Secret flights into space. Classified as “secret”: the secrets of Soviet cosmonautics. Other lost astronauts

Successes in space exploration became a cause for international pride and were advertised on a planetary scale. But this happened only with successes, and failures remained sealed - both for rivals and for their own citizens...

Captured missiles

At the start of World War II, there was no rocket technology in the USSR at all, while German scientists were developing several military missile programs at once. The scientific material given to the winners as a trophy formed the basis for Soviet developments. Captured German scientists adapted the famous V-2 for space needs, thanks to which the first launch of a satellite into Earth orbit took place in 1957.

The USSR space program arose by accident

Sergei Korolev, one of the leading scientists in the Soviet missile program, kept secret his developments, which were initially aimed at creating intercontinental ballistic missiles. Many at the top of the party did not take the prospect of launching satellites and rockets seriously. Only when Korolev outlined the propaganda prospects for space exploration did serious progress in this area begin.

Space dogs did not return to Earth

Belka and Strelka are the first Soviet cosmonaut dogs to complete an orbital space flight and return to Earth unharmed. The launch took place on August 19, 1960. The flight took place on the Sputnik-5 spacecraft and lasted more than 25 hours, during which time the spacecraft made 17 complete orbits around the Earth. But few people know that several more animals were sent before Belka and Strelka and did not return. Many of the experimental subjects died during takeoff from overloads and high temperatures. One of the experimental dogs, Laika, died a few hours after the launch due to a failure of the thermoregulation system.

Yuri Gagarin may not be the first man in space

On April 12, 1961, Yuri Gagarin became the first man in space, entering Earth orbit on the Vostok spacecraft. However, some historians believe that before the triumphant launch there could have been several unsuccessful attempts, during which Gagarin's predecessors died. But no data on this matter was made public, and it is quite possible that the documents were destroyed under a program of absolute secrecy.

The first satellite network in the world

The launch vehicles for the Vostok spacecraft, which launched the satellites and Gagarin into orbit, were initially developed in parallel with the spy satellite program.

Astronauts and wolves

Pavel Belyaev and Alexei Leonov entered orbit on the Voskhod spacecraft on March 18, 1965, a mission during which Leonov made history by making the first spacewalk. Despite the historic achievement, the mission was fraught with danger: Leonov was at risk of heatstroke and decompression sickness as a result of errors in the design of his spacesuit. Nevertheless, everything went well, but after landing 180 kilometers north of the city of Perm, the astronauts had a hard time. The TASS report called this a landing in a “reserve area,” which was actually the remote Perm taiga. After landing, the huge canopy of the parachute, stuck on two tall spruce trees, fluttered in the wind. The wild forest was infested with bears and wolves, and Leonov and Belyaev had to wait about 12 hours before the rescue mission arrived.

The USSR launched the first lunar rover

Although the US was the first to land a man on the moon, the Soviets were the first to launch a rover onto the lunar surface. "Lunokhod-1" (Apparatus 8EL No. 203) is the world's first planetary rover to successfully operate on the surface of another celestial body - the Moon. It belonged to the series of Soviet remote-controlled self-propelled vehicles "Lunokhod" for lunar exploration (Project E-8) and worked on the Moon for eleven lunar days (10.5 Earth months).

The USSR created the safest descent capsules in history

Despite safety setbacks in the early days of space exploration, the Soyuz capsule became the most reliable system for returning astronauts to Earth, and is still in use today.

The USSR did not have a good relationship with the Moon

The Soviet manned lunar programs, in contrast to their unmanned missions, were largely underperforming, largely due to the limited capabilities of the N1 rocket. In general, historians of Russian cosmonautics believe that the collapse of the Soviet lunar program with the participation of the N-1 rocket was largely due not only to the economic difficulties of those years and the split among the chief designers, but also to the attitude of the country's leadership on this project. The government did not clearly calculate its financial side, and therefore, when it came to allocating the necessary funds for it, the country's leaders demanded that the designers observe an economy regime.

Luna-15

Buzz Aldrin said that when they were leaving the moon, they saw an object that was approaching its surface. The American conspiracy theory says that it was the Soviet Luna 15 probe, which crashed during landing on the surface of the Earth's satellite.

One of the greatest events of the 20th century is the first flight and the entry of man into outer space. The population of the planet learned from Gagarin that the Earth is round. Leonov became a pioneer. It turned out that the first people in space were from the USSR. On March 18, 1965, the first spacewalk was made by Soviet cosmonaut Alexei Leonov from the Voskhod-2 spacecraft. The whole country followed this event. Cosmonaut Alexei Leonov was aboard the Voskhod-2 spacecraft for only 12 minutes, but these minutes went down in the history of astronautics forever. You will learn about how the preparations for the first spacewalk took place, what difficulties the crew of the spacecraft experienced in this article.

Preparations for the first manned spacewalk

The idea that a human spacewalk was possible came to Korolev back in 1963. The designer suggested that such experience would soon be not only desirable, but also absolutely necessary. He turned out to be right. In the following decades, astronautics developed rapidly. For example, maintaining the normal operation of the ISS would have been generally impossible without external installation and repair work, which once again proves how necessary the first manned spacewalk was. The year 1964 marked the beginning of official preparations for this experiment. But then, in 1964, in order to implement such a daring project, it was necessary to seriously think through the design of the ship.

Voskhod-2 spacecraft

As a result, the well-proven Voskhod-1 was taken as a basis. One of its windows was replaced with an exit lock, and the number of crew was reduced from three to two. The airlock itself was inflatable and located outside the ship. After the experiment was completed, before landing, it had to separate itself from the body. This is how the Voskhod-2 spacecraft appeared.

Spacesuit

The created spacesuit became a real miracle of technology. According to the firm conviction of its creators, it was a product more complex than a car

Special spacesuits were developed especially for Voskhod-2, which bore the formidable name “Berkut”. They had an additional sealed shell, and a backpack with a life support system was placed behind the astronaut’s back. For better light reflection, even the color of the spacesuits was changed: instead of the traditional orange, white was used. The total weight of the Berkut was about 100 kg. The spacesuits were very uncomfortable. They were so dense that in order to clench your hand into a fist, an effort of almost 25 kilograms was required. To be able to perform any movement in such clothes, he had to be constantly trained. The work was wearing thin, but the cosmonauts stubbornly pursued their cherished goal - to make it possible for a person to go into outer space. Leonov, by the way, was considered the strongest and most resilient in the group, which largely predetermined his main role in the experiment.

Cosmonaut Alexei Leonov later recalled:

For example, to squeeze a gloved hand, a force of 25 kg was needed

The color of the spacesuit also changed. "Berkut", in order to better reflect the sun's rays, was made white, not orange. A special light filter appeared on his helmet, which was supposed to protect the astronaut’s eyes from bright sunlight.

The crew of the Voskhod-2 spacecraft

They did not immediately decide who to entrust this responsible mission to. Multiple psychological compatibility tests were conducted. After all, the crew must act as a single mechanism.
Belyaev is self-possessed and cool-headed and could quickly make decisions in unusual situations. Leonov, his complete opposite, is hot-tempered and impetuous, but very brave and courageous. These two very different people made an excellent tandem for carrying out the experiment.
For 3 months, the cosmonauts became familiar with the structure of the new spacecraft. Spacewalk training was carried out on board a Tu-104 aircraft, in which a life-size model of the Voskhod-2 spacecraft was installed. Every day, Soviet cosmonauts ran cross-country courses or skied, and did intensive weightlifting and gymnastics.

Cosmonauts Pavel Belyaev and Alexey Leonov

From the memoirs of Alexey Leonov about preparing for a spacewalk: “On Earth, we carried out tests in a pressure chamber in a vacuum corresponding to an altitude of 60 km... In reality, when I went into outer space, it turned out a little differently. The pressure in the spacesuit is about 600 mm, and outside it is 10 - 9; it was impossible to simulate such conditions on Earth..."

At the moment when Alexei Leonov climbed out of his spaceship on March 18, 1965 and saw himself at an altitude of 500 kilometers above the surface of our planet, he did not feel movement at all. Although in fact he was rushing around the Earth at a speed that was many times higher than the speed of a jet plane. A previously unseen panorama of our planet opened before Alexey - like a giant canvas, which was saturated with contrasting textures and colors, alive and bright. Alexey Leonov will forever remain the first person who was able to see the Earth in all its splendor.

The Soviet cosmonaut simply took his breath away at that moment:

It's hard to even imagine what it was. Only in space can you feel the grandeur and gigantic size of the human environment - you won’t feel this on Earth

In outer space, Alexey Leonov began to carry out the observations and experiments provided for by the program. He made five departures and approaches from the airlock chamber, with the very first departure being made to a minimum distance - one meter - for orientation in new conditions, and the rest to the full length of the halyard. All this time, the spacesuit was maintained at “room” temperature, and its outer surface was heated in the sun to +60°C and cooled in the shade to -100°C. Pavel BELYAEV, using a television camera and telemetry, monitored the work of the co-pilot in space and was ready, if necessary, to provide the assistance he needed.

At the moment when Alexey Leonov saw the Yenisei and Irtysh, he received a command from the commander of the ship Belyaev to go back. But Leonov was unable to do this for a very long time. The problem turned out to be that his spacesuit was greatly inflated in the vacuum. So much so that the astronaut simply could not squeeze into the airlock hatch, and there was no time to consult with the Earth about this situation. Leonov made attempt after attempt, but they all ended in vain, and the oxygen supply in the suit was only enough for 20 minutes, which inexorably melted away (the cosmonaut spent 12 minutes in space). In the end, Alexey Leonov decided to simply relieve the pressure in the spacesuit and, contrary to the instructions issued, which instructed him to enter the airlock with his feet, he decided to “swim” into it face forward. Fortunately, he succeeded. And although Leonov spent only 12 minutes in outer space, during this time he managed to get wet as if a whole tub of water had been poured on him - the physical exertion was so great.

Photo of the first human spacewalk

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Video

Video of man's first spacewalk with video inserts

Feature film "Time of the First"

The heroism of the crew members of the Voskhod-2 spaceship inspired the creative team of Timur BEKMAMBETOV and Evgeny MIRONOV to create a large-scale production film project, the heroic drama “Time of the First,” dedicated to one of the most risky expeditions into orbit and Alexey LEONOV’s entry into space

Documentary film from the Roscosmos television studio “Alexey Leonov. Jump into space"

The film is dedicated to the 80th anniversary of the first cosmonaut who walked into outer space.

Interesting facts about the first manned spacewalk

• Critical situation when leaving orbit. The crew of Voskhod 2 could have become the first crew to die while returning from orbit. Before landing, the automatic attitude control system failed. Belyaev manually oriented the ship and turned on the braking engine. As a result, Voskhod landed in the taiga (180 km north of the city of Perm). The TASS report called this “landing in a ‘reserve area,’” which was actually the remote Perm taiga. After landing, the huge canopy of the parachute, stuck on two tall spruce trees, fluttered in the wind. Soon an IL-14 was already circling above them. The plane immediately established radio contact and informed the astronauts that they had been found and help would be sent soon. The astronauts spent the night in the forest. The helicopters could only fly over them and report that “one is chopping wood, the other is putting it on the fire.” Warm clothes and food were dropped from helicopters to the cosmonauts, but it was not possible to get Belyaev and Leonov out of the taiga. From Leonov’s memoirs: “When we landed, they didn’t find us right away... We sat in spacesuits for two days, we had no other clothes. On the third day they pulled us out of there. Because of the sweat, there was about 6 liters of moisture in my spacesuit, up to my knees. So it was gurgling in my legs. Then, already at night, I tell Pasha: “That’s it, I’m cold.” We took off our spacesuits, stripped naked, wrung out our underwear, and put them on again. Then the screen-vacuum thermal insulation was removed. They threw away the entire hard part and put the rest on themselves. These are nine layers of aluminized foil coated with dederon on top. They wrapped themselves on top with parachute lines, like two sausages. And so we stayed there for the night. And at 12 noon a helicopter arrived and landed 9 km away. Another helicopter in a basket lowered Yura Lygin straight to us. Then Slava Volkov (Vladislav Volkov, future TsKBEM cosmonaut) and others came to us on skis. They brought us warm clothes, poured us cognac, and we gave them our alcohol - and life became more fun. The fire was lit and the boiler was installed. We washed ourselves. In about two hours they built a small hut for us, where we spent the night normally. There was even a bed there"
• The day before the start, a big problem happened. Due to the negligence of a security soldier, the inflatable airlock, which was hung out of the ship to check the tightness, unexpectedly fell and ruptured. There was no spare, and therefore it was decided to use the same one on which the cosmonauts had been training for a long time. This incident could have been fatal, but, fortunately, everything worked out, the repeatedly used airlock survived, and the first manned spacewalk was successfully completed.

Dangers of spacewalks

Spacewalks are dangerous for many different reasons. The first is the possibility of a collision with space debris. The orbital speed at an altitude of 300 km above the Earth (a typical flight altitude for manned spacecraft) is about 7.7 km/s. This is 10 times the speed of a bullet, so the kinetic energy of a small particle of paint or grain of sand is equivalent to the same energy of a bullet with 100 times the mass. With each spaceflight, more and more orbital debris appears, which is why this problem continues to be the most dangerous.


Potential danger comes from the possibility of loss or unacceptable removal from the spacecraft, threatening death due to the exhaustion of the respiratory gas supply. Possible damage or punctures of spacesuits are also dangerous, the depressurization of which threatens anoxia and rapid death if the astronauts do not manage to return to the ship in time.

On October 20, 1965, the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI) celebrated the record for the longest time a person has spent in outer space outside a spacecraft - 12 minutes and 9 seconds. Alexey Leonov received the FAI's highest award - the Cosmos gold medal for the first spacewalk in human history. Crew commander Pavel Belyaev also received a medal and diploma.

Leonov became the fifteenth person in space, and the first person to take the next fundamental step after Gagarin. To be left alone with the abyss, the most hostile space for a person, to look at the stars only through the thin glass of a helmet, to hear the beat of your heart in absolute silence and to return back is a real feat. A feat behind which stood thousands of scientists, engineers, workers and millions of ordinary people, but it was accomplished by one person - Alexei Leonov.

Half a century has passed since earthlings began to explore space. However, he remains the Great Unknown. This is once again proven by the mysterious surprises in its vast expanses, evidence of which does not appear in open sources.

They say that on March 26, 1991, a descent capsule with American astronaut Charles Gibson, who supposedly flew into space back in 1963, splashed down in the Atlantic.

After returning to Earth, Gibson underwent quarantine and medical rehabilitation at Edwards Air Force Base in California. Both the astronaut and Gemini were carefully studied by scientists and specialists in various fields, but this did not clarify what happened to them. Therefore, the NASA representative limited himself to a very vague message:

Charles Gibson is physically well, but he is completely disoriented. He is not aware of his long absence from Earth. The astronaut’s mental state leaves much to be desired, and his words cannot be connected into one whole. When asked where he had been for so many years, Gibson invariably answers only something incomprehensible: “Never again, never again!”

The second such incident, which occurred with astronaut John Smith, was allegedly reported by the popular British newspaper The Sun.

In October 1973, Smith went into space on a ship that was disguised as another satellite launched by order of the Pentagon, allegedly to study near-Earth space. The first three days of the flight went quite normally, but then the ship’s maneuvering and orientation system malfunctioned.

As a result, the astronaut found himself in the zone of action of the so-called radiation belts, which negatively affect not only living organisms, but even equipment. NASA management intended to make attempts to save John, but communication with him suddenly stopped.

After what happened in space, NASA was in a state of shock for several days. The management was the first to come to its senses and strictly ordered all employees, under threat of dismissal, to forget about the cosmic tragedy that had occurred, as if it had never happened. At the same time, the launch of the spacecraft piloted by John was noted in the documentation simply as unsuccessful, and the astronaut was written off as having died as a result of an accident during a training flight.

But the story of the mysterious incident did not end there; on the contrary, it received a new and unexpected continuation. At the end of 2000, an amateur astronomer from the Fiji Islands accidentally recorded an unknown cosmic body in an orbit at an altitude of 480 km and immediately reported his discovery to NASA. There, experts immediately pointed radars at the indicated area of ​​the sky and, after rummaging through the archives, came to an unexpected conclusion: this is nothing more than the once-missing Smith ship, which appeared out of nowhere.

In addition, the ship gradually descended, but did not respond to radio requests. Then NASA decided to remove the object from orbit when it dropped to an acceptable altitude. At the beginning of 2001, the operation to return him to Earth was carried out during the next flight of the Endeavor shuttle.

The returned object was immediately opened, and, to the surprise of everyone present, it contained a safe and sound Smith, but only in an unconscious state, because the temperature inside the ship was close to absolute zero. When they began to gradually raise her, the astronaut began to show obvious signs of life. Specialists in cryogenic medicine were urgently called. They slowly but surely revived the astronaut.

And it soon became clear that it was not John Smith who returned to Earth, but someone who was exactly like him. The first suspicions arose among doctors who, after checking the patient’s condition with his medical record, were surprised to notice significant discrepancies. It, for example, recorded traces of a rib fracture that John received as a child, but the astronaut under study had nothing of the kind. It was also well known that Smith had some difficulty with higher mathematics, and the patient under study was quite fluent in extracting cube roots from 18-digit numbers.

A physiological anomaly was also discovered, namely: the “new” Smith’s heart turned out to be displaced to the right side of the chest, which the real John did not have. Other oddities also emerged. In particular, in the personal notebook that is given to each astronaut before departure, only half of the 100 sheets remain. Moreover, for some reason the imaginary John covered 50 pages with strange small symbols, not similar to oriental hieroglyphs, nor to ancient ideographic writings, nor to the letters of any modern alphabet. IN

As a result, experts came to the conclusion that it was not John Smith who returned to Earth, but a certain humanoid creature who replaced the astronaut. Who did this and why is unknown. And a few days later, the vigilantly guarded alien allegedly disappeared without a trace. Searches for him did not yield any results. However, it is possible that US official circles simply kept the mysterious incident strictly classified and isolated its hero from communication with scientists.

Paranormal investigators believe they know the answer to both cases: both the first Gemini with astronaut Charles Gibson and the second ship with John Smith fell into the so-called time whirlpool.

It is known that our world exists in time and space. With the second, everything seems to be clear. But we have little idea what it means to exist in time. Meanwhile, this is not so difficult: you just have to imagine a stormy river carrying various objects, including houses and people washed away by it. We can say that they exist precisely in this river. So we exist in the flow of time.

But the smooth flow of the river of time, like any stream, can be disrupted. Whirlpools sometimes arise in it, in which the passage of time is distorted. People and objects caught in such anomalies find themselves, figuratively speaking, drawn into the depths of this river, where there is no current, that is, time stops. Then, after some interval, the “prisoners” are thrown to the surface, that is, back to our time. It is possible that cardinal psychophysical changes occur in their bodies. This is exactly what happened to both astronauts.

ANGELIC VISIONS

In 1985, when the Soviet space program was on the rise, and people preferred not to report emergency incidents in space, the unexpected happened at the Salyut 7 orbital station. It was the 155th day of the flight. A crew of three cosmonauts - Oleg Atkov, Vladimir Solovyov and Leonid Kizim - was engaged in the planned experiments and observations. A series of medical experiments was about to begin. Suddenly, the station was flooded with a brilliant orange light, blinding the astronauts. It was not an explosion or fire at the station itself. It seemed that the light penetrated into it from the outside, from space, through the completely opaque walls of the Salyut.

All three cosmonauts were people with a strong psyche, who passed all kinds of tests during training. There was no question of religious superstitions. However, they all had the same thought: angels were flying in space next to them! For 10 minutes they accompanied Salyut 7 at the same speed, repeating the ship’s maneuvers, and then disappeared. The orange glowing cloud also disappeared. Having regained consciousness, ship commander Oleg Atkov, cosmonauts Vladimir Solovyov and Leonid Kizim reported what had happened to the control center.

They demanded a detailed report of what they saw. When the flight directors got acquainted with it, the report was immediately classified as “secret”, and the astronauts became interested in the ground team of doctors. So, instead of medical experiments, the station crew began studying the state of their own health, both physical and mental. Tests showed normal. Therefore, it was decided to consider the incident a group hallucination due to overwork during the five-month flight.

However, the unexpected happened. On the 167th day of the flight, three colleagues joined the first crew: Svetlana Savitskaya, Igor Volk and Vladimir Dzhanibekov. And again the orbital station was illuminated with orange light and seven “angels” appeared. Now all six cosmonauts reported that they saw “smiling angels.” The version of group insanity due to overwork could be safely rejected, since the second crew arrived just a few days before the second “angelic vision”.

Of course, you can attribute what happened to the human factor. You never know how being in space can affect your psyche. However, in the West, a sensation was caused by several photographs taken by the Hubble orbital telescope, which ubiquitous journalists somehow obtained from the American Jet Propagation laboratory. There, in strict secrecy, experts studied the mysterious anomalies captured by Hubble. Seven flying angel-like figures were clearly visible in the photographs! Scientists have not yet been able to establish their true essence.

However, in orbit, astronauts encounter not only mysterious visual visions, but also equally mysterious cosmic voices. The first to report the mysterious phenomenon in October 1995 was cosmonaut-researcher Sergei Krichevsky, senior researcher at the Cosmonaut Training Center. Yu.A. Gagarin and the Institute of the History of Natural Science and Technology of the Russian Academy of Sciences, and also a candidate of technical sciences and a full member of the Russian Academy of Cosmonautics named after. K.E. Tsiolkovsky.

His report states that “all information about fantastic visions accompanied by a cosmic voice is the property of a very narrow circle of people... The cosmonauts transmitted and are transmitting information about them exclusively to each other, sharing information with those who will soon make the flight.”

They heard various sounds, including the speech of other creatures, and it was understandable - they were learned immediately, without training. A characteristic point in this case is that the astronaut begins to perceive a flow of information coming from somewhere outside, but when the flow ceases, it still unexpectedly disappears. That is, there is a feeling that someone powerful and great outside is transmitting some new and unusual information for a person.

It also happened, with a very detailed forecast, and anticipation of future events - with a detailed “showing” of threatening dangerous situations or moments that - as if with an inner voice - were especially highlighted and commented on. At the same time, they heard: they say, everything will work out, it will end well. Thus, the most difficult and dangerous moments of the flight program were anticipated in advance.
There was a case that if not for such a “prophetic vision”, the astronauts could have died.

The accuracy and detail of dangerous moments is also amazing. Thus, the voice predicted the mortal danger that awaited the astronauts during spacewalks. In the prophetic vision, this danger was shown several times and commented on by voice. In a real exit, when working outside the station, all this was absolutely confirmed, but the cosmonaut was already prepared and saved his life (otherwise he would have flown away from the station).

There is no point in guessing who is the intelligent entity that the astronauts come into contact with. There is no necessary data for this yet. We can only quote the words of one of the astronauts who heard someone else’s voice: “Space has proven to us that he is certainly intelligent and much more complex than our ideas about him. And also the fact that our knowledge today does not allow us to understand the essence of most of the processes occurring in the Universe.”

Ivan Chipurin

On October 4, 1957, the first artificial Earth satellite was launched in the USSR. In honor of this event, World Space Week is celebrated annually in early October. Komsomolskaya Pravda found out what difficulties our orbital explorers faced.

Before sending people into space, equipment was tested on earth for many years. Workers from the secret Zvezda plant took part in this work, including Natalya Oparina - at that time the leading engineer of the testing department.

Tereshkova was forced to put on makeup

Although the development of the space industry is attributed to Khrushchev, the epic began in Stalin times, says Natalya Oparina. - For Nikita Sergeevich, being the first to fly into space was a purely political matter, as well as showing that only in our country a woman can reach the same heights as a man.

- Do you mean Valentina Tereshkova?

Yes. Korolev always said: “A woman on a ship won’t do any good!” Although they wrote that it was his idea, he categorically did not want to see any women in space. But Khrushchev insisted on this. In general, we prepared five girls - Zhanna Erkina, Tatyana Kuznetsova, Valentina Ponomareva, Irina Solovyova and Valentina Tereshkova. Until the last moment they chose who would fly. Everyone wanted to go into space: the cosmonaut immediately received the Star of the Hero of the Soviet Union, and the understudies were awarded the Order of Lenin. Let's say Solovyova is a graduate of the Moscow Aviation Institute, the daughter of a professor. But Khrushchev insisted on the weaver’s daughter, who did not even have an education. But she attended the flying club and was considered “of the people.” As a result, two were sent to the training ground: Tereshkova and an understudy - Solovyova.

- What was Tereshkova’s task?

The task of all the first cosmonauts was to test the endurance of the human body in space. I remember how Tereshkova was photographed before the flight. The same photographer always came, who had access to especially secret people - the astronauts. And then he comes, and Tereshkova is already sitting in the space chair. And she didn’t wear makeup then. The photographer, hesitatingly, says to us: “Maybe we should tint it?” Tereshkova objects: “Let them see me as I am!” But we still managed to convince her: “The whole world will see you! You are the face of our country." They powdered it and tinted their lips.

- Do you think she did it?

She vomited the entire flight. Korolev swore: “As long as I’m alive, not a single woman will fly into space again!” Upon arrival, Tereshkova told security that she felt sick because the space products were bad. But after returning, she distributed food to those who met her. We weren't able to check her products, but we examined the entire batch and didn't find anything spoiled.

Leonov underwent epilation with plaster

- What difficulties did you have to face during the training of Alexei Leonov, the man who was the first to go into outer space?

In the first ships of the Vostok series, the cosmonauts were in heavy ejection seats. But the first supports have already been developed in the Voskhod ships. The cradle was much lighter than the chair and allowed the astronaut to descend to the ground inside the cabin. The cradle is a universal thing, suitable for astronauts of different heights and weights, but it requires an individual insert. The liner is made from a plaster cast from the astronaut’s body. They brought Leonov. They thought about his head: they put on a cap, but they forgot about his body. And his back and chest are hairy. When the plaster hardened, they began to remove Leonov from the casting container. And the plaster stuck tightly to the hair on the body! The pain was wild - Leonov screamed obscenities. The astronaut was removed from the container along with the plaster. The latter was split into pieces, and then a blade was inserted between the piece of plaster and the body and the hair was cut. This is what hair removal is like...

- I know that when Leonov went into outer space, not everything went smoothly...

After deploying the airlock, Leonov had to expose the external television cameras on the rods, and then lean out and wave his hand in front of the television cameras. Leonov came out completely. The problems started when we had to return. Due to the design features, it was difficult to enter the lock “feet first”, otherwise it would be impossible to close the hatch behind you. Time was running out. Leonov's partner was given clear instructions: if Leonov did not return to the ship on time, shoot the airlock and return to Earth alone. Leonov, in order to increase the mobility of the suit and turn his head towards the airlock hatch, turned the internal pressure regulator of the suit to minimum. With such a sharp drop in pressure, nitrogen in the blood could boil. The oxygen was running out. But Leonov was able to climb into the airlock, turn around there and close the hatch (Alexei Leonov’s own opinion about the emergency is in the “Direct Speech” chapter).

- Did the first cosmonauts take a particularly big risk with their lives?

Certainly. Volkov, Dobrovolsky, Patsayev, Komarov died, someone lost their health. And German Titov was irradiated due to the fact that he flew into space during a period of solar activity. He underwent treatment for a long time, left the detachment, becoming a test pilot. By the way, it was Titov who was the first to go to the toilet in space. The toilet is an important component of space exploration. Yuri Gagarin, so you understand, had diapers. The first vessels were simple: in the form of a large spoon, which was tightly closed with doors. So, Titov flies and reports: I am “Eagle” (this is his call sign), and at the end of the message he says that he made a chair. And there was just noise in the communication channel. And in the Mission Control Center it seemed that he said: I hear a knock. An hour and a half later, Titov gets in touch again and reports, but they cut him off: what kind of knocking, in what place, for how long? And only after nine orbits, which was 15 hours, did they figure out that Titov had gone to the toilet.

How were spacesuits sold?

Nikolai Khabarovsky, who worked on software at the Zvezda plant, told why the Soviet spacesuit was considered secret for many years and how much our products were sold abroad.

According to some estimates, the Russian-made spacesuit cost about $18 million. But this was at a time when I was still working at the factory. Now it costs even more. Spacesuits are very difficult to manufacture. It is necessary to involve thousands of people and dozens, or even hundreds of enterprises. The body of the spacesuit is hammered out by hand by coppersmiths using special mandrels. The materials used in the spacesuit are also very rare and expensive. For example, pure gold is used to make a light filter. It allows you to protect the astronaut’s eyes from harmful ultraviolet radiation when working on the day side of the station. There was one person at our plant, the head of the design bureau. He worked at Zvezda: products for the exhibition were sent through him. So he ended up selling the Krechet spacesuit abroad. Once they showed a program on TV, and I saw our spacesuit from the Spaniards. They showed the markings in the frame, and when I came to the factory, I compared them with the existing ones. And then this man suddenly had a villa on the coast of Italy...

- How long does a spacesuit last?

Russian spacesuits can be used for 15 - 20 spacewalks. Only the gloves change, since they are made individually for each astronaut.

- Did the astronauts violate the “prohibition law”?

- “Prohibition” for medical reasons should not have existed at all. Doctors insisted that red wine be included in the astronauts' diet. But then some comrade from the Central Committee said that the cosmonauts, “flying higher than everyone else, are obliged to set an example for all Soviet people.”

- Smuggled in?

During takeoff, everyone could take on board one and a half kilograms of personal belongings. So a whole flask of cognac ended up at the station. True, there were problems with drinking it in zero gravity: they used half of the flask, but at the same time they dented it greatly, “squeezing out” the cognac, so that then even the straw did not pass through. In general, they left him as a mockery for the other crew. And the next cosmonauts were informed about the “gift”. Six months later the crew returns: “Excellent cognac!” They can’t understand how they drank. But it turned out to be simple: one astronaut takes the flask in his teeth, the second slaps the head, you and the flask fly, and the liquid remains at the same point and moves into the mouth.

At the same time, I can say: our cosmonauts on board the station were never caught drunk, unlike the crews of the American shuttles. I know of at least two cases in which American astronauts were in bed while in space.

BY THE WAY

What did Gagarin receive for the flight?

- After the first flight into space, Yuri Gagarin was given the rank of major and the Golden Star of Hero of the Soviet Union. How did they financially reward cosmonaut No. 1?

There was a secret order - a list of things that were given to him,” says Natalya Oparina. - Namely: a four-room apartment, six pairs of underwear and socks, one light suit and one dark one. For the wife - a raincoat and stockings. The mother was given a dismountable house and furniture, the sister and brother were given one thousand rubles each. About five years ago, the classification of secrecy was removed from this order.

DIRECT SPEECH

Alexey LEONOV: If I had acted according to the instructions, I would not have survived!

- So what happened to cosmonaut Leonov’s spacesuit during his first spacewalk?

When Leonov went out into open space, no one knew what would happen to the spacesuit, says Associate Professor at the Air Force Academy. Gagarin Colonel Valentin Petrov. - It is impossible to create a vacuum, like in space, on earth. While returning to the ship, Leonov's suit swelled up like a ball, and he could not fit into the hatch. He acted according to circumstances. Changing the pressure, he deflated the suit. This is a stroke of genius and I consider him a hero.

The pressure had to be dropped to 0.27 for the suit to deflate, and this saved my life,” explains Alexey Leonov. - For the first time, the spacesuit was tested in real conditions. If I had followed the instructions, I would not have survived. And Korolev agreed with me!

Secret space. Did Gagarin have predecessors? Zheleznyakov Alexander Borisovich

CHAPTER XI Secret flights to Mir

Secret flights to Mir

It was not without reason that the Mir orbital station was called the pride of Soviet cosmonautics. At one time, she “owned” all conceivable and inconceivable records that could be set during the exploration of outer space.

And only one record turned out to be “unavailable” for “Mir”. In terms of the number of “phantom cosmonauts” who “worked” on board, the complex lags significantly behind its predecessors, the Salyut-type stations, and from the American reusable ships, and even more so from the Soviet ships of the Vostok type.

I was able to count only five “episodes” related to “Mir” in “phantom cosmonautics”. And even then, all the rumors about “secret flights” aboard the station were so vague that they did not cause a stir even in those publications that in previous years would not have failed to take advantage of the opportunity and would have long and persistently discussed “the next secrets of Soviet cosmonautics.” Except that the last “episode” received a little more attention. I will talk about it in the chapter where we talk about the death of the complex. I’ll talk about one more “episode” in the chapter “Sex in Space,” and about the other three in this chapter.

But first, a few words that may explain why so few rumors about the flights of “phantom cosmonauts” were associated with Mir. The reason for the “inattention” most likely was the time when the station was in orbit.

The start of operation of the orbital complex coincided with the end of the Cold War. The era of perestroika and glasnost began in the USSR, and the flow of information that overwhelmed us all about many of the “blank spots” of our recent history turned out to be more fascinating than some rumors about space flights, about which nothing was supposedly officially reported. And trust in government sources has strengthened significantly.

Then came the time of radical changes on the political map of the world - the Soviet Union ceased to exist, a united Germany emerged, the European Union was created, old alliances disappeared into oblivion, and new ones emerged. People had to adapt to a rapidly changing world and interest in astronautics decreased. If you look at the publications of the first half of the 1990s, you will notice that only the specialized press wrote about many space flights. All other newspapers and magazines, at best, only stated the fact of launch and landing. Moreover, if some emergency happened.

And only at the end of the last century, thanks to the World Wide Web, interest in outer space exploration arose again. It must be said frankly that this happened largely thanks to enthusiasts who collected information about space flights bit by bit, summarized it and made it available via the Internet. The pioneers of this unique movement were the Americans Jonathan McDowell and Mark Wade, the Russians Alexander Krasnikov and the author of these lines. Nowadays, few people are surprised by such things, but there was a time when there were very few of us.

Talking about the changes that took place in those years, I was somewhat distracted from the main topic of our story and completely forgot about the Mir station, which was already circling the Earth. Before the changes happened, rumors managed to quietly “send” two cosmonauts aboard the station. There could be more of them, but...

The first rumor about a “secret flight” to Mir appeared when the Soyuz TM-8 spacecraft went into space. The launch took place on September 6, 1989, and on board were Soviet cosmonauts Alexander Viktorenko and Alexander Serebrov. This was the flight of the fifth main expedition aboard the orbital complex.

The program for the crew was quite ordinary, if not routine. True, it was planned to test an autonomous means of transportation for astronauts in outer space, that is, a “space motorcycle.” There were no plans to conduct any “special” experiments on board the station. Although there was a lot of talk about this possibility, recalling the Almaz flights in the 1970s. Subsequently, it turned out that it was indeed possible to solve problems of a military nature on the Mir. The station was designed for this. But that is another topic. Moreover, all these experiments in the interests of the Soviet military department have nothing to do with “phantom cosmonautics”.

Then a lot was written about the flight of Viktorenko and Serebrov. Nowadays they are remembered only sporadically, and even then mainly only by historians. The flight went well. The return to our native land also happened without any problems.

Rumors that not two, but three cosmonauts flew on the Soyuz TM-8 spacecraft appeared shortly after TASS reported about the landing of the spacecraft's descent module. As is known, Soyuz-class ships can be piloted by three crew members. The flights of 1987–1988 “accustomed” to the fact that the crew always includes three cosmonauts. And then suddenly two of them went into orbit.

This is probably why rumors appeared about the presence of another expedition member on board Soyuz TM-8 and the Mir station, who was not shown on television. Some Western publications even published the first and last name of this “secret cosmonaut” - Roman Petrov. His tasks were so “specific” that they “preferred” not to report them officially, as well as his very existence. According to legend, this Petrov was experimenting with laser weapons.

But, as I already noted, new times have come and the “report” of a number of tabloids about the next “secret flight” was rather routine. It was forgotten almost immediately and was remembered again only in August 1990, when cosmonauts Anatoly Solovyov and Alexander Balandin returned to Earth on the Soyuz TM-9 spacecraft. Just like six months before, the crew of the next Soviet manned spacecraft was “increased” by one person. This time the third was a certain Leonid Ivanov, who was “training” in low-Earth orbit to pilot a military version of the Buran, a reusable ship created in those years in our country.

The “life” of Roman Petrov and Leonid Ivanov turned out to be very short. Therefore, I will not pay much attention to them. Few people now remember that such “phantom cosmonauts” once appeared in popular rumors. This is not surprising - most rumors have been circulating for an extremely short time. True, there are exceptions, like the unforgettable Ledovsky, Shiborin and Mitkov, about whom I have already written.

If we evaluate the technical capabilities of the Soyuz TM spacecraft and the Mir station, then the flights of Petrov and Ivanov could well have taken place. But, as in the vast majority of cases with “ghost astronauts,” there was simply no need for them.

Firstly, such flights entail a lot of other problems that also need to be taken into account when conducting a “cover-up operation.” How, for example, to organize the exchange of information between the board and the Mission Control Center so that no one notices. And it’s okay that ordinary people who follow the flight, feeding only on information disseminated officially, wouldn’t notice. But American technical intelligence, which closely monitored and continues to monitor all space objects, would hardly have “missed” the exchange through closed channels.

Secondly, all the experiments that Petrov and Ivanov “conducted” could have been done by other crew members. It was both simpler technically and much easier organizationally. So why would there be a fence around this entire garden?

Therefore, the conclusion suggests itself: the flights of Petrov and Ivanov are a myth, like many others.

I can’t say anything about the personality of Roman Petrov, who became the prototype of the “phantom cosmonaut”. It is quite possible that the image is collective and has nothing to do with a specific person. You understand that the surname “Petrov” is very rare for residents of Russia. The only less common ones are “Ivanov” and “Kuznetsov”. Joke.

But Leonid Ivanov has a very real prototype, and with a man who was actually preparing for space flights. True, he was physically unable to make the flight in 1990.

Leonid Georgievich Ivanov was born on June 25, 1950 in the small town of Safonovo, in the Smolensk region. In 1971 he graduated from the Kachin Higher Military Aviation School named after A.F. Myasnikov and was placed at the disposal of the commander of the 14th Air Army, in which he served for more than three years.

In August 1976, Ivanov was enrolled as a student cosmonaut in the cosmonaut corps of the Cosmonaut Training Center. Next came special parachute training, general space training, numerous tests and exams, and endless training. On January 20, 1979, Ivanov was assigned to the position of cosmonaut in the aerospace systems group of the cosmonaut corps.

It is quite possible that in the future Ivanov would join the ranks of real space explorers, and not “phantom cosmonauts.” However, fate decreed otherwise. On October 24, 1980, Leonid Georgievich took the MiG-27 fighter into the sky to test it for a spin. This turned out to be his last flight. The plane crashed and Ivanov died.

What happened to the car on that ill-fated day remained unknown to most. Experts, of course, determined the probable cause of the failure that led to the accident. But what does this change in the end?

Why the creators of myths about Soviet cosmonautics remembered Leonid Ivanov in 1990 is difficult to say. Maybe to give your version some credibility? Or maybe someone learned something about a real member of the cosmonaut corps (at that time we didn’t know everyone by name yet) and he decided to use it?

Be that as it may, “cosmonaut Roman Petrov” and “cosmonaut Leonid Ivanov” will also have to be included in our list, which by this time already includes several dozen names. And this is far from the end. Even in this chapter one more name will have to be mentioned - “cosmonaut Igor Fedrov.”

According to legend, this space conqueror died in December 1991 during an unsuccessful landing on the Soyuz TM-15 spacecraft. The financial difficulties of the Soviet cosmonautics of that period, already mentioned above, led to the fact that spacecraft, whose service life was about 180 days, flew somewhat longer than expected. Therefore, the astronauts had to risk themselves during descent from orbit, relying only on “maybe.” One day it all ended tragically and “cosmonaut Igor Fedrov” was unable to return to his native Earth.

I will not pay much attention to this story, since everything in it is fictitious, from beginning to end. At least this fact - the Soyuz TM-15 spacecraft launched on July 27, 1992, and landed on February 1, 1993. Thus, no one could die on it when there were many months left before returning to Earth.

The same can be said about the flight duration - just under 189 days. The excess of the resource is within “reasonable limits” and it is unlikely that it could somehow fatally affect the favorable outcome of the case.

It is impossible to establish how this legend was born. These are the depths of human consciousness, which are very difficult to penetrate. Moreover, it is not clear whose consciousness needs to be penetrated.

But finding out the place of “birth” of the legend turned out to be quite simple - it appeared in New York, on Brighton Beach, where our former compatriots lived and still live in abundance. It can be assumed that out of nostalgia for their homeland, and remembering the gossip they once heard about the “secret flights of Soviet cosmonauts,” someone started a rumor about another “victim of the Soviet cosmonautics.”

It is difficult to say who became the prototype of “cosmonaut Igor Fedrov”. You don't meet people with that last name very often. At one time, the Fedorovs appeared in Rus' due to the oversight (or laziness) of a scribe, who “lost” the first letter “o” in the surname “Fedorov”.

Among those who were involved in astronautics, Fedrov is not visible. But there is Anatoly Pavlovich Fedorov, who from 1965 to 1974 prepared for space flights in the corps of Soviet cosmonauts. I would venture to suggest that it was he who became the forerunner of “cosmonaut Igor Fedrov.” Although I can’t say this with certainty. Maybe I'm wrong.

And the last thing about “cosmonaut Igor Fedrov”. In 2001, the short film “Cosmonaut” by Norwegian director Stefan Faldbakken was shown with great success at the Venice Film Festival. It retold the New York legend with absolute accuracy. Even the surname of the fictional astronaut turned out to be the same. And the fate was similar - he died returning to Earth on an “overdue” ship.

By the way, Igor Fedrov is the second “hero” from the history of “phantom cosmonautics”, whose image was used in the filming of feature films. I already wrote about the first of them in the chapter on the lunar race (Andrei Mikoyan). It is quite possible that there are other films whose plots are based on the myths of “ghost astronauts”. But they went across the screens unnoticed, without any fuss. That's why I can't talk about them in this book. I think that two “heroes” are enough to trace the “inextricable connection between urban folklore and cinema.”

This is where I finish talking about “secret flights aboard the Mir station” and move on to “secret flights of American reusable ships.”