Sorrowful date: 45 years since the last death of our cosmonauts
This past week marked a mournful date for the Russian cosmonautics. 45 years ago, on June 30, 1971, while returning from space, the crew of the Soviet spacecraft Soyuz-11 died. Georgy Timofeevich Dobrovolsky, Vladislav Nikolaevich Volkov, Viktor Ivanovich Patsaev. The cause of their death was a sudden depressurization of the cabin - the failure of one of the ventilation valves, which open before landing to equalize the pressure inside the ship and outside. The valve opened at an altitude of 150 kilometers above the ground.
The reasons for the refusal have not yet been clarified, although the all-powerful KGB was investigating the tragedy, working out a possible sabotage.
From the diaries of N.P. Kamanina (“Hidden Space”);
“An analysis of the investigation materials at my disposal - records of the Mir on-board equipment, telemetry data, a report on the condition of the cabin, a medical report on the cause of death of the cosmonauts - allows me to imagine what could have happened on board Soyuz-11 within 25-30 seconds after dividing its compartments."
“...The working cycle of the TDU ends, the crew feels an increase in overloads - which means the ship has begun to descend. Everything is fine on board, but the cosmonauts, remembering the recent troubles with the transfer hatch, are keeping an eye on the pressure in the cabin. You hear a pop – there is separation! But what is it? The pressure in the cabin begins to drop quickly... Depressurization! Having unfastened his seat belts, Dobrovolsky rushes to the hatch. The hatch is sealed, but the pressure continues to drop, and the whistle of air escaping into space can be heard. Because of the noise of the switched on transmitters and receivers, it is impossible to understand: where is the air whistling? Volkov and Patsayev unfasten their shoulder straps and turn off the radio equipment. The whistling sound of air can be heard above the commander's seat, where the ventilation valve is located. Dobrovolsky and Patsayev try to close the valve, but, exhausted, they fall into their chairs. Dobrovolsky, losing consciousness, still manages to fasten the waist lock of the tangled belts...”
They were the first. The first crew of the world's first orbital space station "Salyut". The first to work in space for almost a month. And even the first to face the problem of psychological incompatibility in space.
They took a lot of risks. Not fully debugged docking system. Rough power supply diagram of the station. They went into space without spacesuits. They knew what they were getting into, but they flew and completed the task. And even the damn valve was nonsense, by and large. The decision to send people into space without spacesuits was fatal.
It is only since 1980, with Soyuz-T3, that cosmonauts routinely fly into orbit in crews of three. And in the Soyuz of that time there was not enough space for three people in spacesuits. The Americans have already flown three of them on their Apollos. "Soyuz" were already considered reliable spacecraft and even S.P. Korolev joked that soon people would be sent into space in their underpants, which is why the fatal decision was made.
True, the successful previous flight of Soyuz-10 with a crew of cosmonauts Shatalov, Eliseev and Rukavishnikov spoke in his favor; they returned safe and sound from space, and their biggest trouble was the breakdown of the docking unit, due to which the cosmonauts could not get inside the station.
Dobrovolsky, Volkov and Patsayev were not supposed to fly on Soyuz 11. They were the backup crew of Leonov, Kubasov and Kolodin. Shortly before the launch, the medical board discovered a darkening on the x-ray of Valery Kubasov’s lung, as a result of which the main crew was suspended from flights.
After the death of the Soyuz-11 crew, all cosmonauts are required to go into space and return from space in spacesuits. Although over 45 years everything has been debugged, reliable and verified many times. Here it must be said that Soyuz-12 with two cosmonauts in spacesuits flew only two years after the tragedy. And everything in this ship was “polished” down to the last screw.
Could a miracle happen for the astronauts to survive and be saved? Pilot-cosmonaut Eliseev, a graduate of the Bauman Moscow Higher Technical School, claims that there was still a small chance. The crew was greatly disturbed by the fog that arose in the cabin due to condensation of water vapor. There was only 20-25 seconds to fix the problem. But for this it was necessary to accurately determine the emergency valve. But the crew actually had to play the lottery with death. Within seconds, people began to lose consciousness...
The American crew of Apollo 15, paying tribute to their fallen colleagues, left a memorial plaque on the southeastern outskirts of the lunar Mare Mons, on which are engraved the names of deceased Soviet cosmonauts and American astronauts. The names of Georgy Dobrovolsky, Vladislav Volkov, and Viktor Patsayev were added to the list, along with Yuri Gagarin and Pavel Belyaev. Next to the sign lies an aluminum figurine of the “Fallen Astronaut” made by the Belgian Van Heijdonk.
The scientific research vessels of the USSR Academy of Sciences and minor planets numbered 1789, 1790 and 1791 were named after Georgy Dobrovolsky, Vladislav Volkov and Viktor Patsaev. The fallen space heroes were buried in the Kremlin wall. Next to Korolev, Gagarin, Komarov...
At the Soyuz-11 landing site near the city of Dzhezkazgan, the local population, on their own initiative, erected a memorial sign and plaque. And for more than 20 years, people, young people came to the memorial sign on Cosmonautics Day and on the day of the death of the Soyuz-11 crew, bringing flowers.
In the 90s, the monument was destroyed by vandals. Apparently sold for scrap. In 2014, a memorial plaque with the names of the fallen cosmonauts and the inscription “Dzhezkazgan remembers” was restored at the same place.
They were the last of OUR cosmonauts to die. I would like to believe that they are the last.
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