Losses in the millennium year . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
341
Challengers of the space era . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
341
Death of a space pioneer, and controversy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
345
The world's ®rst cosmonaut re¯ects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
346
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
347
APPENDICES
A Biographies in brief . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
349
B Final cosmonaut candidates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
363
C The ®rst cosmonaut team (TsPK-1) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
365
D Guide to ¯ight and programme assignments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
367
E Parachute jumps completed by Valentin Filatyev, 1960±1963 . . . . . . . .
377
F Space¯ights by Group 1 cosmonauts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
379
G Cumulative time in space. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
383
H Highest honour: Hero of the Soviet Union. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
385
Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
387
Contents xi
Dedication
While this book relates the stories and experiences of all 20 Soviet Air Force pilots
selected in the ®rst cosmonaut detachment in 1960, sadly not all of them would realise
their dreams. With profound respect, this book is therefore dedicated to the eight
space¯ight candidates from that ®rst group who are forever a part of space¯ight
history, but who, for a number of reasons, were once discarded as unsuitable and
condemned to anonymity. Unlike their more illustrious peers, they were never able to
ride the rockets and share in the glory of viewing our blue planet from orbit.
Ivan Nikolayevich Anikeyev
Valentin Vasilyevich Bondarenko
Valentin Ignatyevich Filatyev
Anatoly Yakovlevich Kartashov
Grigori Grigoryevich Nelyubov
Mars Zakirovich Ra®kov
Valentin Stepanovich Varlamov
Dmitri Alexeyevich Zaikin
Foreword/Ooedhpambhe
xiv Foreword
Major-General Alexei Arkhipovich Leonov. (Photo courtesy David Meerman Scott)
In 1959 I joined a group of pilots who were being medically tested for what was a secret
programme which would create a type of pilot called a cosmonaut. In March 1960,
together with 19 other pilots, I was selected to join the ®rst cosmonaut selection that
would ¯y, command and control the ®rst spacecraft launched into space.
Training was hard as no programme existed which would prepare people for this
task. We were under the command of Colonel E.Y. Karpov who, as ®rst commander
of the training centre, was charged with creating the ®rst cosmonaut team, teaching
them the skills to ¯y a new type of vehicle in the harsh environment in space.
The names of some of the men who were part of this group have become legends
and are known to everyone: Gagarin, Titov, Nikolayev, Popovich, Bykovsky,
Komarov, Belyayev, Volynov, Khrunov, Shonin, Gorbatko and Leonov. In total
we made 21 space¯ights, many creating space ®rsts and turning science ®ction into
fact.
This is only part of the story, as eight colleagues did not make that launch. They
were part of us and the history of cosmonautics. Their names and the part they played
are told in this book. They deserve to be honoured, and the names of Kartashov,
Filatyev, Varlamov, Nelyubov, Anikiyev, Ra®kov, Bondarenko and lastly Zaikin
should be known. This book covers their contribution to our ¯ights and their roles in
the space programme of the 1960s.
It is an honour being asked to remember my colleagues.
Major-General of Aviation Alexei A. Leonov
Twice Hero of the Soviet Union
Pilot-Cosmonaut of the Soviet Union
Cosmonaut 1960 to 1975.
A member of the 1960 selection
Foreword xv
Other works
Other space exploration books by Colin Burgess in this series:
With David J. Shayler:
NASA's Scientist-Astronauts (2006)
ISBN 0-387-21897-1
With Chris Dubbs:
Animals in Space: From Research Rockets to the Space Shuttle (2007)
ISBN 0-387-36053-0
Other space exploration books by Rex Hall in this series:
With David J. Shayler:
The Rocket Men: Vostok & Voskhod, The First Soviet Manned Space¯ights (2001)
ISBN 1-85233-391-X
Soyuz: A Universal Spacecraft (2003)
ISBN 1-85233-657-9
With David J. Shayler and Bert Vis:
Russia's Cosmonauts: Inside the Yuri Gagarin Training Center (2005)
ISBN 0-38721-894-7
Authors' preface
Located on the Dnieper River between Kiev and Odessa, the south-central Ukrainian
city of Zaporozhe (or Zaporizhia) was once home to the Cossacks, a race of colourful
and tenacious horsemen who ruled the country during the 17th and 18th centuries.
A sprawling industrial city, Zaporozhe is also home to a massive hydro-electric
dam which dominates the riverscape from most vantage points in the city. Once
heavily polluted by the insidious residues of several motor car and aircraft engine
manufacturers, ZaporozheÐlike so many other former Soviet citiesÐhas recently
undergone an extensive transformation, and even though typically ugly, ubiquitous
concrete tower blocks of apartments still dominate the skyline, they are now partly
hidden behind tree-lined avenues. In a quiet corner of Zaporozhe is the small, mostly
neglected Kapustyany graveyard where, until recently, a weather-beaten gravestone
closely surrounded by ragged trees had risen above the bare dirt and weeds, marking
what was said to be the ®nal resting place of a man who came tantalizingly close to his
dream of one day becoming the ®rst person to ¯y into space.
Quite remarkably, the fact that Grigori Nelyubov ever bore the title of cosmonaut
was nowhere to be found on the gravestone, which has now been replaced. In fact, it
would actually be, with the exception of close family members, virtually nobody who
knew anything at all about the signi®cance of the life of the uniformed person whose
photograph was embedded in the obelisk. Nelyubov died in virtual anonymity, and
this was re¯ected in according him such a meagre resting place. By way of contrast, the
remains of many of his one-time colleagues and friends who have passed away now
occupy honoured burial places within the Kremlin Wall, or in Moscow's renowned
Novodevichy cemetery, where they are clearly identi®ed and lionized as pioneering
cosmonauts.
Why the sad anomaly, one might ask? Nelyubov, a jet pilot of substantial skill,
determination and courage, enjoyed the same Soviet Air Force background as his
colleagues in the ®rst cosmonaut group. Then, selected as one of an elite group of
6 from that initial cadre of 20 candidates for specialized space¯ight training, he was
Dostları ilə paylaş: |