History of Russian cosmonautics. The main stages of the development of astronautics in the USSR and its significance for the study of the earth

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

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

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

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

American scientist Robert Goddard began developing a liquid-propellant rocket engine in 1923 and a working prototype was created by the end of 1925. On March 16, 1926, he launched the first liquid-propellant rocket, which used gasoline and liquid oxygen as fuel.

The work of Tsiolkovsky, Oberth and Goddard was continued by groups of rocketry enthusiasts in the USA, USSR and Germany. In the USSR, research work was carried out by the Study Group jet propulsion(Moscow) and Gas Dynamic Laboratory (Leningrad). In 1933, the Jet Institute (RNII) was created on their basis.

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

The military use of the V-2 demonstrated the enormous capabilities of missile technology, and the most powerful post-war powers, the United States and the Soviet Union, also began developing ballistic missiles.

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

General A. I. Nesterenko was appointed head of the institute, and Colonel M. K. Tikhonravov, a colleague of S. P. Korolev at GIRD and RNII, was appointed his deputy in the specialty “Liquid Ballistic Missiles”. Mikhail Klavdievich Tikhonravov was known as the creator of the first liquid-propellant rocket, launched in Nakhabino on August 17, 1933. In 1945, he led the project to lift two cosmonauts to an altitude of 200 kilometers using a V-2 rocket and a controlled rocket cabin. The project was supported by the Academy of Sciences and approved by Stalin. However, in the difficult post-war years, the leadership of the military industry had no time for space projects, which were perceived as science fiction, interfering with the main task of creating “long-range missiles.”

Exploring the prospects for the development of missiles created according to the classical sequential scheme, M. K. Tikhonravov comes to the conclusion that they are unsuitable for intercontinental distances. Research conducted under the leadership of Tikhonravov showed that a package design of missiles created at the Korolev Design Bureau would provide a speed four times greater than that possible with a conventional layout. By introducing the “package scheme”, Tikhonravov’s group brought closer the realization of their cherished dream of man entering outer space. Research on problems associated with the launch and return of satellites to Earth continued on a proactive basis.

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

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

The most important stages of space exploration

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

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

January 4, 1959 - the Luna-1 station passed at a distance of 6,000 kilometers from the surface of the Moon and entered a heliocentric orbit. It became the world's first artificial satellite of the Sun. (THE USSR).

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

March 18, 1965 - the first human spacewalk in history took place. Cosmonaut Alexey Leonov performed a spacewalk from the Voskhod-2 spacecraft. (THE USSR).

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

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

October 30, 1967 - the first docking of two unmanned spacecraft “Cosmos-186” and “Cosmos-188” was carried out. (USSR).

September 15, 1968 - the first return of the spacecraft (Zond-5) to Earth after orbiting the Moon. There were living creatures on board: turtles, fruit flies, worms, plants, seeds, bacteria. (THE USSR).

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Today

Today is characterized by new projects and plans for space exploration. Space tourism is actively developing. Manned astronautics are once again planning to return to the Moon and have turned their attention to other planets of the Solar System (primarily Mars).

In 2009, the world spent $68 billion on space programs, including the USA - $48.8 billion, the EU - $7.9 billion, Japan - $3 billion, Russia - $2.8 billion, China - $2 billion

September 1967 was marked by the proclamation International Federation astronautics October 4 is the world day of the beginning of the space age of mankind. It was on October 4, 1957 that a small ball with four antennas tore apart the near-Earth space and marked the beginning of the space age, ushering in the golden age of astronautics. How it was, how space exploration took place, what the first satellites, animals and people in space were like - this article will tell you about all this.

Chronology of events

First let's give short description chronology of events one way or another connected with the beginning of the space age.

Dreamers from the distant past

As long as humanity has existed, it has been attracted by the stars. Let's look for the origins of astronautics and the beginning of the space age in ancient tomes and give just a few examples amazing facts and insightful predictions. In the ancient Indian epic "Bhagavad Gita" (circa 15th centuries BC), an entire chapter is devoted to instructions for flying to the moon. Clay tablets from the library of the Assyrian ruler Assurbanipal (3200 BC) tell the story of King Etan, who flew to a height from which the Earth looked like “bread in a basket.” The inhabitants of Atlantis left the Earth, flying to other planets. And the Bible tells about the flight on the fiery chariot of the prophet Elijah. But in 1500 AD, the inventor Wang Gu from Ancient China could have become the first cosmonaut if he had not died. He made a flying machine from kites. Which was supposed to take off when 4 powder rockets were set on fire. Since the 17th century, Europe has been delirious about flights to the Moon: first Johannes Kepler and Cyrano de Bergerac, and later Jules Verne with his idea of cannon flight.

Kibalchich, Hansvind and Tsiolkovsky

In 1881, in solitary confinement at the Peter and Paul Fortress, awaiting execution for the assassination attempt on Tsar Alexander II, N.I. Kibalchich (1853-1881) drew a jet space platform. The idea of his project is to create jet propulsion using burning substances. His project was discovered in the archives of the Tsarist secret police only in 1917. At the same time, the German scientist G. Hanswied is creating his own spacecraft, where thrust is provided by flying bullets. And in 1883, the Russian physicist K. E. Tsiolkovsky (1857-1935) described a ship with a jet engine, which was embodied in 1903 in the design of a liquid rocket. It is Tsiolkovsky who is considered to be the father of Russian cosmonautics, whose works already in the 20s of the last century received wide recognition from the world community.

Just a satellite

The artificial satellite, which marked the beginning of the space age, was launched by the Soviet Union from the Baikonur Cosmodrome on October 4, 1957. An aluminum sphere weighing 83.5 kilograms and a diameter of 58 centimeters, with four bayonet antennas and equipment inside, soared to a perigee altitude of 228 kilometers and an apogee height of 947 kilometers. They simply called it Sputnik 1. Such a simple device was a tribute to the Cold War with the United States, which was developing similar programs. America with their satellite Explorer 1 (launched on February 1, 1958) was almost six months behind us. The Soviets, who launched an artificial satellite first, won the race. A victory that was no longer conceded, because the time had come for the first cosmonauts.

Dogs, cats and monkeys

The beginning of the space age in the USSR began with the first orbital flights of rootless tailed cosmonauts. The Soviets chose dogs as astronauts. America - monkeys, and France - cats. Immediately after Sputnik 1, Sputnik 2 flew into space with the most unfortunate dog on board - the mongrel Laika. It was November 3, 1957, and the return of Sergei Korolev’s favorite Laika was not planned. The well-known Belka and Strelka, with their triumphant flight and return to Earth on August 19, 1960, were not the first and far from the last. France launched the cat Felicette into space (October 18, 1963), and the United States, after the rhesus monkey (September 1961), sent the chimpanzee Ham (January 31, 1961), who became a national hero, to explore space.

Human conquest of space

And here the Soviet Union was first. On April 12, 1961, near the village of Tyuratam (Baikonur Cosmodrome), the R-7 launch vehicle with the Vostok-1 spacecraft took off into the sky. Major went on his first space flight in it air force Yuri Alekseyevich Gagarin. At a perigee altitude of 181 km and an apogee of 327 km, it flew around the Earth and, 108 minutes into the flight, landed in the vicinity of the village of Smelovka (Saratov region). The world was blown up by this event - agrarian and bastard Russia overtook the high-tech States, and Gagarin's "Let's go!" became an anthem for space fans. It was an event of planetary scale and incredible significance for all humanity. Here America lagged behind the Union by a month - on May 5, 1961, the Redstone launch vehicle with the Mercury-3 spacecraft from Cape Canaveral launched the American astronaut Captain 3rd Rank of the Air Force Alan Shepard into orbit.

During a space flight on March 18, 1965, the co-pilot, Lieutenant Colonel Alexei Leonov (the first pilot was Colonel Pavel Belyaev), went into outer space and stayed there for 20 minutes, moving away from the ship at a distance of up to five meters. He confirmed that a person can be and work in outer space. In June, American astronaut Edward White spent just a minute longer in outer space and proved the possibility of performing maneuvers in outer space using a hand-held gun powered by compressed gas, similar to a jet. The beginning of the space age of man in outer space has come to an end.

First human casualties

Space has given us many discoveries and heroes. However, the beginning of the space age was also marked by sacrifices. The first Americans to die were Virgil Grissom, Edward White and Roger Chaffee on January 27, 1967. The Apollo 1 spacecraft burned down in 15 seconds due to an internal fire. The first Soviet cosmonaut to die was Vladimir Komarov. On October 23, 1967, he successfully deorbited on the Soyuz-1 spacecraft after an orbital flight. But the main parachute of the descent capsule did not open, and it crashed into the ground at a speed of 200 km/h and completely burned out.

Apollo Lunar Program

On July 20, 1969, American astronauts Neil Armstrong and Edwin Aldrin felt the surface of the Moon under their feet. Thus ended the flight of the Apollo 11 spacecraft with the Eagle lunar module on board. America did take over the leadership in space exploration from the Soviet Union. And although later there were many publications about the falsification of the fact of the American landing on the Moon, today everyone knows Neil Armstrong as the first person to set foot on its surface.

Salyut orbital stations

The Soviets were the first to launch orbital stations- spacecraft for long-term stay of astronauts. Salyut is a series of manned stations, the first of which was launched into orbit on April 19, 1971. In total, in this project, 14 space objects were launched into orbit under the military program “Almaz” and the civil program “Long-term orbital station”. Including the Mir station (Salyut-8), which was in orbit from 1986 to 2001 (sunk in the spaceship cemetery in the Pacific Ocean on March 23, 2001).

First international space station

The ISS has a complex history of creation. Started as American project Freedom (1984), which became a joint Mir-Shuttle project in 1992 and today is an international project with 14 participating countries. The first module of the ISS was launched into orbit by the Proton-K launch vehicle on November 20, 1998. Subsequently, the participating countries brought out other connecting blocks, and today the station weighs about 400 tons. It was planned to operate the station until 2014, but the project has been extended. And it is jointly managed by four agencies - Control Center space flights(Korolev, Russia), Flight Control Center named after. L. Johnson (Houston, USA), European Space Agency Control Center (Oberpfaffenhofen, Germany) and Aerospace Exploration Agency (Tsukuba, Japan). There is a crew of 6 astronauts at the station. The station program provides for the constant presence of people. According to this indicator, it has already broken the record of the Mir station (3664 days of continuous stay). The power supply is completely autonomous - solar panels weigh almost 276 kilograms, power up to 90 kilowatts. The station contains laboratories, greenhouses and living quarters (five bedrooms), a gymnasium and bathrooms.

A few facts about the ISS

The International Space Station is currently the most expensive project in the world. More than $157 billion has already been spent on it. The station's orbital speed is 27.7 thousand km/h, with a weight of more than 41 tons. Cosmonauts observe sunrise and sunset at the station every 45 minutes. In 2008, the “Disc of Immortality” was delivered aboard the station, a device containing digitized DNA of outstanding representatives of humanity. The purpose of this collection is to preserve human DNA in the event of a global catastrophe. In the laboratories of the space station, quails are born and flowers bloom. And viable bacterial spores were found on its skin, which makes us think about the possible expansion of space.

Commercialization of space

Humanity can no longer imagine itself without space. In addition to all the advantages of practical space exploration, the commercial component is also developing. Since 2005, construction of private spaceports has been underway in the USA (Mojave), UAE (Ras Alm Khaimah) and Singapore. Virgin Galactic Corporation (USA) is planning space cruises for seven thousand tourists at an affordable price of 200 thousand dollars. And the famous space businessman Robert Bigelow, owner of the Budget Suites of America hotel chain, announced the project of the first orbital Skywalker hotel. For $35 billion, Space Adventures (a partner of Roscosmos Corporation) will send you to space trip for up to 10 days. By paying another 3 billion, you will be able to go into outer space. The company has already organized tours for seven tourists, one of them is the head of the Cirque du Soleil, Guy Laliberte. The same company is preparing a new tourism product for 2018 - a trip to the moon.

Dreams and fantasies became reality. Once overcoming gravity, humanity is no longer able to stop in its quest for stars, galaxies and universes. I would like to believe that we will not get too carried away, and that we will continue to be surprised and delighted by the myriads of stars in the night sky. All as mysterious, alluring and fantastic as in the first days of creation.

In the second half of the 20th century. Humanity has stepped onto the threshold of the Universe - it has entered outer space. Our Motherland opened the road to space. The first artificial Earth satellite, which opened the space age, was launched by the former Soviet Union, the world's first cosmonaut is a citizen of the former USSR.

Cosmonautics is a huge catalyst modern science and technology that has become unprecedented short term one of the main levers of the modern world process. It stimulates the development of electronics, mechanical engineering, materials science, computer technology, energy and many other areas of the national economy.

Scientifically, humanity strives to find in space the answer to such fundamental questions as the structure and evolution of the Universe, the formation of the Solar system, the origin and development of life. From hypotheses about the nature of planets and the structure of space, people moved on to a comprehensive and direct study of celestial bodies and interplanetary space with the help of rocket and space technology.

In space exploration, humanity will have to explore various areas of outer space: the Moon, other planets and interplanetary space.

Photo active tours, holidays in the mountains

The current level of space technology and the forecast for its development show that the main goal scientific research with the help of space means, apparently, our solar system will be in the near future. The main tasks will be the study of solar-terrestrial connections and the Earth-Moon space, as well as Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn and other planets, astronomical research, medical and biological research in order to assess the influence of flight duration on the human body and its performance.

In principle, the development of space technology should be ahead of the “Demand” associated with solving pressing national economic problems. The main tasks here are launch vehicles, propulsion systems, spacecraft, as well as supporting facilities (command and measurement and launch complexes, equipment, etc.), ensuring progress in related branches of technology, directly or indirectly related to the development of astronautics.

Before flying into outer space, it was necessary to understand and use in practice the principle of jet propulsion, learn how to make rockets, create a theory of interplanetary communications, etc. Rocketry is not a new concept. Man went to the creation of powerful modern launch vehicles through millennia of dreams, fantasies, mistakes, searches in various fields of science and technology, accumulation of experience and knowledge.

The principle of operation of a rocket is its movement under the influence of recoil force, the reaction of a stream of particles thrown away from the rocket. In a rocket. those. In a device equipped with a rocket engine, escaping gases are formed due to the reaction of the oxidizer and fuel stored in the rocket itself. This circumstance makes the operation of a rocket engine independent of the presence or absence of a gaseous environment. Thus, the rocket is an amazing structure, capable of moving in airless space, i.e. not reference, outer space.

Special place Among the Russian projects for the application of the jet principle of flight, the project of N.I. Kibalchich, a famous Russian revolutionary who, despite his short life (1853-1881), left a deep mark in the history of science and technology, is occupied. Having extensive and deep knowledge of mathematics, physics and especially chemistry, Kibalchich made homemade shells and mines for the Narodnaya Volya members. The "Aeronautical Instrument Project" was the result of Kibalchich's long-term research work on explosives. He, essentially, was the first to propose not a rocket engine adapted to any existing aircraft, as other inventors did, but a completely new (rocket-dynamic) device, the prototype of modern manned spacecraft, in which the thrust of rocket engines serves to directly create lift. force supporting the aircraft in flight. Kibalchich's aircraft was supposed to function on the principle of a rocket!

But because Kibalchich was sent to prison for the attempt on the life of Tsar Alexander II, then his project aircraft was discovered only in 1917 in the archives of the police department.

So, by the end of the 19th century, the idea of using jet instruments for flight gained large scale in Russia. And the first who decided to continue research was our great compatriot Konstantin Eduardovich Tsiolkovsky (1857-1935). Reactive principle he became interested in movement very early. Already in 1883 he gave a description of the ship with jet engine. Already in 1903, Tsiolkovsky, for the first time in the world, made it possible to construct a liquid rocket design. Tsiolkovsky's ideas received universal recognition back in the 1920s. And the brilliant successor of his work, S.P. Korolev, a month before the launch of the first artificial Earth satellite, said that the ideas and works of Konstantin Eduardovich would attract more and more attention as rocket technology developed, in which he turned out to be absolutely right!

Beginning of the space age

And so, 40 years after the design of the aircraft created by Kibalchich was found, on October 4, 1957, the former USSR launched the world's first artificial Earth satellite. The first Soviet satellite made it possible for the first time to measure the density of the upper atmosphere, obtain data on the propagation of radio signals in the ionosphere, work out issues of insertion into orbit, thermal conditions, etc. The satellite was an aluminum sphere with a diameter of 58 cm and a mass of 83.6 kg with four whip antennas of length 2. 4-2.9 m. The satellite’s sealed housing housed equipment and power supplies. The initial orbital parameters were: perigee altitude 228 km, apogee altitude 947 km, inclination 65.1 deg. On November 3, the Soviet Union announced the launch of a second Soviet satellite into orbit. In a separate hermetic cabin there was a dog Laika and a telemetry system to record its behavior in zero gravity. The satellite was also equipped with scientific instruments to study solar radiation and cosmic rays.

On December 6, 1957, the United States attempted to launch the Avangard-1 satellite using a launch vehicle developed by the Naval Research Laboratory. After ignition, the rocket rose above the launch table, but a second later the engines turned off and the rocket fell onto the table, exploding on impact .

On January 31, 1958, the Explorer 1 satellite was launched into orbit, the American response to the launch of Soviet satellites. In terms of size and weight, it was not a candidate for record. Being less than 1 m long and only ~15.2 cm in diameter, it had a mass of only 4.8 kg.

However, its payload was attached to the fourth and final stage of the Juno 1 launch vehicle. The satellite, together with the rocket in orbit, had a length of 205 cm and a mass of 14 kg. It was equipped with external and internal temperature sensors, erosion and impact sensors to detect micrometeorite flows, and a Geiger-Muller counter to record penetrating cosmic rays.

An important scientific result of the satellite's flight was the discovery of the radiation belts surrounding the Earth. The Geiger-Muller counter stopped counting when the device was at apogee at an altitude of 2530 km, the perigee altitude was 360 km.

On February 5, 1958, the United States made a second attempt to launch the Avangard-1 satellite, but it also ended in an accident, like the first attempt. Finally, on March 17, the satellite was launched into orbit. Between December 1957 and September 1959, eleven attempts were made to place Avangard 1 into orbit, only three of which were successful.

Between December 1957 and September 1959, eleven attempts were made to place the Avangard into orbit.

Both satellites introduced a lot of new things into space science and technology (solar batteries, new data on the density of the upper atmosphere, accurate mapping of islands in the Pacific Ocean, etc.) On August 17, 1958, the United States made the first attempt to send satellites from Cape Canaveral to the vicinity of Moon probe with scientific equipment. It turned out to be unsuccessful. The rocket took off and flew only 16 km. The first stage of the rocket exploded 77 minutes into the flight. On October 11, 1958, a second attempt was made to launch the Pioneer 1 lunar probe, which was also unsuccessful. The next few launches also turned out to be unsuccessful, only on March 3, 1959, Pioneer-4, weighing 6.1 kg, partially completed its task: it flew past the Moon at a distance of 60,000 km (instead of the planned 24,000 km).

Just as with the launch of the Earth satellite, priority in launching the first probe belongs to the USSR; on January 2, 1959, the first man-made object was launched, which was placed on a trajectory passing fairly close to the Moon into the orbit of the Sun's satellite. Thus, Luna 1 reached the second escape velocity for the first time. Luna 1 had a mass of 361.3 kg and flew past the Moon at a distance of 5500 km. At a distance of 113,000 km from Earth, a cloud of sodium vapor was released from a rocket stage docked to Luna 1, forming an artificial comet. Solar radiation caused a bright glow of sodium vapor and optical systems on Earth photographed the cloud against the background of the constellation Aquarius.

Luna 2, launched on September 12, 1959, made the world's first flight to another heavenly body. The 390.2-kilogram sphere contained instruments that showed that the Moon does not have magnetic field and the radiation belt.

The automatic interplanetary station (AMS) “Luna-3” was launched on October 4, 1959. The weight of the station was 435 kg. The main purpose of the launch was to fly around the Moon and photograph its reverse side, invisible from Earth. Photographing was carried out on October 7 for 40 minutes from an altitude of 6200 km above the Moon.

Man in space

On April 12, 1961, at 9:07 a.m. Moscow time, several tens of kilometers north of the village of Tyuratam in Kazakhstan, at the Soviet Baikonur Cosmodrome, the R-7 intercontinental ballistic missile was launched, in the bow compartment of which the manned spaceship “Vostok” was located with Air Force Major Yuri Alekseevich Gagarin on board. The launch was successful. The spacecraft was put into orbit with an inclination of 65 degrees, a perigee altitude of 181 km and an apogee altitude of 327 km and completed one orbit around the Earth in 89 minutes. At 108 minutes after launch, it returned to Earth, landing near the village of Smelovka, Saratov region. Thus, 4 years after the launch of the first artificial Earth satellite, the Soviet Union for the first time in the world carried out a human flight into outer space.

The spacecraft consisted of two compartments. The descent module, which was also the cosmonaut's cabin, was a sphere with a diameter of 2.3 m, coated with an ablative material for thermal protection during reentry. The spacecraft was controlled automatically and by the astronaut. During the flight, it was continuously maintained with the Earth. The atmosphere of the ship is a mixture of oxygen and nitrogen under a pressure of 1 atm. (760 mmHg). Vostok-1 had a mass of 4730 kg, and with the last stage of the launch vehicle 6170 kg. The Vostok spacecraft was launched into space 5 times, after which it was declared safe for human flight.

Four weeks after Gagarin's flight on May 5, 1961, Captain 3rd Rank Alan Shepard became the first American astronaut.

Although it did not reach Earth orbit, it rose above the Earth to an altitude of about 186 km. Shepard, launched from Cape Canaveral into the Mercury 3 spacecraft using a modified Redstone ballistic missile, spent 15 minutes 22 seconds in flight before landing in the Atlantic Ocean. He proved that a person in conditions of weightlessness can exercise manual control of a spacecraft. The Mercury spacecraft was significantly different from the Vostok spacecraft.

It consisted of only one module - a manned capsule in the shape of a truncated cone with a length of 2.9 m and a base diameter of 1.89 m. Its sealed nickel alloy shell had a titanium lining to protect it from heating during reentry. The atmosphere inside Mercury consisted of pure oxygen under a pressure of 0.36 at.

On February 20, 1962, the United States reached low-Earth orbit. Mercury 6, piloted by Navy Lieutenant Colonel John Glenn, was launched from Cape Canaveral. Glenn spent only 4 hours 55 minutes in orbit, completing 3 orbits before a successful landing. The purpose of Glenn's flight was to determine the possibility of a person working in the Mercury spacecraft. Last time Mercury was launched into space on May 15, 1963.

On March 18, 1965, the Voskhod spacecraft was launched into orbit with two cosmonauts on board - the ship's commander, Colonel Pavel Ivarovich Belyaev, and the co-pilot, Lieutenant Colonel Alexei Arkhipovich Leonov. Immediately after entering orbit, the crew cleared themselves of nitrogen by inhaling pure oxygen. Then the airlock compartment was deployed: Leonov entered the airlock compartment, closed the spacecraft hatch cover and for the first time in the world made an exit into outer space. The cosmonaut with an autonomous life support system was outside the spacecraft cabin for 20 minutes, at times moving away from the spacecraft at a distance of up to 5 m. During the exit, he was connected to the spacecraft only by telephone and telemetry cables. Thus, the possibility of an astronaut staying and working outside the spacecraft was practically confirmed.

On June 3, the spacecraft Gemeny 4 was launched with captains James McDivitt and Edward White. During this flight, which lasted 97 hours and 56 minutes, White exited the spacecraft and spent 21 minutes outside the cockpit testing the ability to maneuver in space using a hand-held compressed gas jet gun.

Unfortunately, space exploration was not without casualties. On January 27, 1967, the crew preparing to make the first manned flight under the Apollo program died during a fire inside the spacecraft, burning out in 15 seconds in an atmosphere of pure oxygen. Virgil Grissom, Edward White and Roger Chaffee became the first American astronauts to die on space mission. On April 23, the new Soyuz-1 spacecraft was launched from Baikonur, piloted by Colonel Vladimir Komarov. The launch was successful.

On the 18th orbit, 26 hours 45 minutes after launch, Komarov began orientation to enter the atmosphere. All operations went well, but after entering the atmosphere and braking, the parachute system failed. The astronaut died instantly when the Soyuz hit the Earth at a speed of 644 km/h. Subsequently, space took away more than one human life, but these victims were the first.

It should be noted that in terms of natural science and production, the world faces a number of global problems, the solution of which requires the united efforts of all peoples. These are problems of raw materials resources, energy, environmental control and biosphere conservation, and others. Space research, one of the most important areas of the scientific and technological revolution, will play a huge role in their fundamental solution. Cosmonautics clearly demonstrates to the whole world the fruitfulness of peaceful creative work, the benefits of combining the efforts of different countries in solving scientific and economic problems.

What problems do astronautics and the astronauts themselves face? Let's start with life support. What is life support? Life support in space flight is the creation and maintenance during the entire flight in the living and working compartments of spacecraft. such conditions that would provide the crew with sufficient performance to perform the assigned task and a minimum probability of occurrence pathological changes in the human body. How to do it? It is necessary to significantly reduce the degree of human exposure to adverse external factors space flight - vacuum, meteoric bodies, penetrating radiation, weightlessness, overloads; supply the crew with substances and energy without which normal human life is not possible - food, water, oxygen and food; remove waste products of the body and substances harmful to health released during the operation of spacecraft systems and equipment; provide human needs for movement, rest, external information And normal conditions labor; organize medical monitoring of the crew’s health status and maintain it at the required level. Food and water are delivered into space in appropriate packaging, and oxygen is delivered in a chemically bound form. If you do not restore waste products, then for a crew of three people for one year you will need 11 tons of the above products, which, you see, is a considerable weight, volume, and how will all this be stored throughout the year?!

In the near future, regeneration systems will make it possible to almost completely reproduce oxygen and water on board the station. They began to use water after washing and showering, purified in a regeneration system, a long time ago. The exhaled moisture is condensed in the refrigeration-drying unit and then regenerated. Breathable oxygen is extracted from purified water by electrolysis, and hydrogen gas reacts with carbon dioxide coming from the concentrator to form water, which powers the electrolyzer. The use of such a system makes it possible to reduce the mass of stored substances in the considered example from 11 to 2 tons. Recently, it has been practiced to grow various types of plants directly on board the ship, which makes it possible to reduce the supply of food that needs to be taken into space; Tsiolkovsky mentioned this in his works.

Space science

Space exploration helps in many ways in the development of sciences:
On December 18, 1980, the phenomenon of the flow of particles from the Earth's radiation belts under negative magnetic anomalies was established.

Experiments carried out on the first satellites showed that the near-Earth space outside the atmosphere is not “empty” at all. It is filled with plasma, permeated with streams of energy particles. In 1958, the Earth's radiation belts were discovered in near space - giant magnetic traps filled with charged particles - protons and high-energy electrons.

The highest intensity of radiation in the belts is observed at altitudes of several thousand km. Theoretical estimates showed that below 500 km. There should be no increased radiation. Therefore, the discovery of the first K.K. during flights was completely unexpected. areas of intense radiation at altitudes up to 200-300 km. It turned out that this is due to anomalous zones Earth's magnetic field.

Research circulated natural resources Earth using space methods, which greatly contributed to the development of the national economy.

The first problem that faced space researchers in 1980 was a complex of scientific research, including most of the most important areas of space natural science. Their goal was to develop methods for thematic decoding of multispectral video information and their use in solving problems in the geosciences and economic sectors. These tasks include: studying global and local structures earth's crust to understand the history of its development.

The second problem is one of the fundamental physical and technical problems of remote sensing and is aimed at creating catalogs of radiation characteristics of earthly objects and models of their transformation, which will make it possible to analyze the state of natural formations at the time of shooting and predict their dynamics.

A distinctive feature of the third problem is the focus on radiation radiation characteristics large regions up to the planet as a whole, using data on the parameters and anomalies of the Earth’s gravitational and geomagnetic fields.

Exploring the Earth from space

Man first appreciated the role of satellites for monitoring the condition of agricultural land, forests and other natural resources of the Earth only a few years after the advent of the space age. The beginning was made in 1960, when, with the help of the Tiros meteorological satellites, outlines similar to the map were obtained globe lying under the clouds. These first black-and-white TV images provided very little insight into human activity, but it was nonetheless a first step. Soon, new technical means were developed that made it possible to improve the quality of observations. Information was extracted from multispectral images in the visible and infrared (IR) regions of the spectrum. The first satellites designed to make maximum use of these capabilities were the Landsat type. For example, Landsat-D, the fourth in the series, observed the Earth from an altitude of more than 640 km using advanced sensors, allowing consumers to receive significantly more detailed and timely information. One of the first areas of application of images earth's surface, there was cartography. In the pre-satellite era, maps of many areas, even in developed areas of the world, were drawn inaccurately. Landsat images have helped correct and update some existing US maps. In the USSR, images obtained from the Salyut station turned out to be indispensable for calibrating the BAM railway line.

In the mid-70s, NASA and the US Department of Agriculture decided to demonstrate the capabilities of the satellite system in forecasting the most important agricultural crop, wheat. Satellite observations, which turned out to be extremely accurate, were later extended to other crops. Around the same time, in the USSR, observations of agricultural crops were carried out from satellites of the Cosmos, Meteor, Monsoon series and Salyut orbital stations.

The use of satellite information has revealed its undeniable advantages in estimating the volume of timber in vast areas of any country. It has become possible to manage the process of deforestation and, if necessary, make recommendations on changing the contours of the deforestation area from the point of view of the best preservation of the forest. Thanks to satellite images, it has also become possible to quickly assess the boundaries of forest fires, especially “crown-shaped” ones, characteristic of the western regions North America, as well as regions of Primorye and southern regions Eastern Siberia in Russia.

Of great importance for humanity as a whole is the ability to observe almost continuously the vastness of the World Ocean, this “forge” of weather. It is above the strata ocean water Hurricanes and typhoons of monstrous force arise, causing numerous casualties and destruction for coastal residents. Early warning to the public is often critical to saving the lives of tens of thousands of people. Determining the stocks of fish and other seafood is also of great practical importance. Ocean currents often bend, change course and size. For example, El Nino, a warm current in a southerly direction off the coast of Ecuador in some years can spread along the coast of Peru up to 12 degrees. S . When this happens, plankton and fish die in huge quantities, causing irreparable damage to the fisheries of many countries, including Russia. Large concentrations of single-celled marine organisms increase fish mortality, possibly due to the toxins they contain. Observation from satellites helps to identify the “vagaries” of such currents and give useful information to those who need it. According to some estimates by Russian and American scientists, fuel savings, combined with the “additional catch” due to the use of satellite information obtained in the infrared range, gives an annual profit of $ 2.44 million. The use of satellites for survey purposes has facilitated the task of plotting the course of sea vessels . Satellites also detect icebergs and glaciers that are dangerous for ships. Accurate knowledge of snow reserves in the mountains and the volume of glaciers is an important task of scientific research, because as arid territories are developed, the need for water increases sharply.

The cosmonauts' help was invaluable in creating the largest cartographic work - the Atlas of Snow and Ice Resources of the World.

Also, with the help of satellites, oil pollution, air pollution, and minerals are found.

Space Science

Within a short period of time since the beginning of the space age, man has not only sent robotic space stations to other planets and set foot on the surface of the Moon, but has also brought about a revolution in space science unmatched in the entire history of mankind. Along with great technical advances brought about by the development of astronautics, new knowledge was gained about planet Earth and neighboring worlds. One of the first important discoveries, made not by traditional visual, but by another method of observation, was the establishment of the fact of a sharp increase with height, starting from a certain threshold height, of the intensity of cosmic rays previously considered isotropic. This discovery belongs to the Austrian W.F. Hess, who launched a gas balloon with equipment to high altitudes in 1946.

In 1952 and 1953 Dr. James Van Allen conducted research on low-energy cosmic rays during launches of small rockets to an altitude of 19-24 km and high-altitude balloons in the area of the Earth's north magnetic pole. After analyzing the results of the experiments, Van Allen proposed placing cosmic ray detectors that were fairly simple in design on board the first American artificial Earth satellites.

With the help of the Explorer 1 satellite, launched by the United States into orbit on January 31, 1958, a sharp decrease in the intensity of cosmic radiation was discovered at altitudes above 950 km. At the end of 1958, the Pioneer-3 AMS, which covered a distance of over 100,000 km in one day of flight, recorded, using the sensors on board, a second, located above the first, Earth’s radiation belt, which also encircles the entire globe.

In August and September 1958, three atomic explosions were carried out at an altitude of more than 320 km, each with a power of 1.5 kt. The purpose of the tests, codenamed "Argus", was to study the possibility of loss of radio and radar communications during such tests. The study of the Sun is the most important scientific task, to the solution of which many launches of the first satellites and spacecraft are devoted.

American "Pioneer-4" - "Pioneer-9" (1959-1968) from near-solar orbits were transmitted by radio to Earth vital information about the structure of the Sun. At the same time, more than twenty satellites of the Intercosmos series were launched to study the Sun and circumsolar space.

Black holes

Black holes were discovered in the 1960s. It turned out that if our eyes could only see x-rays, the starry sky above us would look completely different. True, X-rays emitted by the Sun were discovered even before the birth of astronautics, but other sources in starry sky and did not suspect. We came across them by accident.

In 1962, the Americans, having decided to check whether X-ray radiation was emanating from the surface of the Moon, launched a rocket equipped with special equipment. It was then that, when processing the observation results, we became convinced that the instruments had detected a powerful source of X-ray radiation. It was located in the constellation Scorpio. And already in the 70s, the first 2 satellites, designed to search for research into sources of X-rays in the universe, went into orbit - the American Uhuru and the Soviet Cosmos-428.

By this time, things had already begun to become clearer. Objects emitting X-rays have been linked to barely visible stars with unusual properties. These were compact clots of plasma of insignificant, of course by cosmic standards, sizes and masses, heated to several tens of millions of degrees. Despite their very modest appearance, these objects possessed a colossal power of X-ray radiation, several thousand times higher than the full compatibility of the Sun.

These are tiny, about 10 km in diameter. , the remains of completely burned out stars, compressed to a monstrous density, had to somehow make themselves known. That is why neutron stars were so readily “recognized” in X-ray sources. And everything seemed to fit. But the calculations refuted expectations: newly formed neutron stars should have immediately cooled down and stopped emitting, but these ones emitted x-rays.

Using launched satellites, researchers discovered strictly periodic changes in the radiation fluxes of some of them. The period of these variations was also determined - usually it did not exceed several days. Only two stars rotating around themselves could behave this way, one of which periodically eclipsed the other. This has been proven by observation through telescopes.

Where do X-ray sources get their colossal radiation energy? The main condition for the transformation of a normal star into a neutron star is considered to be complete attenuation in it nuclear reaction. Therefore nuclear energy is excluded. Then maybe this kinetic energy a rapidly rotating massive body? Indeed, it is great for neutron stars. But it only lasts for a short time.

Most neutron stars do not exist alone, but in pairs with a huge star. In their interaction, theorists believe, the source of the mighty power of cosmic X-rays is hidden. It forms a disk of gas around the neutron star. U magnetic poles In the neutron ball, the substance of the disk falls onto its surface, and the energy acquired by the gas is converted into X-ray radiation.

Kosmos-428 also presented its own surprise. His equipment registered a new, completely unknown phenomenon - X-ray flashes. In one day, the satellite detected 20 bursts, each of which lasted no more than 1 second. , and the radiation power increased tens of times. Scientists called the sources of X-ray flares BURSTERS. They are also associated with binary systems. The most powerful flares in terms of energy fired are only several times inferior to the total radiation of hundreds of billions of stars located in our galaxy.

Theorists have proven that “black holes” that are part of binary star systems can signal themselves with X-rays. And the reason for its occurrence is the same - gas accretion. True, the mechanism in this case is somewhat different. The internal parts of the gas disk settling into the “hole” should heat up and therefore become sources of X-rays. Going to neutron star Only those luminaries whose mass does not exceed 2-3 solar ones end their “life.” Larger stars suffer the fate of a “black hole”.

X-ray astronomy told us about the last, perhaps the most turbulent, stage in the development of stars. Thanks to her, we learned about powerful cosmic explosions, about gas with temperatures of tens and hundreds of millions of degrees, about the possibility of a completely unusual superdense state of substances in “black holes.”

What else does space give us? For a long time now, television programs have not mentioned that the transmission is carried out via satellite. This is further evidence of the enormous success in the industrialization of space, which has become an integral part of our lives. Communications satellites are literally entangling the world invisible threads. The idea of creating communication satellites was born shortly after the Second World War, when A. Clark in the October 1945 issue of Wireless World magazine. presented his concept of a communications relay station located at an altitude of 35,880 km above the Earth.

Clark's merit was that he determined the orbit in which the satellite is stationary relative to the Earth. This orbit is called geostationary or Clarke orbit. When moving in a circular orbit with an altitude of 35880 km, one revolution is completed in 24 hours, i.e. during the period of the Earth's daily rotation. A satellite moving in such an orbit will constantly be above a certain point on the Earth's surface.

The first communications satellite, Telstar-1, was launched into low Earth orbit with parameters of 950 x 5630 km; this happened on July 10, 1962. Almost a year later, the Telstar-2 satellite was launched. The first telecast showed the American flag in New England with the Andover station in the background. This image was transmitted to Great Britain, France and to the American station in the state. New Jersey 15 hours after satellite launch. Two weeks later, millions of Europeans and Americans watched negotiations between people on opposite coasts Atlantic Ocean. They not only talked but also saw each other, communicating via satellite. Historians can consider this day the birth date of space TV. The world's largest state satellite communications system was created in Russia. It began in April 1965. launching satellites of the Molniya series, launched into highly elongated elliptical orbits with an apogee over the Northern Hemisphere. Each series includes four pairs of satellites orbiting at an angular distance from each other of 90 degrees.

The first long-distance space communications system, Orbita, was built on the basis of the Molniya satellites. In December 1975 The family of communications satellites was replenished with the Raduga satellite operating in geostationary orbit. Then the Ekran satellite appeared with a more powerful transmitter and simpler ground stations. After the first development of satellites, a new period began in the development of satellite communications technology, when satellites began to be placed into a geostationary orbit in which they move synchronously with the rotation of the Earth. This made it possible to establish round-the-clock communication between ground stations using new generation satellites: the American Sinkom, Airlie Bird and Intelsat, and the Russian Raduga and Horizon satellites.

A great future is associated with the placement of antenna complexes in geostationary orbit.

On June 17, 1991, the ERS-1 geodetic satellite was launched into orbit. The satellites' primary mission would be to observe the oceans and ice-covered land masses to provide climatologists, oceanographers, and environmental groups with data on these little-explored regions. The satellite was equipped with state-of-the-art microwave equipment, thanks to which it is ready for any weather: its radar "eyes" penetrate through fog and clouds and provide a clear image of the Earth's surface, through water, through land - and through ice. ERS-1 was aimed at developing ice maps, which would subsequently help avoid many disasters associated with collisions of ships with icebergs, etc.

With all that, the development of shipping routes is, speaking in different ways in other words, just the tip of the iceberg, if you only remember the decoding of ERS data on the oceans and ice-covered spaces of the Earth. We are aware of alarming forecasts of the overall warming of the Earth, which will lead to the melting of the polar caps and rising sea levels. Everyone will be flooded coastal zones, millions of people will suffer.

But we do not know how correct these predictions are. Long-term observations of the polar regions by ERS-1 and its subsequent ERS-2 satellite in late autumn 1994 provide data from which inferences can be made about these trends. They are creating an "early detection" system in the case of melting ice.

Thanks to the images that the ERS-1 satellite transmitted to Earth, we know that the ocean floor with its mountains and valleys is, as it were, “imprinted” on the surface of the waters. This way, scientists can get an idea of whether the distance from the satellite to the sea surface (measured to within ten centimeters by satellite radar altimeters) is an indication of rising sea levels, or whether it is the “imprint” of a mountain on the bottom.

Although the ERS-1 satellite was originally designed for ocean and ice observations, it quickly proved its versatility over land. In agriculture, forestry, fisheries, geology and cartography, specialists work with data provided by satellites. Since ERS-1 is still operational after three years of its mission, scientists have a chance to operate it together with ERS-2 for shared missions, as a tandem. And they are going to obtain new information about the topography of the earth's surface and provide assistance, for example, in warning about possible earthquakes.

The ERS-2 satellite is equipped, in addition, measuring instrument Global Ozone Monitoring Experiment Gome which takes into account the volume and distribution of ozone and other gases in the Earth's atmosphere. Using this device, you can observe the dangerous ozone hole and the changes that occur. At the same time, according to ERS-2 data, it is possible to divert UV-B radiation close to the ground.

Given the many global environmental problems that both ERS-1 and ERS-2 must provide fundamental information to address, planning shipping routes seems to be a relatively minor output of this new generation of satellites. But this is one of the areas where the potential for commercial use of satellite data is being exploited particularly intensively. This helps in funding other important tasks. And this has an effect on environmental protection that is difficult to overestimate: faster shipping routes require less energy consumption. Or let’s remember the oil tankers that ran aground during storms or broke up and sank, losing their environmentally hazardous cargo. Reliable route planning helps avoid such disasters.

Space exploration is all that involves our familiarity with space and everything that lies beyond the lower layers of the Earth's atmosphere. Robotic travel to Mars and other planets, sending probes beyond the solar system, studying fast, cheap and safe ways people going into space and colonizing other planets - all this is space exploration. By forces brave people, brilliant engineers and scientists, as well as space agencies around the world and private leading corporations, humanity will very soon begin to explore space by leaps and bounds. Our only chance to survive as a species is colonization, and the sooner we realize this (and hope it's not too late), the better it will be.

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

Space exploration.

Yu.A. Gagarin.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

March 18, 1965 - the first human spacewalk in history took place. Cosmonaut Alexey Leonov performed a spacewalk from the Voskhod-2 spacecraft. (THE USSR).

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

October 30, 1967 - the first docking of two unmanned spacecraft “Cosmos-186” and “Cosmos-188” was carried out. (USSR).

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

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

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

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

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

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50 years of the first manned spacewalk.

Today, March 18, 1965, at 11:30 am Moscow time, during the flight of the Voskhod-2 spacecraft, a man entered outer space for the first time. On the second orbit of the flight, the co-pilot, pilot-cosmonaut Lieutenant Colonel Alexey Arkhipovich Leonov, in a special space suit with an autonomous life support system, entered outer space, moved away from the ship at a distance of up to five meters, successfully carried out a set of planned studies and observations and returned safely to the ship. With the help of an on-board television system, the process of Comrade Leonov's exit into outer space, his work outside the ship and his return to the ship were transmitted to Earth and observed by a network of ground stations. Comrade Alexey Arkhipovich Leonov’s health while he was outside the ship and after returning to the ship was good. The ship's commander, Comrade Belyaev Pavel Ivanovich, is also feeling well.

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In 2009, the world spent $68 billion on space programs, including the USA - $48.8 billion, the EU - $7.9 billion, Japan - $3 billion, Russia - $2.8 billion, China - $2 billion