About space

On April 12, we celebrate Cosmonautics Day.
The Museum of Cosmonautics, in Petropavlovka, is traditionally free of charge. Art, poetry and quizzes are held in schools and children’s libraries.
So how did it start for Russia.

At the end of the 19th century, mankind believed in the possibility of conquering space, it was only a small matter, to create a powerful engine. The first rocket capable of taking an object out of gravity was designed by Tsiolkovsky in 1903.
On October 4, 1957, the Soviet Union, the first in the world, launched the Sputnik 1 spacecraft. It was launched into orbit using a rocket, whose silhouette is still recognizable in modern Soyuz launch vehicles. It completed its first orbit around the Earth in 96 minutes. , and became so popular in the Soviet Union that New Year’s toys and badges were made in its uniform.

A month later, a second satellite was prepared, with a living creature on board. It turned out to be Laika the dog, its purpose was to test its survival in space flight. The return of the dog was not planned. The launch and entry into orbit went well, but after the fourth orbit around the Earth, from – due to errors in calculations, the temperature increased and Laika died. The satellite itself rotated around its orbit for another 5 months and then burned out in the atmosphere.

After that, monkeys, cats, turtles and insects visited space to show the effect of overload on the body, whether it is possible to survive after the flight and how health changes, the study of biological processes, the influence of radiation and the effects of microgravity.
On August 19, 1960, the fifth satellite was launched with the first animals that successfully returned, the dogs Belka and Strelka. Initially, 12 dogs, female, light-colored (for better observation from black and white monitors) were selected for this flight. to overload, adaptability, accustomed to feeding devices, clothes with biometric sensors, being in isolation and silence. Protein and Strelka showed the best results. Together with them, in the satellite cabin there were mice, rats, seeds of plants and agricultural crops, fungal organisms, some species This was the first spacecraft with a return to Earth system and an ejection capsule. Their flight lasted just over a day, during which they managed to fly around the Earth 12 times and return unharmed.

Dogs became national heroes, they were taken to meetings in schools and kindergartens, stamps, calendars and posters with their images appeared.
In 2011, the premiere of the animated series “Belka and Strelka” , next to the memorial signs to the fallen cosmonauts.
The stuffed Belka and Strelka are in the Moscow Museum of Cosmonautics.

In the same period, the USSR launched the first satellite of the Sun, which, after a soft lunar landing, took pictures of the side of the moon invisible from the earth.
Eight months later, on April 12, 1961 (this date is the official Cosmonautics Day in Russia), the first manned flight into space took place. Yury Gagarin went on board Vostok-1. He became the first person to fly into space. and returned unscathed. Streets in all cities of Russia are named after him. The spacecraft made a full revolution around the Earth, during which time a man lived, drank, ate, made notes and calculations in space for the first time. Nobody knew how the body would behave in orbit. …

In 1963, the first woman-cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova went into space, and in 1965 the first manned spacewalk by A. Leonov took place.
In 1964, the exploration of Mars began. The Mars-2 station became the first on the planet’s surface, although it suffered an accident.
In 1970, the Venera-7 satellite landed on Venus.
After that, space exploration proceeded with huge strides. In 1986, the base unit of the Mir station was launched into orbit, Valery Polyakov stayed there for 437 days, this is a record for the autonomous presence of a man in space.
In 1998, the International Space Station was launched, which replaced the Mir station. The project involves 14 countries, including Russia. In 2001, the first space tourist, an American, D. Tito, went into space on board a Russian spacecraft. ” Union “.
Russia continues to develop its space programs and developments for the conquest of new outer space and research.