date of flight and other data in chronological order.

Space warrior named Konstantin

Feoktistov Konstantin Petrovich - this researcher spent a day in space. Alas, he never got to see the second flight “due to health reasons.” This “state” remained with him after the unsuccessful “execution” in German captivity.

After hostilities, he chose the “peaceful” path and in 1967 received his doctorate.

Many events related to the death of the pilots were classified for a long time. Even now, half a century later, their number is not known exactly.

Few people know about Vladimir Komarov, the best friend of the Soviet hero Gagarin. Second only to Gagarin, Vladimir died during the unsuccessful return of his Soyuz-1 capsule. There were rumors about his final moments, in which many claim he spoke out against the Soviet regime and blamed them for his impending death.

Officially, the successful second flight into space was a flight under the control of German Titov (a former understudy of Gagarin).

There are many theories regarding deceased space pilots. Government secrecy has given rise to many hypotheses about people “missing” in space. Moreover, there are allegations that flights took place long before the first flight in 61 (20th century). There is no public evidence other than the manipulation of some photos in the media.

All evidence supporting the theory of "lost" astronauts was regarded as inconclusive, and some cases turned out to be hoaxes. In the eighties, an American journalist conducted his own investigation into disasters in the Soviet Union, but also found no evidence.

Bondarenko Valentin Vasilievich

Deceased Russian pilot cosmonaut. Like many cosmonauts, he prepared for a future flight into space, undergoing tests in a hyperbaric chamber at the Air Force Research Institute-7. Selected pilots were tested in silence and loneliness. The tenth day of Valentin’s stay in the hyperbaric chamber was ending.

At the end of one of the medical experiments, Valentin Vasilyevich detached special sensors from his body, wiped the attachment points with a swab soaked in alcohol, and then carelessly threw it away by mistake. The tampon, hitting the coil of a hot hotplate, instantly burst into flames. The pilot's wool training suit caught fire.

When the pressure chamber was opened, Valentin was still alive. But in the hospital, after eight hours of doctors trying to help, he died, experiencing burn shock incompatible with life. 19 days before the first official flight into space, Valentin Bondarenko, who was a member of the cosmonaut training group, died.

Vladimir Mikhailovich Komarov

Born on March sixteen, twenty-seven in the Orenburg region. In 1945 he graduated from the aviation school in Borisoglebsk. He was number seven on the list of cosmonaut pilots. He made two flights into space on two first-generation spacecraft, Soyuz and Voskhod.

The first space expedition without spacesuits (they were removed due to lack of space) took place in October sixty-four. The flight was successful. Komarov spent a little more than a day in space (that’s how long the flight lasted), after which, using a soft landing system, he successfully completed his first expedition.

On the second flight, from the very beginning, many emergency situations and minor failures occurred, warning of impending disaster. At the final stage, due to a failure of the parachute landing system, the device entered an uncontrolled rotation, crashed into the ground at high speed in the Adamovsky district of the Orenburg region, collapsed and caught fire. The second generation Soyuz burned down in April 1967.

Viktor Ivanovich Patsaev

Born on the nineteenth of June, thirty-three, on the territory of modern Kazakhstan, in Aktyubinsk.

In 1958 he got a job in the design bureau of the famous Korolev. Thirteen years later he flew as a research engineer on Soyuz 11. Spent twenty-three days in space at the Salyut-1 orbital station.

However, during the landing of the Soyuz-11 apparatus, depressurization occurred, all three crew members - Viktor Patsaev, Georgy Dobrovolsky and Vladislav Volkov - died. Posthumously, in the same year 1971, they all received the “Hero of the Soviet Union” award.

Volkov Vladislav Nikolaevich

Vladislav was born two years later than Patsaev in Moscow. After graduating from the Moscow Aviation Institute, he worked at the Korolev Design Bureau. Vladislav Volkov is one of the developers of many spacecraft, including the Vostok and Voskhod spacecraft.

The first expedition into space took place on the Soyuz 7 spacecraft in 1969 and lasted four days and twenty-two hours. In the second expedition, which took place in the seventy-first year, being part of Patsaev and Dobrovolsky, he died during the depressurization of the Soyuz-11 ship.

Dobrovolsky Georgy Timofeevich

Georgy was born in 1928, on the first day of summer, in Odessa. In 1944, he was captured by Romanian occupation forces and sentenced to 25 years of hard labor. A month later, in March, local residents bought Georgiy from the prison guard.

After the liberation of his hometown from occupation, he entered a special air force school, which he graduated in 1946. He studied at the Chuguev Aviation School, served as a fighter pilot, and graduated from the Air Force Academy (now named after Yuri Gagarin).

In January 1962, when Georgiy Timofeevich was 33 years old, he was invited to undergo training in the cosmonaut corps. Dobrovolsky was trained according to the lunar program. In 1971, he made his first flight on the Soyuz-11 spacecraft, which ended in tragedy. All three crew members, in the prime of life, died.

Women cosmonauts of the USSR and Russia

The fate of women who devoted themselves to work in the space sector is amazing.

Tereshkova Valentina Vladimirovna

The first woman to go into space, and even alone (the only one in the world today!), was Valentina under the call sign “Chaika”.

Valentina Vladimirovna was born four years before the start of the Patriotic War, on March 6. In '53, she graduated from 7 grades of school, then completed another 3 grades, combining education with work and helping her family. Having a good ear for music, I learned to play the domra.

Valentina's professions before joining the cosmonaut corps:

• bracelet at the Tire Factory in Yaroslavl;
• roving at the Industrial Fabrics Plant of the same city;
• correspondence student at the College of Light Industry, specialty - cotton spinning technologist;
• Secretary of the Komsomol Committee;
• student of the Yaroslavl Parachute Club (performed 90 jumps).

In 1962, she was selected from 100 applicants for the women's cosmonaut training squad. Valentina fully met the criteria by which the selection took place - up to 170 cm in height, up to 70 kg in weight, parachutist, age up to 30 years. Also, in addition to excellent flight training and successful completion of all tests, the Soviet authorities looked at social status (she was from the working class) and the ability to lead an active social life.

The flight took place on June 16, 1963 on the Vostok-6 spacecraft. Valentina’s flight lasted almost three days; she made 48 orbits around the Earth, kept a logbook, and took pictures of the planet.

After her triumphant return, Valentina became a cosmonaut instructor, and worked in this position until April 1997.

After flying into space, Valentina Vladimirovna graduated from the Air Force Academy. Zhukovsky, defended her dissertation, became a professor, and published more than five dozen scientific papers. This amazing woman was ready to fly one way.

Kondakova Elena Vladimirovna

Elena is the first female Russian cosmonaut to make a long flight into outer space. She was born in 1957 in Moscow.

Her flight took place in ninety-four, when the Union was no longer there. Elena returned to our planet in March 1995, after five months at the Mir station. The second flight on the American shuttle Atlantis took place in 1997 in May from the 15th to the 24th.

A list of the women's squad will be presented here. Some of these brave female cosmonauts may have already died, but these six names are worth remembering:

Russian cosmonauts

In which town do domestic cosmonauts train?

The Gagarin Aerospace Training Center is the main Soviet and Russian institution of Roscosmos. “Star City” was created in the early sixties in the Shchelkovsky district of the Moscow region.

S. G. Krikalev is listed as the director. At the end of the same decade, the center was named after the first person to travel into outer space.

A fairly young training center for preparing people for travel into space is located in the forest, hidden from prying eyes. Getting into the “town” is difficult.

With a population of six thousand people, this closed administrative territorial division is surrounded by forest. Every five years, deputies are elected, and they are all subordinate to a large Russian corporation.

Few Western journalists or reporters have ever had access to the treasury of Russian cosmonautics, where the great explorers of dark space were trained.

Only one photographer managed to get beautiful pictures of the secret complex Mitch Karunaratne. He was allowed to go 48 kilometers from the capital and see the center where the legendary cosmonaut with the call sign “Kedr” (Gagarin’s call sign) was trained.

Conclusion

To this day, even though the area is no longer a military zone and was handed over to the space agency in 2009, it remains difficult for outsiders to gain access to Star City.

1. The very first astronaut in the history of mankind Yuri Gagarin set off to conquer space on April 12, 1961 on the Vostok-1 spacecraft. His flight lasted 108 minutes. Gagarin was awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union. In addition, he was awarded a Volga with the numbers 12-04 YUAG - this is the date of the completed flight and the initials of the first cosmonaut.

2. The first woman astronaut Valentina Tereshkova flew into space on June 16, 1963 on the Vostok-6 spacecraft. In addition, Tereshkova is the only woman who made a solo flight; all the others flew only as part of crews.

3.Alexey Leonov- the first person to walk into outer space on March 18, 1965. The duration of the first exit was 23 minutes, of which the astronaut spent 12 minutes outside the spacecraft. While in outer space, his suit swelled and prevented him from returning back to the ship. The cosmonaut managed to enter only after Leonov relieved excess pressure from the spacesuit, and he climbed into the spacecraft head first, and not with his feet, as was required by the instructions.

4. An American astronaut was the first to set foot on the lunar surface. Neil Armstrong July 21, 1969 at 2:56 GMT. 15 minutes later he was joined by Edwin Aldrin. In total, the astronauts spent two and a half hours on the Moon.

5. The world record for the number of spacewalks belongs to the Russian cosmonaut Anatoly Solovyov. He made 16 trips with a total duration of more than 78 hours. Solovyov's total flight time in space was 651 days.

6. The youngest astronaut is German Titov, at the time of the flight he was 25 years old. In addition, Titov is also the second Soviet astronaut in space and the first person to complete a long-term (more than a day) space flight. The cosmonaut made a flight lasting 1 day and 1 hour from August 6 to 7, 1961.

7. The oldest astronaut to fly in space is considered to be an American. John Glenn. He was 77 years old when he flew on Discovery's STS-95 mission in October 1998. In addition, Glenn set a kind of unique record - the gap between space flights was 36 years (he was in space for the first time in 1962).

8. American astronauts stayed on the Moon the longest Eugene Cernan And Harrison Schmit as part of the Apollo 17 crew in 1972. In total, the astronauts were on the surface of the earth's satellite for 75 hours. During this time, they made three exits to the lunar surface with a total duration of 22 hours. They were the last to walk on the Moon, and, according to some sources, left a small disc on the Moon with the inscription “Here man completed the first stage of exploration of the Moon, December 1972.”

9. An American multimillionaire became the first space tourist Dennis Tito, which went into space on April 28, 2001. At the same time, the de facto first tourist is considered to be a Japanese journalist Toyohiro Akiyama, which was paid for by the Tokyo Television Company to fly in December 1990. In general, a person whose flight was paid for by any organization cannot be considered a space tourist.

10. The first British astronaut was a woman - Helena Charman(Helen Sharman), who took off on May 18, 1991 as part of the Soyuz TM-12 crew. She is considered the only astronaut to fly into space as an official representative of Great Britain; all the others had citizenship of another country in addition to Britain. Interestingly, before becoming an astronaut, Charmaine worked as a chemical technologist at a confectionery factory and responded to an appeal for a competitive selection of space flight participants in 1989. Out of 13,000 participants, she was chosen, after which she began training in Star City near Moscow.

The most famous and famous cosmonauts in the world are almost all those who made one or another discovery, feat, or did something for the first time in the world.

Undoubtedly, the most famous is the first person to fly into space - Yuri Gagarin. The Soviet pilot took a huge step for humanity on April 12, 1961, when he reached space and completed one orbit around the Earth. It is noteworthy that the man whose smile is known throughout the world collected cacti and was fond of water skiing. Unfortunately, the life of the outstanding cosmonaut ended prematurely during a training flight on March 27, 1968. On August 1, 1971, the Apollo 15 crew erected a memorial on the Moon called “Fallen Astronaut.” The memorial is an aluminum plate with engraved names of 14 cosmonauts, including Yuri Alekseevich Gagarin.

Tereshkova Valentina Vladimirovna

In Russian-speaking society, the second most famous cosmonaut is the first female cosmonaut -. Despite the difficult life, which required a lot of effort from Valentina Vladimirovna, from work in a fabric factory to grueling general space training, Valentina made the dream of every Soviet child come true. On June 16, 1963, the first female cosmonaut and the 10th cosmonaut in the world, Valentina Tereshkova, reached space aboard the Vostok-6 spacecraft and circled our planet 48 times.

Leonov Alexey Arkhipovich