Is there a monument to the unknown astronaut? Monument to cosmonauts near Dzhezkazgan
There are only about 20 people who gave their lives for the benefit of world progress in the field of space exploration, and today we will tell you about them.
Their names are immortalized in the ashes of cosmic chronos, burned into the atmospheric memory of the universe forever, many of us would dream of remaining heroes for humanity, however, few would want to accept such a death as our cosmonaut heroes.
The 20th century was a breakthrough in mastering the path to the vastness of the Universe; in the second half of the 20th century, after much preparation, man was finally able to fly into space. However, there was a downside to such rapid progress - death of astronauts.
People died during pre-flight preparations, during the takeoff of the spacecraft, and during landing. Total during space launches, preparations for flights, including cosmonauts and technical personnel who died in the atmosphere More than 350 people died, about 170 astronauts alone.
Let us list the names of the cosmonauts who died during the operation of spacecraft (the USSR and the whole world, in particular America), and then we will briefly tell the story of their death.
Not a single cosmonaut died directly in Space; most of them all died in the Earth’s atmosphere, during the destruction or fire of the ship (the Apollo 1 astronauts died while preparing for the first manned flight).
Volkov, Vladislav Nikolaevich (“Soyuz-11”)
Dobrovolsky, Georgy Timofeevich (“Soyuz-11”)
Komarov, Vladimir Mikhailovich (“Soyuz-1”)
Patsaev, Viktor Ivanovich (“Soyuz-11”)
Anderson, Michael Phillip ("Columbia")
Brown, David McDowell (Columbia)
Grissom, Virgil Ivan (Apollo 1)
Jarvis, Gregory Bruce (Challenger)
Clark, Laurel Blair Salton ("Columbia")
McCool, William Cameron ("Columbia")
McNair, Ronald Erwin (Challenger)
McAuliffe, Christa ("Challenger")
Onizuka, Allison (Challenger)
Ramon, Ilan ("Columbia")
Resnick, Judith Arlen (Challenger)
Scobie, Francis Richard ("Challenger")
Smith, Michael John ("Challenger")
White, Edward Higgins (Apollo 1)
Husband, Rick Douglas ("Columbia")
Chawla, Kalpana (Columbia)
Chaffee, Roger (Apollo 1)
It is worth considering that we will never know the stories of the death of some astronauts, because this information is secret.
Soyuz-1 disaster
“Soyuz-1 is the first Soviet manned spacecraft (KK) of the Soyuz series. Launched into orbit on April 23, 1967. There was one cosmonaut on board Soyuz-1 - Hero of the Soviet Union, engineer-colonel V. M. Komarov, who died during the landing of the descent module. Komarov’s backup in preparation for this flight was Yu. A. Gagarin.”
Soyuz-1 was supposed to dock with Soyuz-2 to return the crew of the first ship, but due to problems, the launch of Soyuz-2 was canceled.
After entering orbit, problems began with the operation of the solar battery; after unsuccessful attempts to launch it, it was decided to lower the ship to Earth.
But during the descent, 7 km from the ground, the parachute system failed, the ship hit the ground at a speed of 50 km per hour, tanks with hydrogen peroxide exploded, the cosmonaut died instantly, Soyuz-1 almost completely burned out, the remains of the cosmonaut were severely burned so that it was impossible to identify even fragments of the body.
“This disaster was the first time a person died in flight in the history of manned astronautics.”
The causes of the tragedy have never been fully established.
Soyuz-11 disaster
Soyuz 11 is a spacecraft whose crew of three cosmonauts died in 1971. The cause of death was the depressurization of the descent module during the landing of the ship.
Just a couple of years after the death of Yu. A. Gagarin (the famous cosmonaut himself died in a plane crash in 1968), having already followed the seemingly well-trodden path of conquest of outer space, several more cosmonauts passed away.
Soyuz-11 was supposed to deliver the crew to the Salyut-1 orbital station, but the ship was unable to dock due to damage to the docking unit.
Crew composition:
Commander: Lieutenant Colonel Georgy Dobrovolsky
Flight engineer: Vladislav Volkov
Research engineer: Viktor Patsayev
They were between 35 and 43 years old. All of them were posthumously awarded awards, certificates, and orders.
It was never possible to establish what happened, why the spacecraft was depressurized, but most likely this information will not be given to us. But it’s a pity that at that time our cosmonauts were “guinea pigs” who were released into space without much security or security after the dogs. However, probably many of those who dreamed of becoming astronauts understood what a dangerous profession they were choosing.
Docking occurred on June 7, undocking on June 29, 1971. There was an unsuccessful attempt to dock with the Salyut-1 orbital station, the crew was able to board the Salyut-1, even stayed at the orbital station for several days, a TV connection was established, but already during the first approach to the station the cosmonauts stopped filming for some smoke. On the 11th day, a fire started, the crew decided to descend on the ground, but problems emerged that disrupted the undocking process. Spacesuits were not provided for the crew.
On June 29 at 21.25 the ship separated from the station, but a little more than 4 hours later contact with the crew was lost. The main parachute was deployed, the ship landed in a given area, and the soft landing engines fired. But the search team discovered at 02.16 (June 30, 1971) the lifeless bodies of the crew; resuscitation efforts were unsuccessful.
During the investigation, it was found that the cosmonauts tried to eliminate the leak until the last minute, but they mixed up the valves, fought for the wrong one, and meanwhile missed the opportunity for salvation. They died from decompression sickness - air bubbles were found during autopsy even in the heart valves.
The exact reasons for the depressurization of the ship have not been named, or rather, they have not been announced to the general public.
Subsequently, engineers and creators of spacecraft, crew commanders took into account many tragic mistakes of previous unsuccessful flights into space.
Challenger shuttle disaster
“The Challenger disaster occurred on January 28, 1986, when the space shuttle Challenger, at the very beginning of mission STS-51L, was destroyed by the explosion of its external fuel tank 73 seconds into flight, resulting in the death of all 7 crew members. The crash occurred at 11:39 EST (16:39 UTC) over the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of central Florida, USA."
In the photo, the ship's crew - from left to right: McAuliffe, Jarvis, Resnik, Scobie, McNair, Smith, Onizuka
All of America was waiting for this launch, millions of eyewitnesses and viewers watched the launch of the ship on TV, it was the culmination of the Western conquest of space. And so, when the grand launch of the ship took place, seconds later, a fire began, later an explosion, the shuttle cabin separated from the destroyed ship and fell at a speed of 330 km per hour on the surface of the water, seven days later the astronauts would be found in the broken cabin at the bottom of the ocean. Until the last moment, before hitting the water, some crew members were alive and tried to supply air to the cabin.
In the video below the article there is an excerpt of a live broadcast of the launch and death of the shuttle.
“The Challenger shuttle crew consisted of seven people. Its composition was as follows:
The crew commander is 46-year-old Francis “Dick” R. Scobee. US military pilot, US Air Force Lieutenant Colonel, NASA astronaut.
The co-pilot is 40-year-old Michael J. Smith. Test pilot, US Navy captain, NASA astronaut.
The scientific specialist is 39-year-old Ellison S. Onizuka. Test pilot, Lieutenant Colonel of the US Air Force, NASA astronaut.
The scientific specialist is 36-year-old Judith A. Resnick. Engineer and NASA astronaut. Spent 6 days 00 hours 56 minutes in space.
The scientific specialist is 35-year-old Ronald E. McNair. Physicist, NASA astronaut.
The payload specialist is 41-year-old Gregory B. Jarvis. Engineer and NASA astronaut.
The payload specialist is 37-year-old Sharon Christa Corrigan McAuliffe. A teacher from Boston who won the competition. For her, this was her first flight into space as the first participant in the “Teacher in Space” project.”
Last photo of the crew
To establish the causes of the tragedy, various commissions were created, but most of the information was classified; according to assumptions, the reasons for the ship’s crash were poor interaction between organizational services, irregularities in the operation of the fuel system that were not detected in time (the explosion occurred at launch due to the burnout of the wall of the solid fuel accelerator), and even. terrorist attack Some said that the shuttle explosion was staged to harm America's prospects.
Space Shuttle Columbia disaster
“The Columbia disaster occurred on February 1, 2003, shortly before the end of its 28th flight (mission STS-107). The final flight of the space shuttle Columbia began on January 16, 2003. On the morning of February 1, 2003, after a 16-day flight, the shuttle was returning to Earth.
NASA lost contact with the craft at approximately 14:00 GMT (09:00 EST), 16 minutes before its intended landing on Runway 33 at the John F. Kennedy Space Center in Florida, which was scheduled to take place at 14:16 GMT. Eyewitnesses filmed burning debris from the shuttle flying at an altitude of about 63 kilometers at a speed of 5.6 km/s. All 7 crew members were killed."
Crew pictured - From top to bottom: Chawla, Husband, Anderson, Clark, Ramon, McCool, Brown
The Columbia shuttle was making its next 16-day flight, which was supposed to end with a landing on Earth, however, as the main version of the investigation says, the shuttle was damaged during the launch - a piece of torn off thermal insulating foam (the coating was intended to protect tanks with oxygen and hydrogen) as a result of the impact, damaged the wing coating, as a result of which, during the descent of the apparatus, when the heaviest loads on the body occur, the apparatus began to overheat and, subsequently, destruction.
Even during the shuttle mission, engineers more than once turned to NASA management to assess the damage and visually inspect the shuttle body using orbital satellites, but NASA experts assured that there were no fears or risks and the shuttle would descend safely to Earth.
“The crew of the shuttle Columbia consisted of seven people. Its composition was as follows:
The crew commander is 45-year-old Richard “Rick” D. Husband. US military pilot, US Air Force colonel, NASA astronaut. Spent 25 days 17 hours 33 minutes in space. Before Columbia, he was commander of the shuttle STS-96 Discovery.
The co-pilot is 41-year-old William "Willie" C. McCool. Test pilot, NASA astronaut. Spent 15 days 22 hours 20 minutes in space.
The flight engineer is 40-year-old Kalpana Chawla. Scientist, first female NASA astronaut of Indian origin. Spent 31 days, 14 hours and 54 minutes in space.
The payload specialist is 43-year-old Michael P. Anderson. Scientist, NASA astronaut. Spent 24 days 18 hours 8 minutes in space.
Zoology specialist - 41-year-old Laurel B. S. Clark. US Navy captain, NASA astronaut. Spent 15 days 22 hours 20 minutes in space.
Scientific specialist (doctor) - 46-year-old David McDowell Brown. Test pilot, NASA astronaut. Spent 15 days 22 hours 20 minutes in space.
The scientific specialist is 48-year-old Ilan Ramon (English Ilan Ramon, Hebrew.אילן רמון). NASA's first Israeli astronaut. Spent 15 days 22 hours 20 minutes in space.”
The shuttle's descent took place on February 1, 2003, and within an hour it was supposed to land on Earth.
“On February 1, 2003, at 08:15:30 (EST), the space shuttle Columbia began its descent to Earth. At 08:44 the shuttle began to enter the dense layers of the atmosphere." However, due to damage, the leading edge of the left wing began to overheat. From 08:50, the ship's hull suffered severe thermal loads; at 08:53, debris began to fall off the wing, but the crew was alive and there was still communication.
At 08:59:32 the commander sent the last message, which was interrupted mid-sentence. At 09:00, eyewitnesses had already filmed the explosion of the shuttle, the ship collapsed into many fragments. that is, the fate of the crew was predetermined due to NASA’s inaction, but the destruction itself and the loss of life occurred in a matter of seconds.
It is worth noting that the Columbia shuttle was used many times, at the time of its death the ship was 34 years old (in operation by NASA since 1979, the first manned flight in 1981), it flew into space 28 times, but this flight turned out to be fatal.
No one died in space itself; about 18 people died in the dense layers of the atmosphere and in spaceships.
In addition to the disasters of 4 ships (two Russian - "Soyuz-1" and "Soyuz-11" and American - "Columbia" and "Challenger"), in which 18 people died, there were several more disasters due to an explosion, fire during pre-flight preparation , one of the most famous tragedies is a fire in an atmosphere of pure oxygen during preparation for the Apollo 1 flight, then three American astronauts died, and in a similar situation, a very young USSR cosmonaut, Valentin Bondarenko, died. The astronauts simply burned alive.
Another NASA astronaut, Michael Adams, died while testing the X-15 rocket plane.
Yuri Alekseevich Gagarin died in an unsuccessful flight on an airplane during a routine training session.
Probably, the goal of the people who stepped into space was grandiose, and it is not a fact that even knowing their fate, many would have renounced astronautics, but still we always need to remember at what cost the path to the stars was paved for us...
In the photo there is a monument to the fallen astronauts on the Moon
A bust of the first cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin was unveiled today in Buenos Aires. The monument was transferred to Argentina by the Russian Center for Science and Culture. Over the past decades, Gagarin was carved from stone, cast in bronze, sculpted from sand and clay... Monuments and busts of the first cosmonaut decorate the streets and squares of cities throughout the Soviet Union. The countries of the former socialist camp did not lag behind the “big brother”. But even in the post-Soviet era, monuments to Yuri Gagarin continue to be erected on all continents - as proof that space is beyond politics.
At the foot is the descent module of the Vostok spacecraft, on which Yuri Gagarin made his first flight into space on April 12, 1961. The location for the monument was not chosen by chance - it was along Leninsky Prospect that Yuri Gagarin entered Moscow from Vnukovo Airport to report to the CPSU Central Committee on the results of the first flight into space.
Ordinary Hero
The monument in Star City is located near the house where Yuri Gagarin lived. It was erected in 1971.
- RIA News
The first cosmonaut is presented here as a simple man who seemed to have gone out for a walk through a birch grove.
Lyubertsy - London - Greenwich
In 2011, on the 50th anniversary of the first human flight into space, a monument to Yuri Gagarin appeared in London opposite the British Council building.
It was a copy of a sculpture in Lyubertsy near Moscow, created in 1984 by Anatoly Novikov. The monument is a gift from the Russian Space Agency. Its installation was timed to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the first cosmonaut's visit to Great Britain. Today, the British Gagarin moved to Greenwich, on the territory of the Royal Observatory.
Kaluga — Houston
In 2012, a monument to Gagarin was erected in the cradle of American astronautics - Houston, on the lawn opposite the historic building of the first NASA headquarters.
- RIA News
This is the twin brother of the Kaluga monument by Alexei Leonov.
At the runway
In Karlovy Vary, Gagarin meets visitors right at the airport.
- RIA News
This is the first monument to an astronaut abroad. Installed in 1975
Sandman
In 2013, a sand sculpture of Gagarin appeared in Burgas, Bulgaria.
- www.sandfestburgas.com
Gagarin retired
In 2004, on the 70th anniversary of Yuri Gagarin, a bust of the cosmonaut was installed in Riga in Kronvalda Park. They approached the matter creatively.
The first cosmonaut received a Latvian name and surname - Jurius Gagarins and... aged a little - he was depicted at 70 years of age. The author of the bust is sculptor Gleb Panteleev.
Charles Bassett
Pavel Belyaev
Roger Chaffee
Georgy Dobrovolsky
Theodore Freeman
Yuri Gagarin
Edward Givens
Gus Grissom
Vladimir Komarov
Victor Patsaev
Elliot See
Vladislav Volkov
Edward White
Cliffton Williams
The monument is called “Fallen Astronaut” and today is the only art object on our satellite.
This monument was erected by David Scott, commander of Apollo 15, on the ground next to the lunar vehicle.
The monument was created by Belgian artist Paul Van Hoeydonk at the personal request of David Scott.
The artist was asked to create a small figurine to honor the memory of the astronauts and cosmonauts who gave their lives in space exploration.
When creating the monument, a set of design restrictions were given: that the sculpture be both light and durable, and that it would be able to withstand the extreme temperatures of the Moon; the figurine must be asexual and not belong to any ethnic group.
The monument is located in the Sea of Rains area, on the Moon.
The United States also honored the role of Soviet cosmonauts in space exploration and brought to Earth the flag of the USSR, which had visited the Moon.
This small aluminum figurine is the only object of not very modern art on the Moon. It is dedicated to the fallen astronauts and was created by Belgian artist Paul Van Hoeydonk at the personal request of David Scott, commander of the Apollo 15 spacecraft. According to Scott's idea, the figurine was supposed to be light and durable, withstand large temperature changes, and not contain any racial or gender characteristics. In addition, Scott wanted the authorship of this sculpture to remain secret in order to avoid the commercialization of space.
And so, on August 1, 1971, the “fallen astronaut” found his last refuge on the Moon. Next to it was a plaque engraved with the names of eight American astronauts and six Soviet cosmonauts. Later, David Scott regretted that the names of Valentin Bondarenko and Grigory Nelyubov were missing from the plaque. He simply did not know about their death due to the secrecy of the Soviet space program in particular, and the entire USSR in general.
It is also worth noting that this whole idea was unofficial, and NASA only learned about the placement of this tiny monument at the astronauts’ press conference after returning from the Moon. After which another copy was made for the National Air and Space Museum.
However, in 1972, Van Hoeydonck decided to make another 950 copies of the figurine and sell them for $750 apiece in a New York gallery. David Scott and NASA did not like Van Hoeydonck's commercial idea, and the artist eventually abandoned it and distributed the remaining copies to museums. And about fifty copies of “fallen astronauts” still remain with the author.
Monuments of the Karaganda region.
“Everything doesn’t always go smoothly,
They don't always return on time
But the orbit will be fine
If there is a spark of courage"
Tours to monuments of the Karaganda region.
245 kilometers southwest of Karaganda or 176 kilometers southeast of Zhezkazgan, 40 kilometers east is Mount Munly, and 37 kilometers southeast of the village of Shalginsky there is a monument to the fallen cosmonauts.
On June 30, 1971, during landing, the crew of the descent module of the Soyuz-11 spacecraft - Georgy Dobrovolsky, Vladislav Volkov, Viktor Patsayev - tragically died.
The astronauts died while returning to Earth due to depressurization of the descent module at high altitude. The design of the ship at that time did not provide spacesuits for the crew.
According to archival photographs, the first memorial sign was installed by local residents at the end of 1973. A year later, in October 1974, a new monument appeared, depicted in the form of winged stars.
In 2008, the memorial was destroyed by vandals. In 2014, with the support of the Zhezkazgan publication, the mass regional newspaper Podrobnosti, a memorial plaque with the words “Zhezkazgan remembers” was installed at the site of the death of the cosmonauts.
And on July 7, 2016, next to the memorial plaque, an updated monument to the “Three Heroes” who gave their lives in the name of space exploration was installed. The monument is three vertical marble slabs depicting three fallen space heroes - Dobrovolsky, Volkov and Patsayev, who still stand shoulder to shoulder like the crew.
Early seventies. The battle of superpowers for victories in space is in full swing. Having launched the first satellite, an astronaut and a woman, being the first to go into outer space, but having lost the championship in the “lunar landing” to the Americans, the Soviet Union plans to strengthen its position.
The focus is on the development of modular stations and the long-term presence of astronauts in orbit. On April 19, 1971, the world's first station, Salyut-1, was launched into orbit.
In just 4 days, Soyuz-10 will launch from Baikonur with cosmonauts Shatalov, Eliseev and Rukavishnikov on board. However, due to problems with the docking port, the crew is unable to transfer to the station, they are forced to return to earth...
The following crew has been assigned to complete the assigned task. Experienced Alexey Leonov, together with Valery Kubasov and Pyotr Kolodin, are intensively preparing for the flight. A huge number of medical checks, tests and analyses.
And suddenly, 2 days before the start, already at Baikonur, an X-ray revealed darkening in Valery Kubasov’s lungs. A difficult decision is made - to replace the entire crew with a backup one.
Later it turns out that Kubasov had an allergic reaction to flowering plants. The commander of the backup crew, Georgy Dobrovolsky, stunned by the commission’s decision in the first seconds, reports that his crew is ready for takeoff.
The launch, scheduled for June 6, 1971, is successful, and here is a new record - the first crew of the world's first orbital station! The cosmonauts who worked on board for 24 days set another record for being in space, the crew completed a busy schedule of scientific experiments and research, and celebrated the birthday of Viktor Patsayev, who turned 38, in orbit.
On June 30, 1971, the crew of the Soyuz-11 spacecraft was supposed to return to Earth. The longest space expedition at that time ended quite successfully.
The crew took their places in the descent module, the cosmonauts strapped themselves in and began checking the ship's onboard systems. All parameters were normal. At the estimated time, the descent vehicle entered the atmosphere.
The antennas were burned, voice communication was interrupted. This normal mode - radio exchange with astronauts is restored when the parachute opens. The parachute opened strictly according to schedule at an altitude of about 7 kilometers, but “Yantari” - this is the call sign of Dobrovolsky, Volkov and Patsayev - remained silent.
The silence on the air did not cause any alarm at first. Radio antennas sewn into parachute lines sometimes failed during landing. Helicopters flew to the landing site. Two minutes after landing, rescuers ran up to the descent vehicle.
The capsule was lying on its side, there was no external damage. They knocked on the wall - no one responded. The hatch was quickly opened. All three were sitting in chairs without signs of life. They were pulled out and resuscitation attempts began, which lasted more than an hour.
A special government commission that investigated this incident concluded that the death of the astronauts occurred as a result of depressurization of the descent module and subsequent suffocation.
One of the ventilation valves worked much earlier - at an altitude of about 120 km from Earth. The news of the tragedy spread throughout the world, condolences were sent to the families of the deceased cosmonauts from everywhere, and US President Richard Nixon sent a letter to Georgy Dobrovolsky's daughters Marina and Natasha with words of sympathy and support.
The ashes of the dead cosmonauts were walled up in the Kremlin wall. After the disaster, there was a 27-month break in Soyuz launches. The next manned spacecraft, Soyuz-12, was launched on September 27, 1973.
Ascent and descent operations began to be carried out only in spacesuits, the crew began to consist of two people. Partially, the place of the third crew member was taken by the installation of autonomous life support for light spacesuits, in which a significant volume was occupied by cylinders with a supply of compressed oxygen.
Immediately after the incident, residents of the nearby village of Shalginsky erected a small memorial sign at the site of the tragedy, but already 2 years after the decision of the Council of Ministers of the USSR, a multi-meter stele with wings and high reliefs of astronauts was erected in the steppe. In Soviet times, this monument was a place of pilgrimage; on Cosmonautics Day, schoolchildren from Shalginsky came here, and relatives of deceased cosmonauts flew here.
On the memorial plate were the words “The feat of the brave sons of the Soviet people, cosmonauts G. Dobrovolsky, V. Volkov, V. Patsayev, accomplished in the name of the triumph of science, for the benefit of all mankind, will forever remain in the grateful memory of the people of the entire planet.”
