Brief history of Soviet cosmonautics. Cosmonautics in Russia

The first experimental suborbital space flights were carried out by the German V-2 rocket in 1944. However, the beginning practical development space was laid on October 4, 1957 by the launch of the first artificial Earth satellite (AES) in the Soviet Union.

The first years of the development of astronautics were characterized not by cooperation, but by intense competition between states (the so-called Space Race). International cooperation began to develop intensively only in recent decades, primarily due to the joint construction of the International space station and research carried out on board.

Russian scientist Konstantin Tsiolkovsky was one of the first to put forward the idea of ​​using rockets for space flight. He designed a rocket for interplanetary communications in 1903.

The German scientist Hermann Oberth also laid out the principles of interplanetary flight in the 1920s.

The American scientist Robert Goddard in 1923 began to develop a liquid-propellant rocket engine and a working prototype was created by the end of 1925. On March 16, 1926, he launched the first liquid-propellant rocket, fueled by gasoline and liquid oxygen.

The work of Tsiolkovsky, Oberth and Goddard was continued by groups of rocketry enthusiasts in the USA, the USSR and Germany. IN THE USSR research work were conducted by the Jet Propulsion Study Group (Moscow) and the Gas Dynamics Laboratory (Leningrad). In 1933, the Reactive Institute (RNII) was created on their basis.

In Germany, similar work was carried out by the German Society for Interplanetary Communications (VfR). On March 14, 1931, VfR member Johannes Winkler carried out the first successful launch of a liquid-propellant rocket in Europe. VfR also worked for Wernher von Braun, who from December 1932 began the development of rocket engines at the artillery range of the German army in Kummersdorf. After the Nazis came to power in Germany, funds were allocated for the development of rocket weapons, and in the spring of 1936 a program was approved to build a rocket center in Peenemünde, technical director who was appointed von Braun. It developed the A-4 ballistic missile with a range of 320 km. During World War II, on October 3, 1942, the first successful launch of this missile took place, and in 1944 its combat use under the name V-2 began.

The military application of the V-2 demonstrated the tremendous potential of rocket technology, and the most powerful post-war powers - the United States and the USSR - also began to develop ballistic missiles.

To implement the task of creating nuclear weapons and its means of delivery On May 13, 1946, the Council of Ministers of the USSR adopted a resolution on the deployment of large-scale work to develop domestic rocket science. In accordance with this decree, the Scientific Research Artillery Institute of Rocket Weapons No. 4 was established.

General A.I. Nesterenko was appointed head of the institute, and Colonel M.K. Mikhail Klavdievich Tikhonravov was known as the creator of the first liquid-propellant rocket, which launched in Nakhabino on August 17, 1933. In 1945, he also headed the project of lifting two cosmonauts to a height of 200 kilometers using a V-2 rocket and a guided rocket cabin. The project was supported by the Academy of Sciences and approved by Stalin. However, in the difficult post-war years, the leadership of the military industry was not up to space projects, which were perceived as science fiction, interfering with the main task of creating "long-range missiles".

Exploring the prospects for the development of rockets created according to the classical sequential circuit, M. K. Tikhonravov comes to the conclusion that they are unsuitable for intercontinental distances. Research conducted under the direction of Tikhonravov showed that a packet scheme of rockets created at the Korolev Design Bureau would provide a speed four times greater than that possible with a conventional layout. With the introduction of the "package scheme" Tikhonravov's group brought closer the realization of their cherished dream of man's exit into outer space. On an initiative basis, research continued on the problems associated with the launch and return of satellites to Earth.

On September 16, 1953, by order of the Korolev Design Bureau, the first research work on the space theme "Research on the creation of the first artificial Earth satellite" was opened at NII-4. Tikhonravov's group, which had a solid groundwork on this topic, completed it promptly.

In 1956, M. K. Tikhonravov, with some of his employees, was transferred from NII-4 to the Korolev Design Bureau as the head of the satellite design department. With his direct participation, the first satellites, manned spacecraft, projects of the first automatic interplanetary and lunar vehicles are created.

The most important stages of space exploration

In 1957, under the leadership of Korolev, the world's first intercontinental ballistic missile R-7 was created, which in the same year was used to launch the world's first artificial Earth satellite.

November 3, 1957 - the second artificial satellite of the Earth, Sputnik-2, was launched for the first time into space creature- dog Laika. (USSR).

January 4, 1959 - the station "Luna-1" passed at a distance of 6000 kilometers from the surface of the moon and entered the heliocentric orbit. It became the world's first artificial satellite of the Sun. (USSR).

September 14, 1959 - the Luna-2 station for the first time in the world reached the surface of the Moon in the area of ​​​​the Sea of ​​\u200b\u200bClearness near the craters Aristides, Archimedes and Autolycus, delivering a pennant with the coat of arms of the USSR. (USSR).

October 4, 1959 - AMS Luna-3 was launched, which for the first time in the world photographed the side of the Moon invisible from Earth. Also during the flight, for the first time in the world, a gravitational maneuver was carried out in practice. (USSR).

August 19, 1960 - the first ever orbital flight into space of living beings was made with a successful return to Earth. The dogs Belka and Strelka made an orbital flight on the Sputnik-5 spacecraft. (USSR).

April 12, 1961 - the first manned flight into space (Yu. Gagarin) on the Vostok-1 spacecraft was completed. (USSR).

August 12, 1962 - the world's first group space flight was made on the Vostok-3 and Vostok-4 spacecraft. The maximum approach of the ships was about 6.5 km. (USSR).

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

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

March 18, 1965 - the first ever manned spacewalk. Cosmonaut Alexei Leonov made a spacewalk from Voskhod-2 spacecraft. (USSR).

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

March 1, 1966 - the Venera-3 station reached the surface of Venus for the first time, delivering a pennant to the USSR. It was the world's first flight of a spacecraft from Earth to another planet. (USSR).

October 30, 1967 - the first docking of two unmanned spacecraft Cosmos-186 and Cosmos-188. (CCCP).

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

January 16, 1969 - the first docking of two manned spacecraft Soyuz-4 and Soyuz-5 was made. (USSR).

July 21, 1969 - the first landing of a man on the moon (N. Armstrong) as part of the lunar expedition of the Apollo 11 spacecraft, which delivered to Earth, including samples of lunar soil. (USA).

September 24, 1970 - the Luna-16 station collected and then delivered to Earth (by the Luna-16 station) samples of lunar soil. (USSR). It is also the first unmanned spacecraft that delivered rock samples to Earth from another cosmic body(that is, in this case, from the moon).

November 17, 1970 - soft landing and the start of operation of the world's first semi-automatic remotely controlled self-propelled vehicle, controlled from the Earth: Lunokhod-1. (USSR).

March 3, 1972 - launch of the first apparatus, which subsequently left the limits solar system: Pioneer-10. (USA).

October 1975 - soft landing of the two spacecraft Venera-9 and Venera-10 and the world's first photographs of the surface of Venus. (USSR).

April 12, 1981 - the first flight of the first reusable transport spaceship("Columbia". (USA).

February 20, 1986 - launch of the base module of the orbital station [[Mir_(orbital_station)]Mir] into orbit

November 20, 1998 - Launch of the first block of the International Space Station. Production and launch (Russia). Owner (USA).

June 24, 2000 - NEAR Shoemaker became the first artificial satellite of an asteroid (433 Eros). (USA).

Today

Today is characterized by new projects and plans for space exploration. Space tourism is actively developing. Manned astronautics is again going to return to the Moon and turned its eyes to other planets of the solar system (primarily to Mars).

In 2009, the world spent $68 billion on space programs, including $48.8 billion in the US, $7.9 billion in the EU, $3 billion in Japan, $2.8 billion in Russia, and $2 billion in China.

Cosmonautics in Russia largely inherits the space programs of the Soviet Union. The main governing body of the space industry in Russia is the state corporation Roscosmos.

This organization controls a number of enterprises, as well as scientific associations, the vast majority of which were created during the Soviet era. Among them:

• Mission Control Center. Research division of the Institute of Mechanical Engineering (FGUP TsNIIMash). Founded in 1960 and based in the science city called Korolev. The tasks of the MCC include the control and management of spacecraft flights, which can be serviced simultaneously in the amount of up to twenty vehicles. In addition, the MCC conducts calculations and studies aimed at improving the quality of apparatus control and solving some problems in the field of control.
• Star City - gated community urban type, which was founded in 1961 on the territory of the Shchelkovsky district. However, in 2009, it was separated into a separate district and removed from Shchelkovo. On the territory of 317.8 hectares are located residential buildings for all personnel, employees of Roscosmos and their families, as well as all cosmonauts who are also undergoing space training at the CTC. In 2016, the number of inhabitants of the town is more than 5600.
• Cosmonaut training center named after Yuri Gagarin. Founded in 1960 and located in Star City. Cosmonaut training is provided by a number of simulators, two centrifuges, an aircraft laboratory and a three-story hydro laboratory. The latter makes it possible to create weightlessness conditions similar to those on the ISS. In this case, a full-size layout of the space station is used.
• Baikonur Cosmodrome. It was founded in 1955 on an area of ​​6717 km² near the city of Kazaly, Kazakhstan. On the this moment leased by Russia (until 2050) and is the leader in the number of launches - 18 launch vehicles in 2015, while Cape Canaveral is one launch behind, and Kourou (ESA, France) has 12 launches per year . The maintenance of the cosmodrome includes two amounts: rent - $115 million, maintenance - $1.5 billion.
• The Vostochny cosmodrome began to be created in 2011 in Amur region, near the town of Tsiolkovsky. In addition to creating a second Baikonur in Russia, Vostochny is also intended for commercial flights. The spaceport is located near developed railway junctions, highways, and airfields. In addition, in connection with good location"Vostochny", the separating parts of launch vehicles will fall in sparsely populated areas or even in neutral waters. The cost of creating the cosmodrome will be about 300 billion rubles, a third of this amount has been spent in 2016. On April 28, 2016, the first rocket launch took place, which brought three satellites into Earth orbit. The launch of the manned spacecraft is scheduled for 2023.
• Cosmodrome "Plesetsk". Founded in 1957 near the town of Mirny, Arkhangelsk region. It occupies 176,200 hectares. "Plesetsk" is intended for launching strategic defense systems, unmanned scientific and commercial space vehicles. The first launch from the cosmodrome took place on March 17, 1966, when the Vostok-2 launch vehicle was launched, with the Kosmos-112 satellite on board. In 2014, the launch of the newest launch vehicle called Angara took place.

Launch from Baikonur Cosmodrome

Chronology of the development of domestic cosmonautics

The development of domestic cosmonautics dates back to 1946, when Experimental Design Bureau No. 1 was founded, the purpose of which is the development of ballistic missiles, launch vehicles, and satellites. In 1956-1957, the work of the Bureau designed the R-7 intercontinental ballistic missile carrier rocket, with the help of which, on October 4, 1957, the first artificial satellite Sputnik-1 was launched into the Earth's orbit. The launch took place at the Tyura-Tam research site, which was designed specifically for this purpose and which would later be named Baikonur.

On November 3, 1957, a second satellite was launched, this time with a living creature on board - a dog named Laika.

Laika is the first living creature to orbit the earth

Since 1958, launches of interplanetary compact stations began to study, within the framework of the program of the same name. On September 12, 1959, for the first time, a human spacecraft ("Luna-2") reached the surface of another cosmic body - the Moon. Unfortunately, "Luna-2" fell to the surface of the Moon at a speed of 12,000 km / h, as a result of which the structure instantly turned into gas state. In 1959, Luna-3 took pictures of the far side of the Moon, which allowed the USSR to name most of its landscape elements.

Space exploration is everything that includes our familiarity with space and everything that is beyond the lower layers of the Earth's atmosphere. Robot travel to Mars and other planets, sending probes beyond the solar system, exploring fast, cheap and safe ways the exit of people into space and the colonization of other planets - all this is space exploration. With the help of brave people, brilliant engineers and scientists, as well as space agencies around the world and private advanced corporations, humanity will very soon begin to explore space by leaps and bounds. Our only chance to survive as a species is colonization, and the sooner we realize this (and hopefully not too late), the better.

The herpes virus has reactivated in more than half of the crew aboard the space shuttles and the International Space Station, a study published in Frontiers in Microbiology shows. While only a small proportion have developed symptoms, the rate of virus reactivation increases with spaceflight duration and can pose a significant health risk on missions to Mars and beyond. NASA's rapid virus detection systems and ongoing research are beginning to protect astronauts - and immunocompromised patients on Earth.

Even before the beginning of the era of space exploration, people argued that scientists could not only change the Earth, but also learn to control the weather. Space development, seriously affected the development of the Earth.

Space development in the USSR associated with the names of M.K. Tikhonravov and S.P. Korolev. In 1945, a group of specialists from the RNII was created, which was engaged in the development of the project of the world's first manned rocket vehicle. It was planned to send two astronauts on board to study upper layers atmosphere.

Space is unique in that we did not know anything about it long time, earlier everything that people could not explain seemed to us something from the realm of fantasy. Today, we can see the planet from space or the processes taking place on the Sun thanks to the research of scientists. Forty-something years ago, the first artificial satellite of the Earth was launched, for the space age, this is not a time at all. However space development and history already contains more than one series of unique achievements and discoveries, the first of which were made by Soviet Union, USA and other countries.

Today there are thousands of satellites orbiting the Earth, they have already been on Mars, Venus and the Moon.

First man in space

One of major events, which contains history of space development and which the whole world watched - the flight of the first man into space, carried out on April 12, 1961. A young Smolensk guy with incredible charisma, Yuri Alekseevich Gagarin, was lucky enough to go into the space of weightlessness. Since then, large space development prospects. Then a crew consisting of several people flew away, the first woman went into space, and the Mir orbital station was created. For creating optimal conditions flight and being in space, it was necessary to solve many problems, which later served as an impetus for the development of celestial and theoretical mechanics.

Space development in Russia associated with the production of innovative computers, which served as the birth of a new discipline - the dynamics of space flight. Television broadcasting, space communications, navigation systems reached a new level and already in 1965 we saw the first photographs of the planet Mars, Saturn. Without satellite navigation systems today it is impossible to imagine the transport industry and work military equipment. This matter is very cognitive development space in each school curriculum included such a topic.

Today there are fascinating methodical materials " development of speech space preparatory group ”, allowing you to get basic information about the planets, stars, the Moon, the Sun. Children learn and show interest in questions about the universe. Older children are encouraged to master " development of speech space middle group ”, where the basic concepts are explained in a more scientific language.

Space exploration has taken medicine to a new level. It is necessary to study the reaction of the body to the state of weightlessness, its nervous system. To create the most comfortable conditions life support and know what tasks can be entrusted to a person who is in space for a long time. The decisive role is played by the use of space resources in the creation of the information space in Russia, the introduction of the Internet. High-quality exchange of information today is no less important than the exchange of weapons. This is how it is properly formed. development of ideas about space.

Manned cosmonautics pursues exclusively peaceful purposes: the competent use of the Earth's resources, the solution of problems associated with environmental monitoring of the ocean and land, the development of science.

Perhaps the development of astronautics originates in science fiction: people have always wanted to fly - not only in the air, but also across the endless outer space. As soon as people were convinced that the earth's axis is not capable of flying into the celestial dome and breaking through it, the most inquisitive minds began to wonder - what is there, above? It is in the literature that one can find many references to various methods of separation from the Earth: not only natural phenomena like a hurricane, but also quite specific technical means — Balloons, heavy-duty guns, flying carpets, rockets and other superjet suits. Although the first more or less realistic description of the aircraft can be called the myth of Icarus and Daedalus.

Gradually, from imitative flight (that is, a flight based on the imitation of birds), humanity moved to a flight based on mathematics, logic and the laws of physics. Significant work of aviators in the person of the Wright brothers, Albert Santos-Dumont, Glenn Hammond Curtis only strengthened the belief of a person that flight is possible, and sooner or later the cold flickering points in the sky will become closer, and then ...

The first mention of astronautics as a science began in the 30s of the twentieth century. The term "cosmonautics" itself appeared in the title scientific work Ari Abramovich Sternfeld "Introduction to astronautics". At home, in Poland, his labors science community was not interested, but interest was shown in Russia, where the author subsequently moved. Later, other theoretical works and even the first experiments appeared. As a science, cosmonautics was formed only in the middle of the 20th century. And no matter what anyone says, our Motherland opened the way to space.

Konstantin Eduardovich Tsiolkovsky is considered the founder of astronautics. He once said: First they inevitably come: thought, fantasy, fairy tale, and behind them marches the exact calculation". Later, in 1883, he suggested the possibility of using jet propulsion to create interplanetary aircraft. But it would be wrong not to mention such a person as Nikolai Ivanovich Kibalchich, who put forward the very idea of ​​​​the possibility of building a rocket aircraft.

In 1903 Tsiolkovsky published scientific work"Research of world spaces by jet devices", where he comes to the conclusion that rockets on liquid fuel can take a man into space. Tsiolkovsky's calculations showed that space flights are a matter of the near future.

A little later, the works of foreign rocket scientists were added to the works of Tsiolkovsky: in the early 1920s, the German scientist Hermann Oberth also outlined the principles of interplanetary flight. In the mid-1920s, American Robert Goddard began designing and building a successful prototype of a liquid propellant rocket engine.

The works of Tsiolkovsky, Oberth and Goddard became a kind of foundation on which rocket science and, later, all astronautics grew. The main research activities were carried out in three countries: in Germany, the USA and the USSR. In the Soviet Union, research work was carried out by the Jet Propulsion Study Group (Moscow) and the Gas Dynamics Laboratory (Leningrad). On their basis, the Reactive Institute (RNII) was created in the 1930s.

Such specialists as Johannes Winkler and Wernher von Braun worked in Germany. Their research in the field of jet engines gave a powerful impetus to rocket science after the Second World War. Winkler did not live long, and von Braun moved to the United States and for a long time was the real father of the United States space program.

In Russia, the work of Tsiolkovsky was continued by another great Russian scientist, Sergei Pavlovich Korolev.

It was he who created the jet propulsion study group and it was in it that the first domestic rockets, GIRD 9 and 10, were created and successfully launched.

So much can be written about technology, people, rockets, the development of engines and materials, the problems solved and the path traveled, that the article will turn out to be longer than the distance from Earth to Mars, so we will omit some of the details and move on to the most interesting part - practical astronautics.

On October 4, 1957, humanity made the first successful launch of a space satellite. For the first time the creation of human hands penetrated beyond earth's atmosphere. On this day, the whole world was amazed by the successes of Soviet science and technology.

What was available to mankind in 1957 from computer technology? Well, it is worth noting that in the 1950s the first computers were created in the USSR, and only in 1957 the first computer based on transistors (and not radio tubes) appeared in the USA. There was no talk of any giga-, mega- and even kiloflops. A typical computer of that time occupied a couple of rooms and issued "only" a couple of thousand operations per second (the Strela computer).

The progress of the space industry has been enormous. In just a few years, the accuracy of the control systems of launch vehicles and spacecraft has grown so much that from an error of 20-30 km when launched into orbit in 1958, a person took a step into landing a device on the Moon in a five-kilometer radius by the mid-60s.

Further - more: in 1965 it became possible to transmit photographs from Mars to Earth (and this is a distance of more than 200,000,000 kilometers), and already in 1980 - from Saturn (distance - 1,500,000,000 kilometers!). Speaking of the Earth, now a combination of technologies allows you to receive up-to-date, reliable and detailed information about natural resources and the state of the environment

Along with the exploration of outer space, the development of all "passing directions" - space communications, television broadcasting, relaying, navigation, and so on. Satellite communication systems have begun to cover almost the entire world, making it possible to have two-way operational communication with any subscribers. Now a satellite navigator is in any car (even in a toy one), but then the existence of such a thing seemed unbelievable.

The era of manned flights began in the second half of the 20th century. In the 1960s and 1970s, Soviet cosmonauts demonstrated the ability of a person to work outside a spacecraft, and since the 1980s and 1990s, people began to live and work in zero gravity for almost years. It is clear that each such trip was accompanied by a variety of various experiments - technical, astronomical, and so on.

A huge contribution to the development of advanced technologies was made by the design, creation and use of complex space systems. Automatic spacecraft sent into space (including to other planets), in fact, are robots that are controlled from Earth using radio commands. The need to create reliable systems for solving such problems has led to a better understanding of the problem of analysis and synthesis of complex technical systems. Now such systems are used both in space research and in many other areas of human activity.

Take, for example, the weather - a common thing; there are dozens and even hundreds of applications in mobile app stores to display it. But where to take pictures of the Earth's cloud cover with enviable frequency, not from the Earth itself? ;) Exactly. Now almost all countries of the world use space weather data for weather information.

Not as fantastic as the words “space forge” sounded 30-40 years ago. Under conditions of weightlessness, it is possible to organize such production, which is simply not feasible (or not profitable) to deploy in the conditions of Earth's gravity. For example, the state of weightlessness can be used to obtain ultra-thin crystals of semiconductor compounds. Such crystals will find application in the electronics industry to create a new class of semiconductor devices.

Pictures from my article on processor manufacturing

In the absence of gravity, freely floating liquid metal and other materials are easily deformed by weak magnetic fields. This opens the way for obtaining ingots of any predetermined shape without their crystallization in molds, as is done on Earth. The peculiarity of such ingots is the almost complete absence of internal stresses and high purity.

At the moment, there are (more precisely, they are functioning) all over the world more than a dozen spaceports with unique ground-based automated complexes, as well as test stations and all sorts of sophisticated means of preparing for the launch of spacecraft and launch vehicles. In Russia, the Baikonur and Plesetsk cosmodromes are world famous, and, perhaps, Svobodny, from which experimental launches are periodically carried out.

In general ... already now so much is being done in space - sometimes they will tell something, you won’t believe it :)

WE'RE LOOKING FORWARD!

Moscow, the VDNKh metro station - from whichever side you look, and the monument to the "Conquerors of Space" cannot be overlooked.

But not many people know that in the basement of the 110-meter monument there is an interesting cosmonautics museum, where you can learn in detail about the history of science: there you will find Belka with Strelka, Gagarin with Tereshkova, and spacesuits of cosmonauts with moon rovers …

The museum houses a (miniature) Mission Control Center where you can observe the International Space Station in real time and communicate with the crew. Interactive cockpit "Buran" with a mobility system and a panoramic stereo image. Interactive cognitive and educational class, made in the form of cabins. Interactive exhibits are located in special zones, which include simulators identical to those at the Yu. A. Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center: a rendezvous and docking transport spacecraft simulator, a virtual simulator of the International Space Station, and a search helicopter pilot simulator. And, of course, where without any film and photographic materials, archival documents, personal belongings of figures in the rocket and space industry, items of numismatics, philately, philocarty and phaleristics, works of fine and decorative art...

harsh reality

While writing this article, it was nice to refresh the memory of history, but now everything is somehow not so optimistic, or something - quite recently we were superbison and leaders of outer space, and now we cannot even put a satellite into orbit ... Nevertheless, we we live in a very interesting time - if earlier the slightest technical advances took years and decades, now technologies are developing much more rapidly. Take the same Internet - those times have not yet been forgotten when WAP sites were barely opened on two-color phone displays, and now we can do anything from anywhere on a phone (in which pixels are not visible) anything. ANYTHING. Perhaps the best conclusion to this article would be the famous performance of the American comedian Louis C. K, "Everything is great, but everyone is unhappy":