In Russia of the twentieth century, a whole galaxy of scientists, brilliant techies was formed, whose contribution to the conquest of the Universe cannot be overestimated. There is an opinion that the scientist-designer Boris Evseevich Chertok occupies a special place among them. His strong point was the unique development of the “hearts” of rockets - control systems. He paid great attention to the development of satellite communications.
Replaced the twenty-ninth with the first
Having been born in 1912, long before the October Revolution, Chertok died quite recently (in 2011). To live for almost a century and keep a lively mobile mind is worth a lot! “We need to work as long as possible for the good of society - this is the secret,” Chertok argued. Boris Evseevich, whose biography began in Lodz (today Polish, and previously located on the lands of the Russian Empire), came into this world on the twenty-ninth of February. Making out the certificate, the ancestors indicated the first of March.
1914 - the time when the flows of refugees fled from the horrors of the First World War. Running away from the terrible scenes of the battle for Lodz, carrying their little son in their arms, parentsthought only of one thing: how to survive. Years will pass, and the boy will become an academician, a space genius. The name of the Hero of Socialist Labor, the owner of many awards, was included not only in the list of "The Best Aircraft Designers of Russia", but also in the world ratings of the conquerors of the space field.
Chertok's passion for technology manifested itself from the school bench. He graduated from the nine-year school in 1929. However, a year earlier, the first development of a simple Soviet boy (a universal tube radio) was published in the Radio to Everyone magazine.
On the way to college degree
In 1930, a young man came to the country's largest aviation enterprise - Plant No. 22. MPEI (Power Engineering Institute) graduated only in 1940, having received the speci alty of an electrical engineer. By that time, the newly minted specialist had more than one copyright certificate for important technical solutions (all of them are super-serious, take at least an automatic bomb release subordinate to smart electronics).
The trust of colleagues "outstripped" the university diploma. In 1935, a talented part-time student (before graduating from high school he switched to full-time) was an engineer at a design bureau, where Viktor Bolkhovitinov was king and god (since 1936, the design bureau operated on the premises of plant No. 84, in 1939 - on enterprise No. 293 in Khimki).
Boris Chertok worked here all the war years, starting from 1940. A rich track record also contains such information: as a specialist in electrical equipment (leading engineer), heprepared for the flight the winged cars of the future conquerors of the North Pole (the leader of the "first-flyers" is Mikhail Vodopyanov), as well as the winged car of Sigismund Levanevsky, on which the brave man made a non-stop flight between the Soviet Union and America.
In evacuation
In the Bolkhovitinov Design Bureau, Boris Evseevich created projects for unique electrical equipment. On their basis, employees of the All-Union Electrotechnical Institute collected samples of devices subject to rigorous testing. The emerging new military equipment heavy bombers needed to be equipped with the most reliable aircraft generators and AC electric motors.
Many people know the name of Academician Claudius Shenfer. He headed the department of electrical machines of the Electrotechnical Institute and supported the young specialist in every possible way. Steps to introduce original aircraft systems promised success. But the clouds were gathering: a war broke out against the Nazi invaders.
In 1941, the most important defense enterprises were evacuated to the rear. Many employees and the main equipment of plant No. 293 NII-1 NKAP temporarily settled in Bilimbay, Sverdlovsk region. Boris Chertok recalled how much they worked physically at an air temperature of minus 50 degrees, starving (a very modest food ration did not save).
In the spring of 1945, a special group of scientists went to Germany on a mission. It was necessary to unobtrusively study the excellent rocket technology of the Germans. The team was headed by Chertok. Boris Evseevichhonorably carried out the mission until the beginning of 1947. He and Alexei Mikhailovich Isaev made a lot of efforts to ensure that in Thuringia, controlled by the troops of the victorious power of the USSR, the Voron (Slave) enterprise was opened. The world lay in post-war ruins, and in the Nazi citadel the Soviet-German Rocket Institute was gaining momentum!
Third Reich back in 1944 made rocket science a branch of the newest industry. The amazing developments of German scientists pushed the USSR and the USA to increase the activity of research. Chertok and his colleagues stubbornly developed a device for the ignition of the fuel-air mixture. Difficult searches were crowned with an avant-garde system. Electric ignition of LRE (liquid-propellant or chemical rocket engines) was a breakthrough. The novelty was tested in one thousand nine hundred and forty-two, having installed on a short-range fighter "BI-1" (fathers-creators - Bereznyak and Isaev). Nitric acid and kerosene were used as fuel.
Cherished meeting
NII-1 developed an important area: control systems for surface-to-surface missiles (long-range intercontinental ballistic missiles). In 1946, on the basis of Rabe, the Nordhausen Institute began work (it also included Montania, where the V-22 was produced, and the Leestene base). The name of the Chief Engineer of this enterprise was subsequently recognized by the whole planet - S. P. Korolev (General Designer of the Rocket and Space Industry of the USSR).
Starting from 1946 and up to the 1950s, Boris Evseevich combined two posts: he was Deputy Chief Designer Sergei Pavlovichand head of the control systems department of NII-88 of the Ministry of the Armed Forces of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. In 1951, he was the head of the Department of Control Systems of the First Design Bureau. Famous Russian aircraft designers Chertok and Korolev worked closely from the day they met until the death of one of them (the latter died in 1966).
Second roles of the first person
"Branching" from NII-88 (1956) was a step towards a new independent enterprise called "Experimental Design Bureau No. 1". From 1957 to 1963 Boris Chertok is the right hand of Sergei Korolev, the head of this unique organization.
D. so-called. Chertok in 1963 received the position of deputy first person of the enterprise for scientific research. work and at the same time headed branch No. 1, where the development of spacecraft and their control systems was in full swing. After the death of Korolev, Vasily Mishin became the chief designer. The experienced and smartest Boris Chertok became his deputy, plus he headed the complex of the Central Design Bureau of Experimental Engineering.
From 1974 to 1992 - Deputy Chief (and then General) Designer of the Energia Research and Production Complex for control systems (NPK - the former OKB-1, then TsBKEM was headed by V. Mishin, V. Glushko, Yu. Semenov in different years).
There are irreplaceable
From 1993 until the departure to the other world (2011), Boris Chertok, the potential "shooting into the Universe", regularly gave professional recommendations to the general designer of the Rocket and Space Corporation"Energy" named after S. P. Korolev (formerly OKB-1).
After following the stages of a long journey, the conclusion suggests itself: all the activities of a scientist and engineer are the implementation of strategic plans aimed at equipping rockets and spacecraft with such control levers that will make them capable of the longest flight.
The school, created by a brilliant scientist, is still proud of, they are guided by it when developing new scientific directions. It is used to judge the level reached by domestic manned space technology. Chertok developed the theory of the inviolability of structures, the organization of the production of steering machines and drive devices.
All independent and united
The solution of basic issues stimulated the further development of the theory and technology of rocket and space drive. It became possible to produce complex mechanisms for docking ships, digitally controlled hydraulics and much more. Man was able to stay in outer space for a long time.
Chertok Boris Evseevich and his colleagues developed the basics of designing autonomous devices as an integral part of a single system of intercontinental missiles. Their titanic work made payload rockets (carriers) a reality.
We started to study the patterns of failure distribution of technical devices and structures (the theory of reliability). The causes and patterns of failures have become clear. The qualitative leap has led toappearance of the R-7 intercontinental missile. Further principles were perfected on modifications of this miracle of military equipment.
Remembered everyone, remembered everything
In 1999, a book was published, which consisted of four monographs. Since then and to the present, it has been a bestseller, a "space encyclopedia" that specialists from different countries, millions of ordinary readers, dreamed of getting. The uncomplicated cover reads: "B. E. Chertok "Rockets and People"". Everything ingenious is simple, but how complicated!
The designer's wife Ekaterina Golubkina (1910-2004) insisted that her husband, whose work biography was hidden under the heading "secret" for many years, told his descendants about those with whom he worked side by side. Outstanding scientists developed rocket and space science, created a previously unknown industry.
The most valuable memories of the development of the industry have reached the inhabitants of the 21st century. After reading the first volume, you can study in great detail the course of the tense duel of reason: Soviet scientists against British and American specialists.
In book No. 2, the designer talks about the hot time that preceded the launch of a spacecraft revolving around the Earth in a geocentric orbit (artificial satellite), about the flights of fantastic devices directed to the Moon, Venus, Mars. Many pages are devoted to the history of the creation of the Vostok, on board of which Yuri Gagarin set off to an unknown distance.
Message to posterity
In the third volume, Boris Chertok talks about how the Soviet man became a pioneer increation of orbital stations. Many articles and books on the history of the space program of the country of victorious socialism were written in the West and in the USSR. There is an opinion that the memoirs of Academician Boris Chertok have become the most informative and detailed. The Rocket and the Man book has been reprinted many times in the country and abroad.
In the last, fourth monograph, the scientist tells a fascinating story about the program, covering the period from 1968 to 1974, when the victories of the Americans in the study of the closest satellite of the Earth, the Moon, followed one after another.
One of the distinguishing features of this volume is a detailed description of the origin of the Soviet project, which began in the 1970s with the construction of the Salyut space stations and ended with the Mir multi-module complex (1980s).
The most memorable chapters are connected with the Soyuz-11 tragedy, when cosmonauts Dobrovolsky, Volkov and Patsaev died. The book ends with a description of the end of the N-1 program and the birth of the Energia-Buran ISS under the leadership of Glushko. This is a breathtaking inside look at the political, technological and personal conflicts at a time when the Soviet space program was at its zenith.
In 2009, the First Channel of Russian Television organized the premiere of a documentary film by the Roscosmos television studio “Boris Chertok. Shot into the Universe. The great man, winner of many awards, the conscience of all engineers of the modern era, as always, spoke the truth, without offending anyone, without humiliating, thinking aboutlived and experienced. In the last frames, he apologized to young scientists for the fact that his generation could not save the great power - the USSR.
