The history of space exploration is the most striking example of the triumph of the human mind over unruly matter in the shortest time .Since the moment when the human-created object first overcame the earth's gravity and developed enough speed to enter the Earth's orbit, it took just over fifty years - nothing by the standards of history! Most of the world's population vividly remembers the times when the flight to the moon was considered something of a fantasy field, and those who dreamed to pierce the heavenly height were recognized as, at best, harmless to the society by the insane .Today, spacecraft not only "plow the expanses", successfully maneuvering in conditions of minimal gravity, but also deliver cargoes, astronauts and space tourists to earth's orbit .Moreover - the duration of the flight into space can now be as long as you want: the watch of Russian cosmonauts on the ISS, for example, lasts for 6-7 months .And over the past half a century, people have walked along the Moon and photographed its dark side, made Mars, Jupiter, Saturn and Mercury happy with artificial satellites, "recognized the distant nebulae in person" with the help of the Hubble telescope and seriously thought about the colonization of Mars ±​​$ br >.And although it has not yet been possible to get in touch with aliens and angels (at least officially), let's not despair - it's only just beginning!

Dreams about space and pen probes

For the first time in the reality of the flight to distant worlds, progressive humanity believed in the late 19th century .Then it became clear that if the aircraft is given the speed necessary to overcome gravity and retains its sufficient time, it can go beyond the terrestrial atmosphere and gain a foothold in the orbit, like the Moon, orbiting the Earth .The catch was in the engines .Existing at that time, the specimens were either extremely powerful, but briefly "spitted" by energy spills, or worked on the principle of "gasp, shake and go small" .The first one was more suited to bombs, the second one was for the carts .In addition, to regulate the vector of thrust and thereby influence the trajectory of the movement was impossible: a vertical start inevitably led to its rounding, and the body as a result fell to the ground, never reaching the cosmos; the horizontal same with this allocation of energy threatened to destroy all life around (as if the current ballistic missile were launched flat) .Finally, at the beginning of the 20th century, researchers drew attention to a rocket engine, the principle of which was known to mankind since the turn of our era: fuel burns in the missile's body, while alleviating its mass, and the energy released moves the missile forward $ ±.The first rocket, capable of removing an object beyond the limits of gravity, was designed by Tsiolkovsky in 1903 .

First artificial satellite

Time passed, and although two world wars greatly slowed down the process of creating missiles for peaceful use, cosmic progress still did not stand still..The key moment of the post-war period is the adoption of the so-called package layout of missiles used in astronautics and is still .Its essence is in the simultaneous use of several missiles placed symmetrically in relation to the center of mass of the body, which is required to be brought into Earth's orbit .Thus, a powerful, stable and uniform thrust is ensured, sufficient for the object to move at a constant speed of 7.9 km / s, necessary for overcoming earth gravity .And on October 4, 1957, a new, more precisely the first, era in space exploration began-the launch of the first artificial satellite of the Earth, like all the genius named simply "Sputnik-1", with the help of the R-7 missile, designed by Sergey Korolev .The silhouette of the R-7, the progenitors of all subsequent space rockets, is recognized today in the ultramodern Soyuz rocket, successfully sending into the orbit "trucks" and "cars" with astronauts and tourists on board - the same four "legs" of the package scheme and red nozzles .The first satellite was microscopic, just over half a meter in diameter and weighed just 83 kg .The complete turn around the Earth he made in 96 minutes ."Starry life" of the iron pioneer of cosmonautics lasted three months, but during this period he passed a fantastic path of 60 million km!

First living creatures in orbit

The success of the first launch inspired the designers, and the prospect of sending a living creature into space and returning it safe and sound was no longer unrealizable .Just one month after the launch of Sputnik-1 on board the second artificial Earth satellite, the first animal, the dog Laika, went to orbit - $ .Her goal was honorable, but sad - to test the survival of living creatures in space flight conditions .Moreover, the return of the dog was not planned ... The launch and launch of the satellite into orbit were successful, but after four turns around the Earth due to an error in calculations, the temperature inside the apparatus was excessively raised, and Lika died .The satellite itself rotated in space for another 5 months, and then lost speed and burned in the dense layers of the atmosphere .The first shaggy cosmonauts, upon their return greeting their "senders" with joyful barking, became the textbook Belka and Strelka, who set off to conquer the heavenly expanses on the fifth satellite in August 1960 .Their flight lasted just over a day, and during this time the dogs managed to fly around the planet 17 times .All this time they were watched from the screens of monitors in the Flight Control Center - by the way, it was because of the contrast that white dogs were chosen - after all the image was then black and white .As a result of the launch, the spacecraft itself was also finalized and finally approved - in just 8 months in a similar apparatus the first person will go to space .

In the same period, the USSR launched the first artificial satellite of the Sun, the station "Luna-2" managed to gently land on the surface of the planet, and also received the first photographs of the moon's invisible side from the Earth.

Man in the cosmos

Day April 12, 1961 .divided the history of the development of cosmic distances into two periods - "when a man dreamed of the stars" and "since man conquered space" .At 9:07 Moscow time, Vostok-1 spacecraft was launched from Baikonur launch site No. 1 with the world's first cosmonaut on board - Yuri Gagarin .Having made one turn around the Earth and having made way in 41 thousand .km, 90 minutes after the start, Gagarin landed near Saratov, becoming for many years the most famous, respected and beloved person of the world .His "let's go!" "And" everything can be seen very clearly - the space is black - the earth is blue "were included in the list of the most famous phrases of mankind, his open smile, ease and cordiality melted the hearts of people around the world..The first manned flight into space was controlled from Earth, Gagarin himself was more likely a passenger, albeit perfectly prepared .It should be noted that the conditions of the flight were far from those that are now offered to space tourists: Gagarin experienced eight to ten times overload, there was a period when the ship literally turned somersaults, and the lining burned behind the portholes and the metal melted .During the flight there were several failures in various ship systems, but fortunately, the cosmonaut did not suffer .

Following Gagarin's flight, milestones in the history of space exploration fell one after another: the world's first group space flight was performed, then the first female cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova (1963) set off for space, the first multi-seat spacecraft flew, Alexei Leonov became the first a man who made a spacewalk (1965) - and all these grandiose events - the whole merit of domestic cosmonautics .Finally, on July 21, 1969, the first man landed on the Moon: American Neil Armstrong made that "small-big step" .

Astronautics - today, tomorrow and always

Today travel to space is taken for granted .We fly hundreds of satellites and thousands of other necessary and useless objects, seconds before sunrise from the window of the bedroom, you can see the plane of solar cells of the International Space Station flaring in the rays of the invisible rays from the earth, space tourists with an enviable regularity go "to plow the expanses" (thereby realizing the ernic phrase "if you really want to, you can fly into space") and the commercial suborbital flights are about to begin with almost two departures every day .The conquest of space by controlled vehicles is completely amazing: there are pictures of long-exploded stars, HD images of distant galaxies, and strong evidence of the possibility of existence of life on other planets..Billionaire corporations are already coordinating plans for the construction of space hotels on Earth's orbit, and the projects of colonization of neighboring planets for a long time do not seem to be a fragment of Asimov's or Clark's novels .One thing is obvious: once overcoming earthly gravity, humanity will again and again strive to the infinite worlds of stars, galaxies and universes .I want to wish only that the beauty of the night sky and myriads of twinkling stars, still inviting, mysterious and beautiful, never stopped us, as in the early days of creation .

Author - Alexandra Azarova.