Ten main space successes of the USSR (photo). History of Russian cosmonautics Message on the topic of successes of Soviet cosmonautics

The USSR went down in history as the superpower that was the first to launch a satellite, a living creature and a person into space. Nevertheless, during the turbulent space race, the USSR sought - and succeeded - to overshadow the United States in space wherever possible. While the Soviet Union was the first to achieve many key advances, it also experienced the first human space tragedy.

Luna 1 was at least the fifth attempt by the USSR to crash a craft onto the Moon, and the previous unsuccessful attempts were so classified that even American intelligence did not know about many of them.

Compared to modern space probes, Luna 1 was extremely primitive: without its own propulsion system, with batteries providing limited electrical current, and without a camera. Transmissions from the probe stopped three days after launch.

First flyby of another planet

The launch and setup of communication with the probe was successful; three communication sessions with the probe indicated normal operation. But the fourth showed a malfunction in one of the probe's systems, and communication was delayed for five days. Contact was finally lost when the probe was 2 million kilometers from Earth. The spacecraft drifted through space, passing Venus at a distance of 100,000 kilometers, and was unable to obtain course correction data.

The first device to photograph the dark side of the Moon

The camera was primitive and complex. The spacecraft was able to take 40 photographs, which had to be produced, corrected and dried on the spacecraft. The onboard cathode ray tube would then scan the images and send the data to the Moon. The radio transmitter was so weak that the first attempts to transmit pictures failed. Only when the probe came closer to the Earth, drawing a circle around the Moon, were 17 low-quality photographs taken, in which at least something could be made out.

In any case, scientists were delighted with what they found in the photographs. Unlike the closest side of the Moon, which was flat, the far side had mountains and even a few dark regions.

First successful landing on another planet

Venera 7 entered the atmosphere as planned. However, the parachute, designed to slow the device, ruptured and did not work, which led to the module falling to the ground for 29 minutes. The module was thought to have failed before hitting the ground, but later analysis of recorded radio signals showed that the probe was returning temperature readings from the surface within 23 minutes of landing. The engineers who built the spacecraft should be proud of it.

The first artificial objects on the surface of Mars

Nevertheless, the Americans slightly outpaced the Soviet Union and were the first to reach the orbit of Mars. Mariner 9, which also launched in May 1971, arrived two weeks before the Soviet probes and became the first spacecraft to orbit another planet. Upon arrival, the Soviet and American probes discovered that Mars was covered in a dust storm, which interfered with data collection.

While the Mars 2 lander crashed, Mars 3 successfully landed and began transmitting data. But the data transfer stopped after 20 seconds, and the only photo received was impossible to make out the details and was in poor light. This was largely due to a massive dust storm on Mars, otherwise the USSR would have taken the first clear photographs of the Martian surface.

First robotic sample return mission

Landing in the Sea of ​​Plenty, the Soviet probe deployed a drill to collect lunar soil and place it in the liftoff stage, which then launched and returned the soil to Earth. Having opened the sealed container, Soviet scientists found only 101 grams of lunar soil - far from the 22 kilograms brought with Apollo 11. In any case, the samples were analyzed intensively and were shown to have the cohesive qualities of wet sand.

The first spacecraft to carry three people on board

Launched on October 12, 1964, Voskhod 1 became the first spacecraft to carry more than one person into space. Although Voskhod was hailed as a new spacecraft by the Soviet Union, it was for the most part a slightly modified version of the same craft that carried Yuri Gagarin into space. Nevertheless, the Americans thought it was cool, since they didn’t even put two people into space at the same time at that time.

Soviet designers considered Voskhod unsafe. And they continued to insist against its use until the government bribed them with an offer to send one of the designers as an astronaut on a mission. This, of course, did not solve the security issues of the device.

Firstly, the astronauts could not carry out an emergency ejection in the event of a rocket failure, since it was not possible to build a hatch for each astronaut. Secondly, the astronauts fit so tightly in the capsule that they could not put on spacesuits. If the cabin had depressurized, it would have meant certain death for everyone. The new landing system, consisting of two parachutes and a retro rocket, had only been tested once before the actual mission. Finally, the astronauts had to diet before the mission to keep the total weight of the astronauts and capsule low enough to be carried by a single rocket.

Despite all these significant difficulties, the mission went astonishingly flawlessly.

First docking with a “dead space” object

On February 11, 1985, the Soviet space station Salyut 7 went silent. A cascade of electrical faults swept through the station, knocking out its electrical systems and leaving Salyut 7 dead and frozen.

In an attempt to save the station, the Soviet Union sent two veteran astronautics to repair Salyut 7. The automated docking system was not working, so the astronauts had to get close enough to perform a manual docking. Fortunately, the station did not rotate, and the astronauts were able to dock, demonstrating for the first time the ability to dock with any object in space, even dead and uncontacted ones.

The crew reported that the inside of the station was musty, icicles had grown on the walls, and the internal temperature was -10 degrees Celsius. Work to restore the space station took several days, and the crew had to test hundreds of cables to determine the source of the electrical fault.

The launch of the Soviet artificial satellite into orbit in 1957 marked the beginning of the great task of space exploration. Test launches in which various living organisms, such as bacteria and fungi, were placed in satellites led to improvements in spacecraft. And the space flights of the famous Belka and Strelka led to the stabilization of the return descent. Everything was gearing up to prepare for a significant event - sending a man into space.

Human space flight

In 1961 (April 12), Vostok carried the first cosmonaut in history, Yuri Gagarin, into orbit. After a few minutes of rotation, the pilot reported via communication channels that all processes were normal. The flight lasted 108 minutes, during which time Gagarin received messages from Earth, kept a radio report and logbook, monitored the readings of on-board systems, and carried out manual control (first trial attempts).

The device with the astronaut landed near Saratov; the reason for landing in an unplanned place was problems in the process of separating the compartments and a failure of the braking system. The whole country, frozen in front of their televisions, watched this flight.

In August 1961, the Vostok-2 spacecraft was launched, piloted by German Titov. The device spent more than 25 hours in outer space, during the flight it made 17.5 revolutions around the planet. After a thorough study of the data obtained, exactly one year later, two ships launched - Vostok-3 and Vostok-4. Launched into orbit a day apart, the vehicles controlled by Nikolaev and Popovich carried out the first group flight in history. Vostok-3 made 64 revolutions in 95 hours, Vostok-4 - 48 revolutions in 71 hours.

Valentina Tereshkova - woman in space

In June 1963, Vostok-6 launched with the sixth Soviet cosmonaut, Valentina Tereshkova. At the same time, Vostok-5, controlled by Valery Bykovsky, was also in orbit. Tereshkova spent a total of about 3 days in orbit, during which time the spacecraft made 48 revolutions. During the flight, Valentina carefully recorded all observations in the logbook, and with the help of photographs of the horizon she took, scientists were able to detect aerosol layers in the atmosphere.

Alexey Leonov's spacewalk

On March 18, 1965, Voskhod-2 launched with a new crew on board, one of whose members was Alexey Leonov. The spacecraft was equipped with a camera to launch the astronaut into open space. A specially designed spacesuit, reinforced with a multi-layer hermetic shell, allowed Leonov to exit the airlock chamber for the entire length of the halyard (5.35 m). All operations were monitored by Pavel Belyaev, another member of the Voskhod-2 crew, using a television camera. These significant events forever entered the history of the development of Soviet cosmonautics, being the crown of the development of science and technology of that time.

Abstract on history

Space achievements of the USSR

Introduction

The first artificial satellites

Animals in space

Launching rockets to planets

Group flights

New generation of satellites

A new era in astronautics

Reusable spacecraft

Mir station

Conclusion

List of used literature

Introduction

Since ancient times, people have been drawn to look at the starry sky. This inexplicable craving was fascinating and inspiring. Sometimes a person could watch a light fly across the dark night sky and then disappear somewhere. And he didn’t know what it was, he didn’t know physics or astronomy, but it fascinated him. He felt that something unusual was happening, something magical, enchanting and inexplicable. Some peoples worshiped the stars, considering them to be reflections of the gods. Others predicted the future from them. Probably, then people began to want to reach out to them.

Centuries passed, civilizations changed, some peoples were conquered by others, people acquired new knowledge, technologies developed, but the craving for the stars did not disappear, but only became stronger. And then one day people developed so much that they were able to make their dream come true. This happened in the twentieth century. It will forever go down in history as the century of space achievements.

The development of rocket technology occurred at the height of the Cold War, when the USSR and the USA fought for the right to be called the strongest country on the planet.

Nowadays, no one is surprised by the flight of a rocket into space, and space programs are planned for many years in advance, but half a century ago, when the first spacecraft first appeared, people had a hard time believing what was happening. Space flight is one of the most important achievements of mankind. How did it all start...

The first artificial satellites

Human penetration into space began on May 20, 1954. The government issued a decree on the development of a two-stage R-7 intercontinental rocket. And already on May 27, Korolev sent a report to the Minister of Defense Industry D.F. Ustinov about the development of an artificial satellite and the possibility of launching it using the future R-7 rocket.

The developed project of a rocket of a new layout was approved by the Council of Ministers of the USSR on November 20, 1954. It was necessary to solve many new problems in the shortest possible time, which included, in addition to the development and construction of the rocket itself, choosing a location for the launch site, building launch facilities, commissioning all the necessary services and equipping the entire 7,000-kilometer flight route with observation posts.

The first R-7 missile complex was built and tested during 1955-1956 at the Leningrad Metal Plant. October 4, 1957 This rocket launched the first artificial Earth satellite in human history into orbit. He weighed 83.6 kg. Having broken through the earth's atmosphere, the first cosmic swallow carried scientific instruments and radio transmitters into near-Earth space. They transmitted to Earth the first scientific information about the outer space surrounding the Earth.

20 days after launch, the cosmic first-born fell silent - the batteries for its transmitters ran out. Gradually descending, it existed for about two and a half months and burned out in the lower, denser layers of the atmosphere.

The flight of the first satellite provided valuable information. Having carefully studied the gradual change in orbit due to braking in the atmosphere, scientists were able to calculate the density of the atmosphere at all altitudes where the satellite flew, and using these data to more accurately predict changes in the orbits of subsequent satellites.

The second Soviet satellite was launched into a more elongated orbit on November 3, 1957. If the rocket of the first satellite allowed it to be raised to 947 km, then the rocket of the second satellite was more powerful. With almost the same minimum altitude, the apogee of the orbit reached 1671 km, and the satellite weighed significantly more than the first - 508.3 kg.

The third satellite rose even higher - 1880 km and was even heavier. Sputnik-3 was the first full-fledged spacecraft, possessing all the systems inherent in modern spacecraft. Having the shape of a cone with a base diameter of 1.73 meters and a height of 3.75 meters, the satellite weighed 1327 kilograms. There were 12 scientific instruments on board the satellite. The sequence of their work was determined by a software-time device. For the first time, it was planned to use an onboard tape recorder to record telemetry in those parts of the orbit that were not accessible to ground tracking stations. Immediately before the launch, its malfunction was discovered, and the satellite took off with a non-working tape recorder.

For the first time, on-board equipment received and executed commands transmitted from Earth. For the first time, an active thermal management system was used to maintain operating temperatures. Electricity was provided by disposable chemical sources, in addition to which solar panels were used for experimental testing for the first time, from which a small radio beacon operated. Its work continued after the main batteries had exhausted their resources.

January 1959, the Soviet space rocket Luna-1 rushed towards the Moon and entered near-solar orbit. She became a satellite of the Sun. In the West they called her the moonlighter. Its launch traced the entire thickness of near-Earth space. During 34 hours of flight, the rocket covered 370 thousand km, crossed the orbit of the Moon and entered near-solar space. After this, its flight was monitored for about 30 hours and the most valuable scientific information was received from the instruments installed on it.

The information obtained during this flight significantly supplemented our information about one of the most important discoveries of the first years of the space age - the discovery of near-Earth radiation belts.

No less amazing was the flight of the second Soviet space rocket, Luna-2, launched on September 12, 1959. The instrument container of this rocket touched the surface of the Moon on September 14! For the first time in history, a man-made apparatus reached another celestial body and delivered to a lifeless planet a monument to the great feat of the Soviet people - a pennant with the image of the USSR Coat of Arms. Luna 2 established that the Moon does not have a magnetic field or radiation belts within the accuracy of instruments.

October 1959, on the day of the second anniversary of the launch of the first Soviet Earth satellite, the third space rocket, Luna-3, was launched in the Soviet Union. She separated from herself an automatic interplanetary station with instruments. The container was directed in such a way that, having circled the Moon, it returned back to the Earth. The equipment installed in it photographed and transmitted to Earth an image of the far side of the Moon, which is not visible to us.

Dozens of unresolved questions faced science. It was necessary to create many times more powerful launch vehicles to launch spacecraft into orbit, several times heavier than the heaviest artificial satellites launched previously. It was necessary to concentrate and build aircraft that not only fully ensure the safety of the astronaut at all stages of the flight, but also create the necessary conditions for his life and work. It was necessary to develop a whole complex of special training that would allow the body of future cosmonauts to adapt in advance to existence in conditions of overload and weightlessness. There were a lot of other issues that needed to be resolved.

Animals in space

Selecting dogs for flight is not easy. We need animals that simultaneously meet many requirements and combine various qualities.

A female is definitely needed. The size of the selected dogs must be unusual. Dogs selected for flights are slightly larger than cats; their weight should not exceed 6-7 kg. Need a purebred dog. The age of the dogs is also important. Based on experience, it was found that for experiments it is best to take dogs aged from one and a half to 5-6 years. Coat color is also very important. It is desirable that the wool be white.

When dogs are selected for all these characteristics, their training begins: training animals for overload, vibration and noise, and much more.

In September 1957, the merits and demerits of the different dogs finally selected for space flight were discussed.

The most favorable ratings are received by a white dog with black symmetrical spots on semi-dropping ears - Laika. It is this animal that is destined to become the first “astronaut”.

The flight of the spacecraft with Laika can be schematically divided into two stages.

The first is the so-called active section of the movement trajectory. This is the section of the path when the launch vehicle engines are running.

The second stage is the movement of the satellite in orbit, when the spacecraft rushes at its assigned speed in outer space, in complete silence, in the absence of any visual stimuli. All this time the dog was in a state of weightlessness.

Only two minutes passed, and the speed of the rocket increased so quickly that the weight of all objects in it increased four and a half times.

Immediately after the start, the heart rate increased, compared to the original, approximately three times. Subsequently, the heart rate decreased.

As the overload increased, the dog's breathing rate also increased greatly. But all this did not last very long. The last powerful push of the rocket engines, and the satellite begins to move by inertia. Suddenly there is an unusual silence in the animal's cabin. Vibrations disappear. Gradually the dog's weight becomes zero.

Finding itself at a great distance from the Earth, the satellite's radio installation continuously sent its signals into the air. These signals were picked up.

The physiological processes of the space traveler, which were significantly changed in the active phase when overloads were in effect, return to normal under conditions of weightlessness.

The animal lived. It was breathing, its heart was beating, its brain was functioning. It was wonderful. This means that in space it was possible to create a small island of land on which highly organized animals can successfully live.

The data obtained during this flight were of fundamental importance for space medicine and biology. They showed for the first time that prolonged exposure to weightlessness does not cause disturbances in the basic physiological functions of the animal.

In August 1960, it was decided to repeat the experiment. Again the best of the best trained dogs are selected. Belka and Strelka are the animals that were chosen.

Belka and Strelka patiently endure all the preparations for the flight. There are much more devices now than there were in 1957. The peculiarity of the cabin in which the animals will fly is that it is equipped like a cabin for a person: the same equipment ensures vital functions, thermoregulation occurs in the same way, etc.

And now in space, at an altitude of more than 300 km, Belka and Strelka fly around the Earth over and over again. I just couldn’t believe that they made each such revolution around our planet in just an hour and a half. The dogs felt well during the orbital flight.

Everyone was sure that Belka and Strelka would return to Earth, but there was a lot of excitement. Not a single creature, having been in space for several hours, has ever returned from there.

Sixteenth revolution, seventeenth revolution of the satellite ship over the Earth. On the eighteenth orbit, the command to descend was given. The ship obediently began to descend.

Descent is a particularly crucial moment. There should not be a single mistake, even the most insignificant, because it could lead to the death of the satellite. Within a few seconds, the ship's speed decreases sharply.

Here the instrument compartment on the descent trajectory separated from the cabin.

Here the cabin is already at an altitude of 7 km from the Earth. Here a container with animals separates from it and quickly approaches the Earth.

The scientists congratulated each other. The safe descent of the dogs to Earth was a triumph of the peaceful labor of the Soviet people.

The animals removed from the container did not have any injuries.

After the return to Earth of the second satellite ship with living beings on board, the practical possibility of human flight into space was created. However, it was necessary to check again and again the operation of all systems installed on the ship that ensure normal human living conditions. It was important to obtain additional information about the influence of weightlessness and the transition from it to overloads, as well as the influence of possible cosmic radiation on living beings.

During the time from the safe landing of Belka and Strelka to the unprecedented flight of Yu.A. Gagarin on the Vostok-1 spacecraft launched the third spacecraft-satellite (experimental dogs Pchelka and Mushka), the fourth spacecraft-satellite (Chernushka) and, finally, the fifth spacecraft-satellite (Zvezdochka).

The launch of the fifth satellite on March 25, 1961 was the last control experiment before human space flight. The ship landed on Earth in a precisely specified area. The star survived the flight perfectly.

The first human flights into space

satellite flight space rocket

The first cosmonaut must be a person who, in addition to good health, has a strong will, quick reactions, and the ability to make instant decisions in a tense flight environment and immediately implement them. This must be a person familiar with the ocean of air, with the influence of factors close to those that he will encounter in space flight.

On April 1961, the whole world learned the name of Yuri Alekseevich Gagarin, and on August 6 of the same year - the name of German Stepanovich Titov, who successfully flew into space.

The first cosmonauts underwent a series of special training and tests, in which many factors of the upcoming space flight were simulated. These were studies in a centrifuge, when appropriate overloads were created, tests on a vibration stand, in a sound chamber isolated from external stimuli. Yuri Alekseevich and German Stepanovich also trained at special stands, where they practiced flight mission options. They engaged in sports a lot and purposefully, etc.

Gagarin entered the elevator, and it took him to the platform located at the hatch of the Vostok ship. He raised his hand and said goodbye again.

The final pre-start commands were heard, and finally the last one: “Let's go!” Everything at the cosmodrome was drowned in the roar of rocket engines. The first man on Earth launched into space.

“I heard a whistle and an ever-increasing rumble, felt how the giant ship trembled with its entire hull and slowly, very slowly came off the launch device,” cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin recalled about the first seconds of his flight. - Overloads began to increase. I felt some irresistible force pressing me more and more into the chair. The seconds dragged on like minutes.”

Taking off, the first cosmonaut on the planet reported to Earth: “I feel great. The overload and vibration are increasing somewhat, but I can tolerate everything normally. The mood is cheerful. Through the window I see the Earth, I distinguish folds of terrain, snow, forest."

Finally the ship entered orbit. Weightlessness set in. “At first this feeling was unusual,” Gagarin later recalled, “but I soon got used to it, got used to it.”

And so he flies on a satellite ship called “Vostok” in the silent emptiness of space. He is the first person to see our planet from the outside, in the blue halo of the atmosphere. He can be the first to take in the continents and seas at a glance. Now he knows for sure that he will bring the news to Earth from the distances of space that a person may fly into space. He will reach other planets, unravel the mysteries of the universe, and subjugate the mysterious forces of the Universe to the power of his mind.

In the meantime, ground tracking stations, worried about the pilot, ask how the flight is going and how he is feeling. The voice of the first cosmonaut flies from cosmic heights:

“I feel great. I can hear you perfectly. The flight is going well." The first manned flight into space lasted 108 minutes. When, having flown around the planet, the astronaut again appeared over the territory of his country, a command was given from Earth to descend.

“The ship began to enter dense layers of the atmosphere,” Yuri Gagarin later said. “Its outer shell was quickly heating up, and through the curtains covering the portholes, I saw the eerie crimson glow of the flames raging around the ship. But the temperature in the cabin was only 20 degrees Celsius. It was clear that all systems worked perfectly and the ship was accurately heading to the designated landing area.

During the entire flight of the Vostok-1 spacecraft, extensive medical and biological information was transmitted from its board to the ground according to a specific program, and the nature of human reactions was recorded.

The flight showed that in conditions of weightlessness all vegetative processes were carried out normally, the astronaut’s brain functioned in exactly the same way as on Earth.

So, the first flight proved the most important thing - the fundamental possibility of human travel in space, confirmed the correctness of the scientific path followed by Soviet cosmonautics. But he only made a beginning, opened a window through which distant prospects for future flights into the vast expanses of the universe are visible.

How a person will feel under conditions of prolonged weightlessness remains a mystery even after Gagarin’s flight. Gagarin's good condition was a kind of “ticket” allowing a longer flight.

And this flight took place.

German Titov's twenty-five-hour space flight exceeded the wildest scientific expectations.

Flight performance was studied in the broadest sense of the word. Titov was given tasks that made it possible to broadly and comprehensively identify the possibilities of human activity in conditions of weightlessness. He had to negotiate with the Earth, perform simple motor operations, control the ship's orientation system, which required complex coordinated movements, and take notes (the astronaut managed all this).

As is known, during Titov’s flight, for the first time, it was possible to study the features of the daily cycle of human life in a spacecraft.

The command to descend has been given. The ship is oriented correctly. The rocket engine began to work, gradually increasing in speed, and a slowdown in speed occurred. The satellite began to descend. As the ship entered the dense layers of the atmosphere, Titov tried to follow in more detail what was happening outside.

The end of the flight, when the spacecraft was moving in dense layers of the atmosphere and the cosmonaut was again subjected to overloads, and the landing process, which required significant effort of will and physical strength, were all tolerated well by Titov.

The twenty-five-hour space flight was successfully completed - the ship landed exactly in the specified area.

A thorough study of the scientific data obtained in these two flights made it possible just a year later - in August 1962 - to take a new big step forward. Launched one after another (with an interval of one day), the Vostok-3 and Vostok-4 spacecraft with pilot-cosmonauts Andriyan Grigorievich Nikolaev and Pavel Romanovich Popovich made the first group flight into space.

Vostok 3 made more than 64 revolutions around the Earth and spent 95 hours in space flight. Vostok 4 completed more than 48 orbits and spent 71 hours in space flight. This flight proved that the cosmonaut training system developed by our scientists allows them to develop such physical qualities that ensure normal life activity and full performance during a long space flight. This was the main result of the flight.

According to a New York Times correspondent, Allan Shepard's 15-minute jump was carried out using a rocket whose power was "only one-tenth the power of a Soviet rocket, and the weight of the capsule was only one-fifth the weight of the Vostok cabin."

Launching rockets to planets

Along with spacecraft flights in the USSR and the USA, test launches of rockets to planets were also carried out. On February 12, 1961, the Soviet automatic interplanetary station “Venera” launched from an artificial Earth satellite towards Venus.

The design of the Venera-1 spacecraft was a cylinder with a spherical upper part. The length of the apparatus was 2.035 meters, diameter - 1.05 meters. The ship was equipped with two solar panels, mounted radially on both sides of the cylindrical body and charging silver-zinc batteries. A parabolic antenna with a diameter of 2 meters was attached to the outer surface of the ship's hull, designed to transmit data to Earth at a frequency of 922.8 MHz (wavelength 32 cm). Scientific instruments were installed at the station: a magnetometer, two ion traps for measuring solar wind parameters, a micrometeorite detector, a Geiger counter and a scintillation detector for measuring cosmic radiation. At the bottom of the spacecraft, a KDU-414 propulsion system was installed, designed to correct the flight path. Station weight - 643.5 kg.

The launch of the automatic interplanetary station “Venera-1” was an important stage in the development of space technology. This was the first apparatus designed for planetary exploration. For the first time, the technique of orientation along the three axes of a spacecraft along the Sun and the star Canopus was used. For the first time, a parabolic antenna was used to transmit telemetric information.

November 1962, the Soviet space rocket Mars-1 launched towards Mars. Its orbit was the longest compared to the orbits of all previous spacecraft flights. Stretching out in an ellipse from the Earth, it touched the orbit of Mars. The flight lasted seven and a half months just before meeting Mars: Mars-1 covered 500 million km during this time.

The Mars-1 flight provided new data on the physical properties of outer space between the orbits of the Earth and Mars (at a distance from the Sun of 1-1.24 AU), on the intensity of cosmic radiation, the strength of the magnetic fields of the Earth and the interplanetary medium, and flows ionized gas coming from the Sun, and the distribution of meteoric matter (the spacecraft crossed 2 meteor showers).

Thus ended the first space five-year plan.

Mars 2 was launched almost 10 years later. And it was the first lander to reach the surface of Mars.

The station was launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome using a Proton-K launch vehicle with an additional 4th stage - upper stage D on May 19, 1971 at 19:22:49 Moscow time. Unlike the previous generation AMS, Mars-2 was first launched into the intermediate orbit of an artificial Earth satellite, and then the upper stage D was transferred to an interplanetary trajectory.

The station's flight to Mars lasted more than 6 months. Until the moment of approach to Mars, the flight proceeded according to the program. The flight path passed at a distance of 1380 km from the surface of Mars.

Group flights

A new stage in the exploration of the vast expanses of the Universe was the launch of the three-seater Voskhod spacecraft on October 12, 1964 in the USSR. The ship's crew consisted of three people: the ship's commander, engineer-colonel Vladimir Mikhailovich Komarov, a research fellow, candidate of technical sciences, Konstantin Petrovich Feoktistov, and doctor Boris Borisovich Egorov. Three specialists from different fields conducted extensive space research. The Voskhod ship is significantly different from the Vostok type ships. Its orbit lay higher; for the first time, the cosmonauts flew without spacesuits, and landed without leaving the cabin, which was smoothly lowered by the “soft landing” system and literally “softly placed” on the surface of the Earth. The new television system transmitted from the ship not only an image of the astronauts, but also a picture of the observations.

As academician V. Mishin recalls, Khrushchev demanded that Korolev launch three cosmonauts at once. But the Voskhod cabin was designed for two people in spacesuits, so the cosmonauts had to be seated in light training suits without spacesuits. There was also no room to place three catapults, so they flew without the possibility of emergency rescue in the event of a rocket explosion at the launch...

Despite the short duration of the flight, the cosmonauts launched under Khrushchev, and reported the results of the flight to Brezhnev, since the next day after their landing, Khrushchev was removed (October Plenum). As a result, after landing, the cosmonauts were not immediately received by the head of the Soviet Union, as was the practice during previous flights.

New generation of satellites

The front of peaceful space exploration is expanding every year. Following the satellites, “rigidly” tied to their orbits, vehicles capable of carrying out fairly wide maneuvers entered space.

The Soviet spacecraft Polet-1 and Polet-2, maneuvering in space, moved from orbit to orbit, changing not only the altitude, but also the plane of orbital inclination. These are the first steps on the path of connection, or, as engineers say, docking, of spacecraft directly in space, in orbit. Mooring to the ship, refueling rockets will be able to reload non-flammable materials and construction parts. From the structures delivered into orbit, the cosmonauts will first assemble space laboratories, and then, probably, entire scientific cities...

January 1964 and the USSR launched the most interesting satellites - Electron-1 and Elektroya-2. Two satellites were launched from one rocket at once, one to a higher orbit, the other to a lower orbit.

The value of such a launch is that simultaneous measurements at different altitudes will make it possible to better study the spatial structure of the radiation belts and their changes over time. Launched through the poles, Electron-3 and Electron-4 simultaneously continued a comprehensive study of the upper layers of the atmosphere.

A new era in astronautics

In 1965, with their flight, Pavel Belyaev and Alexey Leonov certified the glorious working biography of the spacecraft of the Vostok and Voskhod series. The next stage in the exploration of outer space has begun, associated with the transition to more advanced space technology. In the spring of 1967, the Cosmonaut Training Center began developing new Soyuz spacecraft. The Soyuz differed in many ways from its orbital predecessors and was a more advanced machine in all respects.

The Soyuz-1 spacecraft was launched into orbit on April 23, 1967 for the purpose of testing the spacecraft and testing systems and elements of its design under space flight conditions. Piloted by cosmonaut V.M. Komarov, who previously flew on the Voskhod spacecraft. The height of the perigee of the orbit is 201 km, the apogee is 224 km. During the test flight, which lasted more than a day, V.M. Komarov completed a program for testing the systems of the new ship. On April 24, the Soyuz-1 spacecraft, during its descent, successfully passed the braking section in the dense layers of the atmosphere and extinguished 1 escape velocity. However, when the main bath of the paragiut was opened, a malfunction occurred from a height of about 7000 m. The ship descended at a very high speed, which led to an emergency landing and the death of V.M. Komarova. But despite the tragic outcome and death of the astronaut, it was decided to continue the development of Soyuz series spacecraft.

Reusable spacecraft

31 years after the launch of the first artificial Earth satellite in human history, weighing about 83.6 kg, our newest launch vehicle Energia launched a cargo weighing over 100 tons into low-Earth orbit. This is the Buran spacecraft, which made its first 2 orbits and landed beautifully at Baikonur. “Energia” is the base rocket of the entire launch vehicle system. The decision to create the Energia - Buran system was made back in 1976. May 15, 1987 - The Soviet Energia launch vehicle launched for the first time. A mock-up of the spacecraft was used as the payload. The main goal of the launch: obtaining experimental data on the operation of the structure and its onboard systems under real flight conditions was achieved.

November 1988 - 2nd launch of the Energia launch vehicle.

This time, the Buran orbital ship was simultaneously launched as a payload for it.

Purely externally, the Energia-Buran system resembled the American Space-Shuttle.

"Buran" is a reusable ship with a return from space, built according to the design of a tailless aircraft. The length of the Buran is 36.4 m, the wingspan is about 2.4 meters, the height is more than 16 meters. Launch weight is about 100 tons (fuel accounts for 14 tons). A huge Mriya aircraft was used to transport the Energia-Buran and the Energia launch vehicle blocks. (November 1989)

The Energia-Buran complex opened up great opportunities at a new stage in the development of astronautics: launch into orbit, return from orbit of large artificial Earth satellites, orbital station units, rescue of astronauts in emergency situations, installation work for the creation of huge power plants and launch pads in space . This is a serious basis for realizing the cherished dream of manned expeditions to Mars.

In addition to the basic version of the rocket, three main modifications were designed, designed to launch payloads of various masses.

Energia-M was the smallest rocket in the family. The number of side blocks was reduced from four to two; instead of four RD-0120 engines, only one was installed on the central block. In 1989-1991, it underwent comprehensive tests and was planned to launch in 1994. However, in 1993, Energia-M lost the state competition (tender) for the creation of a new heavy launch vehicle; As a result of the competition, preference was given to the Angara launch vehicle (the launch of which has been repeatedly postponed since 2005, and as of 2012 is planned for the first half of 2013). A full-size mock-up of the rocket, with all its components, was stored at Baikonur.

Energy II (also called Hurricane) was designed to be completely reusable. Unlike the basic modification of Energia, which was partially reusable (like the American Space Shuttle), the Uragan design made it possible to return all elements of the Energia - Buran system, similar to the Space Shuttle concept. The central block of the Hurricane was supposed to enter the atmosphere, glide and land at a regular airfield.

The heaviest modification: its launch weight was 4747 tons. Using eight side blocks and the central block of Energia-M as the last stage, the Vulcan rocket (by the way, this name coincided with the name of another Soviet heavy rocket, the development of which was canceled over several years before) or “Hercules” (which coincides with the design name of the heavy launch vehicle RN-1) was supposed to launch up to 175 tons into low Earth orbit.

Mir station

On February 1986, at 00:28 a.m., a long-term orbital station (DOS) was launched in the Soviet Union. This event occurred at 23:00 Moscow maternity time. To launch the Mir station into a low reference orbit, a Proton launch vehicle (LV) was used, launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome. The subsequent transfer to a working orbit at an altitude of about 350 km was carried out using the propulsion system of the DOS itself.

The first crew, consisting of commander Leonid Kizim (third flight) and flight engineer Vladimir Solovyov (second flight), arrived at the station on March 15, 1986 in the Soyuz T-15 cargo-passenger transport ship (the last ship of this series), which launched on March 13 from the Baikonur Cosmodrome. All subsequent launches of the DOS modules (Proton LV), Soyuz and Progress transport spacecraft (Soyuz LV) were carried out from here. The mentioned crew conducted a unique space expedition, setting a kind of space record for working at two stations in one flight. Having worked at the Mir station until May 5, the cosmonauts undocked and went to the Salyut-7 station, which was then flying in orbit around the Earth. After conducting scientific experiments there (from May 6 to June 25; a total of 49 days 22 hours), the crew on the Soyuz T-15 spacecraft returned to the Mir station, taking with them about 300 kg of the most valuable scientific equipment. Research at the Mir station continued until July 16; the total operating time of the first main expedition (EO-1) was 70 days 11 hours 58 minutes.

One of the most important advantages of the design and layout of the Mir station is the high maintainability inherent in the design. Thanks to a well-chosen strategy of regulatory and preventive work, it was possible to significantly increase the resource of its active existence.

An important result of the program is the creation of a system of transport and technical support for space objects in orbit. This system is designed to launch spacecraft into specified orbits, increase the active life span, increase the efficiency, reliability and safety of operation of serviced spacecraft. Obviously, without TTO it was impossible to ensure a long flight of the DOS. A unique achievement of world cosmonautics is the successful provision of long-term effective operation of the Mir station for more than fifteen years. At the same time, the TTO system solves the following main tasks:

) delivery and change of crews of the main expeditions of the DOS;

) delivery to the station and return to Earth of visiting crews;

) logistics of the station, i.e. supply of consumable components, spare parts, etc.;

) regular and prompt return to Earth of the results of the expedition’s activities in orbit;

) maintenance (prevention, repair, replacement of units);

) carrying out installation and assembly work (solar batteries, radio antennas, research equipment, truss structures);

) assembly of multi-block DOS. For the first time, the need to create transport and space systems (TSS) arose after the appearance in 1971 of long-term orbital stations of the Salyut type. TCS were intended to increase the efficiency and increase the service life of the DOS by solving TTO problems using transport spacecraft (TSV). To solve these problems, a complex of cargo-passenger (“Soyuz”, “Soyuz-T”) and cargo (“Progress”) spacecraft, as well as descent cargo capsules (SGK), has been created. At the Salyut design bureau and at the machine-building plant named after. M.V. Khrunichev developed a functional cargo module that solved the problems of a universal transport supply ship (UTKS). It was successfully flight tested in autonomous flight (Cosmos-929) and was used (Cosmos-1267, Cosmos-1443, Cosmos-1686) to expand the capabilities of the Salyut-6 and Salyut-7 stations " Currently, blocks of the international station "Alpha" are being created on the basis of UTKS. At the same plant, all Salyut-type stations and blocks of the Mir station were manufactured; one of the most reliable Proton launch vehicles in the world is mass-produced here.

As the Salyut-type stations, equipped with two docking nodes, became more complex and the Mir station with seven nodes was created, the range of tasks they solved expanded, the requirements increased noticeably, and new TTO tasks were put forward. New transport ships have appeared: the modernized Soyuz TM and Progress M. In addition, taking into account the extreme conditions of space flights, the tasks of emergency rescue and urgent return of crews to Earth were experimentally studied. The Mir station has operated as part of international programs since 1987. Since 1995, the transport and space system has also become international, after the American orbital stage Atlantis was functionally included in its composition. During the long-term operation of the TCS, invaluable experience in managing long-term orbital flights has been accumulated.A

During the operation of the station, 104 cosmonauts from 12 countries visited it.

The USSR spared no expense on the development of the space program, and won this race. The first artificial satellite and the first man into space were launched. Gagarin is a hero who showed that it is still fashionable to reach for the stars and who fulfilled the dream of his ancestors. All these achievements position the country as a great superpower, which has been and remains a conqueror of space.

History of the development of domestic cosmonautics

Cosmonautics has become the life's work of several generations of our compatriots. Russian researchers were pioneers in this area.

A huge contribution to the development of astronautics was made by the Russian scientist, a simple teacher at a district school in the Kaluga province, Konstantin Eduardovich Tsiolkovsky. Thinking about life in outer space, Tsiolkovsky began writing a scientific work called “Free Space.” The scientist did not yet know how to go into space. In 1902, he sent his work to the magazine “New Review”, accompanying it with the following note: “I have developed some aspects of the issue of lifting into space using a jet device similar to a rocket. “Mathematical conclusions, based on scientific data and tested many times, indicate the possibility of using such instruments to rise into celestial space and, perhaps, establish settlements outside the earth’s atmosphere.”

In 1903, this work - “Exploration of World Spaces by Reactive Instruments” - was published. In it, the scientist developed the theoretical basis for the possibility of space flights. This work and subsequent works written by Konstantin Eduardovich give grounds to our compatriots to consider him the father of Russian cosmonautics.

Deep research into the possibility of human flight into space is associated with the names of other Russian scientists - an engineer and a self-taught man. Each of them contributed to the development of astronautics. Friedrich Arturovich devoted a lot of work to the problem of creating conditions for human life in space. Yuri Vasilyevich developed a multi-stage version of the rocket and proposed the optimal trajectory for launching the rocket into orbit. These ideas of our compatriots are currently used by all space powers and have global significance.

The purposeful development of the theoretical foundations of astronautics as a science and the work on creating jet vehicles in our country is associated with the activities in the 20–30s of the Gas Dynamics Laboratory (GDL) and the Jet Propulsion Research Group (GIRD), and later the Jet Research Institute ( RNII), formed on the basis of the GDL and the Moscow GIRD. Others also actively worked in these organizations, as well as the future Chief Designer of rocket and space systems, who made a major contribution to the creation of the first launch vehicles (LV), artificial Earth satellites, and manned spacecraft (SC). Through the efforts of specialists in these organizations, the first jet vehicles with solid and liquid fuel engines were developed, and their fire and flight tests were carried out. The beginning of domestic jet technology was laid.

Work and research on rocket technology in almost all possible areas of its application before the Great Patriotic War and even during the Second World War was carried out quite widely in our country. In addition to rockets with engines powered by various types of fuel, the RP-318-1 rocket plane was developed and tested based on the SK-9 airframe (development) and the RDA-1-150 engine (development), which showed the fundamental possibility of creating and promising jet aircraft. Various types of cruise missiles (ground-to-ground, air-to-air, and others) have also been developed, including those with an automatic control system. Naturally, only work on the creation of unguided rockets received widespread development in the pre-war period. The developed simple technology for their mass production allowed the Guards mortar units and formations to make a significant contribution to the victory over fascism.

On May 13, 1946, the USSR Council of Ministers issued a fundamental decree providing for the creation of the entire missile industry infrastructure. Considerable emphasis was placed, based on the military-political situation that had developed by that time, on the creation of liquid-propelled long-range ballistic missiles (LRBMs) with the prospect of achieving an intercontinental firing range and equipping them with nuclear warheads, as well as on the creation of an effective air defense system based on anti-aircraft guided missiles. missiles and jet fighter-interceptors.

Historically, the creation of the rocket and space industry was associated with the need to develop combat missiles in the interests of the country's defense. Thus, this resolution actually created all the necessary conditions for the rapid development of domestic astronautics. Intense work began on the development of the rocket and space industry and technology.

The history of mankind includes two significant events related to the development of domestic cosmonautics and which opened the era of practical space exploration: the launch into orbit of the world's first artificial Earth satellite (AES) (October 4, 1957) and the first flight of a man in a spacecraft in AES orbit ( April 12, 1961). The role of the parent organization in these works was assigned to the State Research Institute of Jet Weapons No. 88 (NII-88), which actually became the “alma mater” for all leading specialists in the rocket and space industry. Theoretical, design and experimental work on advanced rocket and space technology was carried out in its depths. Here, a team led by Chief Designer Sergei Pavlovich Korolev was involved in the design of a liquid-propellant rocket engine (LPRE); in 1956 it became an independent organization - OKB-1 (today it is the world-famous Rocket and Space Corporation (RSC) Energia named after).

Carrying out the government's assignments for the creation of a ballistic missile launcher, he aimed the team at the simultaneous development and implementation of programs for the study and exploration of space, starting with scientific research into the upper layers of the Earth's atmosphere. Therefore, the flight of the first domestic ballistic missile R-1 (10.10.1948) was followed by flights of geophysical missiles R-1A, R-1B, R-1B and others.

In the summer of 1957, an important government announcement was published about the successful testing of a multi-stage rocket in the Soviet Union. “The flight of the rocket,” the message said, “took place at a very high altitude that has not yet been achieved.” This message marked the creation of a formidable weapon, the R-7 intercontinental ballistic missile - the famous "Seven".

It was the appearance of the “seven” that provided a favorable opportunity to launch artificial Earth satellites into space. But for this it was necessary to do a lot: to develop, build and test engines with a total power of millions of horsepower, to equip the rocket with a complex control system, and finally, to build a cosmodrome from where the rocket was to launch. This most difficult task was solved by our specialists, our people, our country. We decided to be the first in the world.

All work on the creation of the first artificial Earth satellite was headed by the royal OKB-1. The satellite project was revised several times until they finally settled on a version of the device, the launch of which could be carried out using the created R-7 rocket and in a short time. The fact that the satellite was launched into orbit had to be recorded by all countries of the world, for which purpose radio equipment was mounted on the satellite.

On October 4, 1957, the world's first satellite was launched into low-Earth orbit from the Baikonur cosmodrome by the R-7 launch vehicle. Accurate measurements of the satellite's orbital parameters were carried out by ground-based radio and optical stations. The launch and flight of the first satellite made it possible to obtain data on the duration of its existence in orbit around the Earth, the passage of radio waves through the ionosphere, and the influence of space flight conditions on on-board equipment.

The development of rocket and space systems was proceeding at a rapid pace. Flights of the first artificial satellites of the Earth, Sun, Moon, Venus, Mars, reaching the surface of the Moon, Venus, Mars for the first time by automatic vehicles and soft landing on these celestial bodies, photographing the far side of the Moon and transmitting images of the lunar surface to Earth, the first flyby of the Moon and return to The Earth of an automatic ship with animals, the delivery of samples of lunar rock to Earth by a robot, the exploration of the surface of the Moon by an automatic lunar rover, the transmission of a panorama of Venus to Earth, the flyby near the nucleus of Halley's comet, the flights of the first cosmonauts - men and women, single and group in single and multi-seat satellites , the first exit of a male and then a female cosmonaut from a ship into outer space, the creation of the first manned orbital station, an automatic cargo supply ship, flights of international crews, the first flights of astronauts between orbital stations, the creation of the Energia-Buran system with fully the automatic return of a reusable spacecraft to Earth, the long-term operation of the first multi-link orbital manned complex and many other priority achievements of Russia in space exploration give us a legitimate sense of pride.

First flight to space

April 12, 1961 - this day went down in the history of mankind forever: in the morning, from the Boykonur cosmodrome, a powerful launch vehicle launched into orbit the first in history spaceship "Vostok" with the first cosmonaut of the Earth - Soviet citizen Gagarin on board.

In 1 hour 48 minutes he circled the globe and landed safely in the vicinity of the village of Smelovka, Ternovsky district, Saratov region, for which he was awarded the Star of the Hero of the Soviet Union.

According to the decision of the International Aeronautical Federation (FAI), April 12 is celebrated as World Aviation and Space Day. The holiday was established by decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR on April 9, 1962.

After the flight, Yuri Gagarin continuously improved his skills as a pilot-cosmonaut, and also took a direct part in the education and training of cosmonaut crews, in directing the flights of the Vostok, Voskhod, and Soyuz spacecraft.

The first cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin graduated from the Air Force Engineering Academy named after (1961–1968), carried out extensive social and political work, being a deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of the 6th and 7th convocations, a member of the Central Committee of the Komsomol (elected in the 14th and 15th m congresses of the Komsomol), President of the Soviet-Cuban Friendship Society.

With a mission of peace and friendship, Yuri Alekseevich visited many countries, he was awarded a gold medal. USSR Academy of Sciences, Medal de Lavaux (FAI), gold medals and honorary diplomas of the International Association (LIUS) “Man in Space” and the Italian Cosmonautics Association, gold medal “For Outstanding Distinction” and honorary diploma of the Royal Aero Club of Sweden, Grand Gold Medal and diploma of the FAI , Gold Medal of the British Society for Interplanetary Communications, Galabert Prize in Astronautics.

Since 1966 he was an honorary member of the International Academy of Astronautics. He was awarded the Order of Lenin and medals of the USSR, as well as orders from many countries around the world. Yuri Gagarin was awarded the titles Hero of Socialist Labor of the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic, Hero of the People's Republic of Belarus, Hero of Labor of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.

Yuri Gagarin tragically died in a plane crash near the village of Novoselovo, Kirzhach district, Vladimir region, while performing a training flight on an airplane (together with pilot Seregin).

In order to perpetuate the memory of Gagarin, the city of Gzhatsk and the Gzhatsky district of the Smolensk region were renamed, respectively, to the city of Gagarin and Gagarinsky district. awarded to the Air Force Academy in Monino, a scholarship was established. for cadets of military aviation schools. The International Aeronautical Federation (FAI) established a medal named after. Yu. A. Gagarin. In Moscow, Gagarin, Star City, Sofia - monuments to the astronaut were erected; there is a memorial house-museum in the city of Gagarin, a crater on the Moon is named after it.

Yuri Gagarin was elected an honorary citizen of the cities of Kaluga, Novocherkassk, Sumgait, Smolensk, Vinnitsa, Sevastopol, Saratov (USSR), Sofia, Pernik (PRB), Athens (Greece), Famagusta, Limassol (Cyprus), Saint-Denis (France), Trencianske Teplice (Czechoslovakia).

Various means for carrying out space flight have been proposed. Science fiction writers also mentioned rockets. However, these missiles were a technically unreasonable dream. For many centuries, scientists have not named the only means at a person’s disposal with which one can overcome the powerful force of gravity and be carried into interplanetary space. The great honor of opening the way to other worlds for people fell to the lot of our compatriot K. E. Tsiolkovsky.

A modest Kaluga teacher was able to see in the well-known gunpowder rocket a prototype of the mighty spaceships of the future. His ideas will serve as the basis for human exploration of outer space for a long time to come.

Many centuries have passed since gunpowder was invented and the first rocket was created, which was used mainly for entertainment fireworks on days of great celebrations. But only Tsiolkovsky showed that the only aircraft capable of penetrating the atmosphere and even leaving the Earth forever is a rocket.

In 1911, Tsiolkovsky uttered his prophetic words: “Humanity will not remain forever on Earth, but, in pursuit of light and space, it will first timidly penetrate beyond the atmosphere, and then conquer all the space around the earth.

Now we are witnessing how this great prophecy begins to come true. Human penetration into space began on October 4, 1957. On this memorable day, the first artificial Earth satellite in the history of mankind, launched in the USSR, entered orbit. He weighed 86.3 kg. Having broken through the earth's atmosphere, the first cosmic swallow carried scientific instruments and radio transmitters into near-Earth space. They transmitted to Earth the first scientific information about the outer space surrounding the Earth.

The first satellite began to orbit the Earth in an elliptical orbit. The extreme points of its ascent - the greatest (apogee) and the smallest (perigee) - were located at an altitude of 947 and 228 km, respectively. The inclination of the orbital plane to the equator was 65 0 . The satellite made its first revolution in 1 hour 36.2 minutes and made a little less than 15 revolutions per day. Borisenko I.G. "First records in space." M.: Mechanical Engineering, 1969. P.35

The relatively low location of the orbital perigee caused the satellite to decelerate in the rarefied layers of the earth's atmosphere and shortened its orbital period by 2.94 seconds per day. Such a slight reduction in the orbital time indicated that the satellite was descending very slowly, and from the beginning the apogee was decreasing, and the orbit itself was gradually approaching circularity.

After 20 days, the cosmic first-born fell silent - the batteries of its transmitters were exhausted. Heated by the Sun and frozen in the earth's shadow, it silently circled over the planet that sent it, reflecting the sun's rays and radar pulses. Gradually descending, it existed for about two and a half months and burned up in the lower, denser layers of the atmosphere.

The flight of the first satellite provided valuable information. Having carefully studied the gradual change in orbit due to braking in the atmosphere, scientists were able to calculate the density of the atmosphere at all altitudes where the satellite flew, and using these data to more accurately predict changes in the orbits of subsequent satellites.

Determining the exact trajectory of artificial satellites made it possible to conduct a number of geophysical studies, clarify the shape of the Earth, and more accurately study its oblateness, which makes it possible to draw up more accurate geographical maps.

Deviations of the actual trajectory of the satellite from the calculated one indicate the unevenness of the Earth's gravitational field, which is influenced by the distribution of masses inside the Earth and in the earth's crust. Thus, by studying the movement of the satellite, scientists clarified information about the earth’s gravitational field and the structure of the earth’s crust.

Such calculations have been made before based on the movement of the Moon, but a satellite flying at an altitude of only a few hundred kilometers above the Earth reacts more strongly to its gravitational field than the Moon, located at a distance of almost 400 thousand km from the Earth.

The study of the passage of radio waves through the ionosphere was of great importance, i.e. through the electrified upper layers of the earth's atmosphere. Radio waves sent from the satellite seemed to probe right through the ionosphere. Analysis of these results made it possible to significantly clarify the structure of the gas shell of the earth.

The second Soviet satellite was launched into a more elongated orbit on November 3, 1957. If the rocket of the first satellite allowed it to be raised to 947 km (apogee), then the rocket of the second satellite was more powerful. With almost the same minimum altitude (perigee), the apogee of the orbit reached 1671 km, and the satellite weighed significantly more than the first - 508.3 kg. Glushko V.P. Development of rocketry and astronautics in the USSR. M.: Mechanical Engineering, 1987. - P.54

The third satellite rose even higher - 1880 km and was even heavier. He weighed 1327 kg.

On January 2, 1959, the Soviet space rocket Luna-1 rushed towards the Moon and entered near-solar orbit. She became a satellite of the Sun. In the West they called it the moonlight. Its launch traced the entire thickness of near-Earth space. During the 34-hour flight, the rocket covered 370 thousand km, crossed the orbit of the Moon and entered near-solar space. After this, its flight was monitored for about 30 hours and the most valuable scientific information was received from the instruments installed on it. For the first time, instruments sent by man studied outer space over a distance of 500 thousand km from Earth.

The information obtained during this flight significantly supplemented our information about one of the most important discoveries of the first years of the space age - the discovery of near-Earth radiation belts. In addition to various measurements, during the 500 thousand km flight, observations of the gas composition of the interplanetary medium, observations of meteorites, cosmic rays, etc. were carried out.

No less amazing was the flight of the second Soviet space rocket, Luna-2, launched on September 12, 1959. The instrument container of this rocket touched the surface of the Moon on September 14 at 00 hours 02 minutes 24 seconds! For the first time in history, a man-made apparatus reached another celestial body and delivered to a lifeless planet a monument to the great feat of the Soviet people - a pennant with the image of the USSR Coat of Arms. Luna 2 established that the Moon does not have a magnetic field or radiation belts within the accuracy of instruments.

Before the news of this event had time to properly reach people’s consciousness, our country amazed the world with a new amazing achievement: on October 4, 1959, on the second anniversary of the launch of the first Soviet Earth satellite, the third space rocket was launched in the Soviet Union - “Luna” -3". She separated from herself an automatic interplanetary station with instruments. The container was directed in such a way that, having circled the Moon, it returned back to the Earth. The equipment installed in it photographed and transmitted to Earth an image of the far side of the Moon, which is not visible to us.

This brilliant scientific experiment is interesting not only for the unprecedented fact of taking the first photograph taken in space and transmitting it to Earth, but also for the implementation of an extremely interesting and complex orbit.

Luna 3 was supposed to be above the far side of the Moon, and the orientation system was supposed to turn the container so that its cameras were pointed at the Moon. To do this, on a command from the Earth, the entire container was set into rotation, and when the bright rays of the Sun hit the photocells located on the lower bottom of the container, the current they caused in these photocells served as a signal by which the container stopped rotating and, stopping as if spellbound, began to look at the Sun. (Due to the weak reflected light of the Earth and the Moon, photocells - solar orientation sensors - could not work.) Cameras and lunar sensors located on the opposite upper bottom of the container turned out to be looking towards the Moon. At the beginning of the work, they chose such a relative position of the Earth, the Moon and the Sun, in which the Earth was away from the line connecting the Moon and the Sun. Therefore, the Earth, a star much brighter than the Moon, could not fall into the lenses of the lunar orientation sensors, since it was in a different sector of the sky. Borisenko I.G. "First records in space." M.: Mechanical Engineering, 1969, -P.75

After the far side of the Moon, illuminated by the Sun, was in the field of view of the lunar sensors, the solar sensors turned off, the station more accurately “verified” using the lunar sensors, and photography began.

And so, when the container approached the Moon, it was required that it, the Moon and the Sun be on the same straight line. In addition, the gravity of the Moon should have distorted the orbit of Luna 3 so that it would return to Earth from the northern hemisphere, where all Soviet observation stations are located.

Launching from the northern hemisphere, Luna-3 seemed to dive under the Moon - passed from its southern side - then deflected upward, completely circling the Moon, and returned to the Earth, as was calculated, from the northern hemisphere.

Automatic devices on board the container in space developed the film and, using electronic technology, transmitted the photographs to Earth via radio.

Photographing the far side of the Moon represents the first active step in the practice of “extraterrestrial” astronomy. For the first time, the study of another celestial body was carried out not by observation from the Earth, but directly from outer space near this body.

Our astronomers received a unique photograph of the far side of the Moon, from which they were able to compile an atlas of lunar mountains and “seas”. The names assigned to open mountain formations and plains forever established the glory of the homeland of the discoverers who sent a wonderful automatic device - the prototype of future space observatories.

Having firmly mastered the technique of launching automatic devices, Soviet scientists began to create a spacecraft for human flights.

Dozens of unresolved questions faced science. It was necessary to create many times more powerful launch vehicles to launch spacecraft into orbit, several times heavier than the heaviest artificial satellites launched previously. It was necessary to design and build aircraft that not only fully ensure the safety of the astronaut at all stages of the flight, but also create the necessary conditions for his life and work. It was necessary to develop a whole complex of special training that would allow the body of future cosmonauts to adapt in advance to existence in conditions of overload and weightlessness. The account and many other issues had to be resolved.

Despite the complexity of this enormous problem, Soviet science and technology brilliantly coped with its solution.

So, the invention of the first artificial satellites, thanks to which scientists gained valuable scientific knowledge, is the first achievement of Soviet scientists in the exploration of outer space, which subsequently allowed scientists to move on to a more serious task, which later turned into the second scientific achievement - the launch of a living being into space .

After a series of test launches, when places in the satellite cabin were occupied by various creatures - from fungi and bacteria to the world-famous Belka and Strelka - the design of the spacecraft with all its complex systems for launching into orbit, stabilizing the flight and returning to Earth was completely worked out.