Who was the first astronaut? Yuri Gagarin was the one who first flew into space.

Stars and other celestial bodies have attracted man since ancient times. And only in the last century, the level of development of technical thought allowed man and other living beings to get a little closer to the stars and get to near-Earth outer space. Who was the first to fly into space? What living creatures became space pioneers? When was the first woman in Earth orbit? Which astronaut was the first to go to outer space? And when did man first set foot on the moon?

First cosmonaut

The first person to fly into space was the Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin. On April 12, 1961, on the Vostok spacecraft launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome, he flew in orbit around the Earth, being in space for 108 minutes, and successfully returned to his home planet. This momentous event was the beginning of the space age, although space exploration began a little earlier.

space dogs

Our four-legged friends became the pioneers of space among animals. The first dogs that flew into space on July 22, 1951 and returned alive to Earth were Dezik and Gypsy. They traveled from the Kapustin Yar range on a Soviet R-1 V rocket. Their flight was suborbital - the rocket reached outer space, but the entry into the Earth's orbit and its flight around the planet was not planned. But the real orbital space flight was first made by the heroic dog Laika on November 3, 1957. She circled the Earth several times on the Soviet Sputnik-2 spacecraft and died in space from overheating and stress 5-7 hours after launch. It was assumed that she would live in orbit for a week, although the return of Laika to Earth was not provided for by the design of the ship. Almost 3 years later - on August 19-20, 1960, on the Soviet ship Sputnik-5, the legendary dogs Belka and Strelka not only flew in orbit, but also returned home.

The first astronauts

American rocket scientists experimented with monkeys, the first of which, Sam, was in orbit on December 4, 1959. And the United States launched a man into space for the first time almost a month after Yuri Gagarin, and even then in a suborbital flight. It was Alan Shepard on Mercury 3. And only on February 20, 1962, John Glenn was the first American to make the first orbital flight on Mercury-6.

Weaker sex in space

The first woman to fly into space was Valentina Tereshkova, a citizen of the USSR. She made her historic flight on June 16, 1963 on Vostok-6. By the way, only two decades later, the first American Sally Ride was in orbit. Meanwhile, the first representative of the weaker sex in outer space was also the Soviet woman cosmonaut Svetlana Savitskaya, who made this step on July 25, 1984.

space race

In general, the first ever spacewalk was made on March 18, 1965 by the famous Soviet cosmonaut Alexei Leonov. This was another victory for the Soviet cosmonautics in the space race with the Americans. True, America managed to succeed in the lunar program - it was US astronauts Neil Armstrong and Edwin Aldrin who were the first to land on the Earth's satellite on Apollo 11.

Cosmic calendar: only the first

And now briefly about who was the first to fly into space in other categories:

1963 - Felisset's first cat made a suborbital flight

1964 - the first civilian specialist (Konstantin Feoktistov) and a doctor (Boris Egorov) in space

1978 - the first cosmonaut not from the USSR or the USA - Vladimir Remek (Czechoslovakia)

1985 - in space, the first US Senator Edwin Garn and saudi prince Sultan As-Saud

1986 - the first American astronaut-Congressman William Nelson

1990 - the first commercial flight into space, which was made by Japanese Toyohiro Akiyama. He also became the first journalist in orbit. In the same year, the first creature flew into space before birth - on space station"Peace" first hatched from the egg of a quail chick.

2001 - The first space tourist, American Dennis Tito, paid $20 million for a week in space.

2008 - the son of astronaut Sergei Volkov flew into space for the first time

For each anniversary of Yuri Gagarin's historic flight, "revealing" articles appear again and again in newspapers and the Internet, claiming that Gagarin was not the first cosmonaut. Usually they come down to listing rumors about pilots who allegedly flew into space before Gagarin, but died there, so their names are classified. Where did the myth about the victims of Soviet cosmonautics come from?

Venus phantom

For the first time, the Soviet Union was accused of hushing up the death of astronauts even before Gagarin's flight. In the diary of the then head of the cosmonaut corps, Nikolai Kamanin, there is an entry dated February 12, 1961:

Since the launch of the rocket to Venus on February 4, many in the West believe that we have unsuccessfully launched a man into space; the Italians even allegedly “heard” groans and intermittent Russian speech. These are all completely baseless speculations. In fact, we are working hard on a guaranteed astronaut landing. From my point of view, we are even too cautious in this. There will never be a full guarantee of a successful first flight into space, and a certain amount of risk is justified by the greatness of the task ...

The launch on February 4, 1961 was indeed unsuccessful, but there was no one on board. This was the first attempt to send research apparatus to Venus. The Molniya launch vehicle launched it into space, but due to a malfunction, the device remained in near-Earth orbit. The Soviet government, according to established tradition, did not officially acknowledge the failure, and in a TASS message to the whole world it was announced the successful launch of a heavy satellite and the fulfillment of the scientific and technical tasks assigned at the same time.

In general, it was the unjustified in many cases veil of secrecy that surrounded the domestic space program that gave rise to a lot of rumors and conjectures - and not only among Western journalists, but also among Soviet citizens.

The birth of a myth

However, back to Western journalists. The first message dedicated to the "victims of red space" was published by the Italians: in December 1959, the Continental agency circulated a statement by a certain high-ranking Czech communist that the USSR, starting from 1957, had been launching manned ballistic missiles. One of the pilots named Alexey Ledovsky allegedly died on November 1, 1957 during such a suborbital launch. Developing the topic, the journalists mentioned three more "dead cosmonauts": Sergei Shiborin (allegedly died on February 1, 1958), Andrei Mitkov (allegedly died on January 1, 1959) and Maria Gromova (allegedly died on June 1, 1959). At the same time, the female pilot allegedly crashed not in a rocket, but while testing a prototype orbital aircraft with a rocket engine.

In the same period, rocket science pioneer Herman Oberth said that he heard about a manned suborbital launch, which allegedly took place at the Kapustin Yar test site in early 1958 and ended in the death of the pilot. However, Oberth emphasized that he knew about the "cosmic catastrophe" from other people's words and could not vouch for the veracity of the information.

And the Continental agency produced sensation after sensation. Italian correspondents talked either about the "lunar ship" that exploded on the launch pad of the mythical Siberian cosmodrome "Sputnikgrad", or about the upcoming secret flight of two Soviet pilots ... Since none of the sensations was confirmed, the reports of "Continental" ceased to be trusted. But the "rumor factory" soon had followers.

In October 1959, an article about testers was published in the Ogonyok magazine. aviation technology. Aleksey Belokonev, Ivan Kachur, Aleksey Grachev were mentioned among them. The Vechernyaya Moskva newspaper, in an article on a similar topic, spoke about Gennady Mikhailov and Gennady Zavodovsky. The journalist of the Associated Press, who reprinted the materials, for some reason decided that the photographs in these articles depict future Soviet cosmonauts. Since their names did not subsequently appear in TASS "space" reports, a "logical" conclusion was made: these five died during early unsuccessful launches.

The real Belokonov, Grachev and Kachur in the photographs from Ogonyok (Photo: Dmitry Baltermants)

Moreover, the exuberant fantasy of journalists played out so much that for each of the pilots they came up with a separate detailed version of the death. So, after the launch on May 15, 1960 of the first satellite ship 1KP, the prototype of the Vostok, the Western media claimed that the pilot Zavodovsky was on board. He allegedly died due to a malfunction in the attitude control system, which brought the ship into a higher orbit.

The mythical cosmonaut Kachur found his death on September 27, 1960 during the unsuccessful launch of another satellite ship, orbital flight which was to take place during Nikita Khrushchev's visit to New York. According to rumors, the Soviet leader was carrying a model of a manned spaceship, which he should have triumphantly shown to Western journalists if the flight had been successful.

It must be admitted that the Soviet diplomatic services themselves created an unhealthy atmosphere of expectation of some high-profile event, hinting to American journalists that “something amazing” would happen on September 27th. Intelligence reported that tracking ships spacecraft took up positions in the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. A Soviet sailor who escaped during the same period confirmed that a space launch was being prepared. But, tapping his fist on General Assembly UN, October 13, 1960 Nikita Khrushchev left America. There have been no official statements from TASS. Of course, journalists immediately trumpeted to the whole world about a new catastrophe that had befallen the Soviet space program.

Many years later, it became known that a launch was indeed planned for those days. But not a man was supposed to fly into space, but 1M - the first apparatus for studying Mars. However, attempts to send two identical devices at least into near-Earth orbit, undertaken on October 10 and 14, ended ingloriously: in both cases, the launch failed due to an accident with the Molniya launch vehicle.

The next "victim of the space race", the pilot Grachev, died, according to the Western media, on September 15, 1961. The same factory of rumors "Continental" told about his terrible death. In February 1962, the agency said that in September 1961, two Soviet cosmonauts were launched on the Vostok-3 spacecraft: supposedly this launch was timed to XXII congress The CPSU and during the flight the ship was supposed to fly around the moon, but instead "was lost in the depths of the universe."

Cosmonaut Ilyushin?

Vladimir Sergeevich Ilyushin, the son of a famous aircraft designer, is another victim of sensation hunters. In 1960, he had an accident, and he was declared another "Dogagarin cosmonaut." Conspiracy theorists believe that Ilyushin was forbidden to talk about his flight into space until the end of his life, because he allegedly ... landed in China. It is impossible to think of a more ridiculous reason to abandon the space championship. Moreover, Ilyushin not only did not die - he lived until 2010 and rose to the rank of major general.

Voices in space

The grave of the tester Zavodovsky. As can be seen from the dates, the “deceased cosmonaut” died in the 21st century in retirement

The failed launch of the Venus station on February 4, 1961 gave rise to new wave rumors. Then, for the first time, the amateur radio brothers Achille and Giovanni Judica-Cordilla made themselves known, having built their own radio station near Turin. They claimed to have been able to intercept telemetry radio signals from the beating of a human heart and the ragged breathing of a dying Soviet cosmonaut. This "incident" is associated with the name of the mythical cosmonaut Mikhailov, who allegedly died in orbit.

But that's not all! In 1965, the amateur radio brothers told an Italian newspaper about three strange broadcasts from space at once. The first interception allegedly took place on November 28, 1960: radio amateurs heard the sounds of Morse code and a request for help on English language. On May 16, 1961, they managed to catch on the air the confused speech of a Russian female cosmonaut. During the third radio interception on May 15, 1962, the conversations of three Russian pilots (two men and a woman) who died in space were recorded. In the recording, through the crackle of static, the following phrases could be distinguished: "Conditions are getting worse ... why are you not answering? .. the speed is dropping ... the world will never know about us ..."

Impressive, isn't it? To finally assure the reader of the authenticity of the stated "facts", the Italian newspaper names the dead. The first "victim" on this list was pilot Alexei Grachev. The female cosmonaut's name was Lyudmila. Among the trio who died in 1962, for some reason, only one is named - Alexei Belokonev, about whom Ogonyok wrote.

In the same year, the "sensational" information of the Italian newspaper was reprinted by the American magazine Reader's Digest. Four years later, the book Autopsy of an Astronaut was published, written by pathologist Sam Stonebreaker. In it, the author claimed to have flown into space on a Gemini 12 to obtain tissue samples from dead Soviet pilots who had been in orbit since May 1962.

That's who really flew into space before Gagarin - the dummy Ivan Ivanovich. So that he would not be mistaken for the corpse of an astronaut, a sign "Layout" was inserted into the helmet

As for the article in Ogonyok, which gave rise not even to a myth, but to a whole mythology, then famous journalist Yaroslav Golovanov, who investigated the stories of the “pre-Gagarin cosmonauts”, interviewed Alexei Timofeevich Belokonov himself (exactly so, and not Belokonev, as is customary among the myth-makers). Here is what the tester said, who was buried a long time ago by Western rumor mills.

In the 50s, long before Gagarin's flight, my comrades and I, then very young guys - Lyosha Grachev, Gennady Zavodovsky, Gennady Mikhailov, Vanya Kachur, were engaged in ground tests aviation equipment and anti-g flight suits. By the way, at the same time, spacesuits for dogs that flew on high-altitude rockets were created and tested in a neighboring laboratory. The work was difficult, but very interesting.

Once a correspondent from the Ogonyok magazine came to us, walked around the laboratories, talked with us, and then published a report “On the Threshold of Great Heights” with photographs (see “Spark” No. 42, 1959 - Ya. G.). The main character of this reportage was Lyosha Grachev, but it was also told about me, how I experienced the effect of explosive decompression. Ivan Kachur was also mentioned. It was also said about the high-altitude record of Vladimir Ilyushin, who then climbed 28,852 meters. The journalist slightly distorted my last name, called me not Belokonov, but Belokonev.

Well, this is where it all started. The New York Journal-American magazine printed a fake that my comrades and I flew to Gagarin in space and died. The editor-in-chief of Izvestia Alexey Ivanovich Adzhubey invited Mikhailov and me to the editorial office. We arrived, talked with journalists, we were photographed. This picture was published in Izvestia (May 27, 1963 - Ya. G.) next to Adzhubey's open letter to Mr. Hirst Jr., the owner of the magazine that sent us into space and buried us.

We ourselves published a response to the Americans to their article in the Krasnaya Zvezda newspaper (May 29, 1963 - Ya. G.), in which we honestly wrote: “We did not have a chance to rise into extraatmospheric space. We are testing various equipment for high-altitude flights.” No one died during these tests. Gennady Zavodovsky lived in Moscow, worked as a driver, didn’t get into Izvestia then - he was on a flight, Lyosha Grachev worked in Ryazan at a factory of calculating and analytical machines, Ivan Kachur lived in the town of Pechenezhin in the Ivano-Frankivsk region, worked as a teacher in an orphanage . Later, I participated in tests related to cosmonauts' life support systems, and even after Gagarin's flight, I was awarded the medal "For Labor Valor" for this work ...

Forgotten Heroes

So, in the list of mythical astronauts, there were still people who worked for the space program, but they real life markedly different from journalistic fantasies.

In addition to the four test friends, a very real figure was, for example, Pyotr Dolgov. The Western media announced him as an astronaut who died during the catastrophe of an orbiting satellite ship on October 10, 1960 (in fact, they tried to launch the 1M No. 1 apparatus that day). Colonel Pyotr Dolgov died much later: on November 1, 1962, during a parachute jump from a stratostat, raised to a height of 25.5 kilometers. When Dolgov left the stratospheric balloon, the face shield of the pressure helmet cracked - death came instantly.

Parachutist-record holder Pyotr Dolgov really died, but space has nothing to do with it

Pilot Anokhin flew on a rocket plane, not on a spaceship

I present all these details here not to impress the reader or make him doubt the known history of astronautics. A review of rumors and mythical episodes is needed to show how detrimental to the reputation of the domestic space program was the policy of silence and disinformation. The unwillingness and inability to admit mistakes played a cruel trick on us: even when TASS made a completely truthful statement, they refused to believe it, looking for contradictions or trying to read "between the lines."

Sometimes the test pilots themselves contribute to the spread of rumors. Shortly before his death in 1986, the outstanding Soviet pilot Sergei Anokhin dropped in an interview: "I flew on a rocket." Journalists immediately asked themselves: when and on what rocket could he fly? They recalled that from the mid-1960s Anokhin headed the department in the bureau of Sergei Korolev, which prepared "civilian" cosmonauts for flights. Yes, he was part of the team. Is it because he already had the experience of “flying on a rocket” in the early 1950s? .. But in fact, long before working for the bureau, Anokhin participated in testing a rocket plane and cruise missile and that is probably what he meant.

James Oberg, one of the debunkers of this "conspiracy theory"

All the rumors about the Soviet cosmonautics, which had flickered in the Western press since the mid-1960s, undertook to systematize the American expert on space technology, James Oberg. Based on the collected material, he wrote the article "Phantoms of the Cosmos", first published in 1975. Now this work has been supplemented with new materials and has gone through many reprints. Having the reputation of a staunch anti-Soviet, Oberg is nevertheless very scrupulous in the selection of information relating to the secrets of the Soviet space program, and very cautious in his conclusions. Without denying that there are many "blank spots" in the history of Soviet cosmonautics, he concludes that stories about cosmonauts who died during launch or in orbit are implausible. All this is the fruit of a fantasy fueled by the regime of secrecy.

Reality versus myth

Soviet cosmonauts really died - both before Gagarin's flight and after it. Let us remember them and bow our heads before Valentin Bondarenko (he died on Earth, without having flown into space, on March 23, 1961 due to a fire during tests), Vladimir Komarov (died on April 24, 1967 due to a disaster during the landing of the Soyuz- 1"), Georgy Dobrovolsky, Vladislav Volkov and Viktor Patsaev (died on June 30, 1971 due to depressurization of the descent module of the Soyuz-11 spacecraft). However, in the history of Soviet cosmonautics there was and is no secret corpses.

For cynics who do not believe documents, memoirs and diaries, but rely on "logic" and "sanity", I will give a cynical, but absolutely logical argument. Under the conditions of the space race, it did not matter whether the first astronaut returned to Earth or not - the main thing was to announce his priority. Therefore, if the pilot Zavodovsky were on the 1KP satellite, as irresponsible authors are trying to assure us, it would be Zavodovsky who would be declared the first cosmonaut of the planet. Of course, the whole world would mourn him, but soviet man I would still be the first to go into space, and this is the main thing.

The readiness of the USSR government for any outcome of the flight is also confirmed by declassified documents. I will give here a fragment of a note sent to the Central Committee of the CPSU on March 30, 1961 on behalf of people involved in the space program:

We consider it expedient to publish the first TASS message immediately after the satellite enters orbit for the following reasons:

a) if necessary, this will facilitate the rapid organization of the rescue;
b) this will exclude the declaration by any foreign state of the astronaut as a reconnaissance officer for military purposes ...

Here is another paper on the same topic. On April 3, the Central Committee of the CPSU adopted a resolution "On the launch of a spacecraft-satellite":

1. Approve the proposal<…>on the launch of the Vostok-3 spacecraft-satellite with an astronaut on board.
2. Approve the draft TASS report on the launch of a spacecraft with an astronaut on board the Earth satellite and grant the right to the Launch Commission, if necessary, to make clarifications on the results of the launch, and to publish it to the Commission of the Council of Ministers of the USSR on military-industrial issues.

As decided, so they did. The TASS message, dedicated to the first manned flight into space, sounded even before Gagarin returned to Earth. He could have died during the descent - and April 12 would still be Cosmonautics Day.

Space exploration began long before the flight. Many scientists and designers tried to create a rocket in order to give mankind the opportunity to explore outer space. The main rivals in this struggle were the USSR and the USA. Both countries aspired to be the pioneers of outer space. But in 1961 the world found out who was the first to fly into space. It was a citizen of the USSR, Yuri Gagarin.

Experimental flights into space began a little earlier. But dogs were used as astronauts. At first, rockets were launched at a low altitude. Scientists studied the effect of weightlessness on the organism of animals. Since then, developments in this area have continued. At the same time, the first manned flight into space was being prepared.

Then they designed a rocket for longer flights, but it did not have a mechanism for returning to the ground. Therefore, a dog named Laika, who flew into space on it, did not return to earth and died. Then two dogs Gypsy and Dezik flew into space on a high-altitude rocket. They successfully completed their flight and successfully landed on the ground.

Therefore, speaking about who was the first to fly into space, one cannot fail to mention these astronauts.

But, of course, the first human space flight was a real breakthrough in this area. It was a historic day not only in but for all mankind. The whole world knew who was the first to fly into space.

Thanks to the launch vehicle, a spacecraft entered orbit, the only passenger of which was a man. The duration of the first flight was only 108 minutes. But these were moments of pride in the Soviet people and domestic cosmonautics. Today, when astronauts work in space for several months in a row, this period seems so short. But for the first flight it was a huge achievement.

The one who first flew into space showed all mankind that it is possible to master this unknown space. People got the opportunity to work and live in space. So the word cosmonaut came into use, and a new profession appeared.

People in this profession must have many skills and knowledge. The most important and initial requirement that they are presented with is excellent health. During the flight, the astronaut experiences very large overloads. They are especially felt during landing and exit into orbit. The state of weightlessness is also a test for the human body. That is why the health requirements are so high.

In addition, the astronaut must have courage and courage. The ability to make the right decision in difficult situations is also a necessary quality. Outer space is an unfamiliar environment for humans. There is radiation harmful to humans, a vacuum. But the hull of the ship is solid and impenetrable. It has everything you need for a full life and work.
The astronaut must know the structure of the spacecraft thoroughly. The totality of all these qualities just characterized the first cosmonaut of the Earth.

Yuri Gagarin was the one who first flew into space. But this was only the initial stage. Further exploration of outer space continued. The complexity of flights and the tasks that confronted the astronauts increased. The technology became more complex. The following flights lasted more than a day. Then there was the exit of a man outside the spacecraft. It was made Created and launched orbital stations, which allowed the crews of astronauts to replace each other in orbit.

The development of astronautics is going faster and faster. But flight is the main event in this field, which opened up new tasks, opportunities and prospects for humanity.

Was Gagarin the first in space? Or was he the first to return alive from orbit? Why are they still talking about the cosmonauts who died before him, and what mysteries of the first flights have been declassified only recently? 108 minutes that shook the world - what were they worth? Read about it in the documentary investigation of the Moscow Trust TV channel.

First to Gagarin

November 10, 1959 In the US, a newspaper comes out with sensational material. It contains a secret recording of the negotiations of the chief Soviet designer Sergei Korolev with an astronaut: "Earth. The pressure is normal." After a minute of silence: "I can't hear you, the batteries have failed. Oxygen. Comrades, for God's sake, what can I do? What? I can't. Do you understand? Do you understand?" Then the speech of the astronaut turned into an indistinct muttering and disappeared altogether. According to journalist Allen Henders, the name of the deceased was Alexander Belokonev.

"As for Gagarin, there is no smoke without fire. There are some factors that allow rumors to surface. We all know the canonical date of Gagarin's flight - April 12, but before his flight there were five satellite ships on which the flight of the Vostok ship was practiced," - said Vadim Lukashevich.

Andrey Simonov has been researching flight tests in our country for many years. He acknowledges that experiments in this industry have been going on since 1953.

Yuri Gagarin, 1961 Photo: ITAR-TASS

"No one wanted to show, imagine: the world's first man in space, and suddenly death. It will be an even greater shame than if we fall behind. Therefore, they verified it to the smallest detail so that there was a 100% guarantee of success.
On the eve of Gagarin's flight, Daily Worker publishes an article by his Moscow correspondent. He reports: "On April 8, Vladimir Ilyushin, test pilot, son of the legendary aircraft designer, made an orbital flight aboard the Rossiya spacecraft." It is he who will be listed in the Guinness Book of Records for 1964 as the first cosmonaut on the planet," Andrey Simonov comments.

"The Hungarian writer Eastwood Nemory wrote a whole book about the fact that the first cosmonaut was Viktor Ilyushin, who survived, but was in an unattractive form after this unsuccessful landing," Yuri Karash said.

Shortly after Gagarin's return, the Italian agency Continental publishes an interview with its scientists, the Undico-Cordillo brothers, who said that since 1957 they have recorded three tragedies in space. In their space listening center, they picked up the radio signals of the dying, groans and intermittent heartbeats. Those records still exist.

“Initially, about 3,000 people were selected. We looked first of all at their medical books, that is, there was a requirement for almost absolute physical health. Of these, as a result of strict selection, 6 people were left who flew under the Vostok program. In fact, of course, more were selected," adds Yuriy Karash.

The last unofficial flight in the foreign press is February 4, 1961. The Baikonur was actually launched that day, but who flew? Why didn't he return? The details were kept secret for many years.

Why did pilot-cosmonaut Bondarenko die?

The West is convinced that Gagarin only played the role of the first cosmonaut in order to hide the failures.

"Before Gagarin's flight, the Americans also worked out their Mercury spacecraft, they had two suborbital launches, they managed to launch them. The first flew the rhesus monkey Sam, and the second - the first astronaut chimpanzee Ham. He flew two months before Gagarin, he climbed to a height of 285 km vertically. Maybe that's why Korolev began to say that it makes no sense to launch Gagarin suborbitally, you need to immediately go to a full orbit. Otherwise, he would be second behind the monkey. Therefore, the race went head to head," said Vadim Lukashevich.

Today, astronauts acknowledge the death of one of their colleagues. This really happened before Gagarin, and they don't like to talk about it. Valentin Bondarenko was one of the favorites of the first detachment - the youngest and most cheerful. Pilot-cosmonaut Viktor Gorbatko was friends with him, but even he admits that he died through his own fault.

"We heated food and tea on ordinary spiral tiles. We wiped the head for sensors with alcohol, and he accidentally dropped an alcohol swab on the tiles - he was going to have dinner. There was a fire, he had 80% burns, he was taken away in an ambulance, but he lived only two or three hours," recalls Viktor Gorbatko.

Yuri Gagarin before the start. Photo: ITAR-TASS

Gagarin could not say goodbye to Bondarenko, he was called to the start. There is a battle for space. Before sending Yuri Gagarin into flight, he and his backup, German Titov, are brought to the cosmodrome twice. They work out to the smallest detail everything that can be done on Earth, and for real: in spacesuits, with a report, with negotiations.

“The landing was rehearsed, they reported, they were taken up in an elevator to the very top, to the ship. Everything was done except boarding the ship. That is, a large retinue: conscripts who stood in the cordon saw that the astronauts reported, went to the rocket, the rocket flew away," said Vadim Lukashevich.

This is how rumors are born. They are also fueled by the kitchen conversations of dissidents who do not trust the authorities.

“Once I was in Italy, those who proved that Gagarin and Tereshkova were not the first gathered there,” recalls Viktor Gorbatko.

Late 70s Almost twenty years after Gagarin's flight. Astronauts can already divulge some of the details of the first launches. Then Viktor Gorbatko tells for the first time that Valentin Bondarenko died not in space, but in a sound chamber during a test. But those radio signals that the Italian brothers heard really were, and came from space.

“Radio transmitters were taken on board. They just recorded the voice and watched how the signal would pass to Earth. There were simple call signs: “Reception!”, “How can you hear me?”, Etc. Western pilots, having heard this, might well have thought that this is a person saying, although in fact it was said by a tape recorder," Andrey Simonov said.

Human trials

So was the astronaut number zero, and who are the people whose names were given by the largest foreign publications? Why were they so believed? And Gagarin - the first, second or twelfth cosmonaut in the world? First journalistic investigation appeared in the summer of 1965.

"In American publications - Belokonev, Ledovsky, Shiborin, Gusev, Zavadovsky also flew to Gagarin - a bunch of names were given. And it turned out that in 1959 the Ogonyok magazine had a detailed publication where test suits for pilots, not for astronauts, gave interviews And they said that they tested high-altitude space suits, and so the Americans took the names of people from this group and passed them off as astronauts.
But questions remain. What really happened to Vladimir Ilyushin?" Andrey Simonov said.

"He was a very unique person. In 1959 he set a world record for flying an airplane, a lot was written about him. And now he suddenly disappears from sight in 1960. It was simple: on June 8, 1960, he gets into a car accident along the way from Moscow to Zhukovsky, and for a long time was treated. He was awarded the title of hero this year. Soviet Union, and he came on crutches to the presentation. And, apparently, someone saw, and gossip began that he unsuccessfully flew into space. Although he himself always denied this," recalls Simonov.

Yuri Gagarin at the Grand Kremlin Palace, 1961. Photo: ITAR-TASS

Yevgeny Kiryushin is also one of those who were named among the dead cosmonauts. His friends heard about it on the air of a foreign radio station.

"Someone accidentally asked me:" Oh! Are you alive? I heard you died" - "No, I say alive!" - Said Evgeny Kiryushin.

Kiryushin is one of those who did everything so that the astronauts did not die. For more than 20 years, he was officially listed either as a simple laboratory assistant, or as a mechanic at the Institute of Space Medicine. It was only in the early 1990s that it became possible to talk aloud about his work, and he received the title of Hero of Russia.

"Let's say explosive decompression, when they checked the suit for an explosion - it takes a fraction of a second to completely depressurize, from earth pressure to vacuum - three tenths of a second. God knows what can happen: maybe the lightning will be torn off, maybe the helmet, or maybe the head ", - explained Kiryushin.

There are countless tragedies among the testers, not many can withstand twelvefold overloads and emergency ejection. A common injury is a fracture of the spine. Until recently, no one knows how a person will behave in space. It is believed that in a state of weightlessness, he will simply go crazy. Gagarin's entire ship's control panel is blocked. The code is in a special envelope, a deranged pilot will not be able to decipher it. Until the last minute, the success of the flight is in doubt.

"After WWII International Commission banned human experimentation and testing. But how can you develop such a new industry as astronautics without conducting experiments with people? This is impossible, therefore, despite all sorts of international acts, we had a group of testers who did this," said Evgeny Kiryushin.

Vadim Lukashevich has written more than one book about astronautics. He believes that the Americans, spreading rumors about Soviet unsuccessful launches, did not want to belittle the achievements of the country of the Soviets. On the contrary, they were frightened by such information. During the period cold war they kept a close eye on the Russians. For meetings in the US Congress on the budget, the Pentagon even issued a special brochure "Soviet military power."

“The West then received very little information about the Soviet Union. To the extent that they would not say where they started from. We started from Chuo Tama, but they said that from Baikonur, which is hundreds of kilometers away. And the Americans recognized the launch site by ballistic calculations, looking where the rocket took off. Gagarin is the first man in space, but according to the rules international association, in order to register a record, he had to take off in a ship, and sit down in a ship. And he catapulted at an altitude of 80 km and landed on a parachute separately, but when we applied for registration of a record, we hid it. That is, they thought of a lot of things," Vadim Lukashevich said.

Death of Ivan Ivanovich

Larisa Uspenskaya knows the secrets of space flights like no one else. For many years she has been in charge of the archives of the first detachment of astronauts. Unique, recently closed documents are stored here.

"In 2011, when the celebrations took place, anniversary events, mass declassification of documents was carried out. Documents from the archives of the president, the state authorities at that time and our department were declassified. Recently, a non-departmental commission declassified a significant block of archives relating to the first space flights," said Larisa Uspenskaya.

The very first recordings of Gagarin's flight archive were made in real time by Korolev and personally by the cosmonaut immediately after landing. Gagarin writes how he lost his pencil in weightlessness, how he was thirsty, how the ship deviated from the course.

Designer Sergei Korolev and first cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin, 1961. Photo: ITAR-TASS

"Gagarin's negotiations with the Earth during the flight, the Americans took direction finding and woke up the president that the race was lost," said Vadim Lukashevich.

Meanwhile, three weeks earlier, a resident of the village of Korsha, in Western Kazakhstan, found a man in a spacesuit on a high spruce - he landed unsuccessfully with a parachute. The news of the deceased cosmonaut quickly spread around the district. But no one had time to get close to him: the military arrived and the victim disappeared without a trace.

“Astronaut number zero, we can only call the mannequin Ivan Ivanovich. It was absolutely impossible to imagine how the human body would react. The overloads that the astronauts were subjected to during training and testing on Earth could not be compared with what would be there,” said Larisa Uspenskaya .

Officially, two dummies flew into space, jokingly nicknamed Ivan Ivanovich by the designers. In order not to frighten people, they will write on the suit of the second: "Layout". But the rumors could no longer be stopped.

"Only fifty years later, the UN established that April 12, 1961 is the day of the first manned flight into space," Viktor Gorbatko said.

Today, for $1 million, anyone can go into space. But has it become safe? What are astronauts still hiding?

“I was worried, of course, but there was no fear. Unfortunately, the previous crew, when we flew to Almaz (Salyut-5 military station), panicked, they began to take it more and more sharply, which caused their health to deteriorate, and this led to an emergency landing, and for some time it was even believed that the station had been poisoned.

Only behind the scenes, the testers say that the risk in flights has not disappeared. It's still roulette, which is why they sign non-disclosure agreements. Their reports are kept as secret files for years.

"As a result of each flight, apart from TASS reports, a whole set of documents emerge. For example, Gagarin's logbook has not yet been published. What do we know about flights after Gagarin?" - says Vadim Lukashevich.

It would seem that the veil of secrecy of the first flights is open, and apart from dogs and dummies, no one has been in orbit before Gagarin, but until all documents are declassified, these issues will be investigated again and again.

Major Gagarin coped with the task. After him, Viktor Gorbatko managed to go into space three times, each time they made the mission more difficult.

“Plains, forests, all this is visible from space. On my second flight, having taken the appropriate equipment, we could see a person,” Viktor Gorbatko recalls.

The news of the flight of the first man into space shook the whole world. Today, everyone on the planet knows that the first manned flight into space took place on April 12, 1961 and the name of this cosmonaut was Yuri Gagarin. This day is known as International Cosmonautics Day.

However, the very first flight into space in the world was made not by people, but by an animal. It was they who had to experience all the difficulties of space travel, so that scientists could maximally secure human flight.

From the beginning of the fifties to the sixties of the last century, scientists conducted a series of experiments on animals, in which they studied the effect of overloads, weightlessness and vibration on a living organism. The first testers were not put into orbit. They flew rockets along a parabolic trajectory. The most suitable candidates for such tests were dogs. Of all the applicants, the choice fell on the mongrels, since they were more enduring than thoroughbred candidates.

First dogs in space

The first test dogs did not reach outer space. On July 22, 1951, rootless dogs named Dezik and Gypsy made the first suborbital flight to an altitude of eighty-seven kilometers seven hundred meters. The R-1V rocket was launched from the Kapustin Yar cosmodrome. This mission was successful and after it five more launches took place with different dogs.

Another series of launches was carried out in 1954-1956. The purpose of these missions was to test the suits in the conditions of depressurization of the ship. The dog was sent to a height of one hundred and ten kilometers. Most of animals tolerated the load well, but in subsequent tests, five out of twelve dogs died.

In 1957, animals were first launched into orbit. It was a breakthrough year in astronautics. The very first dogs in space had to experience prolonged weightlessness, temperature fluctuations and g-forces during launch. The first astronaut was destined to become a dog named Laika. She liked exemplary behavior and pleasant appearance. The dog made four orbits around the earth and unfortunately died due to a malfunction in the thermoregulation system. However, Laika still had to die, since the launch was calculated only one way.

Belka and Strelka

The next step was to launch the animals on the descent vehicle. The dogs Belka and Strelka, together with several dozen mice and two rats, were the first to make a successful flight in space and return to Earth. August 19, 1960 is actually the date of the first flight into space with a successful outcome for the test animals. It was a big step towards space exploration, because the information collected during the flight became invaluable material for further research.

Other animals

However, in addition to dogs, other animals went into space. In particular, monkeys participated in suborbital and orbital flights, as they are the closest in physiology to humans. In the United States, the first monkey was launched into space around 1948. In France, the monkey was sent into space in 1967. In the USSR, monkeys were used for launches into orbit in 1983 and 1996. In the first launches, the mortality among monkeys was quite high.

Felicette the cat

In addition, cats were used for space travel. The first suborbital astronaut in France was a cat named Felix. But the first orbital flight was made by a cat named Felicette. It happened on October 18, 1963. It is interesting to note that initially Felix the cat was appointed as the main candidate for this flight, but shortly before the start he escaped and he had to look for a replacement. Felicette the cat was launched into space from the Sahara desert. The rocket rose to a height of two hundred kilometers, after which the capsule with the cat separated and went back to Earth by parachute.