Space exploration is the dream that has occupied the minds of many people for hundreds of years. Even in those distant, distant times, when a person could see the stars and planets, relying only on his eyesight, he dreamed of finding out what the bottomless black abysses of the dark sky above were hiding. Dreams began to come true relatively recently.
Practically all the leading space powers immediately began a kind of "arms race" here too: scientists tried to get ahead of their colleagues, bringing them out earlier and testing various space exploration vehicles. However, there was still a gap: the Apollo-Soyuz program was supposed to show the friendship of the USSR and the USA, as well as their desire to work together to pave the way for mankind to the stars.
General information
The abbreviated name of this program is ASTP. The flight is also known as "Handshake in Space". All in all, the Apollo-Soyuz was a bold experimental flight of the Soyuz-19 spacecraft and the American Apollo. ParticipantsThe expedition had to overcome many difficulties, the most significant of which was the completely different design of the docking stations. But docking was on the agenda!
Actually, quite normal contacts between scientists of the USSR and the USA began during the launch of the first artificial satellites of the Earth. An agreement on common, peaceful exploration of outer space was signed in 1962. At the same time, researchers got the opportunity to share the results of programs and some developments in the space industry.
First meeting of researchers
On the part of the USSR and the USA, the initiators of joint work were: the President of the Academy of Sciences (AN), the famous M. V. Keldysh, as well as the director of the National Aerospace Agency (known as NASA in the world) Dr. Payne.
The first meeting of delegations from the US and the USSR took place in the late autumn of 1970. The American mission was headed by Dr. R. Gilruth, director of the Johnson Space Flight Center. From the Soviet side, Academician B. N. Petrov, Chairman of the Council for the International Study of Outer Space (Interkosmos program), led. Joint working groups were immediately formed, the main task of which was to discuss the possibility of compatibility of structural units of Soviet and American spacecraft.
The following year, already in Houston, a new meeting was organized, which was led by B. N. Petrov and R. Gilruth, already known to us. The teams considered the basic requirements for the design features of manned vehicles, as well asa number of issues in relation to the standardization of life support systems have been fully agreed upon. It was then that the possibility of a joint flight with subsequent docking by the crews began to be discussed.
As you can see, the Soyuz-Apollo program, the year of which became a triumph of world astronautics, required a revision of a huge number of technical and political rules and regulations.
Conclusions on the feasibility of joint manned flights
In 1972, the Soviet and American sides again held a meeting, at which all the work done over the past period was summarized and systematized. The final decision on the expediency of a joint manned flight was positive, ships already familiar to us were chosen for the implementation of the program. And so the Apollo-Soyuz project was born.
Start of program implementation
It was May 1972. A historic agreement was signed between our country and America, providing for the joint peaceful exploration of outer space. In addition, the parties finally decided on the technical side of the issue of the Apollo-Soyuz flight. This time the delegations were headed by Academician K. D. Bushuev from the Soviet side, Dr. G. Lanny represented the Americans.
During the meeting, they decided on the goals, the achievement of which will be devoted to all further work:
- Testing the compatibility of control systems in the implementation of the rendezvous of ships in space.
- Field testing of systemsautomatic and manual docking.
- Testing and tuning equipment designed to carry out the transition of astronauts from ship to ship.
- Finally, the accumulation of invaluable experience in the field of joint manned space flights. When the Soyuz-19 docked with the Apollo spacecraft, specialists received so much valuable information that they were actively used throughout the American lunar program.
Other areas of work
Specialists, among other things, wanted to test the possibility of orientation in space of already docked ships, as well as to test the stability of communication systems on different machines. Finally, it was extremely important to test the compatibility of the Soviet and American flight control systems.
Here is how the main events unfolded at the time:
- At the end of May 1975, the final meeting was held to discuss some issues of an organizational nature. The final document was signed on full readiness for the flight. It was signed by Academician V. A. Kotelnikov from the Soviet side, and J. Low endorsed the document for the Americans. The launch date was set for July 15, 1975.
- At exactly 15:20, the Soviet Soyuz-19 launches successfully from the Baikonur Cosmodrome.
- Apollo is launched using the Saturn-1B launch vehicle. Time - 22 hours 50 minutes. Launch site - Cape Canaveral.
- Two days later, after the completion of all preparatory work, at 19 hours 12 minutesSoyuz-19 docked. In 1975, a new era of space exploration opened.
- Exactly two orbits of the Soyuz in the Earth's orbit, a new Soyuz-Apollo docking was made, after which they flew in this position for two more turns. After some time, the devices finally dispersed, completely completing the research program.
In general, the flight time was:
- The Soviet Soyuz 19 spent 5 days, 22 hours and 31 minutes in orbit.
- Apollo spent 9 days, 1 hour and 28 minutes in flight.
- The ships spent exactly 46 hours and 36 minutes in the docked position.
Crew lineup
And now it's time to remember by name the crew members of the American and Soviet ships, who, having overcome a huge number of difficulties, were able to fully implement all the stages of such an important space program.
American crew represented:
- Thomas Stafford. American Crew Leader. Experienced astronaut, fourth flight.
- Vance Brand. Piloted command module, first flight.
- Donald Slayton. It was he who was responsible for the responsible docking operation, it was also his first flight.
The Soviet crew included the following cosmonauts:
- Alexey Leonov was the commander.
- Valery Kubasov was an onboard engineer.
Both Soviet cosmonauts have already been in orbit once, so the Soyuz-Apollo flight was their second.
What experiments were conducted during the joint flight?
- Was heldan experiment involving the study of a solar eclipse: the Apollo blocked the light, while the Soyuz studied and described the resulting effects.
- UV absorption was studied, during which the crews measured the content of atomic oxygen and nitrogen in the orbit of the planet.
- In addition, several experiments were conducted, during which researchers tested how weightlessness, the absence of a magnetic field and other space conditions affect the flow of biological rhythms.
- For microbiologists, the program of studying the mutual exchange and transfer of microorganisms under conditions of weightlessness between two ships (through the docking port) is also of great interest.
- Finally, the Soyuz-Apollo flight made it possible to study the processes occurring in metallic and semiconductor materials under such specific conditions. It should be noted that the “father” of this kind of study was K. P. Gurov, well-known among metallurgists, who proposed to carry out these works.
Some technical details
It should be noted that pure oxygen was used as a breathing mixture on the American ship, while on the domestic ship there was an atmosphere identical in composition to that on Earth. Thus, a direct transition from ship to ship was impossible. Especially to solve this problem, a special transition compartment was launched along with the American ship.
It should be noted that the Americans subsequently took advantage of thisoperating time when creating your lunar module. During the transition, the pressure in the Apollo was slightly raised, and in the Soyuz, on the contrary, it was reduced, while simultaneously raising the oxygen content in the respiratory mixture to 40%. As a result, people got the opportunity to stay in the transition module (before entering a foreign ship) not for eight hours, but for only 30 minutes.
By the way, if you are interested in this story, visit the Museum of Cosmonautics in Moscow. There is a huge stand dedicated to this topic.
Overall history of human spaceflight
In our article, it is not by chance that the subject of the history of manned space flights is touched upon. The entire program described above would be impossible in principle if it were not for preliminary developments in this area, experience in which has been accumulated over decades. Who “paved the way”, thanks to whom manned space flights became possible?
As you know, on April 12, 1961, an event took place that was truly of world significance. On that day, Yuri Gagarin carried out the first manned flight in the history of the world on the Vostok spacecraft.
The second country to do this was the United States. Their Mercury-Redstone 3 spacecraft, piloted by Alan Shepard, was launched into orbit just a month later, on May 5, 1961. In February, the Mercury-Atlas-6 launched from Cape Canaveral, carrying John Glenn.
First records and achievements
Two years after Gagarin, the first woman flew into space. It was Valentina Vladimirovna Tereshkova. She took off on a ship alone"Vostok-6". The launch was made on June 16, 1963. In America, the first representative of the weaker sex, who visited orbit, was Sally Ride. She was a member of a mixed crew that flew out in 1983.
Already on March 18, 1965, another record was broken: Alexei Leonov went into space. The first woman to travel in outer space was Svetlana Savitskaya, who did so in 1984. Note that at present, women are included in all ISS crews without exception, since all the necessary information on the physiology of the female body in space conditions has been collected, and therefore nothing threatens the he alth of astronauts.
Longest flights
Up to this day, the longest solo space flight is considered to be the 437-day stay in orbit by cosmonaut Valery Polyakov. He was on board the Mir from January 1994 to March 1995. The record for the total number of days spent in orbit, again, belongs to the Russian cosmonaut - Sergey Krikalev.
If we talk about a group flight, then about 364 days cosmonauts and astronauts flew from September 1989 to August 1999. So it was proved that a person, theoretically, can withstand a flight to Mars. Now researchers are more concerned about the problem of the psychological compatibility of the crew.
Information on the history of reusable space flights
To date, the only country that has more or less successful experience in operating reusablespace shuttle series "Space Shuttle", is the United States. The first flight of the spacecraft of this series, Columbia, took place exactly two decades after Gagarin's flight, on April 12, 1981. The USSR launched the Buran for the first and only time in 1988. That flight is also unique in that it took place in a fully automatic mode, although manual piloting was also possible.
The exposition, which shows the entire history of the "Soviet shuttle", is demonstrated by the Museum of Cosmonautics in Moscow. We advise you to visit it, as there are a lot of interesting things there!
The highest orbit, at the highest point of the passage reaching the mark of 1374 kilometers, was achieved by the American crew on the Gemini 11 spacecraft. It happened way back in 1966. In addition, the "shuttles" were often used to repair and maintain the Hubble telescope, when they performed quite complex manned flights at an altitude of about 600 kilometers. Most often, the orbit of a spacecraft takes place at an altitude of about 200-300 kilometers.
Note that immediately after the end of the operation of the shuttles, the ISS orbit was gradually raised to an altitude of 400 kilometers. This is due to the fact that the shuttles could perform effective maneuvering at an altitude of only 300 kilometers, but for the station itself, those altitudes were not very suitable due to the high density of the surrounding space (by space standards, of course).
Have there been flights beyond Earth orbit?
Only Americans flew beyond the Earth's orbit when they performed the tasks of the Apollo program. Spaceship in 1968flew around the moon. Note that since July 16, 1969, the Americans have been carrying out their lunar program, during which a "moon landing" was performed. At the end of 1972, the program was curtailed, which caused indignation not only of American, but also of Soviet scientists, who empathized with their colleagues.
Note that there were many similar programs in the USSR. Despite the almost complete completion of many of them, the "go-ahead" for their implementation has not been received.
Other "space" countries
China has become the third space power. It happened on October 15, 2003, when the Shenzhou-5 spacecraft entered the expanses of space. In general, China's space program dates back to the 70s of the last century, but all the planned flights then were never completed.
In the late 90s, Europeans and Japanese made their steps in this direction. But their projects to create reusable manned spacecraft were curtailed after several years of development, as the Soviet-Russian ship Soyuz turned out to be simpler, more reliable and cheaper, which made the work economically inexpedient.
Space tourism and "private space"
Since 1978, astronauts from dozens of countries around the world have flown on spacecraft and stations in the USSR/Russian Federation and the United States. In addition, the so-called "space tourism" has recently been gaining momentum, when an ordinary (unusual in terms of financial capabilities) person can visit the ISS. In the recent past, the start of the development of similar programs was also announced byChina.
But the real excitement was caused by the Ansari X-Prize program, which started in 1996. Under its terms, it was required that a private company (without state support) by the end of 2004 be able to lift (twice) a ship with a crew of three to a height of 100 kilometers. The prize was more than solid - 10 million dollars. More than two dozen companies and even individuals immediately began to develop their projects.
Thus began a new history of astronautics, in which any person could theoretically become the "discoverer" of space.
The first successes of "private traders"
Since the devices they developed did not need to go into real outer space, the costs were hundreds of times less. The first private SpaceShipOne spacecraft launched in early summer 2004. Created by Scaled Composites.
Five Minute Conspiracy Theory
It should be noted that many projects (almost all, in general) were based not on some development of private "nuggets", but on work on the V-2 and the Soviet "Buran", all the documentation for which after 90s "suddenly" suddenly became available to the foreign public. Some bold theorists claim that the USSR conducted (unsuccessfully) the first manned launches as early as 1957-1959.
There are also unconfirmed reports that the Nazis were developing projects for intercontinental missiles in the 40s to attack America. Rumor has it that some pilots were still able to reach an altitude of 100 kilometers in tests, which makes them (if they ever were)the first astronauts.
"World" era
Until now, the history of cosmonautics keeps information about the Soviet-Russian station Mir, which was a truly unique object. Its construction was fully completed only on April 26, 1996. Then the fifth and last module was attached to the station, which made it possible to carry out the most complex studies of the seas, oceans and forests of the Earth.
Mir was in orbit for 14.5 years, which exceeded the planned service life several times. During all this time, more than 11 tons of scientific equipment alone were delivered to it, scientists conducted tens of thousands of unique experiments, some of which predetermined the development of world science for all subsequent decades. In addition, cosmonauts and astronauts from the station made 75 spacewalks, the total duration of which is 15 days.
History of the ISS
16 countries participated in the construction of the International Space Station. The greatest contribution to its creation was made by Russian, European (Germany and France), as well as American specialists. This facility is designed for 15 years of operation with the possibility of extending this period.
The first long-term expedition to the ISS started at the end of October 2000. Participants of 42 long-term missions have already been on board. It should be noted that the world's first Brazilian astronaut Marcos Pontes arrived at the station as part of the 13th expedition. He successfully completed all the work intended for him, after which he returned to Earth as part of the 12th mission.
This is how the history of space flights was made. There were many discoveries and victories, some gave their lives so that humanity could someday still be able to call space their home. We can only hope that our civilization will continue research in this area, and someday we will wait for the colonization of the nearest planets.
