Soviet spaceships. Soviet spacecraft "Vostok". Dossier. Launch of unmanned vehicles
On November 3, 1957, the Second Soviet AES was launched - the world's first artificial Earth satellite with a living being. On board was the dog Laika. The third Soviet satellite (05/15/1958) was the world's first satellite for scientific research.
01/02/1959. The Vostok carrier rocket was launched from the Baikonur cosmodrome, which put the Soviet automatic interplanetary station Luna-1 on a flight path to the moon. 01/04/1959 "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. 09/12/1959 AMS "Luna-2" was launched to the Moon. The next day, Luna-2 reached the surface of the Moon for the first time in the world, delivering a pennant with the emblem of the USSR to the Moon. 10/07/1959 AMS "Luna-3" transmitted to Earth the first pictures of the far (invisible) side of the Moon.
On May 15, 1960, the Vostok rocket launched the First satellite ship into orbit, and on August 19, 1960, the Second Vostok-type satellite ship was launched, with the dogs Belka and Strelka on board. 08/20/1960 Belka and Strelka returned safely to Earth. For the first time in the world, living beings, having been in space, returned to Earth.
04/12/1961. This day was the day of the triumph of the human mind. For the first time in the world spaceship with a man on board burst into the vastness of the universe. The Vostok launch vehicle launched the Soviet spacecraft Vostok with Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin into low Earth orbit.
08/06/1961 the flight of the Soviet spacecraft "Vostok-2" with G. Titov began. It lasted 1 day 1 hour 18 minutes. During this flight, the first filming of the Earth from space was made.
10/12/1964 The Voskhod launch vehicle launched the Soviet spacecraft Voskhod into orbit. The world's first flight of a multi-seat spacecraft. Cosmonauts V. Komarov, K. Feoktistov, B. Egorov for the first time in the world flew without spacesuits. On March 18, 1965, cosmonaut A.Leonov ("Voskhod-2") first went into open space.
02/12/1961. The Molniya launch vehicle was launched from the Baikonur cosmodrome, which for the first time in history put the Soviet automatic interplanetary station Venera-1 on a flight path to Venus. During this flight, for the first time in the world, two-way communication was carried out with a station remote at 1,400,000 km.
11/01/1962. The first successful launch towards Mars took place. AMS "Mars-1" conducted research into interplanetary space, tested deep space communications (10,000,000 km), and on July 19, 1963, it made the world's first flyby of Mars.
11/12/1965. The Molniya launch vehicle put the Venera-2 station on a flight path to Venus. She flew at a distance of 24,000 km from Venus. And on March 1, 1966, the Venera-3 station for the first time reached the surface of Venus delivering a pennant to the USSR. It was the world's first flight of a spacecraft from Earth to another planet.
02/03/1966. The Soviet automatic station "Luna-9" was the first in the world to make a soft landing on the lunar surface, after which it transmitted a panoramic image of the lunar surface. On April 3, 1966, the Luna-10 station became the world's first artificial satellite of the Moon.
10/18/1967. The Soviet automatic interplanetary station "Venera-4" reached Venus. The AMS descent vehicle made a smooth descent into atmosphere of Venus and reached its surface. The signal from the station during the descent was received up to an altitude of 24.96 km. On May 16 and 17, 1969, Venera-5 and Venera-6 made a smooth descent in the atmosphere of Venus, transmitting scientific information up to a height of 10 kilometers from the surface. On December 15, 1970, the Venera-7 descent vehicle made a smooth parachute descent in the atmosphere of Venus, reached the surface, after which the signals from the vehicle were received for another 23 minutes. 07/22/1972 AMS "Venera-8" for the first time landed on the illuminated side of the planet Venus.
07/16/1965. The launch vehicle "UR-500" ("Proton") was launched from the Baikonur cosmodrome, which launched a Soviet satellite "Proton-1" to study cosmic rays and interact with ultrahigh-energy matter.
11/02/1965 "UR-500", which launched the Soviet satellite "Proton-2" into orbit.
03/02/1968. The Proton-K launch vehicle with upper stage D put the Soviet unmanned spacecraft Zond-4 on a flight path to the Moon. 03/05/1968. The Soviet spacecraft "Zond-4" circled the Moon and switched to a return trajectory to the Earth.
09/14/1968. The Proton-K launch vehicle launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome, which put the Soviet unmanned spacecraft Zond-5 on a flight path to the Moon. On board were living creatures: turtles, fruit flies, worms, plants, bacteria. 09/18/1968 "Zond-5" circled the Moon, passing at a minimum distance from its surface of 1960 kilometers. From a distance of 90,000 kilometers, a high-resolution survey of the Earth was made.
On September 21, 1968, the Zond-5 descent vehicle splashed down in the Indian Ocean. For the first time in the world, the station, having circled the Moon, successfully returned to Earth with the second cosmic velocity.
11/10/1968. Zond-6 was launched, which flew around the Moon on November 14, 1968, passing at a distance of 2420 kilometers from its surface. During the flyby, panoramic photographs of the visible and far sides of the lunar surface were taken.
11/17/1968 "Zond-6" landed in a given area on the territory of the USSR.
On August 11, 1969, the Soviet spacecraft Zond-7 circled the Moon at a minimum distance of about 1200 kilometers from its surface, and on August 14, 1969 it landed in a given region of the USSR.
09/12/70. The launch vehicle "Proton-K" was launched from the Baikonur cosmodrome, which put the Soviet automatic interplanetary station "Luna-16" on a flight path to the Moon. 09/20/70 automatic interplanetary station "Luna-16" made a soft landing on the moon. On September 21, 1970, the Luna-16 reentry vehicle took off from the surface of the Moon. Before the launch, samples of lunar soil were taken, which were delivered to Earth on September 24, 1970.
11/10/70. The Proton-K carrier rocket launched the Luna-17 automatic interplanetary station with the Lunokhod-1 self-propelled vehicle on board the flight path to the Moon. 11/17/70 "Luna-17" made a soft landing on the moon. Two and a half hours later, Lunokhod-1 descended the ladder from the landing platform, starting the program.
12/02/1971. The descent vehicle of the Mars-3 automatic interplanetary station made a soft landing on the surface of Mars. 1.5 minutes after landing, the station was brought into working condition and began to transmit a video signal to Earth.
May 15, 1987. The first test launch of the Energia launch vehicle was carried out from the Baikonur Cosmodrome. The launch of the launch vehicle was successful.
11/15/1988. The Energiya-Buran carrier rocket was launched, which put the Soviet MTKK Buran into low-Earth orbit. The reusable spacecraft "Buran" for the first time in the world carried out an automatic landing on Earth.
The Energia-Buran rocket and space system was many years ahead of its time, and in a number of characteristics it significantly surpassed the means of space technology operated in the United States.
A selection of photographs that will help you see the history of the development of the Soviet space program. 
October 4, 1957: Sputnik I was launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in the Republic of Kazakhstan in the Soviet Union, becoming the first artificial satellite to be launched into Earth's orbit and marking the start of the serious space race. 
November 3, 1957: The dog Laika became the first living creature to orbit the Earth. Laika entered space aboard Sputnik II. Laika died a few hours after launch from stress and overheating. Most likely, the causes of the death of the dog were failures in the operation of the temperature control system. The exact date of her death was not made public until 2002 - according to official information, which was presented to the media Soviet authority, the dog died on the sixth day during his stay in space. 
August 19, 1960: Two dogs, Belka and Strelka, became the first living creatures to go into orbit and return to Earth alive. They were accompanied by a rabbit, several mice, flies. Plants were also sent into orbit. All returned alive and unharmed. 
April 12, 1961: Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin becomes the first person to travel into space and orbit the Earth. He spent 1 hour and 48 minutes in space... 
The Vostok 1 spacecraft carrying Yuri Gagarin takes off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome. 
Soviet leader General Secretary Nikita Khrushchev hugs cosmonauts German Titov and Yuri Gagarin after Titov became the second person to orbit our planet. He spent 25 hours in space, becoming the first person to sleep while in orbit. Titov was only 25 years old at the time of the flight, and remains the youngest person to ever go into space. 
June 16, 1963 Valentina Tereshkova became the first female cosmonaut to travel into space. Another nineteen years passed before the second female cosmonaut, Svetlana Savitskaya, went into space. 
March 18, 1965: Soviet cosmonaut Alexei Arkhipovich Leonov made the first spacewalk in the history of cosmonautics. Leonov made his journey on the Voskhod 2 spacecraft. 
February 3, 1966: The unmanned spacecraft Luna 9 became the first spacecraft to soft-land on the Moon. This photograph of the Moon's surface was sent back to Earth by a Soviet spacecraft. 
Valentina Komarova, widow of Soviet cosmonaut Vladimir Komarov, kisses a photo of her dead husband on April 26, 1967, during an official funeral ceremony on Red Square in Moscow. Komarov died on his second flight aboard the Soyuz 1 spacecraft on April 23, 1967, when the spacecraft crashed while returning to Earth. He was the first person to die during a space flight and the first Soviet cosmonaut to travel to space multiple times. Shortly before Komarov's death, Soviet Prime Minister Alexei Kosygin told the cosmonaut that his country was proud of him. 
1968: Soviet scientists examine two turtles after they returned from a trip to the moon aboard the Zond 5 spacecraft. The spacecraft, carrying flies, plants and bacteria in addition to turtles, circled the moon and splashed down in the Indian Ocean a week later after takeoff. 
November 17, 1970: Lunokhod 1 became the first remote-controlled robot to land on the surface of another celestial body. Lunokhod analyzed the lunar surface and sent more than 20,000 photographs back to Earth, until finally the Soviets lost contact with it after 322 days had passed. 
1975: Venera 9 - this spacecraft was the first to land on another planet and send images back to Earth from the surface of this planet ... 
A photograph of the surface of Venus taken by Venera 9. 
July 17, 1975: Soviet crew commander of the Soyuz spacecraft, Alexei Leonov (left), and commander of the American Apollo mission crew, Thomas Stafford, shake hands in space, somewhere in the West Germany region, after the two spacecraft which was successful. It was the last US manned space mission until the first shuttle flight, which took place in April 1981. 
July 25, 1984: Svetlana Savitskaya became the first woman to perform a spacewalk. She was also the second woman to go into space, nineteen years after Valentina Tereshkova, and one year before Sally Ride, who became the first American woman to go into space. 
From 1989 to 1999: The Mir space station became the first manned space station. Its construction began in 1986, the station was allowed to return to Earth in 2001. 
1987-88: Vladimir Titov (left) and Musa Manarov became the first people to stay in space for more than a year. The total duration of their mission was 365 days, 22 hours and 39 minutes.
It is well known that Soviet Union launched the first satellite into space creature and a person. During the space race, the USSR, to the extent possible, sought to overtake and overtake America.
Having won a decisive victory in World War II, the Soviet Union did a lot for the study and exploration of space. Moreover, he became the first among all: in this matter, the USSR was ahead of even the US superpower. The official start of practical space exploration was laid on October 4, 1957, when the USSR successfully launched the first artificial Earth satellite into near-Earth orbit, and three and a half years after its launch, on April 12, 1961, the USSR launched the first living person into space. Historically, it turned out that the Soviet Union held the lead in space exploration for exactly 13 years - from 1957 to 1969. KM.RU offers its choice of dozens of the most important achievements over this period.
1st luck (first intercontinental ballistic missile).
In 1955 (long before the flight tests of the R-7 rocket), Korolev, Keldysh and Tikhonravov approached the USSR government with a proposal to launch an artificial Earth satellite into space using a rocket. The government supported this initiative, after which in 1957, under the leadership of Korolev, the world's first intercontinental ballistic missile R-7 was created, which in the same year was used to launch the world's first artificial Earth satellite. And although Korolev tried to launch his first liquid rockets into space back in the 30s, nevertheless, the first of the countries that started work on the creation of intercontinental ballistic missiles back in the 1940s was Nazi Germany. Ironically, the ICBM was designed to hit the East Coast of the United States. But man has his own plans, and history has its own. These rockets failed to fall on the United States, but they managed to take human progress forever into real outer space.
2nd luck (the first artificial satellite of the Earth).
On October 4, 1957, the first artificial Earth satellite, Sputnik-1, was launched. The second country to own an artificial satellite was the United States - this happened on February 1, 1958 (Explorer 1). The following countries - Great Britain, Canada and Italy launched their first satellites in 1962-1964 (though on American rocket carriers). The third country to independently launch the first satellite was France on November 26, 1965 (“Asterix”). Later, Japan (1970), China (1970) and Israel (1988) launched the first satellites on their launch vehicles. The first artificial Earth satellites of many countries were developed and purchased in the USSR, the USA and China.
3rd luck (first astronaut animal).
On November 3, 1957, the second artificial satellite of the Earth, Sputnik-2, was launched, which for the first time launched into space a living creature, the dog Laika. Sputnik-2 was a conical capsule 4 meters high, with a base diameter of 2 meters, it contained several compartments for scientific equipment, a radio transmitter, a telemetry system, a software module, a regeneration and cabin temperature control system. The dog was housed in a separate sealed compartment. It so happened that the experiment with Laika turned out to be very short: due to the large area, the container quickly overheated, and the dog died already on the first orbits around the Earth.
4th luck (the first artificial satellite of the Sun).
January 4, 1959 - the Luna-1 station passed at a distance of 6 thousand kilometers from the surface of the Moon and entered the heliocentric orbit. It became the world's first artificial satellite of the Sun. The carrier rocket "Vostok-L" brought the device "Luna-1" to the flight path to the Moon. It was a rendezvous trajectory, without the use of orbital launch. This launch, in fact, successfully completed an experiment to create an artificial comet, and for the first time using an onboard magnetometer, the outer radiation belt of the Earth was registered.
5th luck (first apparatus on the moon).
September 14, 1959 - the station "Luna-2" for the first time in the world reached the surface of the Moon in the area of the Sea of Clarity near the craters Aristides, Archimedes and Autolycus, delivering a pennant with the coat of arms of the USSR. This unit did not have its own propulsion system. Of the scientific equipment, scintillation counters, Geiger counters, magnetometers, and micrometeorite detectors were installed on it. One of the main scientific achievements of the mission was the direct measurement of the solar wind.
6th lucky (first man in space).
On April 12, 1961, the first manned flight into space was made on the Vostok-1 spacecraft. In orbit, Yuri Gagarin was able to conduct the simplest experiments: he drank, ate, made notes with a pencil. "Putting" the pencil next to him, he found that it instantly began to float upwards. Before his flight, it was not yet known how the human psyche would behave in space, so special protection was provided so that the first astronaut in a panic would not try to control the flight of the ship. To enable manual control, he needed to open a sealed envelope, inside of which was a sheet with a code, by typing which on the control panel it would be possible to unlock it. At the moment of landing after ejection and disconnection of the air duct of the descent vehicle, the valve in Gagarin's airtight spacesuit did not immediately open, through which outside air should flow, so that the first cosmonaut almost suffocated. The second danger for Gagarin could be falling on a parachute into the icy water of the Volga (it was April). But Yuri was helped by excellent pre-flight preparation - controlling the lines, he landed 2 km from the coast. This successful experiment immortalized Gagarin's name forever.
7th luck (first man in outer space).
On March 18, 1965, the first human spacewalk was made in history. Cosmonaut Alexei Leonov made a spacewalk from the Voskhod-2 spacecraft. The Berkut suit used for the first spacewalk was of a ventilation type and consumed approximately 30 liters of oxygen per minute with a total supply of 1666 liters, designed for 30 minutes of the astronaut's stay in outer space. Due to the pressure difference, the spacesuit swelled and greatly interfered with the movements of the astronaut, which made it very difficult for Leonov to return to Voskhod-2. The total time of the first exit was 23 minutes 41 seconds, and outside the ship - 12 minutes 9 seconds. Based on the results of the first exit, a conclusion was made about the possibility of a person to perform various work in outer space.
8th luck (the first "bridge" between two planets).
March 1, 1966 960 kg station "Venera-3" for the first time reached the surface of Venus, delivering a pennant to the USSR. It was the world's first flight of a spacecraft from Earth to another planet. Venera-3 flew in tandem with Venera-2. They failed to transmit data on the planet itself, but scientific data were obtained on outer and near-planet space in the year of the quiet Sun. A large volume of trajectory measurements was of great value for studying the problems of ultra-long distance communication and interplanetary flights. Were studied magnetic fields, cosmic rays, low-energy charged particle flows, solar plasma flows and their energy spectra, as well as cosmic radio emissions and micrometeors. The Venera-3 station became the first spacecraft to reach the surface of another planet.
9th luck (first experiment with living plants and creatures).
September 15, 1968 the first return of the spacecraft (“Zond-5”) to the Earth after a flyby of the Moon. On board were living creatures: turtles, fruit flies, worms, plants, seeds, bacteria. "Probes 1-8" - a series of spacecraft launched in the USSR from 1964 to 1970. The manned flight program was curtailed due to the US losing the so-called "moon race". The Zond devices (as well as a number of others called Kosmos) under the Soviet program of flying around the moon during the "moon race" worked out the technique of flying to the moon with a return to Earth after a ballistic flyby of a natural satellite of the Earth. The most recent vehicle in this series has successfully circled the Moon, photographed the Moon and the Earth, and also worked out a landing option from the northern hemisphere.
10th luck (first on Mars). On November 27, 1971, the Mars-2 station reached the surface of Mars for the first time.
The launch to the flight path to Mars was made from the intermediate orbit of an artificial earth satellite by the last stage of the launch vehicle. The mass of the apparatus "Mars-2" was 4650 kilograms. The spacecraft's orbital compartment contained scientific equipment intended for measurements in interplanetary space, as well as for studying the environs of Mars and the planet itself from the orbit of an artificial satellite. The Mars-2 descent vehicle entered the Martian atmosphere too abruptly, which is why it did not have time to slow down at the stage of aerodynamic descent. The device, having passed through the atmosphere of the planet, crashed on the surface of Mars in the Nanedi Valley in Xanth Earth (4 ° N; 47 ° W), reaching the surface of Mars for the first time in history. A pennant of the Soviet Union was fixed on board Mars-2.
Starting from 1969-71, the United States zealously picked up the baton of human space exploration and made a number of important, but still not so epoch-making steps for the history of astronautics.
The first serious action of the main competitors of the USSR is the first landing of a man on the moon as part of the lunar expedition of the Apollo 11 spacecraft, which delivered the first samples of lunar soil to Earth, but is this really the case, read on our front-project "The Americans never flew to the moon!
Despite the fact that the USSR continued to actively explore space in the 1970s (the first artificial satellite of Venus in 1975, etc.), starting from 1981 and, alas, to this day, the leadership in astronautics has been held by the United States. And yet, history does not seem to stand still - since the 2000s, China, India and Japan have actively entered the space race. And, perhaps, soon, due to the powerful economic growth, the leadership in astronautics will pass into the hands of post-communist China.
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On Thursday, the launch of the Russian Soyuz-ST-B carrier rocket with two spacecraft for the European navigation satellite system Galileo was to take place. However, due to malfunctions, it was postponed, and today Soyuz-ST-B was launched from the Kourou cosmodrome in French Guiana
In this regard, we decided to recall the main space successes of the USSR and present you our rating.
Having won a decisive victory in World War II, the Soviet Union did a lot for the study and exploration of space. Moreover, he became the first among all: in this matter, the USSR was even ahead of the US superpower. The official start of practical space exploration was laid on October 4, 1957, when the USSR successfully launched the first artificial Earth satellite into near-Earth orbit, and three and a half years after its launch, on April 12, 1961, the USSR launched the first living person into space. Historically, it turned out that the Soviet Union held the lead in space exploration for exactly 13 years - from 1957 to 1969. KM.RU offers its choice of dozens of the most important achievements over this period.
1st Luck (First ICBM). In 1955 (long before the flight tests of the R-7 rocket), Korolev, Keldysh and Tikhonravov approached the USSR government with a proposal to launch an artificial Earth satellite into space using a rocket. The government supported this initiative, after which in 1957, under the leadership of Korolev, the world's first intercontinental ballistic missile R-7 was created, which in the same year was used to launch the world's first artificial Earth satellite. And although Korolev tried to launch his first liquid-propellant rockets into space back in the 30s, Nazi Germany was the first of the countries to begin work on the creation of intercontinental ballistic missiles back in the 1940s. Ironically, the ICBM was designed to hit the East Coast of the United States. But man has his plans, and history has its own. These rockets failed to fall on the United States, but they managed to take human progress forever into real outer space.
2nd luck (first artificial earth satellite). On October 4, 1957, the first artificial Earth satellite, Sputnik-1, was launched. The second country to own an artificial satellite was the United States - this happened on February 1, 1958 (Explorer 1). The following countries - Great Britain, Canada and Italy launched their first satellites in 1962-1964 (though on American rocket carriers). The third country to independently launch the first satellite was France on November 26, 1965 (“Asterix”). Later, Japan (1970), China (1970) and Israel (1988) launched the first satellites on their launch vehicles. The first artificial Earth satellites of many countries were developed and purchased in the USSR, the USA and China.
3rd Luck (First Astronaut Animal). On November 3, 1957, the second artificial satellite of the Earth, Sputnik-2, was launched, which for the first time launched into space a living creature, the dog Laika. Sputnik-2 was a conical capsule 4 meters high, with a base diameter of 2 meters, it contained several compartments for scientific equipment, a radio transmitter, a telemetry system, a software module, a regeneration and cabin temperature control system. The dog was housed in a separate sealed compartment. It so happened that the experiment with Laika turned out to be very short: due to the large area, the container quickly overheated, and the dog died already on the first orbits around the Earth.
4th luck (the first artificial satellite of the Sun). January 4, 1959 - the Luna-1 station passed at a distance of 6 thousand kilometers from the surface of the Moon and entered the heliocentric orbit. It became the world's first artificial satellite of the Sun. The carrier rocket "Vostok-L" brought the device "Luna-1" to the flight path to the Moon. It was a rendezvous trajectory, without the use of orbital launch. This launch, in fact, successfully completed an experiment to create an artificial comet, and for the first time using an onboard magnetometer, the outer radiation belt of the Earth was registered.
5th luck (first lander on the moon). September 14, 1959 - the station "Luna-2" for the first time in the world reached the surface of the Moon in the region of the Sea of Clarity near the craters Aristides, Archimedes and Autolycus, delivering a pennant with the coat of arms of the USSR. This unit did not have its own propulsion system. Of the scientific equipment, scintillation counters, Geiger counters, magnetometers, and micrometeorite detectors were installed on it. One of the main scientific achievements of the mission was the direct measurement of the solar wind.
6th lucky (first man in space). On April 12, 1961, the first manned flight into space was made on the Vostok-1 spacecraft. In orbit, Yuri Gagarin was able to conduct the simplest experiments: he drank, ate, made notes with a pencil. "Putting" the pencil next to him, he found that it instantly began to float upwards. Before his flight, it was not yet known how the human psyche would behave in space, so special protection was provided so that the first astronaut in a panic would not try to control the flight of the ship. To enable manual control, he needed to open a sealed envelope, inside of which was a sheet with a code, by typing which on the control panel it would be possible to unlock it. At the moment of landing after ejection and disconnection of the air duct of the descent vehicle, the valve in Gagarin's airtight spacesuit did not immediately open, through which outside air should flow, so that the first cosmonaut almost suffocated. The second danger for Gagarin could be falling on a parachute into the icy water of the Volga (it was April). But Yuri was helped by excellent pre-flight preparation - controlling the lines, he landed 2 km from the coast. This successful experiment immortalized Gagarin's name forever.
7th Luck (First man in outer space). On March 18, 1965, the first human spacewalk was made in history. Cosmonaut Alexei Leonov made a spacewalk from the Voskhod-2 spacecraft. The Berkut suit used for the first spacewalk was of a ventilation type and consumed approximately 30 liters of oxygen per minute with a total supply of 1666 liters, designed for 30 minutes of the astronaut's stay in outer space. Due to the pressure difference, the spacesuit swelled and greatly interfered with the movements of the astronaut, which made it very difficult for Leonov to return to Voskhod-2. The total time of the first exit was 23 minutes 41 seconds, and outside the ship - 12 minutes 9 seconds. Based on the results of the first exit, a conclusion was made about the possibility of a person to perform various work in outer space.
8th luck (first "bridge" between two planets). March 1, 1966 960 kg station "Venera-3" for the first time reached the surface of Venus, delivering a pennant to the USSR. It was the world's first flight of a spacecraft from Earth to another planet. Venera-3 flew in tandem with Venera-2. They failed to transmit data on the planet itself, but scientific data were obtained on outer and near-planet space in the year of the quiet Sun. A large volume of trajectory measurements was of great value for studying the problems of ultra-long distance communication and interplanetary flights. Magnetic fields, cosmic rays, low-energy charged particle flows, solar plasma flows and their energy spectra, as well as cosmic radio emissions and micrometeors were studied. The Venera-3 station became the first spacecraft to reach the surface of another planet.
9th luck (first experiment with living plants and creatures). September 15, 1968 the first return of the spacecraft (“Zond-5”) to the Earth after a flyby of the Moon. On board were living creatures: turtles, fruit flies, worms, plants, seeds, bacteria. "Probes 1-8" - a series of spacecraft launched in the USSR from 1964 to 1970. The manned flight program was curtailed due to the US losing the so-called "moon race". The Zond devices (as well as a number of others called Kosmos) under the Soviet program of flying around the moon during the "moon race" worked out the technique of flying to the moon with a return to Earth after a ballistic flyby of a natural satellite of the Earth. The most recent vehicle in this series has successfully circled the Moon, photographed the Moon and the Earth, and also worked out a landing option from the northern hemisphere.
10th Luck (First on Mars). On November 27, 1971, the Mars-2 station reached the surface of Mars for the first time. The launch to the flight path to Mars was made from the intermediate orbit of an artificial earth satellite by the last stage of the launch vehicle. The mass of the apparatus "Mars-2" was 4650 kilograms. The spacecraft's orbital compartment contained scientific equipment intended for measurements in interplanetary space, as well as for studying the environs of Mars and the planet itself from the orbit of an artificial satellite. The Mars-2 descent vehicle entered the Martian atmosphere too abruptly, which is why it did not have time to slow down at the stage of aerodynamic descent. The device, having passed through the atmosphere of the planet, crashed on the surface of Mars in the Nanedi Valley in Xanth Earth (4 ° N; 47 ° W), reaching the surface of Mars for the first time in history. A pennant of the Soviet Union was fixed on board Mars-2.
Starting from 1969-71, the United States zealously picked up the baton of human space exploration and made a number of important, but still not so epoch-making steps for the history of astronautics.
Despite the fact that the USSR continued to actively explore space in the 1970s (the first artificial satellite of Venus in 1975, etc.), starting from 1981 and, alas, to this day, the leadership in astronautics has been held by the United States. And yet, history does not seem to stand still - since the 2000s, China, India and Japan have actively entered the space race. And, perhaps, soon, due to the powerful economic growth, the leadership in astronautics will pass into the hands of post-communist China.
TASS-DOSIER /Inna Klimacheva/. April 12, 2016 marks the 55th anniversary of the first manned flight into space. This historic flight was made by a citizen of the USSR Yuri Gagarin. Starting from the Baikonur Cosmodrome on the Vostok satellite, the cosmonaut spent 108 minutes in space and safely returned to Earth.
"East"- the world's first manned spacecraft. Created in the USSR for flights in near-Earth orbit.
Project history
On May 22, 1959, a resolution of the Central Committee of the CPSU and the Council of Ministers of the USSR was issued, which provided for the development and launch of a satellite ship for carrying out human space flight. OKB-1 (now RSC Energia named after S.P. Korolev) headed by chief designer Sergei Korolev was appointed the lead organization for the project.
One of the main developers of the ship was Konstantin Feoktistov (later a cosmonaut), the head of the design department sector, the ship's control system was developed under the guidance of Deputy Chief Designer Boris Chertok, the orientation system was created by designers Boris Raushenbakh and Viktor Legostaev.
Two versions of the ship were created, designated: 1 TO(experimental unmanned version) and 3KA(designed for manned flights). In addition, on the basis of the experimental version, an automatic reconnaissance satellite was developed - 2K.
In total, more than 100 organizations were involved in the program for the preparation of human space flight, called "Vostok", more than 100 organizations.
Characteristics
"Vostok" was a satellite ship, that is, unlike modern spacecraft, it could not perform orbital maneuvers.
The length of the ship is 4.3 m, the maximum diameter is 2.43 m, the launch weight is 4 tons 725 kg. Designed for one crew member and flight duration up to 10 days.
It consisted of two compartments - a spherical descent vehicle (volume - 5.2 cubic meters) for accommodating an astronaut and a conical instrument-assembly compartment (3 cubic meters) with equipment and equipment for the main systems of the ship, as well as a braking propulsion system.
It was equipped with systems of automatic and manual control, automatic orientation to the Sun and manual - to the Earth, life support, thermal control. It is equipped with radio telemetry equipment for monitoring the condition of a person and ship systems. Two television cameras were installed in the spacecraft cabin to monitor the astronaut. Two-way radiotelephone communication with the Earth was carried out by means of equipment operating in the ultrashort-wave and short-wave bands. Some major systems have been duplicated for reliability.
The pressurized descent vehicle (SA) had three windows: one technological and two with covers detachable using pyrotechnic devices for ejection of the seat with the astronaut and ejection of the SA parachute.
For safety reasons, the cosmonaut was in a spacesuit during the entire flight. In case of depressurization of the cabin, the suit had a supply of oxygen for four hours; it provided protection for the astronaut during the ejection of the chair at an altitude of up to 10 km. The SK-1 space suit and the seat were created by Pilot Plant No. 918 (now the Zvezda Research and Production Enterprise named after Academician G.I. Severin, Tomilino settlement, Moscow Region).
When launching into orbit, the spacecraft was covered with a drop nose fairing, which had a hatch for the astronaut's emergency ejection. After the flight, the descent vehicle returned to Earth along a ballistic trajectory. At a seven-kilometer altitude, an ejection was carried out, then the astronaut in a spacesuit separated from the chair and independently descended by parachute. In addition, the possibility of landing the SA with an astronaut on board (without ejection) was envisaged.
Launches
The launches of the Vostok spacecraft were carried out from the Baikonur Cosmodrome using the carrier rocket of the same name.
At the first stage, unmanned launches were carried out, including those with animals on board. Experimental ships were given the name "Sputnik". The first launch took place on May 15. On August 19, the dogs Belka and Strelka made a successful flight on a satellite ship.
The first ship designed for manned flights (3KA) launched on March 9, 1961, in its descent vehicle in a container there was a dog Chernushka, and in an ejection seat - a human dummy. The flight program was completed: the SA with the dog landed successfully, and the dummy was properly ejected. Following him, on March 25, a second similar launch was carried out with the dog Zvezdochka on board. The animals have completely completed the path that the first cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin had to take off, one orbit around the Earth and landing.
On March 30, 1961, in a note to the Central Committee of the CPSU, signed by the Deputy Chairman of the Council of Ministers (CM) of the USSR Dmitry Ustinov and the heads of departments responsible for rocket and space technology, it was proposed in TASS reports to call the manned spacecraft "Vostok" (according to the documents: "Vostok- 3KA").
On April 12, 1961, Yuri Gagarin on the Vostok satellite made a flight lasting 108 minutes (1 hour 48 minutes) and returned safely to Earth.
After him, German Titov (1961), Andriyan Nikolaev and Pavel Popovich (1962; the first group flight of two spacecraft - Vostok-3 and Vostok-4), Valery Bykovsky (1963; the longest flight on ships of this type - almost 5 days) and the first woman cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova (1963).
A total of 13 Vostok spacecraft were launched: 6 manned and 7 unmanned (including 5 experimental launches - two successful, one emergency, two abnormal).
Launch vehicle "Vostok"
The launch vehicle was used to launch the first automatic lunar stations, manned spacecraft-satellites ("Vostok"), and various artificial satellites.
The project was launched by a resolution of the Central Committee of the CPSU and the Council of Ministers of the USSR dated March 20, 1958, which provided for the creation of a space rocket based on a two-stage intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) R-7 ("seven", index 8K71) with the addition of a block 3 steps.
Work on the rocket was carried out by the developer of the "seven", OKB-1 (now RSC Energia named after S.P. Korolev) under the leadership of chief designer Sergei Korolev.
The preliminary design of the third stage of the R-7 ICBM, which received the designation "block E", was released in the same 1958. The launch vehicle was given the designation 8K72K. The launch vehicle had three stages. Its length was 38.2 m, diameter - 10.3 m, launch weight - about 287 tons.
The engines of all stages used kerosene and liquid oxygen as fuel. Block E control system was developed by NII-885 (now Academician N.A. Pilyugin Research and Production Center for Automation and Instrumentation, Moscow) under the leadership of Nikolai Pilyugin.
It could launch a payload weighing up to 4.5 tons into space.
Launches of the carrier rocket were carried out from the Baikonur Cosmodrome. The first test launches were carried out as part of the lunar program.
For the first time, the rocket was launched on September 23, 1958 from the E1 lunar station, but the launch ended in an accident at the 87th second of the flight (the reason was the occurrence of increasing longitudinal oscillations). The next two starts were also emergency. The fourth launch on January 2, 1959 with automatic interplanetary station(AMS) "Luna-1". In the same year, the AMS "Luna-2" and "Luna-3" were successfully launched into space by rocket.
On May 15, 1960, a prototype of the manned spacecraft "Vostok" was launched with the help of a rocket - an experimental product 1K (open name - "Sputnik"). The next launches in 1960 were carried out with 1K ships, on board of which there were dogs in special containers. On August 19, a satellite ship was launched with the dogs Belka and Strelka.
On March 9 and 25, 1961, two successful launches took place with spacecraft designed for manned flight (3KA), also with dogs on board. Animals Chernushka and Zvezdochka completely covered the path that the first cosmonaut had to take off, one orbit around the Earth and landing.
On April 12, 1961, the launch vehicle launched the Vostok satellite with Yuri Gagarin into space.
The first public demonstration of the rocket model took place in 1967 at the air show in Le Bourget in France. At the same time, for the first time, the rocket was called "Vostok", before that in the Soviet press it was simply called "heavy duty launch vehicle", etc.
A total of 26 launches of the Vostok rocket were carried out - 17 successful, 8 emergency and one abnormal (at launch on December 22, 1960, due to a malfunction in the rocket, the satellite ship with dogs flew along a suborbital trajectory, the animals survived). The last one took place on July 10, 1964 with two scientific satellites "Electron".
On the basis of the Vostok rocket, other modifications Vostok-2, Vostok-2A, Vostok-2M were subsequently created, which were produced at the Kuibyshev plant Progress (now the Progress Rocket and Space Center, Samara) .
Launches were carried out both from Baikonur and from the Plesetsk cosmodrome. With the help of rockets, satellites of the Cosmos, Zenit, Meteor, etc. series were launched into space. The operation of these space carriers ended in August 1991 with the launch of the Vostok-2M rocket with the Indian Earth remote sensing satellite IRS-1B (" Ai-ar-es-1-bi").
Program results
Manned flights on the Vostok spacecraft made it possible to study the influence of orbital flight conditions on the state and working capacity of a person; the main structures and systems, the principles of spacecraft construction were worked out on ships of this series.
They were replaced by the next generation ships - Voskhod (two manned launches in 1964 and 1966). In 1967 manned spacecraft of the Soyuz type began to operate.
