Summary: History of Soviet cosmonautics. History of Russian cosmonautics History of space exploration in the USSR

The history of the development of astronautics is a story about people with an extraordinary mind, about the desire to understand the laws of the Universe and about the desire to surpass the usual and possible. The exploration of outer space, which began in the last century, gave the world many discoveries. They concern both objects of distant galaxies and completely terrestrial processes. The development of astronautics contributed to the improvement of technology, led to discoveries in various fields of knowledge, from physics to medicine. However, this process took a long time.

Lost Labor

The development of cosmonautics in Russia and abroad began long before the advent of the first scientific developments in this regard were only theoretical and substantiated the very possibility of space flights. In our country, one of the pioneers of astronautics at the tip of a pen was Konstantin Eduardovich Tsiolkovsky. "One of" - because he was ahead of Nikolai Ivanovich Kibalchich, who was sentenced to death for the attempt on Alexander II and, a few days before the hanging, developed a project for an apparatus capable of delivering a man into space. It was in 1881, but Kibalchich's project was not published until 1918.

rural teacher

Tsiolkovsky, whose article on the theoretical foundations of space flight was published in 1903, did not know about Kibalchich's work. At that time, he taught arithmetic and geometry at the Kaluga School. His well-known scientific article "Research of the World Spaces with Jet Instruments" touched upon the possibilities of using rockets in space. The development of cosmonautics in Russia, then still tsarist, began precisely with Tsiolkovsky. He developed a project for the structure of a rocket capable of taking a person to the stars, defended the idea of ​​the diversity of life in the Universe, spoke about the need to design artificial satellites and orbital stations.

In parallel, theoretical astronautics developed abroad. However, there were practically no connections between scientists either at the beginning of the century or later, in the 1930s. Robert Goddard, Hermann Oberth, and Esnault-Peltri, an American, a German, and a Frenchman, respectively, who worked on similar problems, knew nothing about Tsiolkovsky's work for a long time. Even then, the disunity of peoples affected the pace of development of the new industry.

Pre-war years and the Great Patriotic War

The development of cosmonautics continued in the 1920s-1940s with the help of the Gas Dynamics Laboratory and the Groups for the Study of Jet Propulsion, and then the Jet Research Institute. The best engineering minds of the country worked within the walls of scientific institutions, including F. A. Tsander, M. K. Tikhonravov and S. P. Korolev. In the laboratories, they worked on the creation of the first liquid and solid propellant rockets, and the theoretical basis of astronautics was developed.

In the pre-war years and during the Second World War, jet engines and rocket planes were designed and built. During this period, for obvious reasons, much attention was paid to the development of cruise missiles and unguided rockets.

Korolev and V-2

The first modern-type combat missile in history was created in Germany during the war under the command of Wernher von Braun. Then the V-2, or V-2, did a lot of trouble. After the defeat of Germany, von Braun was transferred to America, where he began to work on new projects, including the development of rockets for space flights.

In 1945, after the end of the war, a group of Soviet engineers arrived in Germany to study the V-2. Among them was Korolev. He was appointed chief engineering and technical director of the Nordhausen Institute, formed in Germany in the same year. In addition to studying German missiles, Korolev and his colleagues were developing new projects. In the 50s, the design bureau under his leadership created the R-7. This two-stage rocket was able to develop the first and ensure the launch of multi-ton vehicles into near-Earth orbit.

Stages of development of astronautics

The advantage of the Americans in the preparation of vehicles for space exploration, associated with the work of von Braun, remained in the past when on October 4, 1957 the USSR launched the first satellite. Since then, the development of astronautics has gone faster. In the 1950s and 1960s, several animal experiments were carried out. Dogs and monkeys have been in space.

As a result, scientists have collected invaluable information that made possible a comfortable stay in human space. At the beginning of 1959, it was possible to achieve the second cosmic velocity.

The advanced development of domestic cosmonautics was accepted all over the world when Yuri Gagarin poisoned himself in the sky. It was, without exaggeration, the great event of 1961. From that day began the penetration of man into the boundless expanses surrounding the Earth.

• October 12, 1964 - an apparatus with several people on board was launched into orbit (USSR);
• March 18, 1965 - the first (USSR);
• February 3, 1966 - the first landing of the apparatus on the Moon (USSR);
• December 24, 1968 - the first launch of a manned spacecraft into Earth satellite orbit (USA);
• July 20, 1969 - day (USA);
• April 19, 1971 - the first orbital station was launched (USSR);
• July 17, 1975 - for the first time there was a docking of two ships (Soviet and American);
• April 12, 1981 - the first Space Shuttle (USA) went into space.

The development of modern astronautics

Today, space exploration continues. The successes of the past have borne fruit - man has already visited the moon and is preparing for a direct acquaintance with Mars. However, manned flight programs are now developing less than projects of automatic interplanetary stations. The current state of cosmonautics is such that the devices being created are capable of transmitting information about the distant Saturn, Jupiter and Pluto to Earth, visiting Mercury and even exploring meteorites.
In parallel, space tourism is developing. International contacts are of great importance today. gradually comes to the conclusion that great breakthroughs and discoveries occur faster and more often if the efforts and capabilities of different countries are combined.

Space exploration is perhaps the greatest achievement of all mankind. Perhaps we exist in order to explore the world around us. The first country to conquer outer space was the Soviet Union. It's great that this share fell to us!

Launch of the first satellite

Isaac Newton proved long ago that if a body is given the necessary acceleration, then it can become a satellite of the Earth, like the Moon. In the 19th century, amateurs around the world made repeated attempts to launch small bodies into space, but at that time there was simply not enough technology to complete such a task. Only in the 20th century did Soviet scientists develop an apparatus capable of putting a satellite into orbit of our planet. Despite the fact that the Second World War pushed back the dreams of the Soviet people about conquering space for several decades, on October 4, 1957, we managed to launch the legendary Sputnik-1. This was a scientific breakthrough not only for the USSR, but for the whole world.

How dogs conquered space

Space success inspired Soviet scientists to new scientific feats. A month after the launch of the first satellite, a dog went into Earth orbit to test survival in space. Although she did not return to Earth, the canine mission was accomplished. "A living being can survive in space!" shouted our scientists. At the end of the summer of 1960, another Soviet rocket launched Strelka and Belka into orbit. These dogs were able to survive and return without any damage from the flight. This event became a new milestone in human space exploration and another achievement of Soviet scientists, who this time were applauded by the whole world.

First man in space

Yuri Gagarin - the name of this man is familiar to the whole world. He paved the way for people into space and opened a new era in the development of mankind - space. On April 12, 1961, on his Vostok-1 spacecraft, he flew into Earth orbit, circled it and returned home. “What a beautiful planet ours is!” - the first cosmonaut of the world admired when he saw the Earth through the window of a space rocket. His feat shook the entire planet. Gagarin, as a native, was met in all corners of the Earth, on all continents, his name was on the lips of every earthling, and photographs of the Soviet space explorer did not leave the front pages of newspapers and TV screens for a long time.

The Soviet Union also got other important space achievements: the first woman cosmonaut, the first Salyut orbital station, the first manned spacewalk. But it is impossible not to admit that our space age is divided into "before" and "after", the boundary between which was established by Yuri Gagarin.

The USSR is a great space power. We had a chance to give the world satellite TV, mobile communications and navigation. And even though today the launch of a research satellite, cargo or manned spacecraft has become, in fact, a common job, and cosmonauts spend not hours, but months and even years in orbit, one must remember that the first satellite and the first rocket were launched into space by the Soviet Union!

Today, the first cosmonaut in the world, Hero of the Soviet Union Yuri Alekseevich Gagarin would have turned 81 years old. ...	The fact that geniuses during their lifetime often remain unrecognized, and their discoveries are appreciated only by subsequent generations, is, alas, a sad pattern. The dramatic and sometimes tragic fates of many great scientists confirm two truths: all ingenious scientific discoveries and inventions were far ahead of their time, and the rejection of innovations by the public was caused either ...
Vladimir Petrovich Demikhov, famous experimental surgeon and founder of world transplantation. A brilliant scientist, born in 1918, comes from an ordinary peasant family of a small farm in the Volgograd region. A universally recognized genius - unfortunately rarely remembered by those whose lives are supported by an artificial heart, lungs, kidneys ... ...	April 12, 1961 became a great date not only for the Soviet Union, but for the whole world. The day when man first ascended into space became for earthlings the starting point of a new era - space. Therefore, the holiday that we celebrate today is a holiday for each of us. Happy cosmonautics day, friends! ...

It is well known that the Soviet Union was the first to launch a satellite, a living being and a man into space. During the space race, the USSR, to the extent possible, sought to overtake and overtake America.

Having won a decisive victory in World War II, the Soviet Union did a lot for the study and exploration of space. Moreover, he became the first among all: in this matter, the USSR was ahead of even the US superpower. The official start of practical space exploration was laid on October 4, 1957, when the USSR successfully launched the first artificial Earth satellite into near-Earth orbit, and three and a half years after its launch, on April 12, 1961, the USSR launched the first living person into space. Historically, it turned out that the Soviet Union held the lead in space exploration for exactly 13 years - from 1957 to 1969. KM.RU offers its choice of dozens of the most important achievements over this period.

1st luck (first intercontinental ballistic missile).

In 1955 (long before the flight tests of the R-7 rocket), Korolev, Keldysh and Tikhonravov approached the USSR government with a proposal to launch an artificial Earth satellite into space using a rocket. The government supported this initiative, after which in 1957, under the leadership of Korolev, the world's first intercontinental ballistic missile R-7 was created, which in the same year was used to launch the world's first artificial Earth satellite. And although Korolev tried to launch his first liquid-propellant rockets into space back in the 30s, Nazi Germany was the first of the countries to begin work on the creation of intercontinental ballistic missiles back in the 1940s. Ironically, the ICBM was designed to hit the East Coast of the United States. But man has his own plans, and history has its own. These rockets failed to fall on the United States, but they managed to take human progress forever into real outer space.

2nd luck (the first artificial satellite of the Earth).

On October 4, 1957, the first artificial Earth satellite, Sputnik-1, was launched. The second country to own an artificial satellite was the United States - this happened on February 1, 1958 (Explorer 1). The following countries - Great Britain, Canada and Italy launched their first satellites in 1962-1964 (though on American rocket carriers). The third country to independently launch the first satellite was France on November 26, 1965 (“Asterix”). Later, Japan (1970), China (1970) and Israel (1988) launched the first satellites on their launch vehicles. The first artificial Earth satellites of many countries were developed and purchased in the USSR, the USA and China.

3rd luck (first astronaut animal).

On November 3, 1957, the second artificial satellite of the Earth, Sputnik-2, was launched, which for the first time launched into space a living creature, the dog Laika. Sputnik-2 was a conical capsule 4 meters high, with a base diameter of 2 meters, it contained several compartments for scientific equipment, a radio transmitter, a telemetry system, a software module, a regeneration and cabin temperature control system. The dog was housed in a separate sealed compartment. It so happened that the experiment with Laika turned out to be very short: due to the large area, the container quickly overheated, and the dog died already on the first orbits around the Earth.

4th luck (the first artificial satellite of the Sun).

January 4, 1959 - the Luna-1 station passed at a distance of 6 thousand kilometers from the surface of the Moon and entered the heliocentric orbit. It became the world's first artificial satellite of the Sun. The carrier rocket "Vostok-L" brought the device "Luna-1" to the flight path to the Moon. It was a rendezvous trajectory, without the use of orbital launch. This launch, in fact, successfully completed an experiment to create an artificial comet, and for the first time using an onboard magnetometer, the outer radiation belt of the Earth was registered.

5th luck (first apparatus on the moon).

September 14, 1959 - the station "Luna-2" for the first time in the world reached the surface of the Moon in the area of ​​the Sea of ​​Clarity near the craters Aristides, Archimedes and Autolycus, delivering a pennant with the coat of arms of the USSR. This unit did not have its own propulsion system. Of the scientific equipment, scintillation counters, Geiger counters, magnetometers, and micrometeorite detectors were installed on it. One of the main scientific achievements of the mission was the direct measurement of the solar wind.

6th lucky (first man in space).

On April 12, 1961, the first manned flight into space was made on the Vostok-1 spacecraft. In orbit, Yuri Gagarin was able to conduct the simplest experiments: he drank, ate, made notes with a pencil. "Putting" the pencil next to him, he found that it instantly began to float upwards. Before his flight, it was not yet known how the human psyche would behave in space, so special protection was provided so that the first astronaut in a panic would not try to control the flight of the ship. To enable manual control, he needed to open a sealed envelope, inside of which was a sheet with a code, by typing which on the control panel it would be possible to unlock it. At the moment of landing after ejection and disconnection of the air duct of the descent vehicle, the valve in Gagarin's airtight spacesuit did not immediately open, through which outside air should flow, so that the first cosmonaut almost suffocated. The second danger for Gagarin could be falling on a parachute into the icy water of the Volga (it was April). But Yuri was helped by excellent pre-flight preparation - controlling the lines, he landed 2 km from the coast. This successful experiment immortalized Gagarin's name forever.

7th luck (first man in outer space).

On March 18, 1965, the first human spacewalk was made in history. Cosmonaut Alexei Leonov made a spacewalk from the Voskhod-2 spacecraft. The Berkut suit used for the first spacewalk was of a ventilation type and consumed approximately 30 liters of oxygen per minute with a total supply of 1666 liters, designed for 30 minutes of the astronaut's stay in outer space. Due to the pressure difference, the spacesuit swelled and greatly interfered with the movements of the astronaut, which made it very difficult for Leonov to return to Voskhod-2. The total time of the first exit was 23 minutes 41 seconds, and outside the ship - 12 minutes 9 seconds. Based on the results of the first exit, a conclusion was made about the possibility of a person to perform various work in outer space.

8th luck (the first "bridge" between two planets).

March 1, 1966 960 kg station "Venera-3" for the first time reached the surface of Venus, delivering a pennant to the USSR. It was the world's first flight of a spacecraft from Earth to another planet. Venera-3 flew in tandem with Venera-2. They failed to transmit data on the planet itself, but scientific data were obtained on outer and near-planet space in the year of the quiet Sun. A large volume of trajectory measurements was of great value for studying the problems of ultra-long distance communication and interplanetary flights. Magnetic fields, cosmic rays, low-energy charged particle flows, solar plasma flows and their energy spectra, as well as cosmic radio emissions and micrometeors were studied. The Venera-3 station became the first spacecraft to reach the surface of another planet.

9th luck (first experiment with living plants and creatures).

September 15, 1968 the first return of the spacecraft (“Zond-5”) to the Earth after a flyby of the Moon. On board were living creatures: turtles, fruit flies, worms, plants, seeds, bacteria. "Probes 1-8" - a series of spacecraft launched in the USSR from 1964 to 1970. The manned flight program was curtailed due to the US losing the so-called "moon race". The Zond devices (as well as a number of others called Kosmos) under the Soviet program of flying around the moon during the "moon race" worked out the technique of flying to the moon with a return to Earth after a ballistic flyby of a natural satellite of the Earth. The most recent vehicle in this series has successfully circled the Moon, photographed the Moon and the Earth, and also worked out a landing option from the northern hemisphere.

10th luck (first on Mars). On November 27, 1971, the Mars-2 station reached the surface of Mars for the first time.

The launch to the flight path to Mars was made from the intermediate orbit of an artificial earth satellite by the last stage of the launch vehicle. The mass of the apparatus "Mars-2" was 4650 kilograms. The spacecraft's orbital compartment contained scientific equipment intended for measurements in interplanetary space, as well as for studying the environs of Mars and the planet itself from the orbit of an artificial satellite. The Mars-2 descent vehicle entered the Martian atmosphere too abruptly, which is why it did not have time to slow down at the stage of aerodynamic descent. The device, having passed through the atmosphere of the planet, crashed on the surface of Mars in the Nanedi Valley in Xanth Earth (4 ° N; 47 ° W), reaching the surface of Mars for the first time in history. A pennant of the Soviet Union was fixed on board Mars-2.

Starting from 1969-71, the United States zealously picked up the baton of human space exploration and made a number of important, but still not so epoch-making steps for the history of astronautics.
The first serious action of the main competitors of the USSR is the first landing of a man on the moon as part of the lunar expedition of the Apollo 11 spacecraft, which delivered the first samples of lunar soil to Earth, but is this really the case, read on our front-project "The Americans never flew to the moon!
Despite the fact that the USSR continued to actively explore space in the 1970s (the first artificial satellite of Venus in 1975, etc.), starting from 1981 and, alas, to this day, the leadership in astronautics has been held by the United States. And yet, history does not seem to stand still - since the 2000s, China, India and Japan have actively entered the space race. And, perhaps, soon, due to the powerful economic growth, the leadership in astronautics will pass into the hands of post-communist China.

One of the most outstanding achievements of Soviet science is undoubtedly space exploration in the USSR. Similar developments were carried out in many countries, but only the USSR and the USA were able to achieve real success at that time, ahead of other states for many decades. At the same time, the first steps in space really belong to the Soviet people. It was in the Soviet Union that the first successful launch was carried out, as well as the launch of the carrier rocket with the PS-1 satellite into orbit. Until this triumphant moment, six generations of rockets had been created, with the help of which it was not possible to successfully launch into space. And only the R-7 generation made it possible for the first time to develop the first space velocity of 8 km / s, which made it possible to overcome the force of gravity and put the object into low Earth orbit. The first space rockets were converted from long-range combat ballistic missiles. They were improved, and the engines were boosted.

The first successful launch of an artificial earth satellite occurred on October 4, 1957. However, only ten years later this date was recognized as the official day of the proclamation of the space age. The first satellite was called PS-1, it was launched from the fifth research site, which is under the jurisdiction of the Union Ministry of Defense. By itself, this satellite weighed only 80 kilograms, and in diameter it did not exceed 60 centimeters. This object stayed in orbit for 92 days, during which time it covered a distance of 60 million kilometers.

The device was equipped with four antennas through which the satellite communicated with the ground. The composition of this device included an electric power supply, batteries, a radio transmitter, various sensors, an on-board electrical automation system, and a device for thermal control. The satellite did not reach the earth, it burned up in the earth's atmosphere.

Further space exploration by the Soviet Union was, of course, successful. It was the USSR that first managed to send a man on a space journey. Moreover, the first cosmonaut, Yuri Gagarin, managed to return alive from space, thanks to which he became a national hero. However, subsequently, space exploration in the USSR, in short, was restrained. The lag in technical terms and the era of stagnation had an effect. However, the successes achieved in those days, Russia continues to enjoy to this day.

Space exploration in the USSR: facts, results

August 12, 1962 - the world's first group space flight was made on the Vostok-3 and Vostok-4 spacecraft.

June 16, 1963 - the world's first flight into space by a female cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova was made on the Vostok-6 spacecraft.

October 12, 1964 - the world's first multi-seat Voskhod-1 spacecraft flew.

March 18, 1965 - the first human spacewalk was made in history. Alexei Leonov made a spacewalk from Voskhod-2 spacecraft.

October 30, 1967 - the first docking of two unmanned spacecraft "Cosmos-186" and "Cosmos-188" was made.

September 15, 1968 - the first return of the Zond-5 spacecraft to Earth after a flyby of the Moon. On board were living creatures: turtles, fruit flies, worms, bacteria.

January 16, 1969 - the first docking of two manned spacecraft Soyuz-4 and Soyuz-5 was carried out.

November 15, 1988 - the first and only space flight of the MTKK "Buran" in automatic mode.

Planetary research in the USSR

January 4, 1959 - the Luna-1 station passed at a distance of 60 thousand km from the surface of the Moon and entered the heliocentric orbit. It is the world's first artificial satellite of the Sun.

September 14, 1959 - the station "Luna-2" for the first time in the world reached the surface of the Moon in the region of the Sea of ​​Clarity.

October 4, 1959 - the Luna-3 automatic interplanetary station was launched, which for the first time in the world photographed the side of the Moon invisible from Earth. During the flight, for the first time in the world, a gravitational maneuver was carried out.

February 3, 1966 - AMS Luna-9 made the world's first soft landing on the surface of the Moon, panoramic images of the Moon were transmitted.

March 1, 1966 - the station "Venera-3" for the first time reached the surface of Venus. This is the world's first flight of a spacecraft from Earth to another planet. On April 3, 1966, the Luna-10 station became the first artificial satellite of the Moon.

September 24, 1970 - the Luna-16 station took samples of lunar soil and then delivered them to Earth. This is the first unmanned spacecraft to bring rock samples to Earth from another space body.

November 17, 1970 - soft landing and start of operation of the world's first semi-automatic self-propelled vehicle Lunokhod-1.

December 15, 1970 - the world's first soft landing on the surface of Venus: Venera-7.

On October 20, 1975, the Venera-9 station became the first artificial satellite of Venus.

October 1975 - soft landing of two spacecraft "Venera-9" and "Venera-10" and the world's first pictures of the surface of Venus.

The Soviet Union did a lot for the study and exploration of outer space. The USSR was many years ahead of other countries, including the US superpower.

Sources: antiquehistory.ru, prepbase.ru, badlike.ru, ussr.0-ua.com, www.vorcuta.ru, ru.wikipedia.org

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September 1967 was marked by the proclamation of October 4 by the International Astronautical Federation as the world day for the beginning of the space age of mankind. It was on October 4, 1957 that a small ball with four antennas tore apart the near-Earth space and laid the foundation for the space age, opened the golden age of astronautics. How it was, how space exploration took place, what the first satellites, animals and people in space were like - this article will tell about all this.

Chronology of events

To begin with, we will give a brief description of the chronology of events, one way or another connected with the beginning of the space age.

Dreamers from the distant past

As long as humanity exists, the stars have beckoned it so much. Let's look for the origins of astronautics and the beginning of the space age in ancient tomes and give just a few examples of amazing facts and far-sighted predictions. In the ancient Indian epic Bhagavad Gita (circa 15th century BC), an entire chapter is devoted to instructions for flying to the moon. Clay tablets in the library of the Assyrian ruler Assurbanipal (3200 BC) tell of King Etan flying up to a height from which the Earth looked like "bread in a basket". The inhabitants of Atlantis left the Earth, flying to other planets. And the Bible tells about the flight on the fiery chariot of the prophet Elijah. But in 1500 AD, the inventor Wang Gu from Ancient China could have become the first astronaut if he had not died. He made a flying machine out of kites. Which was supposed to take off when 4 powder rockets were set on fire. Since the 17th century, Europe has been raving about flying to the moon: first Johannes Kepler and Cyrano de Bergerac, and later Jules Verne with his idea of ​​cannon flight.

Kibalchich, Gunswind and Tsiolkovsky

In 1881, in solitary confinement in the Peter and Paul Fortress, while awaiting execution for the assassination attempt on Tsar Alexander II, N. I. Kibalchich (1853-1881) drew a rocket-propelled space platform. The idea of ​​his project is the creation of jet thrust by burning substances. His project was found in the archives of the tsarist secret police only in 1917. At the same time, the German scientist G. Gansvid created his own spacecraft, where the thrust is provided by the outgoing bullets. And in 1883, the Russian physicist K. E. Tsiolkovsky (1857-1935) described a ship with a jet engine, which was embodied in 1903 in the scheme of a liquid rocket. It is Tsiolkovsky who is considered to be the father of Russian cosmonautics, whose works already in the 20s of the last century were widely recognized by the world community.

Just a satellite

The artificial satellite that marked the beginning of the space age launched the Soviet Union from the Baikonur Cosmodrome on October 4, 1957. An aluminum sphere weighing 83.5 kilograms and 58 centimeters in diameter, with four bayonet antennas and equipment inside, took off to a perigee height of 228 kilometers and an apogee of 947 kilometers. They called it simply "Sputnik-1". Such a simple device was a tribute to the Cold War with the United States, which developed similar programs. America with their satellite Explorer 1 (launched on February 1, 1958) is almost half a year behind us. The Soviets, who launched the first artificial satellite, won the race. A victory that has not been lost, because the time has come for the first astronauts.

Dogs, cats and monkeys

The beginning of the space age in the USSR began with the first orbital flights of rootless tailed cosmonauts. The Soviets chose dogs as astronauts. America - monkeys, and France - cats. Immediately after Sputnik-1, Sputnik-2 flew into space with the most unfortunate dog on board - the purebred Laika. It was November 3, 1957, and the return of Sergei Korolev's favorite Laika was not foreseen. The well-known Belka and Strelka, with their triumphant flight and return to Earth on August 19, 1960, were by no means the first and far from the last. France launched the cat Felicette into space (October 18, 1963), and the United States, after the rhesus monkey (September 1961), sent the chimpanzee Ham (January 31, 1961), who became a national hero, to explore space.

Man's conquest of space

And here the Soviet Union was the first. On April 12, 1961, near the village of Tyuratam (Baikonur Cosmodrome), the R-7 launch vehicle with the Vostok-1 spacecraft took off into the sky. Air Force Major Yuri Alekseevich Gagarin went on his first space flight. At a perigee altitude of 181 km and an apogee of 327 km, it flew around the Earth and landed in the vicinity of the village of Smelovka (Saratov Region) at the 108th minute of the flight. The world was blown up by this event - agrarian and bastard Russia overtook the high-tech States, and Gagarin's "Let's go!" became an anthem for space fans. It was an event of global scale and incredible significance for all mankind. Here America lagged behind the Union for a month - on May 5, 1961, the Redstone rocket carrier with the Mercury-3 spacecraft from Cape Canaveral launched the American cosmonaut Air Force Captain 3rd rank Alan Shepard into orbit.

During the space flight on March 18, 1965, co-pilot Lieutenant Colonel Alexei Leonov (the first pilot was Colonel Pavel Belyaev) went into outer space and stayed there for 20 minutes, moving away from the ship at a distance of up to five meters. He confirmed that a person can stay and work in outer space. In June, American astronaut Edward White spent only a minute more in outer space and proved the possibility of performing maneuvers in outer space with a hand gun that runs on compressed gas on the principle of a jet. The beginning of the space age of man in outer space has come to pass.

First human casualties

Space has given us many discoveries and heroes. However, the beginning of the space age was also marked by casualties. Americans Virgil Grissom, Edward White and Roger Chaffee were the first to die on January 27, 1967. The Apollo 1 spacecraft burned out in 15 seconds due to a fire inside. Vladimir Komarov was the first Soviet cosmonaut to die. On October 23, 1967, he successfully deorbited on the Soyuz-1 spacecraft after an orbital flight. But the main parachute of the descent capsule did not open, and it crashed into the ground at a speed of 200 km / h and completely burned out.

Apollo lunar program

On July 20, 1969, American astronauts Neil Armstrong and Edwin Aldrin felt the surface of the moon under their feet. Thus ended the flight of the Apollo 11 spacecraft with the Eagle lunar module on board. America did take over the leadership in space exploration from the Soviet Union. And although later there were many publications about the falsification of the fact that the Americans landed on the moon, today everyone knows Neil Armstrong as the first person to set foot on its surface.

Orbital stations Salyut

The Soviets were also the first to launch orbital stations - spacecraft for the long stay of astronauts. Salyut is a series of manned stations, the first of which was launched into orbit on April 19, 1971. In total, 14 space objects were put into orbit in this project under the Almaz military program and the civil one - the Long-Term Orbital Station. Including the station "Mir" ("Salyut-8"), which was in orbit from 1986 to 2001 (flooded in the cemetery of spaceships in the Pacific Ocean on March 23, 2001).

First international space station

The ISS has a complex history of creation. Started as an American project Freedom (1984), in 1992 it became a joint Mir-Shuttle project and today it is an international project with 14 participating countries. The first module of the ISS launched the Proton-K launch vehicle into orbit on November 20, 1998. Subsequently, the participating countries removed other connecting blocks, and today the station weighs about 400 tons. It was planned to operate the station until 2014, but the project was extended. And it is managed jointly by four agencies - the Space Flight Control Center (Korolev, Russia), the Mission Control Center. L. Johnson (Houston, USA), the Control Center of the European Space Agency (Oberpfaffenhofen, Germany) and the Aerospace Research Agency (Tsukuba, Japan). The station has a crew of 6 cosmonauts. The program of the station provides for the constant presence of people. According to this indicator, it has already broken the Mir station record (3664 days of continuous stay). Power is completely autonomous - solar panels weigh almost 276 kilograms, power up to 90 kilowatts. The station houses laboratories, greenhouses and living quarters (five bedrooms), a gymnasium and bathrooms.

Some facts about the ISS

The International Space Station is by far the most expensive project in the world. More than $157 billion has already been spent on it. The speed of the station in orbit is 27.7 thousand km / h, with a weight of more than 41 tons. Astronauts observe sunrise and sunset at the station every 45 minutes. In 2008, the Disk of Immortality, a device containing digitized DNA of outstanding representatives of mankind, was delivered to the station in 2008. The purpose of this collection is to save human DNA in case of a global catastrophe. In the laboratories of the space station, quails are born and flowers bloom. And viable spores of bacteria were found on its skin, which makes one think about the possible expansion of space.

Space commercialization

Humanity can no longer imagine itself without space. In addition to all the advantages of the practical exploration of outer space, the commercial component is also developing. Since 2005, private spaceports have been under construction in the United States (Mojave), the United Arab Emirates (Ras Alm Khaimah) and Singapore. Virgin Galactic Corporation (USA) is planning space cruises for seven thousand tourists at an affordable price of $200,000. And well-known space merchant Robert Bigelow, owner of the Budget Suites of America hotel chain, announced the project of the first Skywalker orbital hotel. For $35 billion, Space Adventures (partner of the Roscosmos Corporation) will send you on a space journey for up to 10 days tomorrow. Having paid another 3 billion, you will be able to go into outer space. The company has already organized tours for seven tourists, one of them is Guy Laliberte, head of the circus du Soleil. The same company is preparing a new tourist product for 2018 - a trip to the moon.

Dreams and fantasies have become reality. Having overcome gravity once, humanity is no longer able to stop in its pursuit of stars, galaxies and universes. I would like to believe that we will not play too much, and we will continue to be surprised and delighted by the myriads of stars in the night sky. All the same mysterious, alluring and fantastic, as in the first days of creation.