Myth of Soviet propaganda: Gagarin was not the first in space. History of astronautics, first space flights

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.

Intensive space exploration began only in the last century. For centuries, people have studied the stars and the celestial sphere, but only in the 20th century, scientific and technological progress made it possible not only to enter Earth's orbit, but also to be in outer space, to set foot on the moon. Who was the first to fly into space? Below we will answer this and other questions related to such flights.

The first living being in outer space

Many are sure that the famous mongrels Belka and Strelka were the very first in space. However, this is not the case. Before their flight, various experiments were carried out for at least 10 years, during which various animals were released into low Earth orbit. The very first were squirrel monkeys, which were launched by the Americans in 1949.

Four-legged friends - pioneers of space flights

Only in 1951 did experiments begin on our four-legged friends. The first dogs to fly into space were the mongrels Dezik and Gypsy. They were launched on high-altitude rockets to an altitude of 450 km. They successfully returned. The legendary Laika in 1957 made the first real orbital flight on the Sputnik-2 rocket. From stress and overheating, the dog died a short time after takeoff. In any case, Laika was doomed to death, since the design of the ship did not imply a return to Earth.

And only in 1960, Belka and Strelka, known to everyone, went into space on a Sputnik-5 rocket. They survived the flight successfully and returned home safe and sound. It became clear that the first manned flight into space was not far off. Soviet and American scientists worked hard in this direction.

Who was the first to fly into space?

Any student can answer this question. Everyone knows who was the first to fly into space. The name of this hero is Yuri Gagarin. The Vostok space rocket was launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on April 12, 1961. Gagarin exclaimed during takeoff: "Let's go!" He was calm, the archive contains information that the sensors recorded a pulse of 64 beats per minute. Already in orbit, Yuri was surprised: "The Earth is blue! How beautiful!"

It orbited the planet in 108 minutes and returned successfully, landing in a field near locality Engels Saratov region. Gagarin recalled that the peasant woman with her daughter was the first to see him in an orange spacesuit and got scared ...

The whole world spread the news that the first manned flight into space had taken place. This great event is the starting point of human space exploration.

Biography

Yuri Gagarin was born on March 9, 1934 in the Smolensk region. His father and mother were simple collective farmers from the village of Klushino.

In June 1951, Yura graduated with honors from the Lyubertsy vocational school. In the same year he became a graduate of the Lyubertsy School of Working Youth.

In 1955, he graduated from the Saratov Industrial College with the highest scores and graduated from the Saratov Aeroclub. In the same year he was drafted into the ranks of the Soviet Army. He served as a fighter pilot in an aviation regiment.

In 1957 he graduated from the First Chkalovsky Aviation School. Voroshilov (Orenburg) with the qualification of a military pilot of the first category. Yu. A. Gagarin was a student of the famous test pilot Akbulatov.

On March 3, 1960, by order of the Commander-in-Chief of the USSR Air Force, he was enlisted in the cosmonaut corps. A year later he made his famous flight. After him, Yu. A. Gagarin became a living legend, received worldwide recognition, was awarded the title of Hero Soviet Union and was awarded many medals. Yuri was declared an honorary citizen of various cities.

The personal life of the one who first flew into space also turned out well. In 1957, Gagarin married, then he had two daughters.

However, on March 27, 1968, at the age of 34, while testing the MiG-15 fighter, the first person to fly into space died tragically. At that time, the whole country was grieving!

The weaker sex does not lag behind

The first woman to conquer space was also a citizen of the USSR. This is Valentina Tereshkova. She was born on March 6, 1937 in a simple family. She graduated from school, worked at a factory, then as a weaver at a combine. At the same time she studied in absentia at the technical school of light industry. Her hobby - parachuting, in which she was one of the best in the women's team. In 1960, Valentina became the secretary of the Komsomol committee.

When Academician Korolyov had the idea to send a woman into low Earth orbit, a competition for applicants was announced. The woman had to be no older than 30 years old, no taller than 170 cm and weigh no more than 70 kg, have good health, be politically literate, morally sound and have skydiving experience. Valentina applied immediately. Among several hundred applicants, she and 4 other applicants were selected.

Difficult flight Tereshkova

A tiring workout began that lasted several months. In November 1962, Tereshkova and the rest of the candidates successfully passed their exams. However, the choice fell on Valentina, although according to the conclusions of doctors, she was fifth on the list. But political factors became decisive - the woman was from a simple family, the secretary of the Komsomol cell. Big plus there was also the fact that she knew how to speak well at meetings (the experience of the Komsomol member affected). Indeed, in the event of a successful flight, Tereshkova was expected to travel internationally and meet with Western journalists. According to contemporaries, Khrushchev personally insisted on the candidacy of Valentina.

The historic launch took place on June 16, 1963 on a Vostok-6 rocket from the Baikonur cosmodrome. The flight into space lasted three days, and during this time, emergency situations arose. The most serious and threatening was Tereshkova's temporary disorientation, as a result of which she steered the spacecraft in the opposite direction, receding at great speed from the planned flight path to outer space. The observers got their bearings in time and switched the rocket to automatic control mode, returning it to the correct route. V. V. Tereshkova, the first female cosmonaut on the planet, told many years later that she physically felt very bad. Indeed, immediately after landing, she was in poor shape and was urgently hospitalized. However, after a couple of days, she accepted congratulations with a smile.

For her heroic flight into space, Valentina Tereshkova was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union and other honors.

Other victories of the USSR

The Americans were shocked by the news of Gagarin's flight, and later by the news of Tereshkova's orbital flight. The USA launched the first man - Alan Shepard - into space a month after the USSR, but it was not a real space flight, but only a suborbital one. It wasn't until February 20, 1962 that the American Mercury-6 rocket made the first real orbital flight with cosmonaut John Glenn on board.

In the space race between the USA and the USSR, the country of the Soviets took almost all the prizes:

• The world's first satellite was launched by the USSR on October 4, 1957.
• Gagarin is the first cosmonaut on the planet.
• Tereshkova is a pioneer woman in astronautics.
• Alexei Leonov, a citizen of the USSR, made the first spacewalk on March 18, 1965 from the Voskhod-2 spacecraft.
• Soviet citizen Svetlana Savitskaya - the first woman who dared to go into outer space 07/25/1984
• Anatoly Solovyov spent a total of 82 hours and 20 minutes in vacuum during 16 spacewalks.

The United States took revenge when they first landed their astronauts Neil Armstrong and Alvin Aldrin on the moon. Although many argue that it was a big scam, and so far no man has set foot on the moon.

• 1964 - the first civilians were sent into space - doctor Boris Yegorov and Dr. technical sciences Konstantin Feoktistov.
• 1978 - Czechoslovakia joined the ranks of countries conquering space by sending cosmonaut V. Remek into the airless space.
• 1985 - the first politicians in space - Senator Edwin Garn and Prince Saudi Arabia As Saud.
• 1990 - Japanese journalist Toyohiro Akiyama went into outer space.

Tourist space

The idea of ​​space tourism was put forward in 1967. The first official report on this topic was heard in 1986 at the International Astronautical Congress. In the same year, the first tourist was to fly into space - American Christy McAuliffe, a teacher who won this prize in a competition. However, during the launch of the Challenger shuttle, she died, which was the reason for the state ban on non-professional flights into space.

The idea of ​​such tourism did not die, but continued to develop at an unprecedented speed. Already in 2001, Russia was able to send the first tourist into space - American Dennis Tito, who paid $ 20 million for the flight. This mission caused a lot of displeasure from NASA. However, in 2002, again, Russia sent a second tourist into space - Mark Shuttleworth, who also paid $ 20 million for the flight.

Tito and Shuttleworth are the first people to fly into space as tourists. To date, 8 travelers have already visited outer space. The cost of the flight has risen to $40 million. An additional service for 15 million was announced - a spacewalk.

The United States is actively working to create ultra-modern safe shuttles for space tourism and promises to reduce the cost of flights to 50 thousand dollars by 2020, which will make it possible to send to the International space station up to 500 tourists per year.

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 Soviet people and national 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 device thoroughly spaceship. 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. This year he was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union, and he came on crutches to the ceremony. 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.

More from

Was Yuri Gagarin the first man in space?
Myth Soviet propaganda: Gagarin was not the first in space? / "Unsolved Mysteries"

According to one data, Yuri Gagarin was the second man in space, according to others - the fourth, and some argue that even the twelfth. In the Guinness Book of Records for 1964, the first astronaut of the Earth is indicated Viktor Ilyushin. Other

"Unsolved mysteries": Was Yuri Gagarin the first man in space

November 10, 1959 In the US, a newspaper comes out with sensational material. It contains a secret recording of negotiations between the chief Soviet designer Sergei Korolev and 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

"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. First of all, they looked 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

“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? The 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 were testing high-altitude spacesuits. And so the Americans took the names of people from this group and passed them off as cosmonauts. But questions remained. 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 was treated for a long time. This year he was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union, and he came to the ceremony on crutches. And, apparently, someone saw, and gossip began that he unsuccessfully flew into space. Although he he always denied it himself," recalls Simonov.

Yuri Gagarin at the Grand Kremlin Palace, 1961

"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 the Second World War, the International Commission banned experiments and tests on people. But how can such a new industry as cosmonautics be developed without conducting experiments on people? This is impossible, therefore, despite all sorts of international acts, we had a group of testers who were engaged in 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 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 Gagarin is the first man in space, but according to the rules of the international association, in order to register a record, he had to take off in a ship and land in a ship. separately, but when we submitted documents for the registration of the record, we hid it. That is, they thought of a lot of things," said Vadim Lukashevich.

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 celebrations and anniversary events took place, documents were declassified massively. 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

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.