The new film about the exploits of astronauts will definitely cause controversial opinions. Along with hot approval, accusations of cranberries, lies, patriotic orders are already heard. But how really?

Klim Shipenko's film is a mixture of Hollywood and Soviet heroics (in the spirit of Apollo 13 about the lunar mission or Taming the Fire, where the curtain over the super-secret rocket and space sphere was first lifted slightly).

A film about the feat of two outstanding cosmonauts, about the history of the rescue of the Salyut-7 station. Vladimir Dzhanibekov and Viktor Savinykh flew to the dead ice station in 1985, were able to dock and revive it. In the history of space exploration, this page is one of the brightest and most fantastic.

Natasha Merkulova and Aleksey Chupov wrote the script for Salyut-7 after meeting with journalist Samoletov, who told them about a breathtaking extreme trip into space. Among the sources of inspiration is Viktor Savinykh's book "Notes from a Dead Station".

Still from the film

... The space race is gaining momentum, if you do not revive the station that has fallen into a coma, it can fall to the ground (the wreckage of the giant American Skylab station flew all the way to Australia) or the Americans can pick it up and find out our secret secrets. Therefore, the departure of the astronauts is carried out in a hurry. You say, this does not happen in the space sphere? And they will answer you: we have everything in all areas. Even in secret and ultra-precise: and emergency work, and a five-year plan in four years, and "how to report upstairs ... so as not to fly in." On near-earth orbit heading off spaceship Soyuz T-13 with a crew of experienced cosmonauts - spacecraft commander Vladimir Fedorov (prototype - Vladimir Dzhanibekov) and flight engineer Viktor Alekhin (prototype - Viktor Savinykh). The 20-ton station is not just dead (the system for supplying oxygen, hot water, etc. froze) - it turned into a house of ice.

Throughout the entire action, astronauts have to not only decide unsolvable problems, risk their lives, save and support each other, but also make difficult moral choices. The astronauts will pass the exam. Not everything on earth ...

Among the tense moments is the docking itself without a laser rangefinder, manually, with a station that rotates at great speed. Cosmonaut Valery Ryumin, who was in touch with the crew at the MCC, will then say: "Docking of the Soyuz T-13 with the Salyut-7 station is the same as docking with a cobblestone." temperatures (frozen water burst pipes), the return to life of the station covered with frost and even a fire.

What's good about this movie. Image.

It was designed with the help of sophisticated devices by the wonderful operator Sergei Astakhov, rendered by computer scientists so accurately that many professionals are sure that part of the filming was carried out in space.

Of the semantic things, I liked the opposition "earth-sky". If at the bottom of the Mission Control Center the "reputation" or "human life" alternative chooses the honor of the state (and bad military men also demand to blow up the station together with people so that the enemy does not get it), then humanity wins in the sky. And here's another. When technology fails, space is mastered manually: they unscrew it with their hands, tie it with frozen fingers, dock it, collect water with rags after the station has thawed. (This was also told by Savinykh how "with their bare hands they twisted electrical wires and wrapped them with electrical tape. And so 16 times.")

And if there is superiority of our astronautics over the American one, it is primarily in its human factor. As in reality, the Soyuz pilots with the unlucky number 13 in extreme situation almost everything is done contrary to the order of the MCC. They know better from above. On Earth, after the Savins returned, it took a month to decide whether to reward the cosmonauts or punish them - they did not always act according to the instructions and in accordance with the commands of the Mission Control Center.

There was no fire at the real station, there was still a whole series of purely cinematic details. For example, a sledgehammer, which is used to hit the casing of the attitude control sensor, which prevents the station's power supply from being “revived” (the cosmonauts seem to have objected to this episode, but the filmmakers did it in their own way). In reality, the winch got stuck - it was not removed from the lock, it was impossible to bring the solar battery back to life (Viktor Savinykh wrote about this in his "Notes from a Dead Station"). There was, of course, no cigarette, and it’s silly to light one right after the fire. By the way, about the fire that so outraged some critics. He was not on the "Salyut", but on the "Soyuz TM-25" it happened in 1997 due to a defective oxygen checker. And the Americans, as Savinykh said in an interview, flew up to our station.

But "Salyut-7" is not a documentary film, not a reconstruction, but a spectacular blockbuster, a free fantasy on the theme of a real space flight. The authors sacrificed precision for the action. Therefore, the names of the astronauts have been changed. Dzhanibekov became Fedorov (his role was played by Vladimir Vdovichenkov), Savinykh became Alekhin (Pavel Derevyanko). It is spectacularity, imagery, emotionality - strengths film, for which you forgive not only inaccuracies (and in "Apollo 13" the astronauts discovered a sea of ​​mistakes, and Jim Lovell said that his character was "implausible"), but also the weakness of the "female line" (it was not spelled out in the film - competitor "First Time"), some episodes in which the director failed to be convincing.

“In our story historical facts intertwined with elements of fiction, ”says one of the authors, Aleksey Chupov. Of course, there was no sledgehammer in space, but meaningful rhymes immediately appear with the epoch-making films "The Communist" or "How the Steel Was Tempered". It is no coincidence for the hero Vdovichenkov in his scale of values: wife and daughter, football and ... the building of communism. “I know you are a real communist,” test pilot Astakhov is told in “Clear Sky”. This is a movie about the now forgotten superiority of "should" over "can". In Shipenko's film, the first thing that the cosmonauts saw when they warmed up the station was a photo of Gagarin, which appeared under the frost. Whether it's a fiction, really - I don't know. But beautiful.

I think if the film was simply called "Salute", there would be no complaints, and the title for a space thriller would be great.

And about the controversial issues, we decided to ask the authors and the astronauts themselves - the most rigorous experts.

Victor Savinykh

cosmonaut, twice Hero of the USSR, member of the Salyut-7 space expedition

- The film is good, entertaining, people will definitely like it. I would especially like to note the remarkable quality of the image of space, weightlessness: computer grammar recreates the scope and beauty of the sky. As for inaccuracies, well, yes, they are. The question of whether to shoot down the station was not at all raised. Instead of a sledgehammer, we just had a mount, with it we tried to eliminate a completely different malfunction. We didn’t smoke, we didn’t burn. Although there were indeed several fires in space. But in essence there is no lie. Therefore, in general, the film was to my liking. And if I hadn't worked in space, I would have liked it even more. It is difficult to look at what was invented on the screen when you know how it really was. For example, my wife did not give birth during our flight, my daughter was already 16. They will show documentary Salyut-7. The story of one feat ", in which Dzhanibekov, Ryumin and Solovyov and I will tell you how everything really happened." It will be a first-person story.

Yuri Baturin

astronaut

- Probably, asking my opinion about a feature film about astronauts is wrong, because a person engaged in any field professionally looks and sees differently than an ordinary viewer. Inaccuracies cling to us, interfere with perception.

Producers Yulia Mishkinene and Bakur Bakuradze:

- Before filming, there was a large preparatory work... We talked with specialists from the Cosmonaut Training Center, RSC Energia, the Museum of Cosmonautics, and the Roscosmos corporation. Consultants from NPP Zvezda assisted in the production of spacesuits. The director, cameraman, special effects specialists went to Baikonur, were present at the launch of the spacecraft. Thanks to this, the production designers accurately recreated the details of the Flight Training Center, the spacecraft and the station. Viktor Blagov, Chief Specialist, RSC Energia, former head flights, watched the film at the editing stage and asked to show scenes from the MCC again - I could not believe that all this was reproduced in the scenery. At the preparatory stage, there were many meetings with the participants in the events - with Vladimir Dzhanibekov and Viktor Savinykh. Their stories, books, archive of photographs helped a lot in prescribing the details of the expedition to rescue the space station.

About the details.

We tried to build on real facts taking place in space. Station "Salyut-7" really lost control, there was glaciation, then flooding, which was dealt with with improvised means: even the personal belongings of the cosmonauts went in. Due to the abundance of water, there was a risk of short circuit and fire.

Some of the details were taken from other space expeditions. So, a fire broke out on orbital station"Mir" in 1997. The Nyurka fly lived on the Salyut-4 orbital station, which the cosmonauts took great care of. There was also a special research program with the launch of 54 cockroaches into space.

I must say that in Soviet time and even now everything related to space was classified as classified, only official information could be found. Therefore, we will not refer to anyone specifically, but from personal conversations we know that the cosmonauts carried vodka and cigarettes with them into space. However, smoking there is rather difficult.

Now about the sledgehammer. We had a lot of conversations and disputes with Viktor Petrovich about the sledgehammer. But since there is a sledgehammer on the spaceship, it means that they use it. In the expedition itself, the solar battery was indeed stuck. I had to go to open space, pull on the cable. Then apply physical strength... It was a man's struggle with iron in extreme conditions. We replaced the cable with a sledgehammer, as it is visually clearer. After all, we did not shoot documentaries, but genre films. This is a cosmic catastrophe. And of course, symbolism, metaphoricality and some exaggeration for visual expressiveness are possible here. It seems to me that our friends-astronauts understand more than we do that life, including space, is much broader than our most daring ideas about it.

As it usually happens, getting out of the cradle is accompanied not only by successes, but also by falls. It was not customary to talk about what in the Soviet Union, so few people know that exactly 40 years ago the following story happened:

"Soyuz" without a number. In 1975, Soviet cosmonauts survived falling from space

One of the most dramatic flights in the history of Soviet cosmonautics was secret for a long time.

Soyuz-12 spacecraft commander Lieutenant Colonel Vasily Lazarev (left) and flight engineer Oleg Makarov. / Alexander Mokletsov / RIA Novosti

18, fraction 1 ...

The official history of manned space flights says that the Soyuz-18 spacecraft was launched on May 24, 1975 from the Baikonur cosmodrome with a crew of Pyotr Klimuk and Vitaly Sevastyanov. The ship successfully docked with the Salyut-4 station, where the crew worked for two months. On July 26 of the same year, the cosmonauts returned to Earth.

There is not a word of lie in these words, but not the whole truth. The fact is that the ship of Klimuk and Sevastyanov for the initiates had a slightly different name - "Soyuz-18 V". It was not recommended for the space industry specialists to talk about what happened to Soyuz-18 A, or, in other words, Soyuz-18-1.

Meanwhile, the flight of this spacecraft is one of the most dramatic pages of the national cosmonautics, and its crew had to endure something that no one else has experienced.

The commander of the Soyuz-18-1 spacecraft was Vasily Lazarev, and the flight engineer was Oleg Makarov.

Flying doctor

Lazarev, native Altai Territory, after serving in the army he entered the medical institute, became a surgeon, worked as a military doctor. Lazarev served in the airfield technical support battalion of the 30th Air Army regiment. But since childhood he dreamed of flying himself, and in 1952 the 24-year-old physician makes a sharp turn - Lazarev enters the Kharkov Higher Military Aviation School in Chuguev and finishes it according to an accelerated program, having received the specialty "fighter pilot".

Naturally, such a versatile specialist turned out to be extremely in demand - Lazarev tested aircraft of various types and modifications, was involved in testing various high-altitude equipment for pilots (a spacesuit, anti-overload suits, oxygen equipment).

Lazarev took part in experimental flights of the Volga stratospheric balloon - the very one from which the parachutist Yevgeny Andreev made a unique "jump from space" as part of the Zvezda experiment. Vasily Lazarev flew the Volga for 28 hours.

When it came to testing "new technology", as the manned space flight was accurately called, Lazarev was among the first volunteers. He underwent a medical examination together with Gagarin, Titov and other members of the "first squad", but ... received a challenge from the doctors.

Perseverance Lazarev was, however, not lacking - in 1964 he was selected to prepare for a flight on the three-seater spacecraft "Voskhod". Lazarev turned out to be the second understudy of the doctor Boris Egorov. And although he did not take part in the flight itself, this time they paid attention to him, and as a result Vasily Lazarev became a member of the detachment Soviet cosmonauts.

Engineer who broke into space

Lazarev was trained in several programs, including in the framework of the manned Soviet "lunar project". It was then that Oleg Makarov became his partner in the crew.

Oleg Makarov, a native of the Tver region, before joining the ranks of cosmonauts, created equipment for them. In 1957, he graduated from the Bauman Moscow State Technical University and came to work at OKB number 1 - the famous design bureau of Sergei Korolev. Makarov was engaged in the development of the first Soviet manned spacecraft.

Like many other young engineers of the Korolev Design Bureau, he wanted to fly into space himself. In 1966, Makarov was enrolled in the cosmonaut corps and trained for several years in “ lunar program". The engineer was among those who were supposed to go to lunar expedition one of the first.

However, the defeat in the "moon race" forced the Soviet Union to reconsider its priorities.

Lazarev and Makarov, who made up an excellent crew, were transferred to training for flight to the Salyut-2 station.

"Test" crew

This preparation was going on in a difficult situation. The USSR manned program was interrupted after the death of the Soyuz-11 crew due to depressurization on return to Earth.

The Salyut-2 station, where Lazarev and Makarov were supposed to fly, was out of order, and the flight program was revised again.

A series of failures undermined the confidence of Soviet specialists. The new Soyuz-12 was checked many times, new spacesuits were developed for the crew, designed to exclude a repetition of the Soyuz-11 tragedy.

And yet, no matter how you check, no matter how hard you try to exclude surprises, everything on Earth cannot be taken into account. The Soyuz-12 crew in a certain sense it was necessary to do again what Gagarin did - to open the way for others to space.

This mission was entrusted to Vasily Lazarev and Oleg Makarov.

On September 27, 1973, Soyuz-12 with Lazarev and Makarov successfully launched from the Baikonur cosmodrome. The flight lasted 1 day 23 hours 15 minutes 32 seconds and ended safely. The designers exhaled - the manned program was saved! Lazarev and Makarov became Heroes Soviet Union, after which they began to prepare for a new space flight- this time to the Salyut-4 orbital station.

Emergency situation

In January 1975, Lazarev and Makarov were backup crews for the Soyuz-17 - Alexei Gubarev and Georgy Grechko. Traditionally, backups are sent into space next.

The launch of Soyuz-18 was scheduled for April 5, 1975. Unlike the flight on Soyuz-12, this launch did not seem extraordinary to the specialists - after all, the very same Gubarev and Grechko safely reached the station, fully worked out the flight program and returned successfully.

On April 5, too, everything started well. Traditional pre-flight procedures, crew boarding, launch ... The rocket, as expected, takes Soyuz-18 into the sky at 11:04 am.

Everything went well, the first stage separated in due time, then, in the design mode, the head fairing was reset. At the 261st second of the flight, the separation of the second stage was supposed to occur, but instead of this, the rocket began to sway perceptibly, and the amplitude increased. It quickly became clear that the launch vehicle refused to bring the astronauts to the calculated orbit. An emergency system was triggered, firing off the reentry vehicle.

It happened at an altitude of just under 200 kilometers, that is, de facto already in space. In this case, the emergency descent took place in an uncontrolled mode. Simply put, the Soyuz-18 lander fell from space.

In conditions of an uncontrolled descent, the overloads increase significantly. In the situation in which the Soviet cosmonauts found themselves, these overloads posed a direct threat to life.

Vasily Lazarev, describing his feelings at that moment, compared them with a car that ran right on his chest. Lazarev recalled: “Once, having transferred a load of 10g on a centrifuge, I drew the attention of the doctor accompanying me to the multitude of red dots covering the back of the tester, who was being twisted before me. The doctor calmly replied: "These are small vessels that have burst. You have the same thing on your back." But when Soyuz-18 flew to Earth, overloads of 20g fell on its crew. It is not known exactly what magnitude the gravity, pressing on the astronauts, reached at its peak. Vasily Lazarev said that experts, analyzing telemetry, noted that for a few seconds it grew to insane 26g. At this moment, the cosmonauts lost sight and cardiac arrest was recorded.

On Earth, specialists did not have a complete picture of what was happening, but even without this, many had added gray hair.

The cosmonauts came to their senses when the parachute system worked. The trained organisms withstood the unthinkable overloads, although they lasted a little longer, and the Soyuz-18 crew would not have been destined to survive.

The wrath of the constructor Glushko

The commander of the ship Vasily Lazarev said that when he came to, he saw that the flight engineer was saying something to him. But he could not understand what his partner was saying - his hearing was also temporarily disabled.

The crew tried to contact MCC to find out where the descent vehicle would land. But there was no connection. Rather, the cosmonauts did not hear the MCC, but at the MCC they perfectly heard what was being said on board.

- Oleg, where are we sitting? - asked Lazarev.

“To China or the Pacific Ocean,” the flight engineer quipped, after which he described what had happened in selected Russian terms, commenting extremely unflatteringly on the operation of the second-stage engines.

Makarov did not know that General Designer Valentin Glushko was hearing his words. Hearing the "criticism" of the flight engineer, Glushko went spots, ordered to turn off the broadcast and loudly promised that Makarov would never fly into space again.

The "jump into space" itself took a little more than 4 minutes, and together with the landing, the entire flight lasted less than 22 minutes. But the adventures of the crew continued.

Makarov didn't talk about China in vain and Pacific... The fact is that an emergency landing in case of failure of the second stage was tentatively supposed to take place in Altai, or, if unlucky, in China, relations with which the USSR were then very difficult. In case of failure of the third stage, the astronauts were expected to swim in the ocean.

On the edge of "Teremok"

As a result, the "lesser of evils" happened - "Soyuz-18" in a remote, inaccessible area south-west of Gorno-Altaysk, but on Soviet territory.

But at the time of landing over Lazarev and Makarov, the threat of death loomed again. According to the instructions, the crew, after landing, had to shoot the parachute. However, the rescuers had their own view of the situation. During various experiments, they drew attention to the fact that when landing in a mountainous region, the descent vehicle, after firing a parachute, can easily roll down the slope with the most sad consequences. Therefore, the rescuers gave the Soyuz-18 crew an unofficial recommendation: in which case, first take a look around, and only then shoot the parachute.

This advice saved the astronauts. When they got outside, they found that the descent vehicle was standing on the side of a mountain, 150 meters from the abyss, and did not roll down just because the parachute was tightly entangled in the treetops.

The only thing that was funny in all this was the name of the mountain on which the conquerors of space turned out - Teremok-3.

There was thick snow at the landing site, the temperature was minus 7, and the astronauts had to survive in the literal sense of the word.

The rescuers did not manage to approach Lazarev and Makarov. The first who got to them was a geologist who disembarked from the helicopter of the geological party. However, the helicopter pilot could not lift the astronauts up. The regular rescue party, storming Teremok-3, fell under an avalanche, and they had to be rescued - fortunately, there were no casualties.

The next day, one of the Air Force helicopters, not part of the official rescue team, managed, at its own risk and peril, to lift the astronauts and geologist and evacuate them to a safe area.

"Cut" flight - "cut" awards

There could be no complaints about the actions of the cosmonauts - their behavior can only be called heroic. But in the USSR, it was not customary to report space failures; the media received information only about those cases that could not be hidden at all.

Veterans of the Soviet press recall that on April 5, 1975, the journalists were kicked out of Baikonur immediately after it became clear that something had gone wrong.

The only message about the incident in the Soviet media appeared only on May 8 and was hidden in the internal pages of newspapers: “On April 5, 1975, a launch vehicle with a manned spacecraft Soyuz was launched to continue experiments together with the Salyut-4 station. On board the ship was a crew consisting of Heroes of the Soviet Union, pilot-cosmonauts of the USSR Vasily Grigorievich Lazarev, Oleg Grigorievich Makarov. At the stage of the third stage, a deviation of the parameters of the booster rocket from the calculated values ​​occurred, and an automatic device issued a command to terminate the further flight according to the program and separate the spacecraft to return to Earth. The descent vehicle made a soft landing southwest of the city Gorno-Altaysk. The search and rescue service provided the delivery of astronauts to the cosmodrome. The state of health of comrades V. G. Lazarev and O. G. Makarov is good. "

After that, the silence lasted for another eight years, until some details of the incident were not allowed to write to "Red Star".

The cosmonauts were noted for the flight, but according to the "cut down" version - according to the order established in the USSR, the second "Golden Star" of the Hero of the Soviet Union and the Order of Lenin were awarded for the second flight, however Lazarev and Makarov were awarded only the Orders of Lenin for heroism.

And the number of the damaged Soyuz-18 was taken away and passed on to the next ship. So it remained in history under the strange name "Soyuz-18-1".

Overloads were not in vain

The cosmonauts themselves believed that they had not done anything so heroic, and regretted only that the flight had failed.

It was officially stated that the terrible overloads did not affect the health of the astronauts in any way. Indeed, at first it seemed that it was so - both Lazarev and Makarov remained in the detachment.

But then it turned out that this test was not in vain - the astronauts began to show diseases, one by one.

Makarov, who was five years younger, lasted longer in the ranks - despite the threats of the designer Glushko, he flew into space twice, on Soyuz-27 and Soyuz T-3. By the way, during the launch of the Soyuz T-3, the backup crew commander was Vasily Lazarev, who accompanied his longtime partner into space.

Lazarev himself was no longer destined to fly to the stars. In 1985 he was fired from Armed Forces in the reserve and expelled from the cosmonaut corps in connection with the state of health. He died on December 31, 1990 at the age of 62.

Oleg Makarov, after leaving the cosmonaut corps, experienced heart problems, so serious that in 1998 he underwent an operation. However, he could not fully recover - on May 28, 2003, he died of a heart attack at the age of 70.

And the dramatic story of their flight in 1975, which easily overshadows the plot of Hollywood's "Gravity", to this day remains unknown to most ...

The audience stopped eating popcorn, their head was spinning, and tears came to their eyes ... the audience felt a sense of pride in the Soviet cosmonauts!

In 1985, the Salyut-7 orbital station stopped communicating with the MCC. The uncontrolled station would eventually fall to Earth. The United States has prepared its spacecraft for the flight. The likelihood of docking with the Soviet station is being considered, then all advanced technologies will fall into the hands of the enemy, which the United States was during the Cold War. As soon as possible, the USSR is preparing the launch of the Soyuz T-13 spacecraft.

The crew is the spacecraft commander, twice Hero of the Soviet Union, pilot-cosmonaut Vladimir Dzhanibekov and flight engineer, pilot-cosmonaut, Hero of the Soviet Union, pilot-cosmonaut Viktor Savinykh. Nobody did this either before or after them. Little was known about this feat of the Soviet cosmonauts. Based on these events, a new Russian film "Salyut-7" was created ...

But first things first:

The Colosseum premiere is, as usual, a fun show!

Young and old took part in the quizzes, which were held by "Autoradio", all participants received prizes and gifts.

With the help of young spectators, the crazy Professor not only simulated the bombardment of the Moon by meteorites, but also made a real cosmic comet, and then a cosmic fog appeared in the foyer, through which the audience passed into the hall ...

The hall was packed to capacity. The audience filled up buckets of popcorn and glasses of cola, talked loudly and sat in smartphones, confused seats and entered the hall with a delay. Today's "culture" irritates and infuriates, but ... soon complete silence reigned in the hall, only the "dead" orbital station "Salyut-7" helplessly spun on the screen. The incredible footage made my head spin. The neighbor on the left put her phone away and, sobbing, took out a handkerchief. I confess, and tears came to my eyes ... Even when the lights were turned on, many still remained in their places and watched the credits of the film, such a rarity!

A separate pavilion was built for the filming of this film. The MCC, the Salyut-7 orbital station and the Soyuz T-13 spacecraft were built in full size. Roskosmos handed over real objects that had been in space for filming. The best masters incredible filming and stunts, cameramen and directors worked on the set. Actors Vladimir Vdovichenkov and Pavel Derevianko did not just hang out on the ropes, on a real IL-76 they climbed into the sky to the maximum height, after which the plane abruptly went down, for 26 seconds there was complete weightlessness. It cannot be played, it must be felt. if Stanislavsky had been in the audience, he would have said: "I believe!"

The film is based on real events, this is not "Armageddon". People have really accomplished a feat. The film is absolutely devoid of pathos and puffing of cheeks, there is no overwhelming patriotism, no distortion and caricatures of the Soviet government. Yes, there are moments in the film that are either downplayed or exaggerated. So this is not a documentary film either!

Cosmonauts Vladimir Fedorov and Viktor Alekhin do not know what difficulties they will have to face at the orbital station. Passions are simmering in the MCC. Will it be possible to return the astronauts to Earth, alive? A story of love and heroism, a story of great people, real heroes. You will find out everything if you come to the screening of this wonderful, strong, worthy film for the whole family. It will be interesting for both older people and very young viewers.

I began to treat our fellow countryman Viktor Petrovich Savinykh with even greater respect. An even greater sense of pride in their country. I recommend the film for viewing, I know that many people will be happy to watch the new Russian blockbuster.

I don't know if there were American astronauts on the moon. It is said that they lost all their blueprints, documents and designs and now cannot build Apollo again. They generally tend to talk a lot, especially things that cannot be verified ...

But the fact that today I was on "Salyut-7" and got a lot of pleasure, experienced indescribable sensations - it's true!

Every year on April 12, we talk about space. And on May 9 - about the Victory. But we rarely remember that the difference of 16 years between these dates is not that big. Space was mastered by people who fought, or grew up in war time... And now, after the Victory Day celebrations, it is high time to remember what mark the war left in their lives.

Incredibility squared

Cosmonaut Konstantin Feoktistov had the most incredible military past. When the war began, Constantine was fifteen years old. The Feoktistov family lived in Voronezh, which was far from the front line until 1942. In the summer of 1942, the city was bombed for the first time, and Konstantin's mother (father was called up) decided to leave the city. Konstantin imperceptibly "got lost" and nailed to the reconnaissance group at the Voronezh garrison. The Germans occupied the right-bank part of the city on July 6, but could not cross to the left bank. And Feoktistov began to walk across the river on reconnaissance. Four times a sixteen-year-old guy swam across the river at night, walked around the city, scouting the location of headquarters, artillery batteries and tanks, and came back. And for the fifth time he was caught by an SS patrol, who, without any investigation, shot him ...

I didn’t have time to get scared, I saw only the front sight on the barrel of the pistol, when the German stretched out his hand and shot me in the face. I felt like a blow to the jaw and flew into the hole. Fell successfully. While falling, he rolled over on his stomach and did not break: the ground was hard, and fragments of bricks were scattered at the bottom of the pit. At some point, I probably lost consciousness, but immediately woke up and realized: do not move, not a sound! So it is, I can hear the conversation, which means that there are already two of them, the German kicked a brick into the hole, but did not hit me. Talking, both left the yard. I lay there and felt severe pain in my chin and weakness throughout my body. Then he stood at the bottom of the pit - deep, a meter and a half or two, how to get out? Suddenly I hear - the Germans are returning! I immediately collapsed on my face, instantly assuming the same position. They approached the pit, exchanged a few phrases and left without haste. I lay there a little longer, got up and nevertheless got out.
K.P. Feoktistov, "The Trajectory of Life".

Lucky - the bullet went through the chin and neck, right through, and did not touch the vital vessels. I had to hide in the city for two days - on the first night I didn't have enough strength to get to the river. For three days he could not eat or drink - the tumor blocked the esophagus. On the fourth day she slept, and no serious medical intervention was required. And in the medical battalion, Konstantin found his mother and took him to the deep rear.

186 sorties

Cosmonaut Georgy Beregovoy was born in 1921 and by the beginning of the war he graduated from the Voroshilovgrad school of military pilots named after the Proletariat of Donbass. But in the unit where he arrived, the pilots drew lots for the departure - there were practically no planes left. I had to retrain on the BB-22, then on the Pe-3, and, finally, on the Il-2. In the summer of 1942 he got to the Kalinin front. During the war years he flew 186 sorties. Was shot down three times. In one case, he made an emergency landing in the forest and walked to his own for four days. Another time he pulled in a burning car to the front line and jumped from the plane literally at the very last moment.

In memory of the military past, Beregovoy asked to draw on the emblem of the Soyuz-3 Il-2:

Georgy Beregovoy is the only cosmonaut who, by the time he was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union for space flight, already had the title of hero for heroism in the Great Patriotic War.

It might not have been

This is not often thought of, but the world famous Gagarin smile could have been destroyed by an unnamed German, who drove the Gagarin family out of their house in the village of Klushino, forcing them to live in a dugout. Gagarin did not fight - in 1941 he only went to first grade, but hunger, illness, and war crimes of the Germans in the occupied territory could have killed him just as easily. Gagarin's younger brother almost died - the German hung him on a scarf, but Yura managed to call his mother. The school in the village was closed - the Germans expelled the teacher and the children from all the premises where she tried to teach. Only when the village was liberated Soviet troops in 43, the Gagarin family was able to return to their home, and Yura - to study further.

Over the fells of Manchuria

Pavel Belyaev volunteered for the front in 1943, was sent to the Yeisk Pilot School and did not have time to go to war in Europe. But he managed to take part as a fighter pilot in the defeat of the Kwantung Army of Japan.

Odessa underground

Georgy Dobrovolsky lived in Odessa. When in 1941 the Nazis approached the city, he helped to dig trenches, put out incendiary bombs. After the occupation of the city, he took part in the partisan movement. In 1944, a sixteen-year-old boy was arrested for possession of weapons, tortured and sentenced to 25 years of hard labor. But with the help of the underground, whose members Georgy did not betray even under torture, he was able to escape.

Son of the regiment

Vladimir Shatalov at the age of thirteen met the war in Leningrad. He repeatedly tried to flee to the front, and his father was forced to take him to his unit. For a month and a half he was a kind of son of the regiment, then he was evacuated.

Industry People

Among those who did not fly into space directly, there were many war veterans. The astronauts were selected, trained and trained by people who went through terrible military tests. Assistant to the Commander-in-Chief of the Air Force for Space was Nikolay Petrovich Kamanin , one of the first Heroes of the Soviet Union, commanded an aviation division on the fronts of the Great Patriotic War, then a corps. The cosmonaut training center was headed Nikolay Fedorovich Kuznetsov , who fought in the Soviet-Finnish war, the Great Patriotic War, and in Korea.
The engineers who designed the spaceships generally did not fight directly at the front. But their work to create new technology was hard, selfless, and saved the lives of those who fought, bringing victory closer.

Overseas

Conclusion

Without the heroism of those who gave their lives for the Victory, fought, or selflessly worked in the rear, there would be neither us, nor our space. Happy last holiday, Victory Day!

Gagarin's feat

- Charitable wall newspaper for schoolchildren, parents and teachers "Briefly and clearly about the most interesting." Issue 91, April 2016.

Wall newspapers of the charity educational project"Briefly and clearly about the most interesting" (site site) are intended for schoolchildren, parents and teachers of St. Petersburg. They are shipped free of charge to most educational institutions, as well as in a number of hospitals, orphanages and other institutions of the city. The editions of the project do not contain any advertising (only the logos of the founders), are politically and religiously neutral, written in easy language, well illustrated. They are conceived as informational "braking" for students, awakening cognitive activity and the urge to read. Authors and publishers, without claiming the academic completeness of the presentation of the material, publish Interesting Facts, illustrations, interviews with famous figures of science and culture and hope thereby to increase the interest of schoolchildren in educational process... We are grateful to the Education Department of the Administration of the Kirovsky District of St. Petersburg and everyone who unselfishly helps in distributing our wall newspapers. Please send your comments and suggestions to: [email protected]

Dear friends! During the six years of its life, our newspaper has repeatedly addressed space issues. It " the best photos of the Hubble telescope ”(No. 74),“ Space maps are loaded into the tablets ”(No. 58),“ Treasures of the New Year's sky ”(No. 51),“ Briefly and clearly about meteorites ”(No. 44),“ The end of the world is canceled ”( No. 33), "Space House" (No. 27), "Cosmonautics Day" (No. 11).

We are proud of our collaboration with such well-known scientists and popularizers of science as Sergei Borisovich Popov (Doctor of Physics and Mathematics, Leading Researcher at the P.K.Sternberg State Astronomical Institute) and Dmitry Zigfridovich Vibe (Doctor of Physics and Mathematics, Head of the Physics Department and the evolution of stars of the Institute of Astronomy of the Russian Academy of Sciences), as well as the astronaut of the European Space Agency Frank de Winne (Viscount of the Kingdom of Belgium, brigadier general, commander of the 21st expedition to the ISS).

Alexander Shlyadinsky, a member of the Federation of Cosmonautics, a specialist in the history of rocket and space technology, head of the rocket modeling circle of the Children's Youth School of the Vyborgsky District of St. Petersburg, took part in the preparation of this 91st edition. Alexander created and published in Russian and foreign magazines and books about 500 illustrations on the device of rocket and space technology. Alexander has kindly provided a number of his 3D models to our newspaper.

We also thank Nikita Popov (director of the Yuri Gagarin Cosmonautics Club and camp space training for children "Shumgam") for the advice and friendly support.

Aleksandr Khokhlov (design engineer of space instrumentation at the Central Research Institute of RTK, popularizer of cosmonautics) made significant adjustments to the text of the wall newspaper.

How do a rocket and a spaceship work?

The design of the Gagarin rocket "Vostok K" 8K72K

The design of the spacecraft Gagarin "Vostok-1"

Childhood and adolescence of Yuri Gagarin

On September 1, 1941, Yura left home and walked to school, to the first grade. And suddenly an air battle broke out right over his head (remember, in 1941 the Great Patriotic War began). One of our planes was hit and crashed nearby. The pilot managed to jump out with a parachute, and Yura and other boys managed to help him. Of course, such childhood experiences will not be forgotten! It is a pity that little Yura's notebooks and primer were not preserved - the Nazis, who soon occupied his native village, let them light up the stove. The study continued only two years later, when the village was liberated by our troops. Nina Vasilievna, his favorite teacher, recalls: “Yura was a very sociable boy. Sometimes, you walk along the corridor, you see - a group of guys is standing. Well, you think that Yura is probably telling some stories. " Once Yura was instructed to make a report on Konstantin Eduardovich Tsiolkovsky. Many years later, Gagarin recalled: “Tsiolkovsky turned my soul upside down. It was stronger than Jules Verne and other science fiction writers. From that day on, I developed an uncontrollable craving for the sky, for the Cosmos. " Yura went to an aircraft modeling circle, then enrolled in an aero club and quickly learned to fly a simple Yak-18 aircraft himself. Then he graduated with honors from the Chkalov Flight School and served in the army on the aircraft of the Baltic Fleet. As soon as he learned about the announcement of the recruitment of future cosmonauts to the detachment, he immediately submitted an application and was enrolled. This squad included German Titov, who flew into space shortly after Gagarin's flight, and Alexei Leonov, the first person to go into outer space. Hard training and preparation for the start began. Then, out of twenty future cosmonauts, one was chosen - Yuri Gagarin. Everything was taken into account: iron health, calm character, readiness for unexpected situations and a sense of humor - you can't do without it!

Description of the flight of Yuri Gagarin

Cover of the special issue of Time magazine

The historic launch of the Vostok carrier rocket took place on April 12, 1961 at 9 hours 7 minutes from the Baikonur cosmodrome. "Go!" - said Gagarin, when a huge rocket weighing 300 tons and a height of 40 meters took off. Initially, four side engines worked: their fuel tanks were emptied and dropped to Earth. Then the fuel ran out in the largest, second, stage, and it also separated. Finally, the last, third stage worked and was disconnected. It was attached directly to the Vostok-1 spacecraft (and it consists of a round descent vehicle and an instrument block). At that moment, Vostok was already rushing at a speed of 7.8 kilometers per second parallel to the Earth's surface at an altitude of about 200 kilometers (there is almost no air at this altitude, and the spacecraft was moving by inertia, without an engine). With such values, the centrifugal force(which is trying to throw the ship into open space) and the force of gravity, which is trying to "drop" the ship to Earth. So, in order to return, the ship should simply slow down. For this, there is a small engine in the nose of the instrument cluster. It turned on when exactly one revolution around the Earth was completed, having previously turned the ship with its nose in the direction of travel. When the speed dropped, the "ball" separated and began to fall rapidly. At an altitude of about 100 kilometers, the descent vehicle began to warm up strongly due to friction against the air. To prevent it from evaporating like a candle, it was coated with a 10-centimeter layer of ceramics. This layer performed two tasks: it maintained a normal temperature inside the descent vehicle (ceramics did not conduct heat well) and evaporated instead. From the side it seemed that the "ball" was engulfed in flames. At an altitude of about 10 kilometers, the descent vehicle had time to slow down enough, the friction against the air became small, and the evaporation of the heat-shielding coating stopped. The hatch opened automatically, Yuri Gagarin ejected in a special chair, opened his parachute and smoothly sat down on the field near the village of Smelovka in the Saratov region in front of the amazed local residents. And the "ball" landed nearby on his parachute.

“Everything that has been lived, that has been done before, has been lived and done for the sake of this moment,” said Yuri Gagarin. - The first to accomplish what generations of people have dreamed of! I am immensely glad that my beloved Motherland was the first in the world to penetrate into Space. Our people, with their genius, their heroic labor, have created the most beautiful spaceship in the world! "

The whole world joyfully received the news of the first manned space flight. People shouted "Hurray!", Went out into the street with homemade posters: "Space is taken!" Radio, television, newspapers and magazines from all countries were full of enthusiastic headlines. The leaders of many countries congratulated us on "winning over America in the space race." It must be said here that our countries used to compete and were very sensitive to each other's achievements. Gagarin landed at 11 am, in America at that time it was night. The phone rang at the head of the American space program: they tried to inform him about the incredible success of Russian cosmonautics. "I do not believe you! he muttered sleepily. - You are talking about some kind of nonsense, and my answer is this: we are all asleep! " The next morning, the headlines were in the newspapers: "The Russians have been in space for a long time, and the American space bosses say they are asleep!" But on the whole, the reaction even in the American press was enthusiastic. America's most popular magazine, Time, summed up: “Human civilization has a myriad of years ahead. But wherever the future adventurers fly, whatever they find in the black, cold expanses of space, they will always remember the Vostok spacecraft and Major Yuri Alekseevich Gagarin. "

Excerpts from Yuri Gagarin's flight progress report

The launch of the Vostok K 8K72K carrier rocket, the launching of the Vostok spacecraft into orbit and the landing of the descent vehicle and the cosmonaut. Stages 1-5.

Start

Separation of blocks of the first stage

Head fairing reset

Branch of the second stage

Flight of the third stage with a ship

“They announced a fifteen-minute readiness. Put on hermetic gloves. I closed my helmet. Five-minute readiness. One minute readiness and start. The rocket smoothly, gently lifted from its seat. A small shudder went through the rocket design. In the region of the 70th second, the vibration character smoothly changes. There is a kind of shaking. Then gradually this shaking subsides, and by the end of the work of the first stage the vibration becomes the same as at the beginning of its work. The overload is gradually increasing, but it is quite bearable, as on conventional aircraft. With this overload, I kept reporting and communicating with the start all the time. It was somewhat difficult to talk, as the muscles of the face were tightening. Then the overload began to grow, reached its peak and began to gradually decrease. Then I felt a sharp drop in overload. The feeling was as if something was immediately detached from the rocket. I felt something like cotton. At the same time, the noise dropped sharply. As if a state of weightlessness arose. Then the overload appears again and begins to grow. Begins to press against the chair. " “At 150 seconds, the head fairing detached. The process is very striking. It was a push, a clap. The fairing slowly went down, behind the rocket. " “It's beautiful, what a beauty! At this time, the Earth was very clearly visible. It was just not cloudy. I saw the folds of the terrain, a little mountainous area. There was a forest, rivers, ravines. In my opinion, the Ob was there or the Irtysh, but it was clear that it was a large river, and there were islands on it. The rocket vibrates slightly around the longitudinal axis, but the vibrations are insignificant. The rocket seems to live. At the 211st second, the overloads began to gradually build up again. The second stage turns off in much the same way as the first. In this case, the same sharp drop in overloads and a drop in noise occur. After entering orbit, after separation from the launch vehicle, weightlessness appeared. I pushed off the chair as far as the seat belts would allow, and seemed to hang between the ceiling and the floor of the cabin, feeling lightness in my body. Hands and feet, it seemed, did not belong to me, for the first time I experienced the sensation of weightlessness, but I quickly got used to it. Weightlessness was about 10-15 seconds before turning on the third stage. Then I heard a dull clap and the inclusion of the third stage. Overload began to appear very smoothly. Then I watched, broadcast, reported, saw the clouds, the shadow of the clouds on Earth. The earth can be seen very well. Objects on Earth are clearly distinguishable. I saw the horizon, the stars, the sky. The sky is completely black. A very beautiful horizon is visible, the circumference of the Earth is visible. The horizon is a beautiful blue. At the very surface of the Earth, a pale blue color, gradually darkening and turning into a purple hue, which smoothly turns into black. "

The launch of the Vostok K 8K72K carrier rocket, the launching of the Vostok spacecraft into orbit and the landing of the descent vehicle and the cosmonaut. Stages 6-9.

Branch of the third stage

Flight of the ship around the Earth

Braking

Separation of ship compartments

“The shutdown of the third stage was abrupt. The overload increased a little, I felt a sharp pop. After about 10 seconds, a split occurred. At the same time I felt a jolt. The ship began to rotate slowly. The earth began to go left, up, then right, down. The feeling of weightlessness is somewhat unusual compared to earthly conditions. Here there is a feeling as if you are hanging in a horizontal position on belts, as if you are in a suspended state. Then you get used to it, you adapt to it. There were no bad feelings. He made notes in the logbook, reports, worked as a telegraph key. Ate sorrel puree with meat, meat pâté and chocolate sauce. After eating, I drank water with a mouthpiece. I started up the tablet, and he "floated" in front of me with a pencil. Then I had to write down the next report. I took a tablet, but the pencil was not there. Flew away somewhere. Before that, I entered the shadow of the Earth. The entrance to the Earth's shadow is very sharp. Prior to that, from time to time I observed strong illumination through the windows. I had to turn away from him or hide behind so that the light did not enter my eyes. Along the very horizon, he observed an iridescent orange stripe that resembled in color the color of a spacesuit. Further, the color darkens a little and the colors of the rainbow turns into blue, and the blue turns into black. When flying over the sea, its surface seemed gray, not blue. The surface is uneven, as if in the form of sand dunes in the photograph. Soon the ship acquired a stable starting position for descent. The TDU (braking propulsion system) was aimed at the Sun. Prepared for the descent. Closed the right porthole. He pulled himself in with the straps, closed his helmet and switched the lighting to work. I felt like the TDU was working. The overload increased a little, and then suddenly weightlessness reappeared. As soon as the TDU turned off, there was a sharp jolt, and the ship began to rotate around its axes with a very high speed... Everything was spinning. I see Africa, then the horizon, then the sky. He only had time to close himself from the Sun so that the light would not fall into the eyes. The separation took place at 10 hours 35 minutes. There was a clap, then a jolt, the rotation continued. The inscription turned on: "Prepare for the bailout." Objects on Earth were differentiated more sharply. Then he began to feel braking and a slight itching going through the structure of the ship. I felt that the ship was going with some shaking. In dense layers of the atmosphere, it noticeably slowed down. According to my feelings, the overload was 10 g. There was a moment, 2-3 seconds, when the readings on the instruments began to "blur". It began to turn a little gray in my eyes. "

The launch of the Vostok K 8K72K carrier rocket, the launching of the Vostok spacecraft into orbit and the landing of the descent vehicle and the cosmonaut. Stages 10-14.

Entering the atmosphere

Shooting the hatch cover

Ejection of a chair with an astronaut

(Then the astronaut lands separately from the descent vehicle)

Parachute opening

Dropping the chair

Landing

“The porthole was covered with a curtain. Suddenly, a bright crimson light appeared along the edges of the curtain. The same crimson light was observed through a small hole in the right window. I felt the vibrations of the ship and the burning of the plaster. There was a crackling sound. It was felt that the temperature was high. A smooth increase in overloads began. When the overloads completely subsided, which apparently coincided with the transition of the sound barrier, a hiss of air began to be heard. In the ball, one could clearly hear how it goes in the dense layers of the atmosphere. The mood was good. It became clear that I was not sitting on Far East, and somewhere here, near the settlement area. At an altitude of about 7 thousand meters, the hatch cover is shot off. Cotton and the manhole cover is gone. At that moment, a shot was fired, and I ejected. It happened quickly, well, softly. I didn't hit anything, I didn't bruise anything, everything is fine. I flew out with a chair, farther fired a cannon, and put into action a stabilizing parachute. I sat on the armchair very comfortably, as if on a chair. I immediately saw a large river. And I thought it was the Volga. There are no other such rivers in this area. On one shore Big city... Something familiar, I think. Well, I think the breeze will drag me now, and I'll have to splash down on the water. Then the stabilizing parachute is released and the main parachute is deployed. It all went very smoothly, so that I hardly noticed anything. The chair also imperceptibly went down from me. I began to descend on the main parachute. Again I turned to the Volga. While undergoing parachute training, we jumped a lot just over this place. We flew there a lot. I found out railroad, a railway bridge across the river and a long spit that juts out into the Volga far. I thought that Saratov was probably here. As I went down, I noticed how the field camp was visible to my right from the drift. There are a lot of people on it - cars. Nearby the road passes. The highway goes to Engels. Further I see, there is a rivulet-ravine. To the left behind the ravine is a house, I see some woman grazing a calf there. Well, I think now I will probably please into this very ravine, but nothing can be done. I feel everyone is looking at my orange beautiful domes. Then I look, just as I land on arable land. As soon as I had time to think it, I looked - the earth. Kicking "knock". The landing was very soft. The arable land was well plowed, very soft, it was not dry yet, I didn’t even feel the landing. I myself did not understand how I was already on my feet. Looked - everything is intact. It means - alive and well. I went out to the hillock, I looked - a woman and a girl were coming to me. I went to meet, intending to ask where the phone is. I go to her, I look, the woman slows down, the girl separates from her and goes back. I just started waving my hands and shouting: "Your own, your own, Soviet, do not be afraid, do not be alarmed, come here." It's uncomfortable to walk in a spacesuit, but still I'm going. I look, she is so insecure, steps quietly, comes up to me. I came up and said that I Soviet man, flew in from space. We got to know her, and she told me that you can speak on the phone from the field camp. I asked the woman not to allow anyone to touch the parachutes while I went to the field camp. Just approaching the parachutes, 6 men are walking here: tractor drivers, mechanics from this field camp. I got to know them. I told them who I am. They said that now they are broadcasting a message about a space flight on the radio. Three minutes later, a car approached, and a major artilleryman arrived in it. We introduced ourselves to each other. I asked to inform Moscow as soon as possible. They set up a sentry at the parachutes, and went with him to the unit. When we were leaving, I saw a helicopter. I knew that this search party had arrived by helicopter. We jumped out of the car and started waving at him. The helicopter has landed. The Lieutenant General and the Colonel who were on it took me on board the helicopter. Soon NS Khrushchev called us (note: the leader of the USSR in 1953-1964). I have reported on the completion of the assignment. He told me: "See you soon in Moscow." Then there was the congratulation of the correspondent of "Pravda", the correspondent of "Izvestia". To their congratulations on the feat, I replied that the feat itself is not so much mine, but of all Soviet people, all engineers, technicians, representatives of Soviet science. We got on the plane. With difficulty we made our way through the crowd that had formed there. Everyone wants to see. We got to the car. Have arrived. So that is all».

(Quoted from: epizodsspace.airbase.ru (Report of Comrade Gagarin Yu.A. dated April 13, 1961 at a meeting State Commission after space flight)