The first manned flight into space was a real breakthrough, confirming the high scientific and technical level of the USSR and accelerating the development of the space program in the United States. Meanwhile, this success was preceded by difficult work on the creation of intercontinental ballistic missiles, the progenitor of which was developed in Nazi Germany"V-2".
Made in Germany
V-2, also known as V-2, Vergeltungswaffe-2, A-4, Aggregat-4 and Weapon of Retribution, was created in Nazi Germany in the early 1940s under the direction of designer Werner von Braun. It was the world's first ballistic missile. The V-2 entered service with the Wehrmacht at the end of World War II and was used primarily to attack cities in Great Britain.
Model of the rocket "V-2" and a picture from the movie "Girl on the Moon". Photo by user Raboe001 from wikipedia.org
The German rocket was a single-stage liquid-propellant rocket. The V-2 was launched vertically, and navigation on the active section of the trajectory was carried out by an automatic gyroscopic control system, which included software mechanisms and instruments for measuring speed. The German ballistic missile was capable of hitting enemy targets at a distance of up to 320 kilometers, and the maximum flight speed of the V-2 reached 1.7 thousand meters per second. The V-2 warhead was equipped with 800 kilograms of ammotol.
German missiles had low accuracy and were unreliable, were used mainly to intimidate civilians and had no noticeable military significance. In total, during the Second World War, Germany made over 3.2 thousand V-2 launches. This weapon killed about three thousand people, mostly from among the civilian population. The main achievement of the German rocket was the height of its trajectory, which reached one hundred kilometers.
The V-2 is the world's first rocket to complete a suborbital space flight. At the end of World War II, V-2 samples fell into the hands of the winners, who, based on it, began to develop their own ballistic missiles. Programs based on the V-2 experience were run by the USA and the USSR, and later by China. In particular, the Soviet ballistic missiles R-1 and R-2, created by Sergei Korolev, in the late 1940s were based precisely on the V-2 design.
The experience of these first Soviet ballistic missiles was subsequently taken into account when creating more advanced intercontinental R-7, the reliability and power of which were so great that they began to be used not only in the military, but also in the space program. In fairness, it should be noted that in fact the USSR owes its space program to the very first "V-2", released in Germany, with a picture from the 1929 film "Woman on the Moon" painted on the fuselage.
Intercontinental family
In 1950, the Council of Ministers of the USSR adopted a resolution, within the framework of which research work began in the field of creating ballistic missiles with a flight range of five to ten thousand kilometers. Initially, more than ten different design bureaus participated in the program. In 1954, work on the creation of an intercontinental ballistic missile were entrusted to the Central Design Bureau No. 1 under the leadership of Sergei Korolev.
By the beginning of 1957, the rocket, designated R-7, as well as a test complex for it in the area of the Tyura-Tam village were ready, and tests began. The first launch of the R-7, which took place on May 15, 1957, was unsuccessful - soon after receiving the command to launch, a fire broke out in the tail compartment of the rocket, and the rocket exploded. Repeated tests took place on July 12, 1957 and were also unsuccessful - the ballistic missile deviated from its intended trajectory and was destroyed. The first series of tests was recognized as a complete failure, and in the course of investigations, design flaws in the R-7 were revealed.
It should be noted that the problems were fixed fairly quickly. Already on August 21, 1957, the R-7 was successfully launched, and on October 4 and November 3 of the same year, the rocket was already used to launch the first artificial earth satellites.
The R-7 was a two-stage liquid-propellant rocket. The first step consisted of four conical lateral blocks 19 meters long and three meters in maximum diameter. They were located symmetrically around the central block, the second stage. On each block of the first stage, the RD-107 engines were installed, created by OKB-456 under the leadership of Academician Valentin Glushko. Each engine had six combustion chambers, two of which were used for steering. RD-107 operated on a mixture of liquid oxygen and kerosene.
The second-stage engine was the RD-108, structurally based on the RD-107. RD-108 was distinguished by a large number of steering chambers and was able to operate longer than the power plants of the first stage units. The engines of the first and second stages were started simultaneously during the launch on the ground using pyro-ignition devices in each of the 32 combustion chambers.
In general, the design of the R-7 turned out to be so successful and reliable that a whole family of launch vehicles was created on the basis of an intercontinental ballistic missile. It is about such rockets as Sputnik, Vostok, Voskhod and Soyuz. These rockets were used to launch artificial earth satellites into orbit. The legendary Belka and Strelka and cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin made their first flight into space on rockets of this family.
"East"
The three-stage Vostok launch vehicle from the R-7 family was widely used at the first stage of the USSR space program. In particular, with its help, all spacecraft of the "Vostok" series, spacecraft "Luna" (with indices from 1A, 1B and up to 3), some satellites of the "Kosmos", "Meteor" and "Electron" series were launched into orbit. Development of the Vostok launch vehicle began in the late 1950s.
Launch vehicle "Vostok". Photo from the site sao.mos.ru
The first rocket launch, carried out on September 23, 1958, was unsuccessful, like most other launches of the first stage of tests. In total, at the first stage, 13 launches were made, of which only four were recognized as successful, including the flight of the Belka and Strelka dogs. Subsequent launches of the carrier rocket, also created under the leadership of Korolev, were overwhelmingly successful.
Like the R-7, the first and second steps of the "Vostok" consisted of five blocks (from "A" to "D"): four lateral blocks 19.8 meters long and 2.68 meters in maximum diameter and one central one 28.75 meters long. meters and a maximum diameter of 2.95 meters. The side blocks were located symmetrically around the central second stage. They used the already proven liquid engines RD-107 and RD-108. The third stage included block "E" with the RD-0109 liquid engine.
Each engine of the first stage blocks had a thrust in the void of one meganewton and consisted of four main and two steering combustion chambers. Moreover, each side unit was equipped with additional air rudders for flight control in the atmospheric section of the trajectory. The rocket engine of the second stage had a thrust in the void of 941 kilonewtons and consisted of four main and four steering combustion chambers. The power plant of the third stage was capable of providing 54.4 kilonewtons of thrust and had four steering nozzles.
The installation of the spacecraft launched into space was carried out at the third stage under the head fairing, which protected it from adverse effects when passing through the dense layers of the atmosphere. The Vostok rocket weighing up to 290 tons was capable of launching into space payload weighing up to 4.73 tons. In general, the flight proceeded according to the following scheme: the engines of the first and second stages were ignited simultaneously on the ground. After running out of fuel in the side blocks, they were separated from the central one, which continued its work.
After passing through the dense layers of the atmosphere, the head fairing was dropped, and then the second stage was separated and the third stage engine was started, which was turned off with the separation of the block from the spacecraft after reaching the design speed corresponding to the launch of the spacecraft into a given orbit.
"Vostok-1"
For the first launch of a man into space, the Vostok-1 spacecraft was used, designed to carry out flights in near-earth orbit. The development of the Vostok series apparatus began in the late 1950s under the leadership of Mikhail Tikhonravov and was completed in 1961. By this time, seven test launches had been made, including two with human dummies and experimental animals. On April 12, 1961, the Vostok-1 spacecraft, launched at 9:07 am from the Baikonur cosmodrome, put pilot-cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin into orbit. The device completed one orbit around the Earth in 108 minutes and landed at 10:55 am near the village of Smelovka, Saratov region.
The mass of the spacecraft on which man first went into space was 4.73 tons. "Vostok-1" had a length of 4.4 meters and a maximum diameter of 2.43 meters. The Vostok-1 consisted of a spherical descent vehicle weighing 2.46 tons and a diameter of 2.3 meters and a conical instrument compartment weighing 2.27 tons and a maximum diameter of 2.43 meters. The mass of the heat shield was about 1.4 tons. All compartments were interconnected with metal bands and pyrotechnic locks.
The spacecraft equipment included systems for automatic and manual flight control, automatic orientation to the Sun, manual orientation to the Earth, life support, power supply, thermal control, landing, communications, as well as radio telemetry equipment for monitoring the state of the astronaut, a television system, a system for monitoring orbital parameters. and direction finding apparatus, as well as a braking propulsion system.
Dashboard of the Vostok spacecraft. Photo from the site dic.academic.ru
Together with the third stage of the Vostok-1 launch vehicle, it weighed 6.17 tons, and their combined length was 7.35 meters. The descent vehicle was equipped with two windows, one of which was located on the entrance hatch, and the other at the astronaut's feet. The cosmonaut himself was placed in an ejection seat, in which he had to leave the spacecraft at an altitude of seven kilometers. The possibility of joint landing of the descent vehicle and the cosmonaut was also envisaged.
It is curious that Vostok-1 also had a device for determining the exact position of the ship above the Earth's surface. It was a small globe with a clock mechanism, which showed the location of the ship. With the help of such a device, the cosmonaut could decide to start a return maneuver.
The scheme of the apparatus operation during the landing was as follows: at the end of the flight, the braking propulsion system slowed down the movement of Vostok-1, after which the compartments were separated and the descent vehicle began to separate. At an altitude of seven kilometers, the cosmonaut ejected: his descent and descent of the capsule were carried out by parachutes separately. This was supposed to be according to the instructions, but at the end of the first manned flight into space, almost everything went completely differently.
On April 12, 1961, at 09:07 am Moscow time, a few tens of kilometers north of the village of Tyuratam in Kazakhstan, at the Soviet Baikonur cosmodrome, an intercontinental ballistic missile R-7 was launched, in the nose compartment of which the manned spacecraft "Vostok" was located with Air Force Major Yuri Alekseevich Gagarin on board. The launch was successful. The spacecraft was launched into an orbit with an inclination of 65 °, a perigee altitude of 181 km and an apogee altitude of 327 km, and made one orbit around the Earth in 89 minutes. On the 108th minute after launch, he returned to Earth, landing near the village of Smelovka, Saratov region.
The Vostok spacecraft was created by a group of scientists and engineers under the leadership of the founder of practical cosmonautics, SP Korolev. The spacecraft consisted of two compartments. The descent vehicle, which is also an astronaut's cabin, was a sphere with a diameter of 2.3 m, covered with an ablative (melting when heated) material for thermal protection when entering the atmosphere. The ship was controlled automatically, as well as by the astronaut. During the flight, radio communication with the Earth was continuously maintained. An astronaut in a spacesuit was placed in an airplane-type ejection seat equipped with a parachute system and communication equipment. In the event of an accident, small rocket motors at the base of the chair fired it through a circular hatch. The atmosphere of the ship is a mixture of oxygen and nitrogen under a pressure of 1 atm (760 mm Hg).
The manned compartment (descent vehicle) was attached with metal straps to the instrument compartment. All equipment not directly required in the descent vehicle was located in the instrument compartment. It contained cylinders of a life support system with nitrogen and oxygen, chemical batteries for a radio installation and instruments, a braking propulsion system (TDU) to reduce the speed of the spacecraft during the transition to a descent trajectory from orbit, and small orientation engines. "Vostok-1" had a mass of 4730 kg, and with the last stage of the launch vehicle 6170 kg.
The calculation of the trajectory of the return of the spacecraft "Vostok" to the Earth was carried out with the help of a computer, the necessary commands were transmitted to the spacecraft by radio. The attitude thrusters ensured the appropriate angle of entry of the spacecraft into the atmosphere. Upon reaching the desired position, the braking propulsion system was activated, and the ship's speed decreased. Then the fire bolts tore apart the straps connecting the descent vehicle with the instrument compartment, and the descent vehicle began its "fiery dive" into the Earth's atmosphere. At an altitude of about 7 km, the entrance hatch was shot back from the descent vehicle and the chair with the cosmonaut was ejected. The parachute was opened, after a while the chair was dropped so that the astronaut would not hit it upon landing. Gagarin was the only Vostok cosmonaut who remained in the descent vehicle until landing and did not use the ejection seat. All subsequent cosmonauts flying on the Vostok spacecraft ejected. The descent vehicle of the Vostok spacecraft landed separately on its own parachute.
SCHEME OF THE SPACE SHIP "VOSTOK-1"
"Vostok-1"
1 Antenna for the command radio link system.
2 Communication antenna.
3 Cover for electrical connectors
4 Entrance hatch.
5 Container with food.
6 Tie straps.
7 Ribbon antennas.
8 Brake motor.
9 Communication antennas.
10 Service hatches.
11 Instrument compartment with main systems.
12 Ignition wiring.
13 Pneumatic cylinders (16 pcs.)
for the life support system.
14 Ejection seat.
15 Radio antenna.
16 Porthole with optical reference.
17 Technological hatch.
18 Television camera.
19 Heat shield made of ablative material.
20 Block of electronic equipment.
This ship had two main compartments: a descent vehicle with a diameter of 2.3 m and an instrument compartment. The control system is automatic, but the cosmonaut could transfer control to himself. With his right hand, he could orient the ship using a hand control device. With his left hand, he could turn on the emergency switch, which dropped the access hatch and activated the ejection seat. A cutout in the nose cone of the launch vehicle allowed the astronaut to leave the spacecraft in the event of a launch vehicle accident. When the spherical descent vehicle returned to the atmosphere, its position was automatically corrected. With an increase in air pressure, the descent vehicle took the correct position.
Booster rockets
The Vostok 2 ½-stage launch vehicle was created on the basis of a Soviet ICBM.
Its height together with the spacecraft is 38.4 m.
"Mercury-Atlas" is also a modification of the intercontinental ballistic missile, had a total height of 29 m.
In both rockets, the fuel is liquid oxygen and kerosene.
The Vostok spacecraft was launched into space 5 times, after which its safety for human flight was announced. Between May 15, 1960 and March 25, 1961, these spaceships were launched into an orbit called a satellite ship. They housed dogs, mannequins and various biological objects. Four of these vehicles had returnable capsules with astronaut seats mounted in them. Three were returned. The last two spacecraft of the series, before entering the atmosphere, performed, like Vostok-1, one orbit around the Earth. Others completed 17 turns, like Vostok-2.
What to tell your child about Cosmonautics Day
The conquest of outer space is one of those pages in the history of our country that we can be unconditionally proud of. It's never too early to tell your child about it - even if your child is only two years old, you can already do with him to “fly away to the stars” and explain that the first cosmonaut was Yuri Gagarin. But an older child certainly needs a more interesting story. If you managed to forget the details of the history of the first flight, a selection of facts made by us will help you.
About the first flight
The Vostok spacecraft was launched on April 12, 1961 at 9.07 am Moscow time from the Baikonur cosmodrome, with the pilot-cosmonaut Yuri Alekseevich Gagarin on board; Gagarin's call sign is "Cedar".
The flight of Yuri Gagarin lasted 108 minutes, his ship completed one revolution around the Earth and completed the flight at 10:55. The ship moved at a speed of 28 260 km / h at a maximum altitude of 327 km.
About Gagarin's task
Nobody knew how a person would behave in space; there were serious fears that once outside the home planet, the astronaut would go crazy with horror.
Therefore, the tasks given to Gagarin were the simplest: he tried to eat and drink in space, made several notes in pencil, and pronounced all his observations out loud so that they would be recorded on the onboard tape recorder. Out of the same fears of sudden madness, a complex system for transferring the ship to manual control was envisaged: the astronaut had to open the envelope and manually enter the code left there on the remote control.
About "Vostok"
We are accustomed to the form of a rocket - a grandiose elongated swept-like structure, but these are all detachable stages that “fell off” after all the fuel in them was depleted.
A capsule, shaped like a cannonball, with a third stage of the engine, flew into orbit.
The total mass of the spacecraft reached 4.73 tons, the length (without antennas) was 4.4 m, and the diameter was 2.43 m.The weight of the spacecraft together with the last stage of the launch vehicle was 6.17 tons, and their length in a bundle - 7.35 m
Rocket launch and Vostok spacecraft model
Soviet designers were in a hurry: there was information that the Americans planned to launch the manned spacecraft at the end of April. Therefore, it should be admitted that Vostok-1 was neither reliable nor comfortable.
When developing it, they first abandoned the emergency rescue system at the start, then - from the soft landing system of the ship - the descent took place along a ballistic trajectory, as if the capsule-"core" had actually been fired from a cannon. Such a landing occurs with huge overloads - the astronaut is affected by gravity 8-10 times more than we feel on Earth, and Gagarin felt as if he weighed 10 times more!
Finally, the duplicate brake system was abandoned. The latter decision was justified by the fact that when the spacecraft was launched into a low 180-200 km orbit, in any case within 10 days it would have left it due to natural deceleration on the upper atmosphere and would return to earth. It was for these 10 days that the life support systems were calculated.
Problems of the first space flight
About the problems that arose during the launch of the first spacecraft, for a long time did not tell, these data were published quite recently.
The first of them arose even before the start: when checking the tightness, the sensor on the hatch through which Gagarin entered the capsule did not give a signal about the tightness. Since there was very little time left before the start, such a problem could lead to a postponement of the launch.
Then the leading designer of "Vostok-1" Oleg Ivanovskiy with the workers demonstrated fantastic skills, to the envy of the current mechanics of "Formula-1". In a matter of minutes, 30 nuts were unscrewed, the sensor was checked and corrected, and the hatch was closed again in the prescribed manner. This time, the tightness test was successful, and the start was carried out at the scheduled time.
At the final stage of the start, the radio control system did not work, which was supposed to turn off the engines of the 3rd stage. The engine was turned off only after the backup mechanism (timer) was triggered, but the ship had already ascended into orbit, the highest point of which (apogee) was 100 km higher than the calculated one.
Departure from such an orbit with the help of "aerodynamic braking" (if the same, non-duplicated brake system failed) could take, according to various estimates, from 20 to 50 days, and not 10 days for which the life support system was designed.
However, the MCC was ready for this scenario: all the country's air defenses were warned about the flight (without details that the cosmonaut was on board), so that Gagarin was "tracked" in a matter of seconds. Moreover, an appeal to the peoples of the world was also prepared in advance, with a request to search for the first Soviet cosmonaut, if the landing took place abroad. In general, three such messages were prepared - the second about the tragic death of Gagarin, and the third, which was published, about his successful flight.
During landing, the braking propulsion system worked successfully, but with a shortage of momentum, so that the automation issued a ban on the regular separation of the compartments. As a result, instead of a spherical capsule, the entire ship entered the stratosphere, together with the third stage.
Due to the irregular geometric shape, for 10 minutes before entering the atmosphere, the ship tumbled randomly at a speed of 1 revolution per second. Gagarin decided not to frighten the flight directors (first of all, Korolev) and, in conventional terms, reported an emergency situation on board the ship.
When the ship entered the denser layers of the atmosphere, the connecting cables burned out, and the command to separate the compartments came from the thermal sensors, so that the lander finally separated from the instrument-engine compartment.
If the trained Gagarin was ready for 8-10-fold overloads (they still remember the shots with the centrifuge from the Flight Training Center!), Then for the sight of a burning ship's skin upon entering the dense layers of the atmosphere (the temperature outside during descent reaches 3-5 thousand degrees ) - not. Streams of liquid metal flowed through two windows (one of which was located on the entrance hatch, just above the astronaut's head, and the other, equipped with a special orientation system, in the floor at his feet), and the cabin itself began to crackle.
The descent vehicle of the Vostok spacecraft at the RSC Energia museum. The cover, separated at an altitude of 7 kilometers, fell to the Earth separately, without a parachute.
Due to a small failure in the braking system, the descent vehicle with Gagarin landed not in the planned area 110 km from Stalingrad, but in the Saratov region, not far from the city of Engels near the village of Smelovka.
Gagarin ejected from the capsule of the ship at an altitude of one and a half kilometers. At the same time, he was practically carried right into the cold waters of the Volga - only huge experience and composure helped him, controlling the lines of the parachute, to land on land.
The first people who met the cosmonaut after the flight were the wife of the local forester Anna Takhtarova and her six-year-old granddaughter Rita. Soon the military and local collective farmers arrived at the scene. One group of military men took the descent vehicle under guard, and the other took Gagarin to the location of the unit. From there, Gagarin reported by phone to the commander of the air defense division: “I ask you to tell the Commander-in-Chief of the Air Force: I completed the task, landed in the specified area, I feel good, there are no bruises or breakages. Gagarin ".
For about three years, the leadership of the USSR hid two facts from the world community: firstly, although Gagarin could control the spacecraft (by opening the envelope with the code), in fact, the entire flight took place in automatic mode. And the second is the very fact of Gagarin's ejection, since the fact that he landed separately from the spacecraft gave the International Aeronautical Federation a reason to refuse to recognize Gagarin's flight as the first manned space flight.
What Gagarin said
Everyone knows that before the start Gagarin said the famous "Let's go!" But why did they "go"? Today, those who worked and trained side by side recall that this word was a favorite sentence of the famous test pilot Mark Gallay. He was one of those who prepared six candidates for the first flight into space and during training asked: “Ready to fly? Well then, come on. Go!"
It's funny that only recently a recording of pre-flight conversations between Korolev and Gagarin, already sitting in a spacesuit, in the cockpit, was published. And it is not surprising, there was nothing pretentious, Korolev, with the solicitude of a loving grandmother, warned Gagarin that he would not have to starve during the flight - he had more than 60 tubes of food, he had everything, even jam.
And it is very rare to mention the phrase said on the air by Gagarin during landing, when the window was flooded with fire and molten metal: "I'm on fire, goodbye, comrades".
But for us, perhaps the most important will remain the phrase said by Gagarin after landing:
“Having flown around the Earth in a satellite ship, I saw how beautiful our planet is. People, we will preserve and increase this beauty, and not destroy it. "
Prepared by Alena Novikova
"First Orbit" is a documentary film by the English director Christopher Riley, filmed for the 50th anniversary of the Gagarin flight. The essence of the project is simple: the cosmonauts photographed the Earth from the ISS at the moment when the station was repeating Gagarin's orbit as accurately as possible. The video was overlaid with the full original recording of the Kedra's negotiations with Zarya and other ground services, music by the composer Philip Sheppard was added and moderately spiced up with solemn messages from radio announcers. And here is the result: now everyone can see, hear and try to feel what it was like. How (almost in real time) the miracle of the first manned flight into space, which shook the whole world, took place.
Details Category: Meeting with space Published on 12/05/2012 11:32 Views: 17631A manned spacecraft is designed to fly one or more people into outer space and safely return to Earth after completing a mission.
When designing this class of spacecraft, one of the main tasks is to create a safe, reliable and accurate system for returning the crew to earth surface in the form of a wingless descent vehicle (SA) or spaceplane ... Spaceplane - orbital plane(OS), aerospace aircraft(VKS) is winged aircraft aircraft scheme, entering or injected into orbit of an artificial Earth satellite by means of a vertical or horizontal launch and returning from it after completing the target tasks, making a horizontal landing at the airfield, actively using the lift of the glider while decreasing. Combines the properties of both an airplane and a spacecraft.
An important feature of a manned spacecraft is the presence of an emergency rescue system (SAS) on initial stage launching by launch vehicle (LV).
The projects of the Soviet and Chinese spacecraft of the first generation did not have a full-fledged rocket SAS - instead of it, as a rule, ejection of the crew seats was used (the Voskhod spacecraft did not have this either). Winged spaceplanes are also not equipped with a special SAS, and can also have ejection crew seats. Also, the spacecraft must be equipped with a life support system (LSS) for the crew.
Creation of a manned spacecraft is a task of high complexity and cost, so only three countries have them: Russia, the USA and China. And only Russia and the United States have reusable manned spacecraft systems.
Several countries are working on the creation of their own manned spacecraft: India, Japan, Iran, North Korea, as well as ESA (European Space Agency, created in 1975 for the purpose of space exploration). ESA has 15 permanent members, sometimes Canada and Hungary join in some projects.
First generation spaceships
"East"
This is a series of Soviet spacecraft designed for manned flights in near-earth orbit. Created under the leadership of the general designer of OKB-1 Sergey Pavlovich Korolev from 1958 to 1963.
The main scientific tasks facing the Vostok spacecraft were: studying the effects of orbital flight conditions on the state and working capacity of the cosmonaut, testing the structure and systems, checking the basic principles of building spacecraft.
History of creation
In the spring of 1957 S. P. Korolev within the framework of his OKB, he organized a special department No. 9, intended for work on the creation of the first artificial earth satellites. The department was headed by a colleague of Korolev Mikhail Klavdievich Tikhonravov... Soon, in parallel with the development of artificial satellites, the department began to carry out research on the creation of a manned satellite ship. The carrier rocket was supposed to be the Royal "R-7". Calculations showed that it, equipped with a third stage, could put a load weighing about 5 tons into low-earth orbit.
At an early stage of development, the calculations were done by mathematicians of the Academy of Sciences. In particular, it was noted that the result of ballistic descent from orbit could be tenfold overload.
From September 1957 to January 1958 in Tikhonravov's department all the conditions for the implementation of the task were investigated. It was found that the equilibrium temperature of the winged spacecraft, which possessed the highest aerodynamic quality, exceeded the thermal stability capabilities of the alloys available at that time, and the use of winged design options led to a decrease in the payload. Therefore, they refused to consider the winged options. The most acceptable way to return a person was to eject him at an altitude of several kilometers and then descend by parachute. In this case, a separate rescue of the descent vehicle could be omitted.
In the course of medical research carried out in April 1958, tests of pilots in a centrifuge showed that, at a certain position of the body, a person is able to endure overloads up to 10 G without serious consequences for his health. Therefore, we chose the spherical shape of the descent vehicle for the first manned spacecraft.
The spherical shape of the descent vehicle was the simplest and most studied symmetric shape; the sphere possesses stable aerodynamic properties at all possible speeds and angles of attack. The shift of the center of mass to the aft part of the spherical apparatus made it possible to ensure its correct orientation during ballistic descent.
The first spacecraft Vostok-1K went into automatic flight in May 1960. Later, a modification of the Vostok-3KA was created and worked out, completely ready for manned flights.
In addition to one launch vehicle accident, six unmanned aerial vehicles were launched under the program, and later six more manned spacecraft.
The ships of the program carried out the world's first manned space flight ("Vostok-1"), a daily flight ("Vostok-2"), group flights of two ships ("Vostok-3" and "Vostok-4") and the flight of a woman-cosmonaut ("Vostok-6").
The device of the spacecraft "Vostok"
The total mass of the spacecraft is 4.73 tons, the length is 4.4 m, and the maximum diameter is 2.43 m.
The ship consisted of a spherical descent vehicle (2.46 tons in weight and 2.3 m in diameter), which also served as an orbital compartment, and a conical instrument compartment (2.27 tons in weight and 2.43 m in maximum diameter). The compartments were mechanically connected to each other using metal bands and pyrotechnic locks. The ship was equipped with systems: automatic and manual control, automatic orientation to the Sun, manual orientation to the Earth, life support (designed to maintain an internal atmosphere similar in its parameters to the Earth's atmosphere for 10 days), command and logic control, power supply, thermal control and landing ... To provide tasks for man's work in outer space, the spacecraft was equipped with autonomous and radiotelemetric equipment for monitoring and recording parameters characterizing the state of the cosmonaut, structure and systems, ultrashort and shortwave equipment for two-way radiotelephone communication of the cosmonaut with ground stations, a command radio link, a program-time device, a television system with two transmitting cameras for observing the cosmonaut from the Earth, a radio system for monitoring the parameters of the orbit and direction finding of the spacecraft, the brake propulsion system TDU-1 and other systems. The weight of the spacecraft together with the last stage of the launch vehicle was 6.17 tons, and their bundle length was 7.35 m.
The descent vehicle had two windows, one of which was located on the entrance hatch, just above the astronaut's head, and the other, equipped with a special orientation system, in the floor at his feet. An astronaut, dressed in a spacesuit, was placed in a special ejection seat. At the last stage of landing, after braking the descent vehicle in the atmosphere, at an altitude of 7 km, the cosmonaut ejected from the cockpit and made a landing by parachute. In addition, the possibility of landing an astronaut inside the descent vehicle was provided. The descent vehicle had its own parachute, but was not equipped with the means of performing a soft landing, which threatened the person who remained in it with a serious injury upon a joint landing.
In case of failure of automatic systems, the astronaut could switch to manual control. The ships "Vostok" were not adapted for manned flights to the moon, and also did not allow the flight of people who had not undergone special training.
Vostok spacecraft pilots:
"Sunrise"
Two or three ordinary chairs were installed in the place freed from the ejection seat. Since the crew was now landing in the descent vehicle, to ensure a soft landing of the ship, in addition to the parachute system, a solid-fuel braking engine was installed, which was triggered immediately before touching the ground from a signal from a mechanical altimeter. On the Voskhod-2 spacecraft, intended for spacewalk, both cosmonauts were dressed in Berkut spacesuits. Additionally, an inflatable airlock was installed, which was discarded after use.
The Voskhod spacecraft were launched into orbit by the Voskhod carrier rocket, also developed on the basis of the Vostok launch vehicle. But the system of the carrier and the Voskhod spacecraft in the first minutes after launch had no means of rescue in case of an accident.
The following flights were performed under the Voskhod program:
"Cosmos-47" - October 6, 1964 An unmanned test flight for practicing and testing the spacecraft.
Voskhod 1 - October 12, 1964 First space flight with more than one person on board. Crew - cosmonaut-pilot Komarov, constructor Feoktistov and the doctor Egorov.
Kosmos-57 - February 22, 1965. An unmanned test flight for testing the spacecraft for spacewalk ended in failure (undermined by the self-destruct system due to an error in the command system).
"Kosmos-59" - March 7, 1965. An unmanned test flight of a device of another series ("Zenit-4") with an installed airlock for the spacecraft "Voskhod".
"Voskhod-2" - March 18, 1965 First outing into open space with. Crew - cosmonaut-pilot Belyaev and test cosmonaut Leonov.
"Cosmos-110" - February 22, 1966 Test flight to check the operation of onboard systems during a long orbital flight, there were two dogs on board - Breeze and Ember, the flight lasted 22 days.
Second generation spaceships
"Union"
A series of multi-seat spacecraft for near-earth orbit flights. The ship's designer and manufacturer is RSC Energia ( Rocket and Space Corporation "Energia" named after S. P. Korolev... The head office of the corporation is located in the city of Korolev, the branch is at the Baikonur cosmodrome). As one organizational structure was founded in 1974 under the leadership of Valentin Glushko.
History of creation
The Soyuz rocket and space complex began to be designed in 1962 at OKB-1 as a ship of the Soviet program for flying around the moon. At first, it was assumed that a bunch of spacecraft and upper stages were to go to the Moon under the program "A" 7K, 9K, 11K... Subsequently, project "A" was closed in favor of separate projects for flying around the moon using the "Probe" spacecraft / 7K-L1 and landing on the moon using the L3 complex as part of the orbital module 7K-LOK and the landing ship-module LK. In parallel with the lunar programs on the basis of the same 7K and the closed project of the near-earth spacecraft "Sever", they began to do 7K-OK- a multipurpose triple orbital spacecraft (OC), designed to practice maneuvering and docking operations in near-earth orbit, to conduct various experiments, including the transition of astronauts from spacecraft to spacecraft through open space.
Tests of the 7K-OK began in 1966. After the Voskhod flight program was canceled (with the destruction of the backlog of three of the four ready Voskhod ships), the Soyuz designers lost the opportunity to work out solutions for their program on it. There came a two-year break in manned launches in the USSR, during which the Americans were actively exploring outer space. The first three unmanned launches of the Soyuz spacecraft turned out to be completely or partially unsuccessful, and serious errors in the ship's design were discovered. However, the fourth launch was undertaken by a manned ("Soyuz-1" with V. Komarov), which turned out to be tragic - the astronaut died during his descent to Earth. After the Soyuz-1 accident, the ship's design was completely redesigned to resume manned flights (6 unmanned launches were performed), and in 1967 the first, generally successful, automatic docking of two Soyuz (Kosmos-186 and Kosmos-188 "), in 1968 manned flights were resumed, in 1969 the first docking of two manned spacecraft and a group flight of three spacecraft took place at once, and in 1970 an autonomous flight of record duration (17.8 days) took place. The first six ships "Soyuz" and ("Soyuz-9") were ships of the 7K-OK series. A variant of the ship was also being prepared for flights. "Soyuz-Contact" for testing the systems of docking of the ships-modules 7K-LOK and LK of the lunar expeditionary complex L3. Due to the failure to bring the L3 lunar landing program to the stage of manned flights, the need for Soyuz-Contact flights has disappeared.
In 1969, work began on the creation of the Salyut long-term orbital station (DOS). A ship was designed to deliver the crew. 7KT-OK(T - transport). The new ship differed from the previous ones by the presence of a docking station of a new design with an internal hatch-manhole and complementary systems communications on board. The third ship of this type (Soyuz-10) did not fulfill the task assigned to it. Docking with the station was carried out, but as a result of damage to the docking station, the ship's hatch was blocked, which made it impossible for the crew to move to the station. During the fourth flight of a ship of this type (Soyuz-11), due to depressurization at the descent site, they died G. Dobrovolsky, V. Volkov and V. Patsaev since they were without spacesuits. After the Soyuz-11 accident, the development of 7K-OK / 7KT-OK was abandoned, the spacecraft was redesigned (changes were made to the layout of the spacecraft to accommodate cosmonauts in spacesuits). Due to the increased mass of life support systems, a new version of the ship 7K-T became a two-seater, lost solar panels. This ship became the "workhorse" of Soviet cosmonautics in the 1970s: 29 expeditions to the Salyut and Almaz stations. Ship version 7K-TM(M - modified) was used in a joint flight with the American Apollo under the ASTP program. Four Soyuz spacecraft, officially launched after the Soyuz-11 accident, had solar panels of various types in their design, but these were other versions of the Soyuz spacecraft - 7K-TM (Soyuz-16, Soyuz-19 ), 7K-MF6("Soyuz-22") and modification 7K-T - 7K-T-AF without a docking station (Soyuz-13).
Since 1968 spacecraft of the Soyuz series have been modified and produced. 7K-S... 7K-S was refined for 10 years and by 1979 became a ship 7K-ST "Soyuz T", moreover, during a short transition period, the cosmonauts flew simultaneously on the new 7K-ST and the outdated 7K-T.
Further evolution of the 7K-ST spacecraft systems led to the modification 7K-STM "Soyuz TM": new propulsion system, improved parachute system, rendezvous system, etc. The first Soyuz TM flight was made on May 21, 1986 to the Mir station, the last Soyuz TM-34 - in 2002 to the ISS.
A modification of the ship is currently in operation 7K-STMA "Soyuz TMA"(A - anthropometric). According to NASA requirements, the spacecraft was modified for flights to the ISS. It can be used by cosmonauts who could not fit into the Soyuz TM in terms of height. The astronauts' console was replaced with a new one, with a modern element base, the parachute system was improved, and the thermal protection was reduced. The last launch of the spacecraft of this modification "Soyuz TMA-22" took place on November 14, 2011.
In addition to Soyuz TMA, ships of a new series are used today for space flights. 7K-STMA-M "Soyuz TMA-M" ("Soyuz TMATs")(C - digital).
Device
The ships of this series consist of three modules: the instrument-assembly compartment (PAO), the descent vehicle (SA), and the utility compartment (BO).
In PJSC there is a combined propulsion system, fuel for it, service systems. The compartment length is 2.26 m, the main diameter is 2.15 m. The propulsion system consists of 28 DPOs (mooring and orientation engines), 14 on each manifold, as well as a rendezvous-correcting engine (SKD). SKD is designed for orbital maneuvering and de-orbiting.
The power supply system consists of solar panels and accumulators.
The descent vehicle contains space for astronauts, life support systems, control systems, and a parachute system. The compartment is 2.24 m long, 2.2 m in diameter. The utility compartment is 3.4 m long and 2.25 m in diameter. It is equipped with a docking station and a rendezvous system. The sealed volume of the BO contains cargo for the station, another payload, a number of life support systems, in particular a toilet. Through the landing hatch on the side surface of the BO, the astronauts enter the spacecraft at the launch site of the cosmodrome. BO can be used for airlocking into open space in Orlan-type spacesuits through the landing hatch.
New modernized version of "Soyuz TMA-MS"
The update will affect almost every manned spacecraft system. The main points of the spacecraft modernization program:
- energy efficiency of solar panels will be increased through the use of more efficient photovoltaic converters;
- reliability of approach and docking of the ship with space station by changing the installation of docking engines and orientation. The new scheme of these engines will make it possible to perform rendezvous and docking even in the event of a failure of one of the engines and to ensure the descent of a manned spacecraft in case of any two engine failures;
- a new communication and direction finding system, which will make it possible, in addition to improving the quality of radio communication, to facilitate the search for a descent vehicle that has landed anywhere in the world.
GLONASS sensors will be installed on the modernized Soyuz TMA-MS. At the parachuting stage and after landing of the descent vehicle, its coordinates obtained from GLONASS / GPS data will be transmitted via the Cospas-Sarsat satellite system to the MCC.
Soyuz TMA-MS will be the last modification of Soyuz". The ship will be used for manned flights until a new generation ship comes to replace it. But that's a completely different story ...
Became the first spacecraft of the Vostok program aimed at manned flights. Before the manned flight under the program, several unmanned vehicles were launched between May 1960 and March 1961. The first launch took place on May 15, 1960, this ship was not even returned. It was successfully launched, but on the 64th orbit there were problems in the control system and the spacecraft entered a high orbit. This was followed by two unsuccessful, one partially unsuccessful and one successful launches. The last two launches showed that both the spacecraft and the launch vehicle were fully operational, which opened the way for man into space. The device took off on April 12, 1961 from the Baikonur cosmodrome, with the world's first cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin on board. The first manned flight into space turned out to be the shortest. Gagarin made only one revolution around the Earth in 108 minutes. The pericenter of the orbit was at an altitude of only 169 kilometers, the apocenter - 327 kilometers. The landing took place not in a descent capsule, but on a parachute fired at an altitude of 7 kilometers. At the same time, unlike the more modern devices of the Vostok program, the device did not have a spare engine to correct the descent in the atmosphere. Instead, Gagarin had a 10-day supply of food in case of a fall in an unplanned place.
It is also worth noting that during the first flight there were no ships providing space communications, so it was carried out only from the territory of the USSR. However, in the staff Gagarin did not have the ability to control the flight. Everything had to happen automatically or on commands from ground control points - if they were in the communication zone. This decision was made due to the unknown effect of weightlessness on humans. To enable manual control in case of emergency, a code had to be entered.
On April 11, the Vostok-K launch vehicle with a fortified vehicle was transported horizontally to the launch pad, where it was examined by Korolev for problems. After its approval, the rocket was brought to an upright position. At 10 am, Gagarin and Titov, the reserve cosmonaut, received the final flight plan, which was to begin at 9:07 am the next day. The choice of the start time was determined by the conditions of the descent. At the time of the beginning of the maneuvering for the descent, the device had to fly over Africa with the best orientation of its solar sensors. High precision during the maneuver was necessary to hit the planned landing point.
Wake-up on the day of the flight was set for 5:30 am. After breakfast, they donned spacesuits and arrived at the launch site. At 7:10, Gagarin was already in the spacecraft and for two hours before the launch communicated with the control center by radio, in the center his image from the onboard camera was available. The ship's hatch was battened down 40 minutes after Gagarin got into the ship, but a leak was found, so it had to be opened and battened down again.
The launch took place at 09:07. 119 seconds after launch, the booster's external auxiliary engines had consumed all fuel and were separated. After 156 seconds, the protective shell was dropped, after 300 - the main stage of the carrier rocket, but the upper stage continued to be launched. Three minutes after the start of the flight, the device already began to leave the communication zone with Baikonur. Only 25 minutes after the start of the flight, it was established that the device entered the calculated orbit. In fact, Vostok-1 entered orbit 676 seconds after launch, ten seconds before that, the engines of the upper stage worked.
At 09:31 Vostok left the communication zone with the station in Khabarovsk in the very high frequency range and switched to high mode. At 09:51, the attitude determination system was activated, which is necessary for the correct impulse to launch. The main system in this case was based on solar sensors. In the event of its failure, it was possible to switch to manual control mode and use approximate visual guidance. Each of the systems had its own set of propulsion nozzles and 10 kilograms of fuel. At 09:53 Gagarin learns from the station in Khabarovsk that he has entered the calculated orbit. At 10:00, when the Vostok was flying over the Strait of Magellan, the news of the flight was broadcast by radio.
At 10:25 am, the ship was automatically brought into the required orientation for descent. The engines were launched at a distance of about 8000 kilometers from the desired landing point. The impulse lasted 42 seconds. Ten seconds after the completion of the maneuver, the service module was supposed to separate from the descent module, but it turned out to be connected to the descent by a network of wires. However, thanks to vibrations during the passage of dense layers of the atmosphere, the service module all separated over Egypt and the device was brought into the correct orientation.
At 09:55, at an altitude of 7 kilometers, the vehicle's hatch opened and Gagarin ejected. The device itself also descended on a parachute that opened 2.5 kilometers from the Earth. Gagarin's parachute opened almost immediately after the ejection. Upon landing, Gagarin missed only 280 kilometers.
