The era of Soviet spacecraft began on April 12, 1961 in connection with the first in the history of the Earth flight of pilot-cosmonaut Major Yuri Gagarin in space.
Content
Device
Most Soviet spacecraft consisted of a spherical crew cabin (also called a descent vehicle ) and a cylindrical aggregate compartment (with engines and fuel tanks), to which solar batteries with a range of up to 10 meters later began to be attached [1] . The total length of the ship was within 7 meters [2] , and the mass was 5 tons. Communication with the outside world was carried out using antennas, a hatch and portholes . The ships were white. They depicted the flag of the USSR , and the name of the country ( USSR ) and the ship are written in red Cyrillic letters. In the manufacture of the ships, aluminum alloys were used [3] , reinforced with a powerful thermal insulation system, since when entering the dense layers of the atmosphere, the ship as a result of aerodynamic drag can warm up to 8 thousand degrees C [4] .
Crew
The crew of Soviet spacecraft could reach three people (commander, flight engineer and astronaut-researcher) [5] . A special power system was developed for the astronauts. They could conduct research in space, maintain physical fitness, send natural necessities and relax. International cosmonaut teams also worked on Soviet spaceships, which in addition to USSR citizens included citizens of Czechoslovakia ( Remek ), Poland ( Germashevsky ), East Germany ( Yen ), Bulgaria ( Ivanov ), Hungary ( Farkash ), Vietnam ( Fam Tuan ), Cuba ( Tamayo Mendes ), Mongolia ( Zhugderdemidiin Gurragcha ), Romania ( Prunariu ), France ( Chretien ), India ( Sharma ), Syria ( Faris ), Afghanistan ( Momand ), Great Britain ( Sharman ), Austria ( Fibek ) and Japan ( Akiyama ) .
Names
The first Soviet spacecraft was designed by Sergei Korolev called the East , which referred to the name of the Russian sailing ship , whose crew participated in the discovery of Antarctica . Further names of Soviet spacecraft are associated with the names of natural ( Buran , Sunrise , Dawn ) or social ( Union , Progress ) phenomena.
Flight performance
Soviet spacecraft launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome , and a booster rocket launched them into orbit. The minimum orbit altitude was 180 km (maximum: 475 km [6] ). The ships did not go beyond the earth's orbit and landed with the help of parachutes . Their speed was 28260 km / h [7] (~ 8 km / s). They could be in space (zero gravity) for 365 days [7] . The Soviet spacecraft Soyuz-4 and Soyuz-5 in 1969 made the first docking , which contributed to the emergence of such a variety of spacecraft as orbital stations ( Salyut-1 1971 ).
Disasters
For all time, the Soviet space fleet lost two spaceships as a result of shipwrecks. The crew of the Soyuz-1 ship (represented by Colonel Komarov ) died during landing due to a breakdown of the braking system , and the crew of the Soyuz-11 ship ( Dobrovolsky , Volkov and Patsaev ) - from decompression. There were also psychological problems on Soviet ships ( Soyuz-21 ).