The United States is the most unavoidable space power on the Blue Planet, but many "firsts" in the history of human spaceflight were created by the Soviets: the first artificial satellite, the first manned spacecraft, the first spacewalk, the first space station, the first lunar probe, the first Venus probe, and so on. 53 years ago, the first spacecraft space rendezvous and docking was also completed by the Soviets.
On January 14 and 15, 1969, the Soviet Union launched the Soyuz 4 and Soyuz 5 manned spacecraft, with only one astronaut Shatalov on Board Soyuz 4 and a trio of Volenov, Yeliseyev and Khrunov. On January 16, the two spacecraft met and docked for the first time in human history at an altitude of about 220 kilometers above the ground.
Soyuz 4-5 astronaut crew
In order to allow the two manned spacecraft to dock reliably in space, Soviet scientists specially designed a docking mechanism for them. A long "probe" is installed on the front end of the Soyuz 4 orbital module, while the Soyuz 5 orbital module is designed with a huge horn-shaped jack. When the two ships slowly approached, Soyuz 4 inserted the "probe rod" into the hole of Soyuz 5, and after the "one male and one female" locked, the two ships were firmly docked together.
Soyuz 4 and 5 docking agencies
Because the docking surfaces of the two spacecraft are completely occupied by the locking mechanism, the astronauts cannot enter the other spacecraft through the interface, thus losing the significance of docking. What to do?
Soviet designers opened an exit hatch on the side of the spacecraft's orbital module, allowing astronauts to "climb" into another spacecraft through the outside of the spacecraft. In this way, the space rendezvous and docking technology is tested, and the extravehicular spacesuit and spacewalk can be verified.
Astronauts are transferred out of the cabin
On January 16, Yeliseyev and Khrunov put on the Soviet "SeaHawk" spacesuit, opened the soyuz 5 orbital module door, climbed along the armrest outside the spacecraft to the Soyuz 4, and then opened the soyuz 4 orbital module door to enter the spacecraft, completing the first space "change".
Two astronauts entered Soyuz 4
After 4 hours and 35 minutes of docking with the Soyuz 4 and 5 spacecraft, the astronauts completed all experimental tasks and the two spacecraft separated. Yeliseyev and Khrushunov returned to the Soviet landing field in a spaceship with Soyuz 4 instruction Shaltalov, while Boris Valentinovych Vorenov was going to fly the Soyuz 5 spacecraft back to the surface on his own, and everything looked perfect. No one expected that Volenov would face a life-and-death test next.
The return module shall be separated from the propulsion module and returned
According to the return procedure, on January 18, the Soyuz 5 spacecraft will first throw away the orbital module used for docking in front of it, start the engine deceleration of the propulsion module, and then separate from the propulsion module at the specified altitude, and Volenov will sit in the return capsule and enter the atmosphere, and finally return to the ground. The return capsule of the manned spacecraft is specially designed, its appearance is high-temperature resistant alloy, and a heavy heat protection layer is installed on the bottom.
The spacecraft is flying at more than 7.8 km/s in orbit, and anything that falls to the ground at such a fast speed will become a part, and astronauts will not survive. When returning to the atmosphere, the spacecraft will use air resistance to reduce the speed a little bit, open the deceleration parachute and parachute at a height of several kilometers, and finally turn on the thrust engine at an altitude of several meters from the ground, so as to ensure that the astronauts land safely.
The Soyuz 5 propulsion module did not successfully detach
But Vorenov soon realized that there was something wrong with the spacecraft: due to the failure of the connected explosive bolts, the return capsule could not detach from the rear propulsion module, and it fell into the atmosphere with the propulsion module!
You may say, this is nothing, anyway, the spaceship is heatproof, there is a propulsion module in front of the top to burn for a while, after burning out will naturally fall off! In fact, the propulsion module will not be in front, it is lighter than the return capsule, according to the principle of mechanics, under the action of gravitational potential energy, the spacecraft return capsule is topped to the front. If you've ever played Tumbler, you can understand: tumblers have a heavy lead block underneath it, and no matter how you push it, it won't fall.
The center of gravity of the tumbler is close to the bottom
Dragged down by the propulsion module, the soyuz 5 head rushed down, and the weakest part of the return module, the hatch connecting to the orbital module, was exposed ahead. Because of the intense air friction, the hatch quickly became hot, the sealing ring began to smoke, and the thicker and thicker smoke filled the small return capsule.
In the moment of life and death, Vorenov always maintained his composure, first he tried his best to maintain the balance of the spacecraft, turned on the attitude engine to control the spacecraft, and tried to get rid of the propulsion module. After the engine ran out of fuel, Volenov stuffed the flight log under the seat under the overload of 9 G, while dictating the failure of the spacecraft, recording it with a tape recorder. He knew that if something unexpected happened to him, all this would provide a reference for the improvement of future spacecraft.
The propulsion module disengages and the return capsule returns to the front
Under the high temperature ablation and the violent vibration of the spacecraft, the previously malfunctioning explosion bolts were loosened, the propulsion module disengaged, and the Soyuz 5 return capsule was finally turned 180 degrees, facing the most heat-resistant bottom towards the front, and Volenov escaped.
Some friends said that the Soyuz 5 had not run out of engine fuel, and how did it turn the bow of the ship and turn the heat-proof outsole towards the front? In fact, as mentioned above, the "tumbler" principle, the spacecraft return capsule in the design, its center of gravity is close to the bottom, in the descent process, astronauts do not need to do any operation, gravity can automatically face the most heat-resistant part to the front, so that the spacecraft withstands a high temperature of more than 2000 ° C.
The center of gravity of the spacecraft's return capsule is close to the bottom
Although the spacecraft's deceleration and parachute were opened smoothly, the spacecraft slammed heavily into the ground due to the failure of the reverse thrust engine at the bottom of the return capsule. Vorenov retrieved a life, but the last bump knocked out a few teeth in his mouth.
After briefly dealing with his injuries, Vorenov began to think about another life-threatening problem: how not to freeze to death.
In January, Siberia freezes coldly, with temperatures outside the cabin as low as −38°C. After such a toss in the sky, the Soyuz 5 deviated more than 600 kilometers from the main landing site of Kazakhstan, the search and rescue personnel would not be able to reach it for a while and a half, and the temperature of the spacecraft dropped a little, and he could not sit still.
Vorenov retired in 1990
Vorenov climbed out of the spacecraft in an in-cabin spacesuit and took self-defense equipment to find a place to hide. Fortunately, a few kilometers away, there was cooking smoke coming from a farmhouse, and the owner of the farmhouse helped him.
Volenov was rewarded for his miracles and was kicked out of the Soviet cosmonauts because no one believed that someone like him, who had experienced nine deaths, would have the courage to go to heaven. But Vorenov did not give up, he insisted on training, and 7 years later took off on The League 21 and docked with Salyut 5, working on the space station for another 49 days.
The spacecraft was dumped in a dump
Some friends wonder where the Soyuz 5 return capsule is now? Because the Russians have too many spacecraft, the return capsules are all disposable, and there is really no place for nearly 200 return capsules. Except for some of which were donated to museums, most of the rest were dismantled and put in warehouses or simply dumped in open garbage dumps.
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