From heaven to earth
Alexey Leonov: “For the fact that modern Russia is still held in space, we must thank Korolev”
Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev held a governmental meeting on the prospects for the Russian rocket and space industry on August 14. The head of the Cabinet ordered to strengthen measures to control the activities of Roscosmos, in particular - the quality of its products.
Over the past year and a half, Russia has lost ten satellites. In addition, there were seven emergency launches.
The situation in the space industry in our country, according to Dmitry Medvedev, indicates an emerging lagging behind the leading powers. In other countries, the leaders of space technology, including the United States and China, “nothing happens,” the head of government said.
One day, an employee came to Sergey Korolev and showed an unusual schedule: with dates of optimal starts for the Moon, Mars, Venus and other planets. The chief designer of the Soviet space programs ran his hand over the paper and said: "It would be good for us to walk along this whole front and be the first."
Alas! What we could hope for in the 60s of the last century, when the Soviet Union declared the first satellite (1957), the first cosmonaut (1961) and the first man in outer space (1965) to the whole world, now seems like a impossible dream. Over the last year of the accident on the way to space, we have become almost the same everyday occurrence as an accident on Earth. Why are space takeoffs replaced by space drops? And what helped turn the “journey to the stars” from fiction into reality of 55 years ago? In search of an answer, we met with the legendary Alexei Arkhipovich Leonov - he was the first person to go into outer space, forever entering the History. Leonov supervised and trained the Soviet crew for landing on the moon. And who knows who would be the first on the moon, if not for the death of Korolev?
The decor is formal, but cozy. On the walls are photographs of the legendary cosmonaut with Brezhnev and Zhukov, diplomas Aleksey Leonov APOLLO II (for the Soyuz – Apollon experimental flight in 1975 with American astronaut Tom Stafford), pictures of the space station.
- Alexey Arkhipovich, even before my specific questions, tell me what pained your heart: why do we have such space failures today? What did we do differently before?
- Before, our state was different. I do not want to go back to the past (we opened our eyes, and someone himself saw what abuses, distortions were there), but it’s necessary to look around and adopt the good! And from the first days we were enthusiastically Bad (very well Arkady Gaidar wrote the image, as if he had already seen his grandson), began to smash everything that had been achieved, and the main slogan was: “Enrich yourself as best you can!”. Out of control. Bloodthirsty.
Have to sacrifice the older generation? Well ... 120 of thousands of war veterans who defended the country with their blood, are still without apartments. Why do they have these apartments today ?! They are far beyond 80. You think how worthy to bury them! .. The previous American ambassador to Russia, John Beyrle, his father, having escaped from German captivity, fought in the Red Army. There is a book about how Americans treated the Soldier Beyrle until his last days, how well he was doing. And what did we do for our warriors ?! If the state doesn’t care what is done with people, it is not democracy. Just as there is no democracy, if the person himself wanted to spit on his country. Alas, both our legs are lame. We have no heroes. There are fictional personalities until blue, there is a terrible pop, which eats the whole culture, and the real great ones have a drunken attitude, because in order to understand them, one must be a very educated person.
The party has destroyed itself
... This is a big one. Now further - there was a communist party. I joined her in 19 years, a young man, a military student. I really believed in everything that was said. So far, 1988 has not visited Switzerland and personally has not formed the image of a “great leader”, realizing that all this revolutionary austerity is terribly contrived things. They began to publish documents related to the activities of Lenin, and in front of me came the terrible image of this man, who for us was holier than all the saints. And from here - the whole party appeared in a different light ...
But nevertheless, this party - which has destroyed itself (just as the United Russia is now following the path of suicide) - did a lot! In general, the Communist Party is good in opposition - for example, in France, in Italy. As history shows, under extreme conditions (war, crisis), the Communists, more than any other party, come out in defense of their people, their homeland, go on the attack, even self-sacrifice. But the acute situation ends, and people understand: no, the Communist Party is good then, and in quiet time it cannot create new conditions for the life of the state, for the life of its people. That is, it is more useful to have such a party in the opposition, which bites, criticizes, only it is not necessary to allow things to be barricaded, as the CPSU loved.
But now I will not talk about terror and the like. I want to talk about the role of the party in the organization of production. We have not had a single major event in our life, which would not be entitled: “the decision of the Council of Ministers and the Central Committee of the CPSU”. And it was the Central Committee that controlled the decisions of the Council of Ministers, the Central Committee - as a punishing sword, and that was power. In a short time after the war, we raised the entire industry, did a whole lot, although we did not create, for example, a good bus, a good car, because we regarded it as a luxury. Why do people need luxury? Do not. But the conquest of space went thanks to the active participation of the Communist Party.
Nikita Khrushchev caught the moment
Nikita Sergeevich Khrushchev very finely caught the moment. When Sergei Pavlovich Korolev, being the person in charge who was able to communicate directly with Khrushchev, began to report to him about the further intentions of his design bureau to prepare for a man to go into outer space, Nikita Sergeevich said to him: “Yes, okay, fine! Sputnik, Gagarin - we know. Do ... do your thing. " That is, it was such a carte blanche, and Sergei Pavlovich did his work, with supreme support. But all the programs all the same began with the decision of the Council of Ministers and the Central Committee of the party - everything, from the flight of Gagarin, and, of course, our failed lunar program ...
(Here Leonov cannot fail to make a short “lyrical digression” on a topic that is very painful for him: “The decision to explore the moon in 1964 was personally signed by Nikita Sergeevich Khrushchev, just before he left. And in 1966, Sergei Pavlovich died. He came his deputy, VP Mishin, who could be a good helper, but could not generate revolutionary ideas, was in charge of the leadership. Tight control from the party fell into the hands of people who were very cautious - as a result, we did not fulfill the lunar program. looking back in time I see - yes, we couldn’t land on the moon, but could have flown around it for six months before the Americans! We previously launched 6 spacecraft, they all circled the moon, returned safely to Earth, with comments, but there was no man there ... alas. Okay, I spent years living on this thing, but the state lost so much !!! ”)
Farther. Understood - the moon lost. We must continue to pursue space exploration, extract practical benefits from this: the program of orbital stations has begun. Again - the decision of the Council of Ministers and the Central Committee of the CPSU on the creation of a multi-functional orbital station, the control be entrusted to the military-industrial complex (Military Industrial Commission).
To make it clearer: there were specialized ministries, a department for defense issues in the Council of Ministers, but above all this - a department of the defense industry of the Central Committee of the party was put. That is, all the ministries were subordinate to the defense department of the Central Committee, and no ministry could violate this law - the system worked very well. If something was wrong, they could come, report, complain to the defense department of the Central Committee and get an answer. If the CCP was connected to the case - the party control commission - this is worse. The CCP stood above the prosecutor's office and any other similar bodies. There was a lot in this schedule that was correct - they were responsible for their work.
As for the specially created Military-Industrial Commission on military-industrial issues under the Presidium of the USSR Council of Ministers, it was headed by the first deputy chairman of the Council of Ministers (during my stay it was Leonid V. Smirnov, an amazing literacy man). All questions related to space were decided on the MIC. And before the crew flew, Smirnov invited astronauts to himself along with the commission, and we listened: are all services ready or not ready? But the main thing is that the military industrial complex did not allow to make the mistakes that are made in our time. And after each flight the most serious analysis followed: what was possible, what did not. I, who miraculously returned to Earth after going into outer space, were interrogated with passion, and only when I justified all my actions, Korolev said: “Alyosha is right!” (Ed. E.: the suit distorted, had to ship head, not feet forward, with the risk to life due to the possibility of reducing the pressure in the spacesuit and the depressurization of the helmet ahead of time.)
And what do we have today? Here is a parallel: there is a leading one, or, as they say, the party of power, United Russia. By the way, I am a member of its Higher Political Council. "EdRo", indeed, the party in power: she was in charge of power, but not in business! They do not have a body that would lead the industry, there are no people who would help the production, but to arrange the necessary "comrades", to milk it all ... here - please. But "United Russia" and paid for their free-thinking, as acted, so it did in the elections. This is not a business party! You can not be away from the most important and urgent. I spoke many times at the Supreme Political Council and the General Council, paid attention: I talked about GLONASS, and about the shuttle, which was reusable - everything passed by as if this was my eccentricity. (Moreover, my speeches were coordinated with the leadership of the Federal Space Agency.) And it ended with what? All overwhelmed. And United Russia is not concerned, they are irresponsible. But in order to place their people - for this, they, I repeat, will easily be organized! Now there is a question about the academies. Zhukovsky and Gagarin - two universities that prepare flight and engineering staff. Suddenly, the decision - to destroy them. Appealed to Gryzlov (the first chairman of the Supreme Council of the EP, then the chairman of the State Duma) - no reaction. Turned to Gennady Andreyevich Zyuganov. The Communist Party of the Russian Federation - the only organization that responded, Zyuganov spoke in the Duma, wrote an excellent article in Pravda.
Now they again returned the commission - the military industrial complex, they understood - it is impossible without control. But the Soviet scheme was never reconstructed, they gave everything away to the mercy of corporations, and therefore everything can be expected. Corporations are interested in their personal: how to make a profit at a lower cost. And here we have: then four satellites collapsed, then they were not hauled up, then they overfilled - this is what all this led to.
The root of evil
The root of evil is even deeper: after the 90s, when all control over the space industry ceased (I will talk about space, and in the same way aviation nobody needed it) they put completely random people who in this matter do not understand anything, stopped paying salaries and specialists left the enterprises. Today - they are not. What is a turner, for example, at the NPO Energia plant? He was a super intellectual! Without him, there would have been nothing; he worked on the most “smart” machines. What is a welder? After all, everything is welding! If the welder is not a specialist - this is the very first step to the death of the object. The welder should work as if a brook is babbling - it's a pleasure to watch. But no one prepares welders, they left and began to trade in Luzhniki. Here is the first result - accident rate: one, then the second, then the third. Each enterprise had vocational education schools - they also dismissed, created, not knowing what they were doing. Leaders, since the time of Boris Nikolaevich Yeltsin, were not interested.
As an optimist, I believe we will do something different now. And this “differently” will go from Putin. Whatever was invented, the final result behind the president’s fist: do it like this! .. Now more than ever there is an urgent need for clear work of the controlling Military-Industrial Commission, it should be chaired by a highly educated person who clearly understands what he wants.
- You are an optimist, but you are not afraid that we are the same as with United Russia, we’re just about repeating the Soviet form, and the content will remain current - kickbacks, profit?
- I was a confidant of Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin both for the first and second time. Now he is a completely different person - the events on Bolotnaya Square, on Sakharov showed that it is impossible to joke with the people. And, I think, Vladimir Vladimirovich understands this. But you need to have a good team that would form the tasks, and the tasks turned out later with concrete decisions for the benefit of the country. So that in these tasks the constant thread runs - “why?”.
Of course, we lost 20 years, and in this loss - sunk in morality and conscience. I don’t know with whom you can now compare Alexey Nikolaevich Kosygin, Leonid Vasilyevich Smirnov? When I was on the commission of the military industrial complex, I admired this man, his intelligence, the highest literacy, as he led the analysis, preparing for each meeting. And no matter how the speakers tried to get around some kind of “clue”, he listened, listened, and then: “You’re not talking about that, you tell me something about this ...” God forbid that someone should ask about rollbacks or bribes, this was not at all. I knew the percent of the regional party committees of 60 (these were the heads of the provinces) and I swear anywhere — none of them ever took bribes. Worked honestly, beautifully. Everything upstairs cracked up: with one slogan “Proletarians of all countries, unite!”, With the desire to spread our ideology all over the world we brought ourselves to the abyss. So far, we owe 86 billion of the country in which we invested.
- America also invests - it's the creation of its "points of support", spheres of influence. So you once said that, in preparing for the lunar program, you had the opportunity not only to study at the Moscow Planetarium, but also to go and explore the “living” southern sky in Somalia.
- Yes, it was necessary to train in case you have to solve the issues of ship correction autonomously, according to the stars. Well, since the landing approach with the second space velocity would take place from the Southern Cross, we traveled to Somalia and in the desert, where for the nearest 20 – 30 km there is not a single electric light, we studied the star sky. And the Americans at this time were the same training in Chile, in the Atacama Desert.
Indeed, then we had our own base in Somalia (we delivered the best concrete, the best metal, all we could do, built the Mogadishu airfield). And as soon as they completed the construction, the authorities told us: three days to get you out of here. This is how it ended: “Get out! And so that they don't take anything with them, even personal things. ” I blurted out to one builder with anger: lay a mine there so that everything would go to hell. But the locals, local leaders immediately warned our builders: keep in mind, as soon as you finish, you will be removed from here. They knew the mood of their "top". And so it happened - they drove them out in disgrace and spat us out. What is this policy? What did our diplomats do? Well, it was necessary to know! And there are many such examples: with Iran, Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco, Egypt ...
The birth of space business
- Let's talk more specifically about the "mechanisms" of our victories in space. Here is a picture of life: Korolev, as the Chief Designer, both times personally chose whom of the flight squad to entrust the ship, met all the candidates, asked questions, but saw his boyfriend at first glance (Gagarin recalled this). It seems peace and love. Was there really a Soviet space crew? You talked about the role of Khrushchev, even before the green light gave Stalin. So they are a team? Or was the government simply an overseer, a controller who “chained together” scientists to solve problems? Moreover, among the designers themselves, not everything was smooth, Korolev was sitting in camps because of a denunciation ...
- Here we need to remember how our cosmic matter was born. In 30-ies of the twentieth century, independently of each other in different countries from the ideas on space exploration, which were most seriously substantiated by K.E. Tsiolkovsky, began to move to the development of rocket and space technology. Fundamentally, this was delivered in Germany, where they created the Fau missile as an instrument of delivering an “inevitable strike” on England. But the strike did not take place, the Germans had already unleashed a war with the Soviet Union. And at the end of the war, most of the underground plant for the production of V-2 (assembled rockets, equipment, specialists, including the most important designer Werner von Braun) was taken to America, which was occupied by the German area at that time. We began to take out from there what was left after the Americans. It was necessary for someone to study the "trophies" ...
Here is a little help. Before the war, we were engaged in rocket technology in the GIRD (Group for the Study of the Jet Propulsion. - E.D.), under the direction of the young Korolev. In 1933, with the submission of the Deputy Chairman of the Revolutionary Military Council, M.N. Tukhachevsky appeared the government's decision to create an institute of rocket technology (Rocket Research Institute, RNII. - E.D.) based on the Moscow GIRD and Leningrad Gas-Dynamic Laboratory, and it was here that they attacked Korolyov, who then worked as deputy head of the RNII. Director of the Institute Kleimenov, Langemak and Valentin Petrovich Glushko made a denunciation of him. As a result, in 1938, Korolyov was given 10 years of hard labor (for irresponsible spending 120 thousand rubles for experiments. - E.D.). The war began, and here is an interesting thing - Stalin summoned Glushko, ordered him to convene missile specialists, and Valentin Petrovich, either to atone for his fault, or why, but included Korolev, who was sitting in Magadan . He came to Moscow, then worked in the so-called "sharashka", on Yauza, where the company Tupolev ...
When the question arose with the German "trophies" and began to decide who to do this business, neither the aircraft designer A.N. Tupolev, no M.V. Khrunichev, who oversaw the aviation industry, was neither the then People’s Commissar of USSR Ammunition B.L. Vannikov was not ready to take up the rocket theme. (Some of them had real planes at stake, not “fantasies” in the form of rockets, while others were carrying out work on the atomic bomb. - E.D.) But the military missiles were interested in the people's commissar of weapons D.F. Ustinov. Immediately after the war, he established a research institute, where Sergei Korolev was put in charge of the long-range missile development department. And with him were Boris Evseevich Chertok, Vladimir Pavlovich Barmin - our future astronautics "whales", just those who had previously worked in GIRD, created the famous Katyusha combat missile launcher. From this department, the legendary design bureau of Sergey Pavlovich Korolev began ... For the first time in the history of mankind, ideas about flying out of the Earth could rely on the material base - rocket industry and technology created for military purposes. In his own office, Korolyov was able to unite the design bureau and the plant, so that the ideas would not be torn off from the incarnation, create related enterprises and branches throughout the country - as a result, about 26 thousand people were under his leadership. And by and large this resulted in the direction of the activity of the whole state - the whole country worked on space.
You know, I sometimes even look at Sergey Pavlovich as at Christ, or something, I look. As if he was sent to us by someone ... Korolev was an outstanding designer and organizer. Very happy coincidence for the Soviet cosmonautics. The current leader, for example, NPO Energia cannot even be put next to each other.
As an engineer, Sergey Pavlovich deeply understood the essence of the matter, understood which places in the work of the KB staff are currently the most difficult, vulnerable, and directed his attention to the analysis of these particular difficulties. This is a huge merit of Korolev, that he threw a dead-end Fau (in 1948 we carried out flight tests of the Р1 rocket, our copy of the German V-2. - E.D.), decided to abandon the design of Р1 and in the end he began to engage in a completely new three-stage P7 rocket scheme. It launched the first artificial satellite of the Earth and subsequent launches. She still flies, very reliable (knocking on the table. - E.D.)
Korolev and the Communist Party
For the Korolev Design Bureau were constantly assigned members of the military industrial complex, very well trained. For example, Tsarev Alexander Ivanovich - head of the department "Cosmos" at the military industrial complex, he was constantly at the cosmodrome, he was aware of everything. And this was his man, he helped in solving many issues. It was also a team.
Korolev joined the Communist Party. Despite the bullying he endured in hard labor (he was beaten), Sergei Pavlovich did not have any malice towards the leadership, towards the country. And when I asked him: “Why did you do this?” - replied: “I work in a system where the party is in charge of everything, and I, as a non-partisan person, have many problems. But there are very smart people in the party, and they should help me, and I should help them. ” This is the most beautiful correct logic - “there will be much more benefit if we work in a team”, and not that: you have allegedly condemned me in vain and now deal with your missiles yourself. It was ... a superman in consciousness!
... After the launch of the first satellite, it was clear that the next steps should be taken forward: the rocket made it possible to remove cargo up to 5 tons, launched the second, the third - heavier satellites. In 1958, a decision was made on a manned launch, and in 1959, they made demands on who should be an astronaut, the commander of a space object. And again, Sergei Pavlovich knew this question firsthand. He himself was a test pilot, argued: a spacecraft is a more complex analogue of an airplane, and the fighter pilot is the closest to an astronaut in terms of his characteristics; he alone performs the duties of a navigator, radio operator and engineer. Hence the decision - to recruit fighter pilots under the age of 30 years, owning modern technology, having a higher education, flying in all conditions. That's how they started to look at us - they sifted through the order of 3 thousands of fighter pilots, that is, almost everyone, and selected 20 people. These were the 1959 – 60 years. On January 11, 1960 has already issued an order to establish the Cosmonaut Training Center, and on March 7 there was an order to form the first cosmonaut detachment, to which our Twenty entered. For two years we were taught: biomedical training, physical, engineering disciplines (fundamentals of space technology, navigation). Over the past half century 12 of twenty people flew into space, and more than once. Only four of us are left today: Bykovsky, Volynov, Gorbatko and I ... All cosmonauts were very touchingly touching Sergey Pavlovich Korolev. At the beginning we said: “main”, then we began to call it “SP”.
- Three legendary names for world cosmonautics Korolev-Gagarin-Leonov. One figured out how to get into space, the other two were participants in the most incredible trials in history. Tell us about the "alignment of forces" in this trinity? You for Korolev, probably, were also unique people?
- ... He called Gagarin "Yuri Alekseevich", even though he himself was older by 28 years. It was interesting to listen to their conversation. “Yuri Alekseevich,” he looked at him and continued, “but could you do this?” And he (of the same age as Gagarin) called me Alyosha, in a different way. Not Alexei Arkhipovich.
Sergey Pavlovich personally wrote a description only for two cosmonauts: Yuri Gagarin and me. It so happened that at his place too, only we two of the flight squad had been. And on the last birthday of Korolev, two days before his death, we were with Yura and the chief designers, 7 people (Barmin, Ishlinsky, Kuznetsov, Ryazansky, Isaev ...). After twelve, everyone began to disperse, Barmin lingered somewhat, and Sergey Pavlovich left Yura and I, and we sat with him until four in the morning. We covered the corner of the table, a bottle of Armenian brandy, put three stars, and Sergei Pavlovich told us about his life ... As if there was some kind of confession, and two days later he died during an operation. A man’s exit into outer space is his crane song, the last victory of his programs in life ...
When Gagarin died
- Now in large companies they come up with their own anthems, form, they arrange some trainings - the so-called corporate culture, so that employees feel they are one team. All this, as I understand it, was not in the Soviet space team? Rallied the case itself?
- When Gagarin died, I was appointed to his post - deputy head of the Center for Flight and Space Training, at the same time I was the commander of the squad, which included an international team. So, our main holiday was the New Year. And we didn’t invite any producers-entertainers-entertainers, we amused ourselves. Began to prepare for three or four months! Whoever, wherever, and on New Year's Eve all came to the alma mater. At 11, the evenings started, and at 9, the mornings ended. First, there were four toasts: the head of the Center, Georgy Timofeevich Beregovoi, spoke for the outgoing year and set the task for a new one, I picked up a toast for the coming year, then two birthday men (we have two people celebrated the birthday of January 1) and the ones who came back from last space flight. And then - the film, a two-hour concert with the participation of the detachment, dancing. 17 New Year's Eve such have passed. And the films (by the way, 17 tapes on Kodak!), I myself created, called “Leonovfilm presents: astronauts without masks, or ... such and such a year.” I did the shooting during the year while I was working, but mostly I took pictures on New Year's Eve, because everyone was liberated at the celebration, and the guys didn’t even know when they were in my lens - I shot three cameras, which I placed in different parts of the hall and included remotely. For example, Valentina Tereshkova sits with a glass, begins: “And we are on a boat ka-a-atali along the native river in Moscow and not rowing, but kissing ...” (Leonov sings. - E.D.) Valentina then says: “Yes, I it didn't sing. ” But after all - film shot! Everyone was laughing. Now these films are stored in the Center for Space Documentation, you have never seen anything like this on TV.
... From the New Year event (27 December 1965 of the year) I have a photo signed by Korolev. I never asked anyone for autographs, but here in the factory canteen of the design bureau there was a holiday, representatives of the plant came, everyone danced, Sergei Pavlovich was also invited and suddenly they began to take autographs ... And I came up with a card that I had. Sergei Pavlovich wrote: “Dear Alyosha, may the bright Milky Way not be your limit, and the solar wind will always be a fair one. With love, S. Korolev. (He was already working on a new design of the ship using the solar wind, then Volodya Syromyatnikov would create such a ship.)
- You also involved in the process of creating ships?
- Otherwise it is simply impossible! The astronauts are involved in the process, starting with the preliminary design! Constantly present on the assembly of the ship, on electrical tests. For three months I, as the crew commander and flight engineer Oleg Makarov (so clever was, unfortunately, no longer alive) were tested at the start of the lunar ship. And already with our conclusion, the ship "L-5" flew ... Orbital stations worked out completely, from the "sketch": each object passes its control and formation, assembly with the participation of the space crew.
- Has anything changed in the selection and training of astronauts today?
“We ourselves, back in the Soviet years, lowered our health requirements: in 1959 – 60, a lot of talented children were hacked to death. But relief - affected longevity. If we all retired from the first squad according to age, then the second or third sets left for health.
As for scientific training, electronics have now been added to the previous list - all the guys are working brilliantly with a computer, and we were just starting. I remember, on the lunar ship "L-1" there was an onboard digital computing complex BTsVK, so he solved the correction for 4 hours, I manually could faster! In addition, you touch the cable network, and failures began. And another thing: if we started learning English only through the program “Soyuz-Apollo”, now the language is taught from the very first day and speaks it perfectly. Depending on the program of the expedition, some other discipline may be added: here we once developed a very good science of space geology in order to make predictions about oil and gas fields on Earth from space data. I was even invited to the Institute of Oil and Gas. Gubkin lecturing teachers at the All-Union gathering.
After Korolev
- When you heard about the death of Sergei Pavlovich Korolev, you, by your admission, everything snapped inside, and you said: “Everything, a point on our cosmos, there will be no further development”. So what happened? ..
- You understand, maybe we didn’t make revolutionary breakthroughs for the following years, not even because Sergei Pavlovich died, but simply with him we managed to “overtake time”, lay a lot of fundamentals. The Soyuz ship, which we are still flying in, passed in the year 1962 as the North. And, by the way, the fact that the crew died in 1971 after returning to Soyuz-11 (Leonov had to fly, but 11 hours before the start of his flight engineer V. Kubasov mistakenly suspected tuberculosis and the team was replaced by a backup team. - E.D.), I think, it would still inevitably happen, even if Sergei Pavlovich was alive. Because the ideology of the machine laid a mistake. Just before that, we were all carried by all the time, and here - the first long flight, a confluence of different circumstances with a common minus sign. The death of the guys saved the other crews from misfortune. May God give us something else not to miss ...
Our last spaceships are now fully equipped with equipment that was developed for the royal lunar L-1: I mean both the onboard computer system and the navigation system. It all flowed from one another. In any case - both with Sergey Pavlovich and after his death - we would come to such a section as orbital stations, this direction would be implemented. After Korolev, we also worked on Salyut-1, -2, -3, -5, -7, Mir. And today we have the ISS - what a beauty flies out, just think: 400 tons in weight!
But, of course, that funding that was before, and not close. And most importantly, the leadership of the country has no political will to deal with the problems of space!
- Soviet space development was conducted under the "secret". Designers were forbidden to take any notes home - all notebooks were deposited at night in safes. The people did not know the name of the chief designer ...
- ... You will not believe: the first time I drew the Voskhod spacecraft from the drawings that were published ... in America! (A. Leonov is also known as a unique, first “cosmic” painter. - E.D.) We secret everything, even that which is not necessary. The Americans, on the contrary: if a five-kopeck accident happened, they immediately begin to inflate in the press - well, they say, what heroism of our astronauts have overcome. But we have a solid idyll: technology never fails, everything is wonderful. Only after the third day we were evacuated from the taiga with Belyaev in 1965-m after the space landing in the off-site area, and the newspapers published in the meantime that we were having a rest at the party regional committee. Some kind of nonsense, why? This is also the CPSU ...
- When did you have the opportunity to talk with your American colleagues without secrets, that you learned interesting things about how space matters are organized from them, and what did you envy?
- Envy? .. To the fact that they lived much better than we, more comfortable. Before the 1967, I was in a one-room apartment with my family, I was huddled, then they gave a three-room apartment (the first in the world, Leonov made 1965 in March. - E.D.). It’s a shame to say when top-class pilots were selected for a trip to America, we lived there on 10 dollars a day: this is to eat, and something else for the family to buy as a gift. And when the inspectorate of the Central Committee of the party arrived, they were given daily allowances for 50 ... Well, if we talk about our working conditions, we had a simulator, the sports base was exactly the same as the Americans, even smarter - the result of active intervention by the cosmonauts themselves.
Progress engine
- What is the main force moving the Soviet space machine? The development of science, the enthusiasm of the pioneers, the fear of a military threat, the fear of reprisals for embezzlement of public money, if something does not succeed?
- It is interesting that after launching the first satellite, Sergei Pavlovich said: the time will come when we will create clinics in orbit of an artificial satellite of the Earth, where people with malfunctions in the cardiovascular system will be treated in weightlessness. Of course, this was one of his delusions, since weightlessness is among the main enemies of the human body (we learned this during long flights). But the approach itself is typical - Korolev thought how to make all these space research applications, useful for mankind as a whole, it was the engine of everything. And his rocket "seven", which he did in complete agreement with the commander of the strategic missile forces M.I. Although Nedelin was reported up as a combat missile, in fact, she was not. Of course, if, for example, Khrushchev’s team were to launch a missile attack on Washington or New York, we would have destroyed the city one hundred percent. But the rocket is being prepared for launch for two days, and with one rocket we could only make one launch. And around us are such aviation bases with nuclear weaponsthat would just dare us! This is madness! Only to say: yes, we have something to intimidate, we will show our mother. But in fact S.P. immediately created this rocket as myself.
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