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Aviation History
1964
1964 - 2773.PDF
766 FLIGHT International 29 October (944 Spaceflight and missiles In Red Square on October 19, Muscovites welcomed three new cosmonauts and two new leaders (one of whom is out of the picture). From the left. Valentino Nikolayeva-Tereshkova, Boris Yegorov, Konstantin Feoktistov, Vladimir Komarov and Soviet Prime Minister Alexei Kosygin „.. NEW LANDING SYSTEM USED ON VOSKHOD landed in the spaceship. The spaceship had a parachute system. In addition it was equipped with a special system for soft landing. It worked, as we say, according to the programme, without incident. After we had landed and got out of the spaceship, we tried to find the place where it had touched down: there wasn't an impression on the soil. We looked and we found nothing. From that you can tell how softly, how really softly, our remarkable spacecraft Voskhod landed"—Col Vladimir Komarov, Baikonur, October 15. The colonel's press conference audience at the cosmodrome could indeed tell how softly the spacecraft landed—but they could tell little else about Voskhod's "special system." At a second press conference in Moscow on October 21, it was divulged that this system used a "landing engine." The new landing system and the experimental use of ion-engine thrusters for attitude control were the main novelties among the post-flight revelations and non-details concerning the three-man Voskhod flight of October 12-13. After the flight cosmonauts Vladimir Komarov, Konstantin Feoktistov and Boris Yegorov returned to the Baikonur cosmo- drome for a period of rest, medical examinations and meetings with the State Commission and the launching crew. At the 90min press conference on October 15 Komarov disclosed that he had been the stand-in pilot for Pavel Popovich in Vostok 4. He contrasted the Vostok spacecraft with the more comfortable "small space station" that was Voskhod, the Vostok cosmonaut's space suit and helmet with the light woollen suits worn by the three-man crew of Voskhod. Scientist Feoktistov remarked on the good field of view from the Voskhod windows, which made it possible to carry out extensive observations of the Earth and of space. The crew were busy tabulat- ing the scientific data collected during the flight and preparing a detailed report of their flight. On October 12, during their third orbit, the crew had exchanged radio greetings with Soviet Premier and Communist Party Leader Nikita Khrushchev. On October 19 in Moscow they were welcomed to the capital by Soviet Premier Alexei Kosygin and Communist Party Leader Leonid Brezhnev. Speeches were made from the Lenin Mausoleum in Red Square, and each of the cosmonauts was designated a Hero of the Soviet Union. The October 21 press conference was held in Moscow University and was reported to have been attended by over 2,000 people. Academician Mstislav Keldysh, President of the Soviet Academy of Sciences, gave an introductory address and announced the Academy's award of Tsiolkovsky Gold Medals to the three cosmo- nauts, after which the three cosmonauts spoke in turn, later answering correspondents' questions with Academician Keldysh. Extracts from the speeches and answers are as follows:— Keldysh: The Voskhod spaceship differs essentially from Vostok. For the first time, cosmonauts were able to make the flight without spacesuits and without an ejection system. To do this it was necessary, first of all, to ensure the pressurization of the spaceship, for the slightest failure in the hermetic sealing would have been fatal to the crew. The landing of the spaceship required the reliable functioning of all the systems at that moment. The possibility of a landing on water also had to be provided for, and all the necessary steps taken to make the craft unsinkable and stable on water. To guarantee a safe landing, a reserve retro-rocket was installed which made it possible to put our satellites and spaceships into higher and higher orbits. This first collective space flight by the Voskhod opens up a new phase in the science of cosmonautics. The significance of this flight is considerable. For the first time, a scientist and a physician were able to conduct personal observations and to take scientific measurements on board the spacecraft. This will be particularly important in distant space flights, say to the Moon and to the planets. We can confidently say that astronomy will undergo a real revolution if astronomers are able to train their telescopes on the depth of the universe directly from a spacecraft. A real study of the planets of the solar system is practically impossible without the participation of cosmonaut-scientists. The flight of the multimanned spaceship Voskhod was planned for 24 hours, but the general resources of the spaceship's apparatus were much greater. During the flight, Komarov, Feoktistov and Yegorov successfully carried out the planned flight programme. The general control of the spaceship was in the hands of the commander, the pilot Komarov, and he fulfilled his assignment with honour. Konstantin Feoktistov's observations, especially on the optics of the upper atmosphere and the Aurora Borealis,
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