Devoted to the first flight of a Man in Space
Space flights: people, states, systems
A.S.Kretov
A.N.Tupolev Kazan State Technical University (KAI)
Preface
Looking at the dark starry
sky, you can always see little moving "stars". It is not surprising, as
nowadays there are about 600000 objects of a terrestrial (artificial) origin on
circumterrestrial orbits. Their size varies from one centimeter to dozens of
meters. You may see "Souz" with its crew or "Progress"
cargo vehicle heading for the International Space Station. Or it might be a new Chinese satellite (last year China outstripped even the USA in the amount of space launches). And it was only
53.5 years ago (on October 4, 1957) when the first man-made "star" - the
artificial Earth satellite - reached the orbital velocity (about 8 km/s) and
began signal transmission from the orbit. Immediately a new word appeared in
all the languages, and it was a Russian word SPUTNIK. On April 12, 1961 one of the brightest and the most outstanding
events of the 20th century took place - the first manned space
flight (it was the Soviet cosmonaut Yury Alexeevich Gagarin). This first manned
flight marked the beginning of the space age in the history of a current human
civilization.
Origins
The Humanity passed a very hard and long way
to reach the altitudes (more than 100 km), where SPACE
actually begins for the humans (Greek: world,
Universe, structure, order) [1-7].
Mankind spent dozens of centuries trying to
understand and accumulate necessary knowledge. The priests of Ancient Babylon
in 2000 B.C. and astronomers of Ancient China started collecting data on
celestial bodies, systematizing them and predicting repeated phenomena. The
ancient Greeks tried to give the explanation to the universe in 500 B.C.
Beginning from Pythagor the ageless truth was sought for from the positions of
general philosophical approaches in which the space component was among the
basic ones. And only in the Renaissance the correct idea of the surrounding
world began to form. Obviously, the society could not develop further without
this knowledge. N.Copernicus (1473-1543), I.Kepler (1571-1630), G.Galilei
(1564-1642) made for a real on the way towards the
stars! Science fiction describing technology considerably outstripping the
actual one began to appear. However, the real capabilities were progressing as
well. In 1783 the first flying vehicle took off. It was a balloon built by
Montgolfier brothers (Joseph-Michel, 1740-1810, and Jacques-Étienne, 1745-1799)
which was capable of lifting a man. One more century passed by, and romantics,
adventure seekers and the military together with the engineers pinned their
hopes on the vehicles based on an aerodynamic flight concept. So, starting from
the turn of the XIX-èè centuries the man has become "winged".
Among the romantics
there were those who dreamt to fly beyond the atmosphere, for hundreds,
thousands and millions of kilometers. K.E.Tsiolkovsky (1857-1935) was the
brightest and the most distinguishing of them. Since 1883 he performed
theoretical susbstantiation of a space flight. It was a phenomenal achievement,
as K.E.Tsiolkovsky was almost deaf, he lived in the depths of the country, but
he managed to foresee the points that were implemented only many decades after
his death. At the end of the 19th century for the first time ever he
submitted a theoretical substantiation of the space flight feasibility. In 1903
K.E.Tsiolkovsky proposed to use liquid propellant engines for space flights and
submitted a theoretical elaboration of schematic layout and constructions.
Nowadays "communication with space" has become a popular phrase. Regarding
K.E.Tsiolkovsky this phrase had a literal meaning.
Early papers dealing with the problems of
jet propulsion theory include the works by N.Ye.Zhukovsky (since 1882),
I.V.Meschersky (since 1897), Yu.V.Kondratyuk (since 1919), F.A.Tsander (since
1924) and other Russian and Soviet scientists, and among the foreign
researchers there were Esnault Pelterie (1913), R.Goddard (1919), H.Oberth
(1923), etc.
Theoretical research demanded further
development and adoption. Russia, USA
and Germany started their experimental works. American scientist Robert Goddard
(1882-1945) (who was called a lone genius) carried out a successful launch of
the first ever rocket with a liquid engine (flight altitude 12.5 m, distance 56
m). In 1931, German researcher Johannes Winkler (1897-1958) launched his
rocket. The same year Austrian engineer Eugen Sänger
initiated an experimental program on the rocket engines and started designing a
hypersonic aircraft. Although the first rockets ascended only to the altitudes
of several meters, it was already clear that such a flight concept was a
promising one.
In 1920-1930th the USSR
started designing the rockets (gas-dynamic laboratory - GDL, a group of jet propulsion
research - "GIRD"). The first Soviet rockets GIRD-IX and GIRD-X were launched
in 1933. The same year the first-ever Jet Propulsion Research Institute was
established on the basis of GDL and GIRD. S.P.Korolev (later he became a Chief
Designer of the Soviet rocket hardware) and V.P.Glushko (later he was appointed
a Chief Designer of rocket engines) were among the members of its Engineering
Council. K.E.Tsiolkovsky was voted an Honored Member of the Council.
From the middle of the 1930th in
the USSR and Germany (where the rates of development were the highest) the rockets were
developed not only by lone enthusiasts, but also by large groups funded by the
Governments. The official assignments did not mention any space flights; the
designers were to tackle a problem of great importance: development of new
(rocket) weapon. But space flights remained the main dream of the majority of
developers.
Development of
rockets with liquid-propellant engines started in Moscow in 1930th. Since 1940th
they were carried on in Kazan (Chief Designer V.P.Glushko, his deputies
G.S.Zhiritsky, D.D.Sevruk, S.P.Korolev; the design bureau "OKB" was renamed
"GDL-OKB").
Development of the first large combat
missile started in German, Peenemunde, in 1937 and was headed by Wernher von Braun (1912-1977). This was a
ballistic missile (BM) with a launching mass of approximately 13 tons including
the warhead mass of 1 ton. Its terminal velocity of 1.5 km/s provided the range
of up to 300
km. The first A-4 (V-2)
missiles were produced in 1942. Military authorities of the fascist Germany
did not take it seriously. Only when it became clear that it was impossible to
win the war with the conventional weapon, the A-4 missile was chosen as a
trump. It was renamed V-2 (German: Vergeitung - revenge), but it did not
justify the strategic hopes. However, thousands of these missiles produced in
1944-1945 took away more that 7000 lives. Since 1945 Wernher von Braun
continued the work with the leading German specialists, the developers of V-2, in the military departments in the USA.
And he had a weighty excuse - he intended to spend the military budget on the
Moon and Mars flights, which had been his dream.
The end of the Second World War marked the
beginning of the competition between two Systems and Leaders of the USA
and USSR, in which space was of essential importance.
Race for the leader? No. A intensive struggle for Peace
The United States and their western allies appeared to be in more favorable conditions
in 1945. Alongside with von Braun and his colleagues, they obtained several
finished V-2 missiles. In 1951 BM "Viking" was created on the basis
of V-2 and under the leadership of von Braun. It was capable of developing the
velocity of 1.8 km/s. In 1952 BM was developed with the range of
flight up to 900
km.
S.P.Korolev for the first time saw the
launch of V-2
in a post-war Germany.
The Englishmen demonstrated to the allies the launches of these missiles in
autumn of 1945 near Hamburg. Soviet experts started studying German rockets with the limited
opportunities which they had on the Soviet territory. By the end of 1946 the
Soviet specialists in rocket engineering terminated their work in Germany.
They had learned to assemble and perform ground tests of V-2 and ascertained
the shortcomings and flaws of the BM. New ideas about substantial improvement
of the existing missile and development of a new one appeared.
In 1947 a Council of the Chief Designers was established which
included six members: S.P.Korolev - rocket system as a whole; V.P.Glushko -
liquid-propellant engines; N.A.Pilyugin (1908-1982) - a control system;
M.S.Ryazansky (1909-1987) - systems of radio navigation and radio control;
V.P.Barmin (1909-1993) - the ground refueling, transport and launch equipment;
V.I.Kuznetsov (1913-1991) - gyroscopic devices. M.V.Keldysh (1911-1978) being a
chief theoretician of the Soviet cosmonautics, was an active member of the
Council. He was a real organizer of the Scientific mathematical School that
provided solution of multiple practical problems of rocket dynamics.
S.P.Korolev was called to I.V.Stalin (1879-1953), who having listened to the
Chief Designer, did not express any emotions or comment on a new kind of
weapon. But he approved of development of rocket engineering.
The first successful
launch of a domestic ballistic missile (of V-2 type, with structural
improvements) was performed on 10 October 1948. In two years this missile (R-1) was adopted for
service. In the same 1948 Korolev's team started development of a new missile
R-2 with a detachable head. Its range was twice the range of R-1 which served
as some kind of bridge between old and new. S.P.Korolev did not dare to
introduce changes into the missile layout or its aerodynamic form which was
closely associated with the flight control parameters. The weight of R-2
missile was almost the same as of R-1 missile, but at the same time the fuel
capacity was increased by 70 %. New ballistic missiles were adopted for service
in 1951.
In 1951 the First Symposium on Space Flights
was held in New York where some fantastic issues were discussed: creation of an orbital
astronomical observatory, creation of a manned orbital space station, survival
in space, flight to the Moon, and many others. The Symposuim Proceedings were
published under a catchy heading . Such statement
is undoubtedly wrong, as we can only learn about Space.
One should remember that as far back as 4 October 1951 M.K.Tikhonravov (1900-1974), one of the founders of the Soviet
cosmonautics, said that the progress in rocket technology in the USSR
allowed launching of an artificial Earth satellite. But ... the world waited
for the results from the West.
In 1953 R-5 missile was adopted by the army.
Its range was twice the range of R-2 (1200km). The special way chosen by our designers began slowly but steadily yield
the results which provided the superiority over new developments of German and
American rocket engineers.
In January, 1954 a Meeting of Chief
Designers was held where the main structural concepts of a rocket with almost
unlimited range were outlined together with the corresponding ground launching
equipment.
In February, 1955 it was decided to build a
test range, which after 1961 became famous worldwide as a cosmodrome
"Baikonur".
21 August 1957
became a token date of the first successful launch of an intercontinental
ballistic 2-stage missile R-7. Its head with a mass of 3 tons was delivered to
the distance of 8000 km. It was a huge
breakthrough, but the ò-7 missile system did not suite the army, as it was
bulky, vulnerable and very expensive and difficult-to-operate. The author did
not succeed in finding the confirmation in literature, but he is almost
confident that S.P.Korolev consciously started development of such a missile,
keeping in mind the space-oriented problems. This is further confirmed by the
fact that the subsequent missile R-9á became the last combat missile developed
under his direct management. Korolev completely switched over to the space
subject (it goes without saying that the space programs included military
application).
It was obvious that some minor modifications
of R-7 could provide the orbital velocity, and hence an opportunity to orbit an
artificial Earth satellite (AES). To fulfill the stated tasks, the Chief
Designer was endowed by the state authorities with unlimited powers. At the Political Bureau meeting, N.S.Khrushchev (1894-1971), having
surveyed the missile presented by S.P.Korolev, said: .
The
Chief Designer had 7 missiles at his disposal to launch the first artificial
space satellite into orbit. But after the failure of the first six launches the
order was already prepared to terminate the work. But Korolev took the
responsibility for the results, and on 4 October the first man-made "star" - an
artificial satellite - was launched into orbit. Radio amateurs could receive
its signals for several weeks. The satellite could be observed at night using
optical instruments for three months. The news stirred the world up. American
president John F.Kennedy (1917-1963) admitted: .
The second artificial satellite was launched
on 3 November the same year. Usual telemetry information transmitted from the
space vehicle (SV) was complemented with the biological parameters: heart rate,
electrocardiogram, arterial pressure, skin temperature, breathing rate of the
first living representative of the Earth in Space - a dog called Layka.
One should mention that the USSR
conducted animal experiments since 1951 - after the rockets had been created,
capable of reaching the altitudes of 100 and more kilometers. The mankind
should bow to the animals who were the pioneers of space exploration. The
launches continued till 1960. Dogs were chosen as research objects because
their physiology was well studied, they were easily trainable and quickly got
used to specific conditions of experiment. Sometimes the dogs were accompanied
by rabbits and mice. 59 dogs were used for the tests. Some of them were
launched twice, and a dog Otvazhnaya experienced five launches and thus became
a real cosmonaut.
The launch of AES-2 provoked a great public
resonance in the world. And it was not just positive. Unfortunately, Layka had
to sacrifice her life to become famous world-wide, as the SV had not been
adapted for returning to the Earth. The physicians monitored Layka's condition
via telemetry for three hours, but by the 5th hour (after the 3rd
orbit pass) the temperature in SV cabin started to grow and reached 400ϗ. Many
environmentalists could not put up with the dog's death. Since 1960 dogs were
launched on return SVs. It was very hard to find the correct decisions. Thus, a
dog crew launched on 1 December 1960, with two animals
onboard, burned at reentry. But nobody could even imagine at that time that the
same terrible fate would overtake some cosmonauts and astronauts many years
later.
The American launch vehicle "Jupiter-C"
created on the basis of BM "Redstone" carried an artificial satellite
"Explorer-1" to orbit on 1 February 1958.
The date of 2 January 1959 was marked in the
USSR by the launch of "Luna-1" - the first-ever SV which
went beyond the Earth's gravity and passed by the Moon at the distance of about
6000
km. "Luna-2"
was launched on 12 September 1959 and landed on the Moon. A little bit later
"Luna-3" took some pictures, developed the films onboard and transmitted images
to the Earth showing the back of the Moon.
During his visit to the USA, N.S.Khrushchev
presented a model of the first satellite to President Dwight D.Eisenhower (1890-1969)...
The USA
started development of new launch vehicles "Saturn" and
"Titan". The first one was intended for the Moon missions, the second
one was meant for launching a boost-glide aircraft "Dyna Soar". But it was
fated that the latter project was not initiated. An ambitions project of the
Moon mission was given a priority, as the American society demanded from their
government a satisfaction for the backlog in space programs.
The crucial day came closer and closer. The
launch vehicle capable of carrying 4.5 tons of payload launched the first
unmanned (in an automatic mode) mission of "Vostok" on 5 May 1960. From now on "space vehicles" were often called "space
ships". But the way was indeed a thorny one. A new rocket R-16 designed by
M.K.Yangel (1911-1971) was being prepared for the launch at
Baykonur cosmodrome when on 24 October 1960 an emergency burn of the second
stage engines caused an explosion which took away the lives of 100 members of
launch personnel.
USA. On 31
January 1961, the astronauts of the
first American manned project "Mercury" were displeased at their leaders who
had not dared to launch a manned
suborbital mission. "Redstone" launch vehicle could carry 1.4 t of payload,
so "Mercury" was almost tiny. The
candidate for the role of the first cosmonaut John Glenn said about "Mercury":
. The vehicle
possessed only minimal automatic equipment, therefore the pilot could be only a
person with unique abilities.
Chimpanzee Ham was afforded the honor of the
first flight. She returned to the Earth alive, but nearly drowned, as the
rescuers had to cover two hundred kilometers of the reentry vehicle deviation.
Some imperfections caused the manned flight to be postponed till March.
As opposed to the Americans, S.P.Korolev
made a decision to launch a manned mission, although among 7 preceding unmanned
flights of "Vostok" 2 there had been 2 failures (failure of the
attitude control system, and abnormal operation of a launch vehicle). The
decision was hard to make, as Valentin Bondarenko (1937-1961), who was among
the twenty candidates for becoming a cosmonaut, had burned down in a
recompression chamber three weeks before the launch.
Nobody
on the Earth remained indifferent to the day of 12 April 1961. This Day will always remain both in the history of our country, and
of all the world. The first cosmonaut from our planet Yury Gagarin (1934-1968)
was set in the ejection seat of "Vostok" SV. After a 50-minute
preparation of the whole system, the rocket was launched at 9.07 am.
At last, a voice came from the orbit: "Everything is OK. I see the Earth horizon.
Such a beautiful halo!" "Vostok" performed one revolution in 108
minutes. All the systems operated automatically. And after the burn of SV
retroengines, the message on the first manned space flight was broadcasted. It
seemed that all the difficulties and dangers had been left behind. But after
that the descent module failed to detach from SV and tumbled with the latter.
Only 10 minutes later the aerodynamic load broke the joints, and the cosmonaut
endured large g-load and heard a crash of a thermal-protective coating. The
descent module forced its way through plasma. The subsequent operation stuck to
the program: ejection at the altitude of 7 km and parachute deployment at 4 km.
The
day of 12
April 1961 in the USSR
was akin to the Victory Day of 9 May 1945 - almost the same delight
and pride for the country and its people.
"The
first - Forever!"
On 5 May 1961
Alan Shepard (1923-1998) performed a 15-minute suborbital space flight in
"Mercury" SV.
This suborbital flight and rather the successful
Gagarin's flight and S.P.Korolev's achievements "forced" the USA President
J.Kennedy to address the nation on 25 May (43 days after "Vostok"-1 flight)
asking to assume an "obligation" and implement the Moon landing of astronauts
less than in 10 years with a secure return to the Earth. According to Wernher von Braun's words, it became a national idea that made the country
young [6]. On 25
May 1961 President J.Kennedy talked to the Congress
and made a historic speech in which he claimed that by the end of the decade
the USA were to perform a manned flight to the Moon.
The "Apollo" project was doomed to
success because
-
the USA
had to return the shacked authority of a superpower;
-
the flight to the Moon had
become a national idea for the Americans;
-
the mission was funded by
significant material resources of the USA.
20
February 1962, 10 months after
Gagarin's flight, the launch vehicle "Atlas" put the SV "Mercury" into orbit.
The latter was piloted by the first "full-fledged" astronaut of the USA J.Glenn
(born in 1921).
Space race was gathering pace. New great
achievements were ahead but there were failures, too. Successful realization of
the American "Apollo" program with the manned flight to the Moon
provided leadership for the USA.
Competition of the two space powers in creation of reusable airspace systems could
not switch the positions.
But was the American program "Space Shuttle"
a real success? The crashes of two reusable aerospace planes (out of five) and
fourteen lost astronauts lead to a logical outcome - premature termination of
the program. Successful flight of the Soviet shuttle "Buran" in an
automated mode on 15 November 1988 remained the only
one and did not introduce any changes into the balance of space powers.
Joining the efforts of all the space powers
is quite reasonable. Assembly of the International Space Station began on 20 November 1998 (ISS). ISS is intended for scientific research, including the Earth
and stars observation, crystal growth and crystal examination, study of zero-g
impact on a human body. Dozens of countries participate in the Program. The
final length of ISS will be 110 m, width - 88 m, and weight - nearly 455 t.
Let us stop at this fact of 50-year history
of manned cosmonautics (though we wait for further achievements, as Space is
infinite).
Phenomenon of 12
April 1961
<I
try to understand, how the Soviet Union
happened to be the
first in Space>
D. von Puttkamer,
Wernher
von Braun's colleague
Two socio-political systems that existed
till 1990-91 tried their best to prove their priority. The competition offered
some advantages. It was a trigger for scientific and technological progress in
many spheres including cosmonautics. It takes time and space to understand the
great, and a period of 50 years is probably a proper term, as the participants
and witnesses of the historical event of 12 April are still alive.
Some factors are outlined below which
provided the leadership of the USSR during the first decade of the space age
and enabled the Soviet Union to perform the first launch of a man into space -
Yu.A.Gagarin's space flight on 12 April 1961 on "Vostok" space vehicle.
The
governmental will and national priority of space program with concentration of
all resources
Authoritative leader of the
program.
Patriotic mood of society
Basic education
Powerful scientific Schools
Hi-tech manufacture
Balanced interaction of
education, science and manufacture
Strict discipline and
responsibility of the project executives
High personal qualities of all
responsible participants of the project
Let us focus on the
last point, i.e. personal qualities of the project participants.
On 12 April it is appropriate to remember
everyone who was involved in this great success. There were dozens of thousands
of them: from the Chief Designer to a worker who manufactured one of millions
of details, that provided the launch, flight and landing of Yury Gagarin. Each
of them brought this Day closer. But first of all, the holiday is undoubtedly
associated with an attractive personality of the first representative of the
Earth in space - Yury Gagarin. It is good that he did not
have to interfere with flight control to show his qualities. But the author is
sure that Gagarin would cope with any emergency. Let us consider just one
example which is somewhat connected with Kazan Aviation Institute.
In 1969 Sergey Nozdrachev (1951-2009)
entered the Department of Flying Vehicles of Kazan Aviation Institute. On 22 September 1965, Sergey, being a seventh grader, played with an aircraft model
attached to a rope. The rope incidentally touched a high-voltage power line. An
electric shock burned the boy's clothes. 77% of his skin got burned, and half
of the affected areas suffered a third-degree burn. Skin transplantation was
immediately carried out together with the transfusion of blood donated by
people, who had suffered burns. The story about Sergey was published in many
newspapers.
Sergey was saved, but thereupon he got a
perforated ulcer. The second surgery was required, and it was not less
difficult. The boy's life was hanging in the balance. And suddenly a letter
came to hospital with a stamp instead of a return address USSR
cosmonauts>. There was a letter and a photo from Yury Gagarin.
Dear Sergey!
I received a letter from
your friends and I would like not only to notify of the letter delivery, but
also to give a detailed answer.
I've
read the letter and a newspaper cutting through carefully. I'm really sorry
that you are in hospital. But I'm absolutely sure that you will win this hard
struggle for life, for your future. Sergey, you should not relinquish the hope of
recovery, considering the constant help and support from our medicine, our
sympathetic Soviet people who are always ready to help.
ššššššššššš šYou probably read the book by Nikolay
Ostrovsky . This fearless fighter was in a tight
corner many a time! He suffered a great deal of torments! But he always drew
the winner. And he didn't stop believing in life. And not only he believed, but
he also tried to benefit the society. Nowadays there also live many people who
go against the tide and win.šššššššš So
don't give up, Sergey! Believe in the
recovery, and you will win to help the society, the people.
ššššššššššš I
wish you to recover as soon as possible! Be cheerful!
ššššššššššš Yours
faithfully,
šššššššššššššššššššššššššššššššššš Cosmonaut
of the USSR,š Yu.Gagarin.
Now we see what kind of a person Yury
Gagarin was. Sergey Nozdrachev survived, he graduated from KAI, became a very
nice person, and he always turned to this letter and looked at Gagarin's photo
when he had hard times. The whole world admired Yury Gagarin, the world that
one can fly around in only 108 minutes.
Epilogue
Nearly 600 people - citizens
of 36 states - have experienced space flights so far. But only three countries
- Russia (USSR), the USA and China - are able to perform manned missions on their own.
Disintegration of the Soviet Union caused significant delay
in space researches in Russia, its assignee. Participation in ISS program helped the domestic
cosmonautics to survive. But, unfortunately, it has been so far the main
achievement of Russian cosmonautics of the XXIst century. Further
development of the Russian cosmonautics will depend on successes in the areas
mentioned above, the latter being absolutely vital for every future
achievement.
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