The Capture of Space

After the end of the Second World War, the space research in the leading countries was of extreme importance. The best scientific forces of the US and the USSR were thrown to the development of rocket and space technology. Sergii Korolyov, the specialist in missile systems, was the head of space programs in the Soviet Union who became the person whom we are grateful for the possibility to fly to Space nowadays.

The significant and fateful investigations began in 1946.That was a tense period of the Cold War when a ballistic missile was seen as the transport for the delivery of the atomic power. The Council of Chief Designers was created, which played a significant role in the adoption and implementation of basic scientific and technical decisions on the development of rocket and space technology.

The Design Bureau provided a practical implementation of the program: from the scientific and technical idea to the production of missiles and spacecraft.

Two years later, in the fall of 1947, the first Soviet long-range missile already stood at the start. Soon there were new developments of long-range ballistic missiles.

On October 4, 1957, Korolyov’s rocket was launched into the orbit of the first artificial satellite of the Earth. That was a real sensation. From that day the era of practical astronautics began. Originally, that flight was conducted with the animals onboard, but on April 12, 1961, there was successfully launched the Vostok-1 spacecraft with the astronaut Yuri Gagarin on board.

Having reached the second space velocity (11, 2 km /s), the automatic interplanetary station "Luna-1", derived from the third stage of the "Vostok" missile, passing in early January 1959 near the Moon that became the first artificial planet of the solar system. From this flight, the time of a manned space exploration began.

In September of the same year, the spaceship for the first time reached the surface of the Moon, and in a few weeks the "Moon-3" rounded the Moon, photographed its back and transmitted these images to the Earth through the radio channels.

On August 6, 1961, German Titov performed a second space flight on the Vostok-2 ship, which lasted one day. Being onboard Korolyov’s spaceships, there performed their flights eleven Soviet cosmonauts, which is an incredible success.