Soviet propaganda myth: Gagarin was not the first in space. First flights into space

Many people know the song of the Zemlyane group – “Grass near the House”. I first heard it in the cartoon “Well, wait a minute!” Since then, I became interested in space topics, found an encyclopedia at home about space, about the first manned flights into orbit, to the Moon, and began to study. To be honest, I was very fascinated by space, there was a time when I even wanted to become an astronaut. So, now there are a lot of rumors about who was the first cosmonaut, I will try to explain everything in detail.

The very first astronaut in the world

You begin to feel proud that it was our Soviet man, Yuri Alekseevich Gagarin, who was the very first to visit the frightening space. It was in April, the 12th of 1961. On Vostok 1, in 1961, Gagarin made only one revolution around the Earth. Its duration was 108 minutes, of which 89 were spent in orbit. The speed of the ship at that time was insane - 18 thousand miles per hour. The cosmonaut recorded data about his flight in a journal and wrote everything down in detail. The date of the first flight into space is celebrated all over the world, and the holiday is called “Cosmonautics Day”.

First moon landing

The Moon is a satellite of the Earth and the closest celestial body to us. On September 13, 1959, the first robotic vehicle set foot on the moon. 10 years later, the first person stepped onto it. On July 16, 1969, Apollo 11 launched from Earth. The first person to set foot on our satellite was Neil Armstrong, the captain of the ship. The official date is July 21, 1969. The astronauts spent 2 hours and 31 minutes on the Moon. Here are the results of the expedition:

the US flag was planted on the moon;
many physical experiments were carried out;
over 21 kg of lunar soil was extracted;
scientific instruments were placed.

First woman in space

In 1963, on June 16, half past one, the USSR launched Vostok-6 into orbit. The pilot of the ship was Valentina Vladimirovna Tereshkova. She was the first woman to fly into space. Moreover, Tereshkova is still the woman who went into space alone. To this day, her act cannot be repeated.

Here, in fact, I talked about the first cosmonauts and expeditions.

Helpful0 Not very helpful

Comments0

Since childhood, I have been fond of intellectual games, we often “act out” questions on space topics, so I involuntarily became interested. From time immemorial, people have sought to find out what space is and what happens there. Every culture has legends about people who took to the skies and became “astronauts.” There was even one Chinese ruler who installed hundreds of rockets on his throne and tried to conquer space. Obviously he failed. And for the whole world, the first cosmonaut is Yuri Alekseevich Gagarin.

Space Age

After the end of World War II, the former allies entered the Cold War and the flight of a man of his nation into space would become an important argument in disputes on the world stage. The USSR took the first step by launching the first artificial Earth satellite in 1959, and in 1957 by launching Laika, the first dog in space, into Earth orbit.
After this, citizens of the USSR will be the first people in outer space, the first female cosmonaut will join the crew, but the Moon will still remain out of reach.

Life path of the first cosmonaut

Born in the Gzhatsky district of the Western Region of the RSFSR (currently Smolensk region) on March 9, 1934.
I went to school in my native village of Klushino, but due to the outbreak of the Second World War I could not
get an education immediately, and the tragic fate of relatives who were taken away by the occupiers became the reason why Yuri Alekseevich never remembered the war years.
since 1954 became actively involved in aviation, and even when there was a question about
expelled due to problems with landing, he proved that “he cannot live without the sky”, having coped with all the difficulties.

Space is waiting

In 1959, when the selection of candidates for the first cosmonauts began, Yuri Gagarin also submitted his application for participation. She was approved because the Hero had developed leadership qualities, attentiveness, was very polite, but at the same time was always ready to defend his point of view if he considered it correct. In addition, the experience of flying jets was excellent physical training and a base for space flight.
So, having passed all the other contestants (according to rumors, the decisive factor was a memorable smile), on March 23, 1961, Yu.A. Gagarin becomes the crew commander, and already on April 12, 1961 he goes down in history as the first person to be in Earth orbit.
After this, there will be worldwide popularity, receptions with the heads of many countries, but, unfortunately, a sudden and tragic death at the age of 34.

Helpful0 Not very helpful

Comments0

My childhood was spent in a small town, and I studied in a very ordinary school. But in this educational institution they always treated Cosmonautics Day with special trepidation. The whole school was preparing a festive concert, and at 9:07 - the time of takeoff of the first cosmonaut - they rang a triple bell. Since then, the first astronaut on Earth has remained my idol.

Who was the first space explorer?

Yuri Alekseevich Gagarin was born in 1934. And at the time of the flight he was 27 years old. Before that, he spent several years preparing for the flight with other pilots. These also included:

German Titov;
Alexey Leonov;
Pavel Belyaev.

An interesting fact is that two reached the final selection - Gagarin and Titov. According to legend, it was Yuri Alekseevich’s beautiful and euphonious name that allowed him to become the first. And the decision about who would be the main astronaut on the planet was made personally by Khrushchev.

The Vostok spacecraft took off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome on April 12, 1961 and made one orbit around the planet in 108 minutes, covering 41 thousand kilometers. It is noteworthy that even before media reports, radio amateurs who caught a strange signal from orbit knew about the flight. But they were not destined to find out the name of the hero. During negotiations with the Mission Control Center, it was hidden behind the code word “Cedar”.

Chief space designer

But don't underestimate the one who built the first rocket. During the years of space exploration, it was carefully hidden. But now we can be fully proud of Sergei Pavlovich Korolev, the founder of practical astronautics.

Despite many problems, prison, this man persistently walked towards his goal. He was able, at a time when there were no computers yet, and all calculations were done manually, to build a ship that made a complex flight automatically without a single error, which is not always possible even today!

So, Yuri Gagarin became the first cosmonaut on Earth, and Sergei Korolev was the first builder of spaceships. And these are the people of whom every earthling should be proud, since they paved the way to space, paved the way to the future!

Helpful0 Not very helpful

Comments0

Even before entering school, all of us (Soviet children) knew who flew into space first. It was Yuri Gagarin. When the Union collapsed, various “evidence” began to come to light that the first cosmonaut was a completely different person. I don’t know who to believe, but I (and not only me) continue to consider Gagarin the first cosmonaut.

Why was Gagarin the first cosmonaut?

In the Soviet Union, just anyone was “not appointed” to such “responsible jobs.” The first had to be a person of the Russian type (pleasant Slavic appearance), with a Soviet worldview, morally stable, educated and in good health. Yu. A. Gagarin fit these criteria very well. And he received the profession of a pilot at our Orenburg Flight School (closed, unfortunately).

After his first (and only) flight, Yuri Alekseevich became a world celebrity; he was welcome everywhere: in any city of the Union, and in other countries. Gagarin was awarded many titles and awards. He was loved and recognized. It is a pity that after his flight into space he lived only 7 years.

Who else was considered the first astronauts?

Events such as the first flight into space cannot but be surrounded by all sorts of secrets and myths. Even in those days, the Americans assumed that Gagarin was not the first cosmonaut and not even the second. Those who supposedly flew into space before him did not return alive, and then it should not have been that way - shame on the country! And the following were named as previous cosmonauts:

Victor Ilyushin;
Alexandra Belokoneva;
Evgenia Kiryushina;
Valentina Bondarenko and others.

I don’t want to believe in all these speculations; I will always consider Gagarin the first cosmonaut, a hero and one of the best representatives of our country. In connection with his tragic death, for the first time, general mourning was declared in the country not for the head of state.

Gagarin remains a man of peace. He is revered as the first cosmonaut not only in our country. Streets and settlements are still named after him. And how many monuments to Gagarin have been erected around the world?

Helpful0 Not very helpful

Comments0

In my childhood, all the good girls, when they grew up, dreamed of working as teachers or doctors, and the boys dreamed of working as police officers or exploring the expanses of space. Naturally, there were much more of the latter. We all knew that the twelfth of April is Cosmonautics Day, and Gagarin is the idol of the Soviet (and not only) people, who conquered the distances of space. We built rockets and imitated our hero in everything. We grew up, perestroika burst into our measured life, and it turned out that everything was not so simple.

Which living creature was the first to fly into space?

Not all flights went smoothly; many of the animals died. Belka and Strelka were the first to return safely to Earth. Only after this was the decision made about human space flight.

First cosmonaut

Three thousand absolutely healthy candidates were selected for the role of the first cosmonaut. Six of them were selected. Preparations began in earnest. The situation was heating up, as the Americans were also not asleep.

And then the hour came, twenty-seven-year-old Yuri Alekseevich Gagarin flew into space. The flight lasted one hundred and eight minutes, of which he spent eighty-nine in orbit. Everything went well. The Soviet people rejoiced. But the West still believes that Gagarin was not the first; there is a version that his flight was staged. They name Alexander Belokonev, Vladimir Ilyushin, Sergei Shiborin, Andrei Mitkov, Alexei Ledovsky. In 2011, for the fiftieth anniversary of the first flight, many archives were declassified. From them it became clear that before Gagarin, only dummies, jokingly named Ivan Ivanovich, flew into space.

Space exploration began long before the flight. Many scientists and designers tried to create a rocket in order to give humanity the opportunity to explore outer space. The main rivals in this struggle were the USSR and the USA. Both countries aspired to become space pioneers. But in 1961 the world learned who was the first to fly into space. It was a citizen of the USSR, Yuri Gagarin.

Experimental flights into space began a little earlier. But dogs were used as astronauts. At first, the rockets were launched to a low altitude. Scientists have studied the effect of weightlessness on the body of animals. After this, developments in this area continued. At the same time, preparations were being made for the first manned space flight.

Then a rocket was designed for longer flights, but it did not have a mechanism for returning to the ground. Therefore, a dog named Laika, who flew into space on it, did not return to earth and died. Then two dogs, Gypsy and Desik, flew into space on a high-altitude rocket. They completed their flight safely and landed successfully on the ground.

Therefore, when talking about who was the first to fly into space, one cannot fail to mention these astronauts.

But, of course, the real breakthrough in this area was the first manned space flight. It was a historic day not only in but for all of humanity. The whole world found out who was the first to fly into space.

Thanks to the launch vehicle, a spaceship entered orbit, the only passenger of which was a person. The duration of the first flight was only 108 minutes. But these were moments of pride for the Soviet people and the domestic cosmonautics. Today, when astronauts work in space for several months at a time, this period seems so short. But for a first flight it was a huge achievement.

The one who first flew into space showed all of humanity that it was possible to explore this unknown space. People got the opportunity to work and live in space. This is how the word cosmonaut came into use, and a new profession appeared.

People in this profession must have many skills and knowledge. The most important and initial requirement that is presented to them is excellent health. During the flight, the astronaut experiences very large overloads. They are especially felt during landing and entering orbit. The state of weightlessness is also a test for the human body. That is why the health requirements are so high.

In addition, the astronaut must have courage and courage. The ability to make the right decision in difficult situations is also a necessary quality. Outer space is an unusual environment for humans. There are radiations and vacuums that are harmful to humans. But the ship's hull is strong and impenetrable. It has everything you need for a fulfilling life and work.
An astronaut must know the structure of a spacecraft thoroughly. The combination of all these qualities precisely characterized the first cosmonaut of the Earth.

Yuri Gagarin was the one who first flew into space. But this was only the initial stage. Further exploration of outer space continued. The complexity of flights and the tasks that faced the astronauts increased. The technology became more complex. The next flights lasted more than a day. Then there was a man's exit from the spaceship. It was accomplished. Orbital stations were created and launched, which allowed crews of astronauts to replace each other in orbit.

The development of astronautics is proceeding ever faster. But the flight is the main event in this field, which has opened up new challenges, opportunities and prospects for humanity.

Intensive space exploration began only in the last century. For centuries, people have studied the stars and the celestial sphere, but only in the 20th century did scientific and technological progress make it possible not only to enter Earth’s orbit, but also to find themselves in outer space and set foot on the Moon. Who was the first to fly into space? Below we will answer this and other questions related to such flights.

The first living creature in outer space

Many are sure that the famous mongrels Belka and Strelka were the first to go into space. However, this is not the case. Before their flight, various experiments were carried out for at least 10 years, during which various animals were released into low-Earth orbit. The very first were squirrel monkeys, which were launched by the Americans in 1949.

Four-legged friends - pioneers of space flights

It was only in 1951 that experiments began on our four-legged friends. The first dogs to fly into space were the mongrels Dezik and Tsygan. They were launched on high-altitude rockets to an altitude of 450 km. They returned successfully. The legendary Laika made its first real orbital flight on the Sputnik 2 rocket in 1957. The dog died from stress and overheating a short time after takeoff. In any case, Laika was doomed to death, since the design of the ship did not allow for a return to Earth.

And only in 1960, the well-known Belka and Strelka ascended into space on the Sputnik 5 rocket. They survived the flight successfully and returned home safe and sound. It became clear that the first manned flight into space was just around the corner. Soviet and American scientists worked hard in this direction.

Who was the first to fly into space?

Any schoolchild can answer this question. Everyone knows who was the first to fly into space. The name of this hero is Yuri Gagarin. The Vostok space rocket launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on April 12, 1961. During takeoff, Gagarin exclaimed: “Let's go!” He was calm; the archive contains information that the sensors recorded a pulse of 64 beats per minute. Already in orbit, Yuri was surprised: “The Earth is blue! How beautiful!”

It orbited the planet in 108 minutes and returned successfully, landing in a field near the village of Engels, Saratov region. Gagarin recalled that the first to see him in an orange spacesuit were a peasant woman and her daughter and they were scared...

The news spread all over the world that the first manned flight into space had taken place. This great event is the starting point of human exploration of outer space.

Biography

Yuri Gagarin was born on March 9, 1934 in the Smolensk region. His father and mother were simple collective farmers from the village of Klushino.

In June 1951, Yura graduated with honors from the Lyubertsy vocational school. In the same year he graduated from the Lyubertsy School of Working Youth.

In 1955, he graduated from the Saratov Industrial College with top marks and graduated from the Saratov Aero Club. In the same year he was drafted into the ranks of the Soviet Army. He served as a fighter pilot in an aviation regiment.

In 1957 he graduated from the First Chkalov Aviation School named after. Voroshilov (Orenburg) with the qualification of a first-class military pilot. Yu. A. Gagarin was a student of the famous test pilot Akbulatov.

On March 3, 1960, by order of the Commander-in-Chief of the USSR Air Force, he was enrolled in the cosmonaut corps. A year later he made his famous flight. After him, Yu. A. Gagarin became a living legend, received recognition throughout the world, was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union and awarded many medals. Yuri was declared an honorary citizen of various cities.

The personal life of the one who first flew into space also turned out well. In 1957, Gagarin got married and then had two daughters.

However, on March 27, 1968, at the age of 34, the first person to fly into space tragically died while testing the MiG-15 fighter. At that time the whole country was grieving!

The weaker sex is not far behind

The first woman to conquer space was also a citizen of the USSR. This is Valentina Tereshkova. She was born on March 6, 1937 in a simple family. She graduated from school, worked at a factory, and then as a weaver at a mill. At the same time, she studied in absentia at the Light Industry College. Her hobby is parachuting, in which she was one of the best in the women's team. In 1960, Valentina became secretary of the Komsomol committee.

When Academician Korolev came up with the idea of sending a woman into low-Earth orbit, a competition for applicants was announced. The woman had to be no older than 30 years old, no taller than 170 cm and weigh no more than 70 kg, be in good health, be politically literate, morally stable and have experience in skydiving. Valentina immediately applied. She and 4 other applicants were selected among several hundred applicants.

Tereshkova's difficult flight

Tedious training began, which lasted several months. In November 1962, Tereshkova and the other candidates successfully passed the exams. However, the choice fell on Valentina, although according to the doctors’ findings, she was fifth on the list. But political factors became decisive - the woman was from a simple family, the secretary of a Komsomol cell. A big plus was the fact that she knew how to speak well at meetings (her experience as a Komsomol member affected her). After all, if the flight was successful, Tereshkova was expected to travel internationally and meet with Western journalists. According to contemporaries, Khrushchov personally insisted on Valentina’s candidacy.

The historic launch took place on June 16, 1963 on a Vostok-6 rocket from the Baikonur cosmodrome. The flight into space lasted three days, and during this time emergency situations arose. The most serious and threatening was Tereshkova’s temporary disorientation, as a result of which she directed the spacecraft in the other direction, moving away at great speed from the planned flight path into outer space. The observers got their bearings in time and switched the rocket to automatic control mode, returning it to the correct route. V.V. Tereshkova, the first female cosmonaut on the planet, said many years later that she physically felt very bad. Indeed, immediately after landing she was in bad shape and was urgently hospitalized. However, after a couple of days, she accepted congratulations with a smile.

For her heroic flight into space, Valentina Tereshkova was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union and other honors.

Other victories of the USSR

The Americans were shocked by the news of Gagarin's flight, and then by the news of Tereshkova's orbital flight. The United States launched the first man - Alan Shepard - into space a month after the USSR, but this was not a real space flight, only a suborbital one. Only on February 20, 1962, the American Mercury 6 rocket made its first real orbital flight with astronaut John Glenn on board.

In the space race between the USA and the USSR, the country of the Soviets took almost all the prizes:

The world's first satellite was launched by the USSR on October 4, 1957.
Gagarin is the first cosmonaut on the planet.
Tereshkova is a pioneer woman in astronautics.
Alexey Leonov, a citizen of the USSR, carried out the first spacewalk on March 18, 1965 from the Voskhod-2 spacecraft.
Soviet citizen Svetlana Savitskaya was the first woman who dared to go into outer space on July 25, 1984.
During 16 spacewalks, Anatoly Solovyov spent a total of a record 82 hours and 20 minutes in airless space.

The United States took revenge when it was the first to land its astronauts Neil Armstrong and Alvin Aldrin on the Moon. Although many argue that it was a big scam, and so far no man has set foot on the moon.

1964 - the first civilians were sent into space - doctor Boris Egorov and doctor of technical sciences Konstantin Feoktistov.
1978 - Czechoslovakia joined the ranks of countries conquering space, sending cosmonaut V. Remek into the vacuum of space.
1985 - the first politicians in space are Senator Edwin Garn and Prince Al-Saud of Saudi Arabia.
1990 - Japanese journalist Toyohiro Akiyama went into outer space.

Tourist space

The idea of space tourism was put forward back in 1967. The first official report on this topic was heard in 1986 at the International Congress on Astronautics. In the same year, the first tourist was supposed to fly into space - American Christy McAuliffe, a teacher who won this prize in the competition. However, she died during the launch of the Challenger shuttle, which became the reason for the state ban on non-professional flights into space.

The idea of such tourism did not die, but continued to develop at an unprecedented speed. Already in 2001, Russia was able to send the first tourist into space - American Dennis Tito, who paid $20 million for the flight. This mission caused great dissatisfaction with NASA. However, in 2002, again, Russia sent a second tourist into space - Mark Shuttleworth, who also paid $20 million for the flight.

Tito and Shuttleworth are the first people to fly into space as tourists. To date, 8 travelers have already visited outer space. The cost of the flight increased to $40 million. An additional service was announced for 15 million - a spacewalk.

The United States is actively working to create state-of-the-art safe shuttles for space tourism and promises to reduce the cost of flights to $50,000 by 2020, which will make it possible to send up to 500 tourists a year to the International Space Station.

The first living creature in outer space

Four-legged friends - pioneers of space flights

Who was the first to fly into space?

The news spread all over the world that the first manned flight into space had taken place. This great event is the starting point of human exploration of outer space.

Biography

Yuri Gagarin was born on March 9, 1934 in the Smolensk region. His father and mother were simple collective farmers from the village of Klushino.

In June 1951, Yura graduated with honors from the Lyubertsy vocational school. In the same year he graduated from the Lyubertsy School of Working Youth.

The personal life of the one who first flew into space also turned out well. In 1957, Gagarin got married and then had two daughters.

However, on March 27, 1968, at the age of 34, the first person to fly into space tragically died while testing the MiG-15 fighter. At that time the whole country was grieving!

The weaker sex is not far behind

Tereshkova's difficult flight

For her heroic flight into space, Valentina Tereshkova was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union and other honors.

Other victories of the USSR

In the space race between the USA and the USSR, the country of the Soviets took almost all the prizes:

The world's first satellite was launched by the USSR on October 4, 1957.
Gagarin is the first cosmonaut on the planet.
Tereshkova is a pioneer woman in astronautics.
Alexey Leonov, a citizen of the USSR, carried out the first spacewalk on March 18, 1965 from the Voskhod-2 spacecraft.
Soviet citizen Svetlana Savitskaya was the first woman who dared to go into outer space on July 25, 1984.
During 16 spacewalks, Anatoly Solovyov spent a total of a record 82 hours and 20 minutes in airless space.

1964 - the first civilians were sent into space - doctor Boris Egorov and doctor of technical sciences Konstantin Feoktistov.
1978 - Czechoslovakia joined the ranks of countries conquering space, sending cosmonaut V. Remek into the vacuum of space.
1985 - the first politicians in space are Senator Edwin Garn and Prince Al-Saud of Saudi Arabia.
1990 - Japanese journalist Toyohiro Akiyama went into outer space.

Tourist space

More from

Was Yuri Gagarin the first man in space?
Soviet propaganda myth: Gagarin was not the first in space? / "Unsolved Mysteries"

According to one source, Yuri Gagarin was the second man in space, according to others - the fourth, and some claim even the twelfth. In the Guinness Book of Records for 1964, the first cosmonaut on Earth was listed as Victor Ilyushin. Other

It is in our days that data is being revealed about what preceded Gagarin’s famous flight and who preceded it. The flight of April 12, 1961 - is it another myth of Soviet propaganda or is it still an undeniable story?
Was Gagarin the first in space? Or was he the first to return alive from orbit? Why are they still talking about the cosmonauts who died before him, and what mysteries of the first flights have only recently been declassified? 108 minutes that shocked the world - what were they worth? Read the answer to these questions and watch in the documentary investigation program “Unsolved Secrets” of the TV channel “Moscow Trust”.

"Unsolved Mysteries": Was Yuri Gagarin the first man in space

First before Gagarin

November 10, 1959. A newspaper with sensational material is published in the USA. It contains a secret recording of conversations between the chief Soviet designer Sergei Korolev and the cosmonaut: “Earth. Pressure is normal.” After a minute of silence: “I can’t hear you, the batteries have failed. Oxygen. Comrades, for God’s sake, what to do? What? I can’t. Do you understand? Do you understand?” Then the astronaut’s speech turned into an indistinct muttering and disappeared completely. According to journalist Allen Henders, the deceased's name was Alexander Belokonev.

“As for Gagarin, there is no smoke without fire. There are some factors that allow rumors to emerge. We all know the canonical date of Gagarin’s flight – April 12, but before his flight there were five satellite ships on which the flight of the Vostok spacecraft was tested,” - said Vadim Lukashevich.

Andrey Simonov has been researching flight tests in our country for many years. He admits experiments in this industry have been going on since 1953.

Yuri Gagarin, 1961

“Nobody wanted to show, imagine: the world’s first man in space, and suddenly death. It would be an even greater shame than if we fell behind. Therefore, we checked every detail so that there was a one hundred percent guarantee of success. On the eve of Gagarin’s flight, the Daily Worker publishes an article of his Moscow correspondent. He reports: “On April 8, Vladimir Ilyushin, a test pilot, the son of a legendary aircraft designer, made an orbital flight on board the Rossiya spacecraft.” It is he who will be listed in the Guinness Book of Records for 1964 as the first cosmonaut on the planet,” comments Andrey Simonov.

“The Hungarian writer Eastwood Nemory wrote a whole book about how the first cosmonaut was Viktor Ilyushin, who survived, but was in unsightly shape after this unsuccessful landing,” said Yuri Karash.

The Italian agency "Continental", shortly after Gagarin's return, published an interview with its scientists, the Undico-Cordillo brothers, who said that since 1957 they had recorded three tragedies in space. In their space listening center, they picked up radio signals of the dying, groans and intermittent heartbeats. Those recordings still exist today.

“Initially, about 3,000 people were selected. They looked first of all at their medical records, that is, there was a requirement for almost absolute physical health. Of these, as a result of strict selection, 6 people were left who flew under the Vostok program. In fact, “Of course, more were selected,” adds Yuri Karash.

The last unofficial flight in the foreign press is listed as February 4, 1961. The Baikonur launch actually took place that day, but who flew? Why didn't you come back? The details remained classified for many years.

Why did cosmonaut Bondarenko die?

The West is convinced that Gagarin only played the role of the first cosmonaut to hide his failures.

“Before Gagarin’s flight, the Americans were also working on their Mercury spacecraft, they had two suborbital launches, they managed to launch them. The rhesus monkey Sam flew in the first, and the first astronaut, the chimpanzee Ham, flew in the second. He flew two months before Gagarin, he rose to a height of 285 km vertically. Perhaps that is why Korolev began to say that there was no point in launching Gagarin suborbitally, it was necessary to immediately make a full orbit. Otherwise he would have been second behind the monkey. Therefore, the race was neck and neck," said Vadim Lukashevich.

Today, astronauts acknowledge the death of one of their colleagues. This really happened before Gagarin, and they don’t like to talk about it. Valentin Bondarenko was one of the favorites of the first squad - the youngest and most cheerful. Pilot-cosmonaut Viktor Gorbatko was friends with him, but even he admits that he died through his own fault.

"We heated food and tea on ordinary spiral tiles. We wiped his head for sensors with alcohol, and an alcohol swab accidentally fell on the tile - he was getting ready to have dinner. A fire occurred, he had 80% burns, he was taken away in an ambulance, but he I lived only two or three hours,” recalls Viktor Gorbatko.

Yuri Gagarin before the start

Gagarin could not say goodbye to Bondarenko, he is called to the start. There is a battle for space. Before sending Yuri Gagarin into flight, he and his backup, German Titov, are brought to the cosmodrome twice. They work out to the smallest detail everything that can be done on Earth, and for real: in spacesuits, with a report, with negotiations.

“They rehearsed the landing, reported, they were taken in an elevator to the very top, to the ship. Everything was done except boarding the ship. That is, a large retinue: conscript soldiers standing in a cordon saw that the cosmonauts reported, went to the rocket, rocket flew away,” said Vadim Lukashevich.

This is how rumors are born. They are also fueled by kitchen conversations of dissidents who do not trust the authorities.

“Once I was in Italy, those who proved that Gagarin and Tereshkova were not the first gathered there,” recalls Viktor Gorbatko.

Late 70s Almost twenty years after Gagarin's flight. Cosmonauts can already divulge some details of the first launches. Then Viktor Gorbatko says for the first time that Valentin Bondarenko died not in space, but in a soundproofing chamber during a test. But those radio signals that the Italian brothers heard really existed, and they came from space.

“Radio transmitters were taken on board. They simply recorded the voice and watched how the signal would pass to Earth. There were simple call signs: “Reception!”, “Can you hear me?”, etc. Western pilots, having heard this, might well have thought “that a person is saying this, although in fact it was a tape recorder speaking,” said Andrei Simonov.

Human trials

So was astronaut number zero, and who are the people whose names were named by the largest foreign publications? Why did they believe in them so much? Was Gagarin the first, second or twelfth cosmonaut in the world? The first journalistic investigation appeared in the summer of 1965.

“In American publications - Belokonev, Ledovsky, Shiborin, Gusev, Zavadovsky also flew before Gagarin - a lot of names were given. And it turned out that in 1959 in the Ogonyok magazine there was a detailed publication where testers of spacesuits for pilots, not for cosmonauts, were interviewed ". And they said that they tested high-altitude spacesuits. And so the Americans took the names of people from this group and passed them off as astronauts. But the questions remained. What really happened to Vladimir Ilyushin?" - said Andrei Simonov.

“He was a very unique person. In 1959, he set a world altitude record for flying an airplane, a lot was written about him. And then in 1960 he suddenly disappeared from view. Everything was simple: on June 8, 1960, he got into a car accident on the way from Moscow to Zhukovsky, and was treated for a long time. This year he was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union, and he came on crutches to the presentation. And, apparently, someone saw, and gossip began to spread that he had an unsuccessful flight into space. Although he “I myself have always denied this,” recalls Simonov.

Yuri Gagarin in the Grand Kremlin Palace, 1961

Evgeny Kiryushin is also one of those who was named among the dead cosmonauts. His friends heard about this on a foreign radio station.

"Someone randomly asked me: 'Oh! Are you alive? “I heard you died” - “No, I say, you’re alive!” said Evgeny Kiryushin.

Kiryushin was one of those who did everything to prevent the cosmonauts from dying. For more than 20 years, he was officially listed as either a simple laboratory assistant or a mechanic at the Institute of Space Medicine. Only in the early 1990s did it become possible to speak out loud about his work, and he received the title of Hero of Russia.

“Let’s say, explosive decompression, when they checked the suit for an explosion - a fraction of a second passes until complete depressurization, from earth pressure to vacuum - three tenths of a second. God knows what can happen: maybe lightning will tear off, maybe the helmet, and maybe the head ", explained Kiryushin.

There are countless tragedies among the testers; not many can withstand twelve-fold overloads and emergency ejection. A common injury is a spinal fracture. Until the very end, no one knows how a person will behave in space. It is believed that in a state of weightlessness he will simply go crazy. Gagarin's entire ship control panel is blocked. The code is in a special envelope; a deranged pilot will not be able to decipher it. Until the last minute, the success of the flight is in doubt.

“After the Second World War, the International Commission prohibited experiments and tests on people. But how can you develop such a new industry as astronautics without conducting experiments with people? This is impossible, therefore, despite all sorts of international acts, we had a group of testers who did this.” , - said Evgeny Kiryushin.

Vadim Lukashevich has written more than one book about astronautics. He believes that the Americans, by spreading rumors about Soviet launch failures, did not want to belittle the achievements of the Soviet country. On the contrary, they were frightened by such information. During the Cold War, they kept a close eye on the Russians. For meetings in the US Congress on the budget, the Pentagon even published a special brochure “Soviet Military Power”.

"The West then accepted very little information about the Soviet Union. To the point that they would not say where we started from. We started from Chuo Tama, but they said that from Baikonur, and this is hundreds of kilometers away. And the Americans recognized the launch site from ballistic calculations, looking at where the rocket took off from. Gagarin is the first person in space, but according to the rules of the international association, in order to register a record, he had to take off in a ship and land in a ship. And he ejected at an altitude of 80 km and landed on a parachute separately, but when we submitted documents to register the record, we hid it. That is, they thought up a lot of things,” said Vadim Lukashevich.

Death of Ivan Ivanovich

Larisa Uspenskaya knows the secrets of space flight like no one else. For many years she has been in charge of the archive of the first cosmonaut corps. Unique, recently closed documents are stored here.

“In 2011, when celebrations and anniversary events took place, a massive declassification of documents was carried out. Documents from the archives of the president, the state authorities at that time and our department were declassified. Recently, a non-departmental commission declassified a significant block of archives relating to the first space flights,” said Larisa Uspenskaya .

The very first recordings of the archive of Gagarin's flight were made in real time by Korolev and the cosmonaut personally immediately after landing. Gagarin writes how he lost his pencil in weightlessness, how he was thirsty, how the ship deviated from course.

Designer Sergei Korolev and first cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin, 1961

“The Americans took direction finding of Gagarin’s negotiations with the Earth during the flight and woke up the president that the race was lost,” said Vadim Lukashevich.

Meanwhile, three weeks earlier, a resident of the village of Korsha, in Western Kazakhstan, discovered a man in a spacesuit on a high spruce tree - he landed unsuccessfully with a parachute. The news about the deceased cosmonaut quickly spread around the area. But no one had time to get close to him: the military arrived and the victim disappeared without a trace.

“We can only call the dummy Ivan Ivanovich as cosmonaut number zero. It was absolutely impossible to imagine how the human body would react. The overloads that the astronauts were subjected to during training and testing on Earth could not compare with what would happen there,” said Larisa Uspenskaya .

Officially, two dummies flew into space, jokingly nicknamed Ivan Ivanovich by the designers. In order not to scare people, they will write on the suit of the second one: “Model”. But it was impossible to stop the rumors.

“It was only fifty years later that the UN established that April 12, 1961 is the day of the first human flight into space,” said Viktor Gorbatko.

Today, for $1 million, anyone can go into space. But has it become safe? What are astronauts still hiding?

“I was worried, of course, but there was no fear. Unfortunately, the previous crew, when we flew to Almaz (the Salyut-5 military station), panicked, they began to take things more and more acutely, which caused a deterioration in their health, and this led to an emergency landing, and for some time it was even believed that the station was poisoned.

Only behind the scenes, testers say that the risk in flights has not disappeared. It's still roulette, which is why they sign non-disclosure documents. Their reports are kept as secret files for years.

“As a result of each flight, not counting TASS reports, a whole complex of documents arises. For example, Gagarin’s flight log has not yet been published. What do we know about the flights after Gagarin?” - Vadim Lukashevich argues.

It would seem that the veil of secrecy of the first flights has been lifted, and except for dogs and mannequins, no one had been in orbit before Gagarin, but until all the documents are declassified, these questions will be investigated again and again.

Major Gagarin completed the task. After him, Viktor Gorbatko managed to travel into space three times, each time the mission was made more difficult.

“Plains, forests, all this can be seen from space. On my second flight, taking the appropriate equipment, we could see a person,” recalls Viktor Gorbatko.