On the territory of the Moscow region there is a unique place that allows you to touch the mysteries of space. In fact, this is a whole city-museum, where on the streets you can meet living legends who once carried out the most complex manipulations outside our planet in zero gravity.
Star City
The settlement was founded, in which the Cosmonaut Training Center. Yu. A. Gagarin RGNII TsPK, back in 1961 as a military town. Later it was reformatted into an urban-type settlement. The town, in which the Yu. A. Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center is located, today has the status of ZATO (closed administrative territorial entity). Located within the Shchelkovsky municipal district.
Cosmonaut Training Center. Yu. A. Gagarin is located only 25 kilometers from Moscow. If desired, everyone can visit the city-museum, you just need to get admission to the tour. The nearest railway station from which you can get to the Cosmonaut Training Centerthem. Yu. A. Gagarin, is the Tsiolkovsky platform. This stopping point is located on the railway Mytishchi - Fryazevo.
Population
The town in which the Cosmonaut Training Center named after. Yu. A. Gagarin, has just over five thousand registered permanent residents. The area is only three thousand square meters, which means that the population density is almost two thousand people per kilometer. In its best years, there were more than six thousand inhabitants.
Inhabitants of the town in which the Cosmonaut Training Center. Yu. A. Gagarin, proudly call themselves Star Mountain.
Building and address of the urban-type settlement
The very structure of ZATO is interesting - it is divided into two parts. The first half is residential. The second is directly occupied by the Yu. A. Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center. The address of the institution is very simple - Star City, Moscow Region, 141160.
How to get there
Fifty years ago, the town was not on any map. The only way to get here was by a special bus.
Only at the end of the eighties the route was assigned No. 380, which has stuck with it to this day. It departs from the Shchelkovskaya metro station.
Space Center Management
Why is the Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center so interesting? The management in the person of Yuri Valentinovich Lonchakov did everything possible to keep the object of interest to both tourists and space connoisseurs.
In total, nine people have led the center since its inception, namely:
- 1960-1963 - Evgeny Anatolyevich Karpov;
- 1963 - Mikhail Petrovich Odintsov;
- 1963 - 1972 - Nikolai Fedorovich Kuznetsov;
- 1972 –1987 – Georgy Timofeevich Beregovoy;
- 1987 - 1991 - Vladimir Aleksandrovich Shatalov;
- 1991 - 2003 - Klimuk Petr Ilyich;
- 2003 – 2009 Tsibliyev Vasily Vasilyevich;
- 2009 – 2014 Sergey Konstantinovich Krikalev
Controls
The complex itself is divided into several departments:
- Theoretical module, which sets out all the ins and outs of space travel. It studies the hardware of ships, their design, navigation and other sciences that are directly related to flights.
- Medical. Astronauts are required to constantly undergo medical examinations, because any deviation from the norm can lead to unpredictable consequences in orbit.
- Science module.
- Flight training. Each cosmonaut can try himself as a test pilot on an L-39 light aircraft at the nearest Chkalovsky air hub. In addition, in the arsenal of the complex there are Tu-134 and Tu-154, which are used for visual observation.
The most interesting instance is the IL-76 MDK, which will be discussed later. Thanks to this machine, you can briefly overcome gravity and feel the real weightlessness.
5. Management of simulators.
Centrifuges
Visitors can see unique astronaut simulators. First of all, centrifuges of the type "TsF-7" and "TsF-18" are of particular interest. With the help of them, it is possible to recreate the conditions of overloads experienced by astronauts under terrestrial conditions. For the centrifuge "ZF-18" a special cylindrical building was built on the territory of the center.
The "small" rotating part is just the tip of the iceberg. The main structure is underground.
Similar overloads are experienced by riders, so they can often be found on this simulator. Especially for them, a map of the future route is prescribed. The centrifuges in the complex are unique in that they can change direction abruptly.
If desired, any visitor can test himself as an astronaut. The price of such an "attraction", of course, is very rather big.
The power of the centrifuge is twenty-seven megawatts! This is nine times more than the fastest train.
Hydrolaboratory
What else can the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center offer? Photos of tourists indicate that visitors are very interested in the hydrolab. On the ground, this is a cylindrical structure, which is three floors.
Hydrolaboratory is a container completely filled with water. Its diameter is twenty-three meters, and its depth is 12. It is herethere were models of interorbital space stations - "Salyut-7", "Mir". The ISS facility has now been built.
Here, future astronauts hone their every action on spacewalks in conditions as close to real as possible.
An unrealistically beautiful place can be visited by every tourist.
IL-76 MDK aircraft
Nothing compares to weightlessness! It is a feeling of complete freedom and serenity. For many years, people could not experience it on our planet, "thanks" to the existing gravity.
Special laboratory aircraft solves this problem. It happens as follows…
The plane occupies the horizon of six thousand meters. After reaching this height, the pilot accelerates the car at a strictly forty-five degree angle. These fifteen seconds are the most difficult for unprepared people - the overload reaches 2g.
For reference: during the flight, the astronaut experiences up to 25g. The maximum design of the spacecraft can withstand 30g.
During takeoff and landing, this g-force is about 5g.
When the horizon reaches nine thousand meters, the pilot levels the plane and reduces engine thrust to a minimum. It is in the movement by inertia that you can "catch" those half a minute of the absence of attraction.
When reaching a flight level of six kilometers again, the pilot repeats the maneuver and so on several times.
Periodically this flight is open to everyone. Of course, only very we althy people can give themselves such pleasure.
Conclusion
The Space Center in Star City is one of the most interesting places on the territory of the Russian Federation, which every person dreams of visiting, for whom space is not just a word from the dictionary. This is a unique property to be truly proud of.
