Astronauts are considered perhaps the most superstitious people on the planet. According to tradition, they take a sprig of wormwood with them on a flight, as it retains its smell longer than other plants and reminds of the Earth, and it is customary to escort the crew to the launch complex to the song "Earth in the window."
Black Mondays and Unlucky Dates
The beginning of "cosmic superstitions" was laid by the famous General Designer Sergei Korolev. It is authentically known that Korolev did not like starts on Mondays and always postponed the date if it fell on a Monday. Why is still a big mystery. Nevertheless, Korolev defended his point of view at the very top, because of this, serious conflicts even flared up. Spaceships did not fly on Mondays in the Soviet Union - the first three years of the space age. Then they began to fly, which caused 11 accidents. Since 1965, Monday has been considered in the Soviet, and now Russian cosmonautics, almost the official "not starting" day.
There are also "unlucky dates" in Baikonur. The start is never scheduled for October 24th. On this day, no serious work is carried out at the launch pads at all. On October 24, 1960, an R-16 ICBM launch vehicle exploded at the Baikonur launch pad, killing dozens of people. On October 24, 1963, an R-9A rocket flared up on the launch pad. Eight people were burned.
Happy Operator
Another superstition of the famous designer was the "happy" operator, who always pressed the "start" button on command, Captain Smirnitsky. Not a single rocket launch was complete without Smirnitsky. Even when he had eczema, he still pressed the button, because Korolev believed that that person had a "light hand".
The same Korolev strictly forbade one of his designers to appear on the launch pad during the launch (once some kind of trouble occurred during his duty) and personally made sure that he did not even show his nose.
autographs
Astronauts never sign autographs before their first flight. Some fundamentally avoid signing in black ink. However, the entire crew must sign on a bottle of vodka, which they drink already on the ground, in the Kazakh steppe, after a successful flight.
Cosmonauts are happy to leave autographs on the door of the hotel room, where they spend the night before the launch. It is strictly forbidden to paint over or wash off these autographs.
woman on board
They say that because of superstitions, they were afraid to send Valentina Tereshkova into space - everyone remembered the old sea sign about a woman on a ship. But the Soviet leadership did not differ in superstition. In 1963, on the eve of the international conference of women in Moscow, it was a woman who was supposed to fly into space.
Themselves with mustaches
Mustaches were not allowed into space for a long time. During the flight of the mustachioed Viktor Zholobov, there were problems, and the program had to be terminated ahead of schedule.
White sun of desert.
Before launch, astronauts must watch "White Sun of the Desert".
Watching the "White Sun of the Desert" has become a tradition as a result of the training of previous filming crews. This film is used as a manual for training astronauts in filming. How to plan, how to work with the camera, how to set up scenes. Astronauts know this film "more than by heart".
Other astronaut oddities
Astronauts will never call the launch of any spacecraft "the last one": for example, "the last launch to the Mir station..." they will prefer to call it "extreme", "final". Also, astronauts never say goodbye to those who see them off.
At the cosmodrome in Plesetsk, before the launch of the launch vehicle, they always write "Tanya" on it. They say that this name was brought out on the first rocket by an officer in love with a certain Tanya. Once, when they forgot to print a happy name on the body, the rocket exploded before launch.
It is considered a rule for astronauts to pee on the wheel of the bus that takes them to the launch pad. After that, the spacesuit is tightly fastened to them, and the next opportunity to relieve will present itself only after a few hours already in outer space. The ritual seems to have gone since the time of Yuri Gagarin and is still maintained. Others consider the founder of this tradition to be the general designer Sergei Korolev, who always irrigated the rocket before launch.
Finally, before the launch, the astronauts receive a friendly kick from the chief.
But Russian cosmonauts and rocket scientists have no special superstitions associated with the 13th. Of course, few people like this number, but we definitely don’t have a frenzy for “Friday the 13th”. But NASA does not like the 13th very much - there have already been unpleasant incidents. So, the famous lunar "Apollo-13" went to the earth's satellite on April 11, and on April 13 an explosion occurred on board the ship - one of the oxygen tanks exploded.
Yulia Khlopina, RIA Novosti.
Strange as it may seem, but astronautics - an area where the most complex and latest technologies reign - is also an area associated with a mass of strict traditions and even superstitions. Everyone who goes into space must perform a lot of complex rituals, otherwise the flight will turn into a disaster. Charms, songs and worship of the spirit of Gagarin - all this is included in the indispensable set of actions that the future cosmonaut must perform.
Edition PM
Evil fate: the explosion of the R-16 rocket on October 24, 1960 led to the death of 72 people (according to official data)
The most important thing: to irrigate the right rear wheel of the bus
The best patron of crews is the spirit of the first astronaut
Dobrovolsky, Volkov, Patsaev: evil fate and the death of the crew of the Soyuz-11 spacecraft caused the appearance of a mass of superstitions
There is a superstition at the Plesetsk cosmodrome: before launch, write the female name Tanya on the rocket
However, if you think about it, all this is not so unexpected: the laws of psychology are almost as immutable as the physical principles. Thus, it is known that superstitions are especially great in those areas of activity where a person experiences a particularly high level of stress - for example, speaking in public or working at the risk of life. There is plenty of the latter even in modern astronautics: out of 483 people who, according to official data, have been in space, 18 have died. The mortality rate, therefore, is 3.74% - this makes astronautics one of the most dangerous professions in the world. For example, the death rate among the US military during the war in Iraq (2003-2006) was 0.39%, and in Vietnam (1966-1972) - 2.18%.
Given this danger, it is not surprising that astronauts feel calmer and psychologically more comfortable, actively "protecting themselves" from mortal danger with the help of all kinds of rituals, talismans and amulets. This is a natural need of our psyche - in case of danger, turn to the force "capable" of deflecting the blows of fate.
Another reason for the active spread of superstitions and rituals is what is called "corporate spirit." Astronauts, of course, belong to an elite closed professional group and, therefore, psychologically need signs and symbols that would separate them from other "mortals" and distinguish them from them. This function is partly taken over by the joint performance of seemingly meaningless rituals. Their members strengthen the internal cohesion of the team, emphasizing their uniqueness.
The most interesting (and the most numerous) superstitions exist in Russian astronautics. Some of them already belong to our days, some originate from the Soviet era and the first manned flights into space, and some are even based on very old Orthodox views.
On board the orbital station, the team is also traditionally greeted with bread and salt. Well, upon returning to Earth, the crew again performs a lot of rituals: they sign on the soot-covered shell of the descent capsule and inside the cabin of the helicopter that picked them up. A specially prepared bottle of vodka is also drunk, on which all members of the crew signed before the start. On the same alley in Baikonur, they are already planting their own tree, which will weave their votes to help the next crews. And everything ends again in Star City, paying tribute to Yuri Gagarin, who provided the travelers with such significant support.
On April 12, Cosmonautics Day is celebrated in Russia and other countries of the world. On this day 56 years ago, cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin made the first flight into orbit in the history of mankind. He managed to fly around the Earth in 108 minutes, the field of which landed in the Saratov region. Russian President Vladimir Putin sent his congratulations to everyone involved in the space industry.
In honor of the holiday Hero of the Soviet Union, Hero of the Russian Federation, cosmonaut Sergei Krikalev visited the morning show "Lifts" on the "OUR Radio". About traditions, awards and records, read only on NSN.
About Cosmonautics Day
Sergey Krikalev: Today there was already a traditional event - the laying of flowers at the Kremlin wall, so we pay tribute to both Korolev and Gagarin, and those cosmonauts who died while exploring space. Now I'll stay with you for a while, and then back to work.
About the film "White Sun of the Desert"
Sergey Krikalev: The astronauts continue to watch this film before the space launch, staying on the site. As the legend goes, it started by accident. Astronauts are in quarantine before a long flight, they are in a relatively closed space, for a long time people have brought films there. This film was shown before the start of the extreme, then it coincided randomly, then there was another film, after which a not very successful flight followed. Everyone said: “Probably, this is a sign. It’s better to watch, because the last time we watched, everything was fine.” And so the tradition was born. This story was told to me by Alexey Arkhipovich Leonov. Foreign astronauts are also watching, now there is a version of this film with English subtitles.
About space exploration
Sergey Krikalev: The development of the cosmos goes in waves: at some point it goes faster, at some point it slows down. We, who are engaged in this business, would like the development to go faster, because at some points there are sharp breakthroughs, then it seems that we are marking time, although in fact new methods are being prepared. The work is moving.
About records
Sergei Krikalev: I landed in 2005 and this record held for 10 years. I did not have a goal to set a record for the duration of flights. This is not an end in itself, this is what happens during a normal flight. There is such a tradition: each record holder comes to congratulate the next one in order to advance this bar further. In the same way, I remembered this tradition and, 10 years later, I came to congratulate Gennady Padalka for having achieved this result. ( Sergey Krikalev is the Earth's record holder for the total time spent in space: from October 2005 to June 2015 - 803 days for six launches approx. NSN)
About the flight to the space station
Sergei Krikalev: Less than 10 minutes from launch to orbit, then the process of rendezvous proceeds with slow and careful impulses. Once this rendezvous took a day, then it was decided that it was better to switch to a two-day scheme in order to spend fuel more economically, it was easier to plan the issuance of commands. With the development of computer technology, with the ability to carry out calculations not on Earth, but on board, they began to discuss that it would be good to fly closer and shorter to the station. A few years ago, they worked out a short-circuit flight technique (four-turn), it takes 6 hours.
About flying in a shuttle
Sergei Krikalev: NASA gives an award to those who have done something. I was the first to fly on a shuttle [under the Russian-American program], which was unusual both for us and for the Americans. The shuttle flight preparation system is different, because we are preparing for a long flight, and they are preparing for a short flight, so they have a higher ability to repeat individual elements. Comparing flights on the shuttle and on the Soyuz, we found such an analogy that our ship is a small car, and the shuttle is a truck with a large cabin and a place to sleep. You live in the shuttle cabin for 7-10 days, and in a small car you fly to a large laboratory, a more comfortable place for experiments and life.
About sadness on board
Sergei Krikalev: If we talk about depression in the full sense of the word, then we try not to bring it to that. Sadness and depression are two different things. Depression is a medical diagnosis that requires treatment. Relatively healthy people are selected from us, who do not fall into depression so easily. It is clear that sometimes there is sadness, because you are on a business trip in a closed space for a long time, far from relatives and friends. But the view of the Earth is so beautiful that even in long flights the time spent in space is so expensive that you try to admire the Earth in your spare time.
About the film library at Mir station
Sergei Krikalev: We had periods when we took one or two favorite cassettes with us to listen to them. Then they began to supply us with film cassettes. A whole film library has gathered at the Mir station. Then there were discs. Now there is no such need, it can be uploaded.
About space food
Sergei Krikalev: When we arrived to prepare for the shuttle flight, there was a procedure for approbation of the diet. When I first tried it, American food seemed more specific, I would call it a delicacy. It's like sausage, which is served on the table on holidays, but on a normal day it is not eaten. Here, the Americans had a greater bias towards such food that a person can be pampered, although both we and the Americans have restrictions, since food should not spoil if stored without a refrigerator, and should be light. There is a stereotype that astronauts eat food from a tube.
About talismans
Sergei Krikalev: There is a small cargo that a person can take with him into space for six months. Only this load is limited to 1-1.5 kilograms - and do not deny yourself anything. It is allowed to take a talisman. Now there is an innovation - a toy that hangs on the hatch. This is not just a talisman, it is an indicator of weightlessness. Well, as a rule, one person from the crew takes [talisman]. When I flew as a commander, I annexed some Cheburashka from my daughter.
About medical care in space
Sergei Krikalev: When a small crew flies, each of us is trained as a nurse. We can help each other in some way. When they started working with the Americans, this range of medical care even expanded a little, to the point that they were taught how to put stitches. We have a set of dental instruments. It is clear that it is impossible to provide qualified assistance, but you can put a temporary filling or pull out a tooth. In weightlessness, this is not very pleasant, but it can be done.
How to become an astronaut
Sergei Krikalev: All these are probabilistic things, a lot depends on the individual. Here a lot depends on personal qualities, perseverance, abilities. Yes, it would be nice to have an education, but at the same time you need to be in good health, because work is stressful.
”collected 26 amazing facts about astronautics that you most likely did not know.
1. The fathers of modern cosmonautics are an "enemy of the people" and an SS man.
Wernher von Braun is a German, and since the late 1940s, an American designer of rocket and space technology. In the US, he is considered the "father" of the American space program. He surrendered to American troops in 1945 in Germany, after which he began working for the United States. In Nazi Germany, he was a member of the National Socialist Party and an SS Sturmbannführer.
Sergei Korolev is a Soviet scientist, designer, chief organizer of the production of rocket and space technology and rocket weapons of the USSR and the founder of practical astronautics.
In 1938 he was arrested on charges of sabotage. According to some reports, he was tortured - both his jaws were broken. On September 27, 1938, Korolev was sentenced by the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the USSR to 10 years in labor camps and 5 years of disqualification. In 1940, the term was reduced to 8 years in labor camp (Sevzheldorlag), and in 1944 Korolev was released. The father of Russian cosmonautics was fully rehabilitated only in 1957.
2. The Chinese cosmonautics was also created by the "repressed".
The father of Chinese astronautics, Qian Xuesen, received his higher education in the United States and returned to his homeland only because of the "witch hunt" unfolding in American society and the subsequent disgrace.
3. The first monument to manned cosmonautics.
At the landing site of Yuri Gagarin near the village of Smelovka in the Saratov region on April 12, 1961, the arriving military set up a sign. More precisely, they dug in a pillar with a sign, where it was written: “Do not touch! 12.04.61 10:55 Moscow time time".
Astronauts have many rituals necessary for a successful launch into space and return to Earth. In particular, it is imperative to pee on the wheel of the bus carrying them to the launch pad.
It is believed that the founder of the tradition was Yuri Gagarin, who asked to stop the car in the Kazakh steppe on the way to Baikonur. By the way, female astronauts also honor this tradition - they take a jar of urine with them, which they splash onto the wheel.
5. Why astronauts watch "White Sun of the Desert" before the flight.
Soviet and Russian cosmonauts have another interesting tradition - before departure, they watch the film "White Sun of the Desert". It turns out that this tradition has a logical justification. It was this movie that was shown to the cosmonauts as a standard of camera work - by its example they were explained how to work with the camera and make a plan.
Another version: after the death of three Soyuz-11 cosmonauts, the Soyuz-12 crew was reduced to two people. Before the start, they watched the film "White Sun of the Desert", and after a successful mission, they said that Comrade Sukhov became an invisible third member of the crew and helped them in difficult times. Since then, viewing this tape has become a tradition for all Soviet and then Russian cosmonauts. By the way, astronauts from other countries are also forced to watch this film before launch from Baikonur.
6. Gagarin's shoelace was not untied.
Newsreel footage captured the meeting of Yuri Gagarin after the first space flight in Moscow, and most of all, his untied shoelace was remembered by many.
In fact, it was not a lace, but a sock puller. Previously, socks were made without elastic bands and braces were worn on the calves so that the socks did not slip. Gagarin's rubber band came loose on one leg, and the iron buckle hit his leg very painfully. This was told by the son of Nikita Khrushchev Sergei in an interview with the BBC.
7. On the cathedral of the XII century there is a figure of an astronaut.
In the carving of the cathedral of the Spanish city of Salamanca, built in the 12th century, you can find the figure of an astronaut in a spacesuit. There is no mysticism here: the figure was added in 1992 during the restoration by one of the masters as a signature. He chose the astronaut as a symbol of the twentieth century.
8. An American woman has been waiting for a space flight for 22 years.
Barbara Morgan was selected to participate in the NASA Teacher in Space program in 1985, but did not make her first space flight until 2007.
9. People don't snore in space.
In 2001, an experiment was conducted that showed that snorers on Earth do not snore in space.
If you cry in space, tears will remain in your eyes and face.
Georgy Ivanov (Kakalov)
The names of the astronauts, which seemed discordant to the Soviet authorities, were changed. The first Bulgarian cosmonaut Georgy Kakalov had to become Ivanov, and the Pole Hermashevsky - Germashevsky. The understudy of the Mongolian cosmonaut Zhugderdemidiin Gurragcha initially bore the surname Ganhuyag, but at the insistence of the Soviet side he changed it to Ganzorig.
12. There is a monument on the moon.
The only monument on the Moon is the Fallen Astronaut. This is an aluminum sculpture depicting an astronaut in a spacesuit, lying prone. The figurine is located in the Hadley-Apennines region on the Moon, at the landing site of the crew of the Apollo 15 spacecraft on the southeastern outskirts of the Sea of Rains. Installed on August 1, 1971 by Apollo 15 commander David Scott.
Next to it, a plaque is stuck into the ground, perpetuating the names of eight US astronauts and six USSR cosmonauts, who by that time had died or died. The author of the sculpture is the Belgian artist and engraver Paul van Heydonk. Since then, the Fallen Astronaut remains the only art installation on the Moon.
13. Some even took their wife into space.
American astronauts Jan Davis and Mark Lee are the only married couple to have flown into space together. They were part of the crew of the Space Shuttle Endeavor, which flew in September 1992.
14. People in space grow 5 cm.
NASA astronaut Scott Kelly (pictured), who returned in early March 2016 from the ISS to Earth, as it turned out, grew more than five centimeters in 340 days spent in space.
But not only Kelly, but in general all people in weightlessness grow by about three to five centimeters. On Earth, gravity presses on the spine, but in space this does not happen, and it straightens out to its full length. A person on board the ISS, as a rule, grows by three percent.
15. The wife does not let her husband into space.
Charles Simonyi became the first two-time space tourist, having flown to the ISS in 2007 and 2009. He recently got married, and his marriage contract, among other things, contains a ban on flying into space for the third time.
16. Astronauts learn to go to the space toilet on Earth. Because it's hard.
To use the space toilet, you need to sit on it exactly in the center. The correct technique is practiced on a special layout with a camera.
17. Instead of a dog, likes in space proposed to send blacks?
The book The Third Side of the Dollar by A. Laurinciukas, a correspondent of the Rural Life newspaper in the USA, published in 1968, tells the following story.
“The dog Laika was sent into space, knowing in advance that she would die. After that, a letter came to the UN from a group of women from Mississippi. They demanded to condemn the inhuman treatment of dogs in the USSR and put forward a proposal: if for the development of science it is necessary to send living beings into space, in our city there are as many Negroes as you want for this.
This story is most likely a propaganda fiction, but it is still widely cited as a well-known fact, usually without reference to the book of the Rural Life journalist.
18. You can't take a bath in space.
In space, it is impossible to take a bath; for hygiene, wet sponges and napkins are used. It is also problematic to brush your teeth - you just have to swallow the foam from the toothpaste.
19. A Russian got married while in space.
Cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko, shortly before flying to the ISS in 2003, proposed to Ekaterina Dmitrieva, an American of Russian origin, whose mother worked at NASA.
While at the station, he received a notification from Mission Control that his mission was being extended by several months. The newlyweds decided not to wait for the groom to return and had a wedding, looking at each other through the monitors. Roscosmos did not approve such an act, since Malenchenko, who had access to state secrets, had to obtain permission to marry a citizen of another state in the prescribed manner on Earth, but subsequently he participated in space expeditions more than once.
20. The filmmakers invented the countdown.
The countdown that invariably accompanies the launch of space rockets was not invented by scientists or astronauts, but by filmmakers. The countdown was first shown in the 1929 German film Woman in the Moon to build up tension. Subsequently, when launching real rockets, the designers simply adopted this technique.
21. There is a bell on the ISS.
There is a bell on the International Space Station. He gets hit every time there is a change of commander.
22. The first Belgian astronaut received a title of nobility.
51-year-old Dirk Freemouth made his only flight into space on March 24 - April 2, 1992 aboard the shuttle Atlantis (STS-45) as one of two payload specialists. After the space flight, Freemouth was granted the title of viscount.
Portraits of the pioneers of Soviet cosmonautics were placed on the walls of the first Soviet space station Mir, and then on the ISS.
After some time, the portraits of Gagarin and Korolev, according to this photo, were either moved to another place or removed altogether. Apparently, there was not enough space for the icons.
24. The most expensive hyphen in history cost $135 million.
In 1962, the Americans launched the first spacecraft to study Venus, Mariner 1, which crashed a few minutes after launch. First, the antenna on the device failed, which received a signal from the guidance system from the Earth, after which the on-board computer took control.
He, too, could not correct the deviation from the course, since the program loaded into it contained a single error - when transferring instructions to the code for punched cards, in one of the equations a dash was missing above the letter, the absence of which radically changed the mathematical meaning of the equation. Journalists soon dubbed this dash "the most expensive hyphen in history." In terms of today, the cost of the lost device is $ 135 million.
25. Hero of the Soviet Union, the only Syrian cosmonaut - Assad's opponent.
The first and only Syrian cosmonaut Mohammed Ahmed Faris made an eight-day flight on the Soyuz spacecraft in 1987.
On August 4, 2012, the Hero of the Soviet Union fled to Turkey and joined the opposition, supporting the Free Syrian Army, which is waging war against President Bashar al-Assad. In February 2016, he accused Russia of killing 2,000 Syrian civilians.
One of his sons is named Mir (Mir) in honor of the Soviet orbital station.
26. Size names for space urinals had to be changed.
American astronauts on the Apollo spacecraft peed in containers, wearing them like condoms. These pieces came in a variety of sizes, originally named "small", "medium", and "large". However, after the astronauts, regardless of their anatomy, chose only the large size, the labeling was changed to "large", "giant" and "incredible".
There are many legends, tales, facts, curious stories connected with astronautics. Most of the information related to astronautics becomes available to the public decades later.
Traditionally, April 12 is considered Cosmonautics Day in Russia. This day is the most important in the history of cosmonautics not only in Russia, but throughout the world, because it was on April 12, 1961 that the first cosmonaut of the planet, Yuri Gagarin, went into space.
So, curious facts related to astronautics
What was the name of the ship on which Yuri Gagarin launched into space?
The Vostok spacecraft carrying Gagarin was launched from the Baikonur cosmodrome.
In fact, "Vostok" is the name of a whole series of Soviet spacecraft designed for manned flights in near-Earth orbit.
They were created by the leading designer O. G. Ivanovsky under the leadership of the general designer of OKB-1 S. P. Korolev from 1958 to 1963.
The first manned Vostok, launched on April 12, 1961, became at the same time the first spacecraft in the world that allowed a man to fly into outer space.
If the first Vostok with Yu. A. Gagarin on board made only 1 revolution around the Earth, flying around the planet in 108 minutes, then the flight of the Vostok-5 spacecraft with V. F. Bykovsky lasted about 5 days. During this time, the ship circled the Earth 81 times.
The main scientific tasks solved on the Vostok spacecraft were the study of the effects of orbital flight conditions on the astronaut's condition and performance, the development of design and systems, and the verification of the basic principles of spacecraft construction.
Despite the completion of the main program, modifications to the basic design of the Vostoks continued to be used further, and became the basis of a variety of Soviet and Russian satellites intended for military intelligence, cartography, the study of terrestrial resources and biological research.
From the history of the Cosmonautics Day holiday
In the Soviet Union, the holiday was established by decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of April 9, 1962. Marked under the name Cosmonautics Day. This holiday was established at the suggestion of the second Pilot-Cosmonaut of the USSR German Titov, who addressed the Central Committee of the CPSU with a corresponding proposal on March 26, 1962.
On the same day is celebrated World Day of Aviation and Cosmonautics.
On April 7, 2011, at a special plenary session of the UN General Assembly, a resolution was adopted that officially proclaimed April 12 as the International Day of Human Space Flight. More than 60 states became co-sponsors of the resolution.
The tragic death of Valentin Bondarenko
Today, the tragic episode that occurred during the training of the first detachment of cosmonauts, formed in February - April 1960, is almost not remembered, or deliberately hushed up. Meanwhile, as we remember, in the process of a long selection of 3461 people, a group of 29 people continued to prepare for the first flight. Later there were 20 of them. The youngest was only 23 years old. He was a Kharkiv resident - Soviet fighter pilot Valentin Vasilyevich Bondarenko. He was enrolled in the preparatory group on April 28, 1960, was trained for space flight on the first manned spacecraft "Vostok". The training took place in the closed military town of Chkalovsky.
Once, at one of the training sessions, an accident occurred, which was hushed up until the 80s.
The first information about Bondarenko and his death appeared in the West only in 1980. For the first time in the Soviet Union, information about Bondarenko and his death appeared in an article by Yaroslav Golovanov in the Izvestia newspaper in 1986.
According to the training schedule, Valentin Bondarenko was finishing a ten-day stay in the depressurization chamber at the NII-7 Air Force (now the Institute of Aviation and Space Medicine) - like other cosmonauts, he was tested with loneliness and silence. At the end of one of the medical tests, he made a simple and irreparable mistake. He removed the sensors attached to the body, wiped the places of their fixation with a cotton swab dipped in alcohol and carelessly threw it away. Cotton wool fell on a spiral of a hot electric stove and instantly flared up. In an atmosphere of almost pure oxygen, the fire quickly spread throughout the chamber. A woolen training suit caught fire on him. It was impossible to quickly open the depressurization chamber due to the large pressure drop. When the cell was opened, Bondarenko was still alive. He was taken to the Botkin hospital, where doctors fought for his life for 8 hours. Bondarenko died of burn shock 19 days before the first space flight. A group of cosmonauts led by Yuri Gagarin spent several hours in the hospital.
Bondarenko was married and had a son, Alexander. After the death of Bondarenko, his wife Anna remained to work at the Cosmonaut Training Center, and his son Alexander became a military pilot. We thought it would be easier to live there. We gave away a two-room apartment here and received the same one in Kharkov. Did they help us? My mother paid about a hundred rubles a month for my father, until I turned sixteen. No one else mentioned us…”
Today, a large crater on the Moon is named after Valentin Bondarenko, next to the craters of Tsiolkovsky and Gagarin, and in July 2013, his name was given to school No. 93 in Kharkov, of which he was a graduate.
Why do astronauts watch "White Sun of the Desert" before departure?
It is known that Soviet and Russian cosmonauts have a tradition - to watch the film "White Sun of the Desert" before departure.
After the death of three Soyuz-11 cosmonauts, the Soyuz-12 crew was reduced to two people. Before the start, they watched the film "White Sun of the Desert", and after a successful mission, they said that Comrade Sukhov became an invisible third member of the crew and helped them in difficult times. Since then, viewing this tape has become a tradition for all Soviet and then Russian cosmonauts. The ritual has also found practical application: using examples from the film, astronauts are taught how to work with the camera and build a shooting plan.
Are American astronauts required to learn Russian?
The American and Russian segments were originally planned for the International Space Station, but Russian language proficiency was not required for American and European astronauts. In 2003, the Columbia shuttle crashed, and since 2011, NASA completely stopped the operation of space shuttles, after which astronaut flights became possible only on Russian Soyuz spacecraft. In this regard, NASA and the European Space Agency have included Russian language courses in their candidate training programs. Successful completion of the final test has become one of the conditions for completing the training of astronauts, and those who are selected for a real flight to the ISS necessarily live for a long time in a Russian family.
Can astronauts cry?
Astronauts cannot cry in the same way as we do on earth - the tears that stand out do not flow down, but remain in front of our eyes in the form of small balls. In addition, they can cause an unpleasant burning sensation, and tears have to be brushed off manually. It turns out that crying as one of the types of psychological relief is inaccessible to a person in weightlessness.
What symbolic role did the Elbe River play in astronautics?
On July 17, 1975, the Soviet Soyuz spacecraft and the American Apollo spacecraft docked. It was planned that at the time of docking, the ships were supposed to fly over Moscow, but the calculations were not entirely correct, and the astronauts shook hands while flying over the Elbe River. It is symbolic that 30 years earlier, a meeting of Soviet and American soldiers, allies in World War II, took place on the Elbe.
Which of the inhabitants of our planet holds the record for time travel?
Russian cosmonaut Gennady Padalka spent a total of 878 days in orbit, a world record. At the same time, he can be considered the owner of another record - the longest time travel among the inhabitants of our planet. According to the theory of relativity, the greater the speed at which an object moves, the more time slows down for it. It is calculated that thanks to space flights, Krikalev is 1/45 of a second younger than if he had remained on Earth all the time. In other words, the astronaut returned from orbit to a time point 1/45 of a second later than expected under normal conditions.
Black Volga Gagarin
After the flight into space, Gagarin was awarded a black "Volga" with numbers 12-04 YuAG (flight date and initials). Moreover, the letters were legally produced from the index of the Moscow region (where the Star City was located) - UA. The following cosmonauts retained the letters YUAG on nominal machines, and the date of the flight was also indicated by numbers.
PWhy is an astronaut in a spacesuit depicted on the carvings of a Spanish cathedral of the 12th century?
In the carving of the Cathedral of Salamanca (Spain), built in the 12th century, you can find the figure of an astronaut in a spacesuit. There is no mysticism here: the figure was added in 1992 during the restoration by one of the masters as a signature (he chose the astronaut as a symbol of the 20th century).
HWhat do American and Russian cosmonauts write in zero gravity?
According to a popular myth, NASA has invested several million dollars in the development of a pen that can write in space, while Russian cosmonauts used simple pencils. In fact, at first, Americans also wrote with pencils, only mechanical ones, or felt-tip pens. The disadvantage of using them was that if broken, the small parts of the pencil could cause harm to the astronauts. In the second half of the 1960s, inventor Paul Fisher designed a pen that could write in any conditions and offered it to NASA for $2 each. Subsequently, these pens were purchased by the Soviet (and then Russian) space agencies.
ToWhich animals were the first to orbit the moon?
The first animals to return to Earth after space flight were, as you know, dogs. But the championship in the flyby of the moon belongs to the turtles. It happened in 1968: Central Asian steppe tortoises were put into the Soviet spacecraft Zond-5. The choice was justified by the fact that they do not need a large supply of oxygen, they can eat nothing for a week and a half and stay as if in a lethargic sleep for a long time.
Towhat did they suggest to Soviet scientists to send compassionate American women into space instead of dogs?
The dog Laika was sent into space, knowing in advance that she would die. After that, a letter came to the UN from a group of women from Mississippi. They demanded to condemn the inhuman treatment of dogs in the USSR and put forward a proposal: if for the development of science it is necessary to send living beings into space, in our city there are as many Negroes as you want for this.
What spacecraft did the newspapers call the “upsnik”?
On December 6, 1957, two months after the launch of the first Soviet satellite in history, the Americans tried to launch their Vanguard TV3 apparatus. Two seconds after launch, the rocket exploded. This failure was heavily criticized by American newspapers, who invented many neologisms for the device based on the word "satellite", including "upsnik" and "kaputnik". A few days later, the Soviet representative at the UN sympathetically asked his American colleague if the United States needed humanitarian aid allocated by the USSR for undeveloped countries.
Space Pup Jacqueline Kennedy
One of the puppies of the Soviet space dog Strelka was named Pushinka and presented by Khrushchev to President's wife Jacqueline Kennedy. According to one version, or simply a journalistic tale, Pushinka had an affair with a dog of the Kennedy family named Charlie, and she gave birth to four puppies, whom John F. Kennedy called pupniks (crossing the words pup and sputnik).
In fact, it was a dog named Pushok in Moscow. Before flying to America, documents were issued for the baby, indicating his cosmic origin and it was indicated that this was a mongrel.
The wife of the American president, Jacqueline Kennedy, raised the "space puppy" herself.
Who came up with the idea of using a countdown to launch space rockets?
The countdown that invariably accompanies the launch of space rockets was not invented by scientists or astronauts, but by filmmakers. The countdown was first shown in the 1929 German film Woman in the Moon to build tension. Subsequently, when launching real rockets, the designers simply adopted this technique.
What protection against Gagarin's insanity did the spacecraft engineers provide?
At the beginning of the era of astronautics, no one could imagine how being in space would affect human health, in particular, whether he would go crazy. Therefore, to transfer the ship from automatic to manual control mode, protection was provided with the input of a special digital code, which was in a sealed envelope. It was assumed that in a state of insanity, Gagarin would not be able to open the envelope and understand the code. True, just before the start of the flight, he was still told the code.
