Kuzbass cosmonaut Alexei Leonov painted the main picture in his life. Space and man in the paintings of Alexei Arkhipovich Leonov, pilot-cosmonaut, twice hero of the USSR

SPACE AND MAN

in the paintings of Alexei Arkhipovich Leonov,

pilot-cosmonaut, twice Hero of the USSR.

1. The Vostok spacecraft is a symbol of the space age. The world's first cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin flew into space on April 12, 1961.
A.Leonov. "Start of the East"

2. First Soviet artificial satellite Molniya 1, launched in 1965, is reminiscent of a fantasy flower or a space station from films set in the distant future. Its giant "petals" are solar panels that are always oriented towards the Sun, and parabolic antennas - towards the Earth. The satellite is intended for retransmission of television programs and long-distance telephone and telegraph communications.
By the way, in 1967 one of the satellites of this series for the first time in the world received color image Earth.
A.Leonov. "Lightning-1"

3. A.Leonov. "Lightning is a space relay"

4. Meteorological satellites have dramatically increased the reliability of weather forecasts, made it possible to detect cyclones, typhoons and hurricanes at the stages of their inception, measure the direction and speed of their propagation, choose the best routes for fishing and merchant fleet ships, and also determine the boundaries of the ice cover in the Arctic regions along the route Northern Sea Route, get information about rainfall areas and much more. Satellites are able to warn of the occurrence and dangerous movement of a tsunami in a timely manner. Difficult to quantify human lives saved thanks to weather satellites.
A.Leonov. "Meteorological system - METEOR"

5. The first to see seventeen days and nights in one day was cosmonaut German Titov, Yuri Gagarin's understudy, who in August 1962 made a daily flight on the Vostok-2 spacecraft. During this flight I saw Titov "TERMINATOR"- the border of day and night, constantly changing in space at each flight orbit. All astronauts describe this sight as unforgettable!
A.Leonov. "Above the Terminator"

6. For an astronaut, a day - an hour and a half - is the time of the revolution of the spacecraft around the Earth. During the Earth day, astronauts meet 17 cosmic dawns.
In Leonov's painting " NIGHT GLOW OF THE HALO OF THE ATMOSPHERE" the ship flies over the night Earth. Reddish city lights are visible through the veil of dark clouds. And on the horizon, behind which the Sun is hiding, a rainbow stripe appeared earth's atmosphere. And above all this - the Moon embedded in the black velvet of outer space and shining stars.
A.Leonov. "Space Dawn"

7. Alexei Leonov was the first cosmonaut to notice in space and then depict the moment when the fiery red disk of the Sun had just risen from the horizon. Above the sun, for a short time, an halo of extraordinary beauty appeared, shaped like an old Russian kokoshnik. The astronaut made the first sketch of this drawing with colored pencils on the page of the logbook on the Voskhod-2 spacecraft.

A.Leonov. "Morning in Space"

8. A.Leonov. "Space Evening"

9. For the first time in the world as a result of manual docking of manned spaceships In 1969, the Soviet experimental space station, a prototype of future large orbital stations, was assembled and operated in orbit of the Earth's satellite.
A.Leonov. "Auto docking"

10. And in 1975, Soviet and American ships were already docking in space. This first ever international space program was called SOYUZ - APOLLO. Alexey Arkhipovich Leonov himself was the commander of the Soyuz-19 spacecraft! During the six-day orbital flight of the Soyuz-19 spacecraft, joint means of rendezvous and docking were experimentally carried out for the first time; Docking of Soviet and American spacecraft, mutual transfers of cosmonauts from ship to ship, joint research experiments were carried out. In preparation for this flight, Leonov learned in one year English language"from scratch" (he learned German at school)!

During the flight, the Soviet and American cosmonauts showed excellent interaction and mutual understanding, the tasks were carried out in a coordinated and precise manner, in a truly friendly atmosphere.
A.Leonov. "Soyuz-Apollo"

11. A.Leonov. "Soyuz-Apollo 1"

12. Today's cosmonautics cannot be imagined without cosmonauts working out into outer space. And Alexey Arkhipovich Leonov was also the first to go into outer space! He proved the possibility of a person staying and working in conditions of weightlessness and vacuum.

13. A.Leonov. "Over the Black Sea"

14. A.Leonov. "Spacewalk"

15. A.Leonov. "Out in Space"

16. A.Leonov. "Man Above the Planet"

17. After that, even the transitions of astronauts from one spacecraft to another through outer space became possible!
A.Leonov. "Crossing in open space"

18. Each flight into space, each program is unique. They have one thing in common: final stage flight - descent to Earth.

The spacecraft is leaving its orbit. The atmosphere is getting denser. Plasma jets surround the ship from all sides. The temperature on the surface of the capsule rises to 10 thousand degrees - higher than on the surface of the Sun. The outer coating melts and evaporates. A giant "space drop" is approaching the Earth... You can see how small "meteors" - fired ship structures - are burning up in the atmosphere.
A.Leonov. "Return"

19. There is no "senseless waste of time" in astronautics. Every second spent by an astronaut or satellite in orbit gives huge contribution in world science. Every day we all use millions of things in everyday life, created thanks to astronautics and impossible without it! Even the fact that you are now reading this article in the ZATEEVO INTERNET magazine and chatting on mobile phone- 100% merit of astronautics.

And perhaps very soon, even the most fantastic paintings by Alexei Arkhipovich Leonov will be repeated in amateur photographs of space tourists schoolchildren.
A.Leonov. "Near the Moon"

20. A.Leonov. "On the moon"

21. A.Leonov. "Crater Chain"

22. "My class and I flew on vacation to the star Beta of the constellation Lyra!"
A.Leonov "Beta Lyra"

23. "Fuuuuu! This is an excursion for kids! Here we are flying into the nebula #443 to observe the displacement of the spectra!"
A.Leonov. "Planet in Nebula IC443"

24. A.Leonov, A.Sokolov. "Start braking"

25. A.Leonov. "Cosmonauts of the Future"

26. A.Leonov. "On the planet closest to the sun"

Alexey Leonov, having buried nine brothers and sisters, becoming the last in the family, he is very homesick for his homeland and his departed relatives. Today, the cosmonaut who arrived in Kemerovo opened in regional museum ART exhibition of his paintings "Cosmic and terrestrial landscapes".

Among the 70 paintings there is one, inconspicuous, but poignant and ... explaining why an ordinary boy decided to become an astronaut more than half a century ago. In this picture, 77-year-old Alexei Arkhipovich depicted his father's house - in the village of Listvyanka in the north of Kuzbass.

In the picture, a simple Siberian parental hut was literally covered with a cap of the sky. This low, hugging sky is so close, - museum employees told KP. - It called, as everyone who freezes at the picture says, Alexei Arkhipovich in his childhood to become pilots and astronauts.

Indeed, little Lenya, a boy with the heart of an artist and dreams of traveling, felt the call of the sky for the first time exactly there, in Listvyanka. And he went to the astronauts. In the large Leonov family, as Raisa Arkhipovna Ganicheva told a few years ago, sister famous astronaut, the world's first spacewalker, Alexei was called that - "son of the sky."

On my last visit to Listvyanka two years ago

the astronaut ran to his father's house

Two years ago, having arrived in Kemerovo on the anniversary of the death of his last and most beloved sister, Rai, Alexei Arkhipovich, having visited her grave, hurried to Listvyanka.

He put candles in the temple for his entire departed family - for the long-dead mother - Evdokia Minaevna, father - Arkhip Alekseevich, for nine sisters and brothers.

The famous cosmonaut is still strong in appearance, still humorous, groovy, but his eyes are sad, - recalls Vladimir Toroshchin from the Tisulsky Department of Culture. - But as soon as the fields of his native village of Listvyanka, the village, the very father's house, to which we drove up, appeared, Alexey Arkhipovich seemed to force native land received! To parental home he didn't walk, he ran!

After all, the old hut in which Leonov was born and grew up until the family moved to the city is still the same. The same two tiny rooms where the Leonovs lived so amicably when they were all happy and alive. Everyone is alive! The same mountain ash at the gate.

In this corner was my cradle, but there, let's go, I'll show you my favorite stream, - Leonov led his wife and companions from the regional center. With difficulty, but he was able to find his stream, which, like the astronaut, was then 75 years old.

Sister Raya was the first to notice the gift of an artist in the future astronaut

AT last time, alive, the astronaut saw his beloved sister Paradise six months before her death. He was only able to visit for the evening. And he struck her with the fact that he remembered the bread with which she saved him at 3 years old.

Oh, we had a very hard life then, in 1937, - Raisa Arkhipovna recalled that meeting with Alexei. “We haven’t seen bread for six months. We ate one quinoa and potatoes.

I Lesha is 14 years older. He was 3, I was 17. All my life I was his most beloved sister and nanny. I remember the chairman of the collective farm brought a bag of flour, at that time of famine! And where did you get it?! Secretly baked bread. I worked in the office, recorded workdays. In general, they gave me a loaf and ordered me to hide it, to carry it home behind my back, gardens.

I run, the bread burns under my shirt. Lenka met me in the garden. Runs up: “Lyadya (as he said “Paradise”), but you don’t have a leba? (“Do you have any bread?”) Where did you remember the word “bread” from? I handed him a loaf. How happy he was!

Father then cut the loaf into tiny pieces, gave it to all the children, not a piece to himself. And he gave the biggest chunk to Lesha.

This saving loaf breathed into the Leonovs and little Lesha the hope that hunger would end soon and life would get better. Not right away, but it happened. And little Lenya grew up and glorified the Leonov family all over the world.

... On their last meeting with Raya, Alexei Arkhipovich presented her with an album with photographs of his paintings.

If the love for the sky and space had not overcome his love for drawing, Lenya would have become great artist. I remember he was small and drew all the time, and very similar. It used to be that one of ours was strict at him, which again - in dreams, and I defended: “Let him draw, Leni has a gift from God,” recalled Raisa Arkhipovna.

Most of all, from the last collection of paintings by her brother, an astronaut, she liked the picture - a man in outer space, and even though she could not see her face, she knew: Alexei depicted himself.

Compatriots asked the astronaut to paint an icon

In Tisul and Listvyanka, on every official visit of Leonov to Kuzbass, they are happy to visit him.

And he not only tells his homeland all the new details about "his" space, but also teaches the children from the "artist" to draw.

In this picture, the cosmonaut and artist Alexei Leonov, as his sister said, portrayed himself, the first person in the world to go into outer space. A photo: Larisa MAKSIMENKO

In his paintings - earthly and space landscapes. And recently fellow countrymen at a meeting, remembering that in the temple Holy Mother of God Three-Handed in Tisul laid a personalized brick of the astronaut in the wall, they asked Alexei Arkhipovich to write an icon for the temple.

Aleksey Arkhipovich, a believer, bought a personalized brick, transferring a whole thousand rubles for it, - recalls the rector of the church, Father Maxim. - My heart trembled when Alexei Arkhipovich signed "Leonov A.A.", kissed the brick, which was dusty, in work, and handed it to the bricklayer. The brick lay firmly in the masonry. And Alexei Arkhipovich stepped heavily aside and put on dark glasses. He did not want people to see the emotions that overwhelmed him.

And at the request of fellow countrymen - to write an icon for their homeland. Alexey Arkhipovich replied that he was dreaming about it, but “Unworthy!”, yet. He does not dare to take up icon painting yet, because he explained to his fellow countrymen: “There was a period when everyone everywhere asked me after the flight: “Have you seen God in space?”, And I answered: “No.”

The Leonov family has the patronage of heaven

It is no coincidence that our fellow countryman, Alexei Arkhipovich, has so many talents. As Raisa Arkhipovna, the cosmonaut's sister, told KP in her last interview:

Our parents met in church and fell in love at first sight, but they had to defend their feelings. Both relatives were against their choice. Relatives on the paternal side accused: “Evdokia, although smart, finished the parochial school with one five, but not a beauty. Besides, she's poor." Maternal relatives convinced: “Arkhip is too handsome guy, but how he sings, how he dances, everyone looks at him, unreliable. Plus he's rich." But Evdokia firmly stated:

Or I will go down the aisle for Arkhipochka, or to a monastery!

So Arkhip and Evdokia got married. Moreover, the first to surrender, including taking the young to live with them, were the parents of Evdokia.

The love of our mom and dad for each other was so strong, and the marriage was so successful that my mother’s father, grandfather Minai, later told us, the grandchildren, more than once: “I adopted Arkhip, I have an excellent son, Arkhipushka.” And then, one by one, we, 12 children, were born to mom and dad, - Raisa Arkhipovna recalled. Two died in infancy. Ten grew up talented and reliable - Shura, Lyuba, Raya, Nina, Nadya, Tonya, Petya, Lesha, Vera and Borya. But the most talented was Lyosha.

He was named Alexei Arkhipovich in honor of his father - Arkhip, grandfather - Alexei and St. Alexei. After all, when Lesha was born in 1934, it was the holiday of Alexei - a man of God. Then church holidays For a long time they did not celebrate, everyone was already atheists. A club and dances were arranged in the village church. But the mother of the future astronaut said:

Alexei, god man This name suits my son best. I feel with my heart.

And I was not mistaken.

Alexei Leonov was also destined by fate to have a fantastic space trip, and fantastic luck when, having gone out into outer space for the first time in the world, Leonov could not return - they did not let the airlock doors open or when automatic control failed during landing.

And Alexei Leonov and his brothers and sisters inherited amazing karma from their grandfather Minai. Grandfather Minai in his youth, working at a factory in Central Russia, saved a huge demonstration of workers from execution. He learned that machine guns would be set up on the roofs along the street, onto which the strikers were flocking from all sides. And the strikers will be shot point-blank. Grandfather Minai, unable to warn the workers himself, sent his daughter to tell the demonstrators to change their route.

And so he saved almost the entire city from execution. This human gratitude and God's favor helped him for a long time and was inherited by his descendants in Siberia.

The astronaut's father fell into the "enemies of the people", but he was quickly rehabilitated

Already in Siberia, in Kuzbass, there was a black streak in the life of the large Leonov family (Arkhip Leonov, the father of the then-future cosmonaut, was declared an "enemy of the people" and imprisoned). But the streak ended with an unexpected miracle.

The Leonovs hid this family page all their lives from the jubilant country that rocked the cosmonaut Leonov in his arms. And they were amazed how this black mark did not prevent their Lesha from getting into astronauts.

Our father was a very literate, jack-of-all-trades. I remember that they trained him as a livestock specialist. And they hung a bunch of posts: he is the head of a sheep farm, and he is responsible for the cows on the collective farm, and for the pigs. And then the cleaning began. In addition, he was put in charge of the dryer - to dry the grain. Rains and rains come. Dad disappears in the dryer for days, - recalled the cosmonaut's sister, Raisa Arkhipovna. - And then they resort to it: the best cow on the collective farm - Beauty - cannot calve, dying. Father, let's rush about: you can't leave the grain, and you need to save the cow. He was persuaded: “We will be on duty for you, run to Pretty Woman.”

The father of the future cosmonaut saved the beauty and the calf. But his shifters at the dryer dried out a little grain.

The grain was taken to the elevator, everyone accepted it.

But the denunciation went “upstairs”.

And the father of the future cosmonaut, an honest man, told the visiting chairman of the collective farm about his experiences for grain. The commission went to the elevator, found a few roasted grains. Maybe not even Leonov's. But they condemned the father of the future astronaut for wrecking.

There is a God - as soon as father Alexei Leonov was brought to the camp, he was immediately noticed. Indeed, in the camp subsidiary farm, an epidemic of pigs began. The camp authorities summoned convict Leonov, who was a livestock specialist in the wild, and not only asked, but begged to save the pigs. Leonov defeated the epidemic. And three months later he was released to his family.

The Leonovs cried when Alexei flew into space

On March 18, 1965, when the whole country rejoiced - for the first time in the world a man went into outer space, a guy from Russia and Kuzbass - Alexei Leonov, the whole huge Leonov family was crying.

I, my parents, sisters and brothers, we were all very afraid for Lesha, - my sister, Raisa Arkhipovna, recalled. - I probably had half a liter of glucose injected into my vein when they were boarding the plane - to fly to a meeting in the Kremlin. This is to bring me to my senses, to support the body ... I thought of only one thing, if only Lesha would survive, if only he would be found soon after landing. Although it was reported that the astronauts were already resting at the government dacha, they could not believe it.

My sister's heart was worried for nothing. Raisa's companion on the plane from Kemerovo to Moscow turned out to be a pilot who took part in the search for cosmonauts Leonov and Belyaev.

He, and later Alexei himself, told Raisa Arkhipovna about the extreme landing.

Lesha, after landing, as soon as he took off his spacesuit, found himself in water up to his waist, so much flowed out of him. They landed in the taiga, the frost was minus 21, he and Pavel Belyaev were both wet. Frozen, poor, at once. Lyosha chest snow to a dry birch nearby rammed. There was a snowdrift in human growth. I chopped branches, kindled a fire, - Raisa Arkhipovna was worried. - He also told Belyaev: “What kind of coffee do you like: hot or cold?” I put a tube of coffee near the fire, and it exploded. Left without coffee. They, wet, lasted almost three days. Until the lumberjacks came out on them.

... The consequences of that extreme landing still affect the well-being of the legendary cosmonaut Alexei Leonov - his heart. But the great cosmonaut continues to travel a lot around the country, meeting people. And - to paint landscapes of Russia and native Kuzbass, it is the motherland that gives him strength.

On a note

Where can you see paintings of the famous astronaut?

The exhibition "Cosmic and terrestrial painting by Alexei Leonov" works in the Kemerovo Regional Museum fine arts on Sovetsky Avenue, 48. You can visit it any day except Monday.

SPACE AND MAN

in the paintings of Alexei Arkhipovich Leonov,

pilot-cosmonaut, twice Hero of the USSR.

The Vostok spacecraft is a symbol of the space age. The world's first cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin flew into space on April 12, 1961.

The first Soviet artificial communications satellite, Molniya-1, launched in 1965, resembles a fantastic flower or a space station from films about the distant future. Its giant "petals" are solar panels that are always oriented towards the Sun, and parabolic antennas - towards the Earth. The satellite is intended for retransmission of television programs and long-distance telephone and telegraph communications.
By the way, in 1967 one of the satellites of this series for the first time in the world received a color image of the Earth.

Meteorological satellites have radically improved the reliability of weather forecasts, made it possible to detect cyclones, typhoons and hurricanes at the stages of their inception, measure the direction and speed of their propagation, choose the best routes for fishing and merchant fleet ships, and also determine the boundaries of the ice cover in the Arctic regions along the route of the Northern Sea way, get information about rainfall areas and much more. Satellites are able to warn of the occurrence and dangerous movement of a tsunami in a timely manner. It is difficult to estimate the number of human lives saved thanks to weather satellites.In the picture: METEOROLOGICAL SYSTEM "METEOR".

The first to see seventeen days and nights in one day was cosmonaut German Titov, Yuri Gagarin's understudy, who in August 1962 made a daily flight on the Vostok-2 spacecraft. During this flight I saw Titov "TERMINATOR"- the border of day and night, constantly changing in space at each flight orbit. All astronauts describe this sight as unforgettable!

For an astronaut, a day - an hour and a half - is the time of a spacecraft-satellite's revolution around the Earth. During the Earth day, astronauts meet 17 cosmic dawns.
In Leonov's painting " NIGHT GLOW OF THE HALO OF THE ATMOSPHERE" the ship flies over the night Earth. Reddish city lights are visible through the veil of dark clouds. And on the horizon, behind which the Sun is hidden, a rainbow band of the earth's atmosphere appeared. And above all this - the Moon embedded in the black velvet of outer space and shining stars.

Alexei Leonov was the first cosmonaut to notice in space and then depict the moment when the fiery red disk of the Sun had just risen from the horizon. For a short time, an halo of extraordinary beauty appeared above the sun, shaped like an old Russian kokoshnik. The astronaut made the first sketch of this drawing with colored pencils on the page of the logbook on the Voskhod-2 spacecraft.

For the first time in the world, as a result of manual docking of manned spacecraft in 1969, a Soviet experimental space station, a prototype of future large orbital stations, was assembled and operated in orbit of the Earth's satellite.

And in 1975, Soviet and American ships were already docking in space. This first ever international space program was called SOYUZ - APOLLO. Alexey Arkhipovich Leonov himself was the commander of the Soyuz-19 spacecraft! During the six-day orbital flight of the Soyuz-19 spacecraft, joint means of rendezvous and docking were experimentally carried out for the first time; Docking of Soviet and American spacecraft, mutual transfers of cosmonauts from ship to ship, joint research experiments were carried out. In preparation for this flight, Leonov learned English from scratch in one year (he learned German at school)!
During the flight, the Soviet and American cosmonauts showed excellent interaction and mutual understanding, the tasks were carried out in a coordinated and precise manner, in a truly friendly atmosphere.

Today's cosmonautics cannot be imagined without cosmonauts' working spacewalks. And Alexey Arkhipovich Leonov was also the first to go into outer space! He proved the possibility of a person staying and working in conditions of weightlessness and vacuum.

After that, even the transitions of astronauts from one spacecraft to another through outer space became possible!

Every space flight, every program is unique. They have one thing in common: the last stage of the flight is the descent to Earth.

The spacecraft is leaving its orbit. The atmosphere is getting denser. Plasma jets surround the ship from all sides. The temperature on the surface of the capsule rises to 10 thousand degrees - higher than on the surface of the Sun. The outer coating melts and evaporates. A giant "space drop" is approaching the Earth... You can see how small "meteors" - fired ship structures - are burning up in the atmosphere.

There is no "senseless waste of time" in astronautics. Every second spent by an astronaut or satellite in orbit makes a huge contribution to world science. Every day we all use millions of things in everyday life, created thanks to astronautics and impossible without it! Even the fact that you are now reading this article in the ZATEEVO INTERNET magazine and chatting on your mobile phone is 100% merit of astronautics.

And perhaps very soon, even the most fantastic paintings by Alexei Arkhipovich Leonov will be repeated in amateur photographs of space tourists schoolchildren.

"My class and I flew on vacation to the star Beta in the constellation Lyra!"

"Fuuuu! This is a trip for kids! Here we are we fly in nebula No. 443 to observe the displacement of the spectra!"

2.

3.
The Vostok spacecraft is a symbol of the space age. The world's first cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin flew into space on April 12, 1961.

The first Soviet artificial communications satellite, Molniya-1, launched in 1965, resembles a fantastic flower or a space station from films about the distant future. Its giant "petals" are solar panels that are always oriented towards the Sun, and parabolic antennas - towards the Earth. The satellite is intended for retransmission of television programs and long-distance telephone and telegraph communications.
By the way, in 1967 one of the satellites of this series for the first time in the world received a color image of the Earth.

Meteorological satellites have radically improved the reliability of weather forecasts, made it possible to detect cyclones, typhoons and hurricanes at the stages of their inception, measure the direction and speed of their propagation, choose the best routes for fishing and merchant fleet ships, and also determine the boundaries of the ice cover in the Arctic regions along the route of the Northern Sea way, get information about rainfall areas and much more. Satellites are able to warn of the occurrence and dangerous movement of a tsunami in a timely manner. It is difficult to estimate the number of human lives saved thanks to weather satellites. In the picture: METEOROLOGICAL SYSTEM "METEOR".

The first to see seventeen days and nights in one day was cosmonaut German Titov, Yuri Gagarin's understudy, who in August 1962 made a daily flight on the Vostok-2 spacecraft. During this flight, Titov saw the "TERMINATOR" - the border of day and night, constantly changing in space at each turn of the flight. All astronauts describe this sight as unforgettable!

For an astronaut, a day - an hour and a half - is the time of revolution of the spacecraft around the Earth. During the Earth day, astronauts meet 17 cosmic dawns.
In Leonov's painting "NIGHT GLOW OF THE HALO OF THE ATMOSPHERE" the ship flies over the Earth at night. Reddish city lights are visible through the veil of dark clouds. And on the horizon, behind which the Sun is hidden, a rainbow band of the earth's atmosphere appeared. And above all this - embedded in the black velvet of outer space, the Moon and shining stars.

Alexei Leonov was the first cosmonaut to notice in space and then depict the moment when the fiery red disk of the Sun had just risen from the horizon. Above the sun, for a short time, an halo of extraordinary beauty appeared, shaped like an old Russian kokoshnik. The astronaut made the first sketch of this drawing with colored pencils on the page of the logbook on the Voskhod-2 spacecraft.

MORNING IN SPACE.

SPACE EVENING.

For the first time in the world, as a result of manual docking of manned spacecraft in 1969, a Soviet experimental space station, a prototype of future large orbital stations, was assembled and operated in orbit of the Earth's satellite.

And in 1975, Soviet and American ships were already docking in space. This first in the history of the international space program "SOYUZ" - "APOLLO" was called. Alexey Arkhipovich Leonov himself was the commander of the Soyuz-19 spacecraft! During the six-day orbital flight of the Soyuz-19 spacecraft, joint means of rendezvous and docking were experimentally carried out for the first time; Docking of Soviet and American spacecraft, mutual transfers of cosmonauts from ship to ship, joint research experiments were carried out. In preparation for this flight, Leonov learned English from scratch in one year (he learned German at school)!
During the flight, the Soviet and American cosmonauts showed excellent interaction and mutual understanding, the tasks were carried out in a coordinated and precise manner, in a truly friendly atmosphere.

Today's cosmonautics cannot be imagined without cosmonauts' working spacewalks. And Alexey Arkhipovich Leonov was also the first to go into outer space! He proved the possibility of a person staying and working in conditions of weightlessness and vacuum.

After that, even the transitions of astronauts from one spacecraft to another through outer space became possible!

Every space flight, every program is unique. They have one thing in common: the last stage of the flight is the descent to Earth.

The spacecraft is leaving its orbit. The atmosphere is getting denser. Plasma jets surround the ship from all sides. The temperature on the surface of the capsule rises to 10 thousand degrees - higher than on the surface of the Sun. The outer coating melts and evaporates. A giant "space drop" is approaching the Earth... You can see how small "meteors" - fired ship structures - are burning up in the atmosphere.

There is no "senseless waste of time" in astronautics. Every second spent by an astronaut or satellite in orbit makes a huge contribution to world science. Every day we all use millions of things in everyday life, created thanks to astronautics and impossible without it! Even the fact that you are now reading this article in the ZATEEVO INTERNET magazine and chatting on your mobile phone is 100% merit of astronautics.

And perhaps very soon, even the most fantastic paintings by Alexei Arkhipovich Leonov will be repeated in amateur photographs of space tourists schoolchildren.

“My class and I flew on vacation to the star Beta of the constellation Lyra!”

“Fuuuu! This is a tour for kids! Here we are flying into nebula No. 443 to observe the displacement of the spectra!”

The name of cosmonaut Leonov is well known in our country and throughout the world. Alexey Leonov was the first in outer space to make a video, leaving In our article we will tell you how it was and why he was awarded the title of Hero Soviet Union for doing such a seemingly simple task. We will also tell you why Sergei Korolev chose him for this mission. The biography of Alexei Leonov is the fate of an ordinary Soviet person from the simplest family.

Childhood

Alexey Leonov was born in 1934 in the Siberian village of Listvyanka, which is located in the Kemerovo region. The large family, in which he was the eighth child, was engaged in peasant labor. Father, railway electrician from Donbass, after graduation civil war moved to Siberia to his father, the grandfather of the future cosmonaut, and began working as a livestock specialist. Mother settled in these places earlier. The grandfather of Alexei Leonov was exiled to these places for participating in the revolutionary events of 1905.

The father of the future cosmonaut, Arkhip Leonov, clever man and a great worker, earned respect among fellow villagers and was elected chairman by them village council. The wave of repression did not bypass this family either. Father was repressed in 1936, but in 1939 he was reinstated and fully acquitted.

Little is known about Alexei's parental family and childhood. Let's hope he leaves behind detailed book memories.

In 1938, Alexei's mother moved to Kemerovo. There, when he grew up, he went to school. The first grader was nine years old.

In 1948 the family moved to permanent place residence in the new, western region of the Soviet Union. Kaliningrad became the hometown for Alexei Arkhipovich. His relatives still live there today. In one of the squares in the central part of the city, a monument was erected in honor of the conquerors of space. The street bearing the name of cosmonaut Leonov originates from it.

Profession - fighter pilot

Alexei Leonov's interest in flying was not accidental. His older brother, Pyotr Arkhipovich, was a toolmaker, an excellent specialist in his field. He willingly shared his knowledge with Alyosha.

In addition to technology, Alexei Arkhipovich was fond of sports. He was engaged in fencing, cycling, javelin throwing and athletics. Has ranks. His interest in painting developed into a great talent.

Kaliningraders, personally acquainted with Alexei Arkhipovich, recall that he was a great guy - sociable, athletic, cheerful and kind.

Alexey Leonov received his first flight education in Kremenchug, at a flight school. Then he studied at the Chuguev Higher School of Fighter Pilots, after which, in the late fifties, he flew combat aircraft.

First detachment of cosmonauts

Sergei Korolev very carefully chose candidates for space flights. AT track record Alexei Leonov, in addition to excellent performance from the duty station and excellent sports training, was also the landing of a MIG-15bis fighter aircraft in extreme conditions with a dead engine. In the early sixties, he was accepted into the first, Gagarin, cosmonaut detachment, which consisted of twenty people.

Aleksey Leonov was perfectly prepared for the spacewalk. In addition to him, the cosmonaut corps included other, no less worthy candidates. These are Valery Bykovsky, and Pavel Popovich, and Viktor Gorbatko, and Vladimir Komarov, and Ivan Anikeev, and others. A total of 20 people. Technically, each of them could handle any simulated situation. S.P. Korolev chose Alexei Arkhipovich as the person who would be able to most accurately describe the impression of outer space. And I was not mistaken.

Despite the fact that the preparations for the spacewalk were worked out many times and in detail on the ground, it turned out to be impossible to foresee everything.

Training took place in special chambers, where weightlessness was simulated. In accordance with the indicators of individual anatomy, as well as taking into account the air pressure inside the spacesuit and the expected external conditions, the spacesuits were designed separately for each astronaut.

It was not possible to accurately simulate all the conditions of an environment unusual for the inhabitants of the Earth in laboratory conditions. For this reason, the first astronauts were at great risk.

The truth about the flight - a taboo for citizens of the USSR

Can be seen in documentary, which includes fragments taken by him on camera. The picture painted by him looks very impressive. This is an exact image of the ship, and next to it, in a spacesuit, is Alexei Leonov. A photograph of the painting is presented in this article. It must be said that in Soviet time only a select few could see this painting. The small size of the ship compared to its two passengers looks more than just impressive. They make us look at the pioneers of space as people of great courage.

The details of this event were classified in Soviet times. The population of the country should not have known about the miscalculations or mistakes of domestic science and the imperfection of technology.

In the picture, which depicts Alexei Leonov, who is in free flight, it is clearly visible: the dimensions of the ship are so small that two people can hardly fit in it. free space no. Yes, it, based on the tasks assigned to the astronauts and the time they were in flight, was not necessary.

First flight, photography

In 1965, the Soviet spacecraft Voskhod-2 flew around the Earth. The main goal was to test the capabilities of man and devices created on earth to perform work in an airless space. The crew of the ship - Pavel Belyaev and Alexei Leonov.

Three years of pre-flight training and only 1 day, 2 hours, 2 minutes and 17 seconds of flight, and time in open space - 23 minutes and 41 seconds. Alexei Leonov's spacewalk was accompanied by a distance of 5.35 meters from the spacecraft. It lasted 12 minutes and 9 seconds. The astronaut was connected to the ship by a cable equipped with hooks and loops. Refastening the hooks helped to approach or move away from the spacecraft to the desired distance.

The main task that Alexei Leonov had to perform in space was photography with a video camera and a microphoto camera. The video turned out perfectly, as far as it was possible with the then state of the art. But it was not possible to take photographs from a microphotographic camera placed in a tiny, button-sized hole in the spacesuit. Due to deformation, I could not pick up the cable that served as a button for the camera, and the pneumatic pear that was put on its end came off during the exit from the airlock. She clung to the manhole cover.

Surprise with a spacesuit

Alexei's space suit was not quite perfect. It was tested at the maximum possible difference in external and internal pressures, which can be simulated on Earth. It turned out to be too far from what takes place in space. The pressure inside the suit is 600 mm Hg. pillar, outside - 9 mm. As a result, he swelled up. The stiffening ribs and belts could not stand it. Legs and arms no longer reach the end of the sleeves and trousers. The suit has become an uncontrollable capsule in which a helpless person is imprisoned. the commander of the ship saw what was happening with Leonov's suit, but could not help in any way. Aleksey Arkhipovich estimated that for about an hour he had been breathing pure oxygen and that nitrogen, which was present in the respiratory mixture on the ship, should have been washed out of the blood by this time. He made the decision to release the pressure inside the suit. This is prohibited by the instructions, but he saw no other way out. If nitrogen remained in the blood, it would boil, which meant death. There was no nitrogen, and Alexey Arkhipovich, catching and unfastening the hooks of the cable, got to the hatch.

Acrobatics in the airlock

The size of the airlock compartment hatch was smaller than required for the dimensions of the astronaut, whose shoulder width in space uniforms is 68 cm. Since the hatch opens inward, and the airlock diameter is 1 m, it is impossible to turn around in it. In order for Aleksey Arkhipovich to fit into it and hermetically batten down the hatches, it was necessary either to reduce the size of the hatch cover or to reduce the lodgement. Simply increasing the size of the ship was not possible. Aleksey Leonov himself was in charge of maintaining the internal size of the lock. The exit into space and return to the ship, the most rational sequence of actions, were carefully verified and repeatedly practiced on simulators. But study is study, and reality did not stint on surprises.

The astronaut entered the hatch not with his feet, as suggested by a more ergonomic one, but with his head. To batten down the hatch, it was necessary to turn the torso 180 degrees. The task, taking into account the size of the astronaut and the tightness of the airlock, is extremely difficult. Alexey Arkhipovich later recalled that by the end of this acrobatics, his pulse rate was 200 beats per minute, and sweat flooded his eyes in a continuous stream. Now it was necessary to separate the airlock, and you can return home to Earth. But it turned out that it was too early to calm down.

After the separation of the airlock compartment, the ship began to rotate around its axis, and the pressure inside began to grow. The astronauts could only look at the instruments. It was impossible to stop the process. They reduced the temperature and humidity on board as much as possible. The pressure continued to rise. The slightest spark - and they, along with the ship, would have been torn into molecules. At some point, Alexei Leonov and Pavel Belyaev passed out - either lost consciousness or fell asleep. Subsequently, when reading the instrument diagrams, it turned out that the pressure inside the ship, instead of the prescribed 160 atmospheres, reached the mark of 920 mm of mercury, after which it began to spontaneously decrease.

The fact is that the ship, which was in a static position for about an hour, was deformed. One side of it was heated by the Sun to +150 degrees Celsius, while the other, which was in the shade, cooled down to -140 degrees. As a result, the ship was closed leaky. Automation worked to compensate for oxygen leakage. In the end, the pressure became so high that it pressed down on the hatch cover from the inside. The sealing was restored, and the instruments received an appropriate signal to relieve excess pressure. A jet of air from the outside of the ship gave it a rotational motion.

To stop the rotation was, as they say, a matter of technique, that is, it was not difficult. There was another task ahead - landing.

freelance landing

It is believed that takeoff and landing are the most complex processes in spacecraft control. Voskhod-2 landed in manual control mode. Instead of the planned point near Kustanai, he plunged into the one and a half meter snow of the deaf Ural taiga, 200 km from Perm. The story of the rescue of astronauts from taiga captivity deserves a separate chapter. Alexei Leonov and Pavel Belyaev spent two nights wrapping themselves in the skin torn from the inner surface of the ship, warming up by the fire, while Alexei Arkhipovich did physical exercises, pulling himself up on the lines of a parachute caught on the tops of pines. They had a food supply - freeze-dried meat, chocolate, biscuits and cottage cheese with cherry juice.

After the astronauts were found, and this happened four hours after landing (this was helped by the bright orange dome of a kilometer-long parachute, the flight of which was seen by residents of the nearest settlements), they were thrown warm clothes and food, but the rescuers could not get to the pilots. For evacuation, it was necessary to organize a place for a helicopter landing. A team of lumberjacks arrived with chainsaws and cleared the clearing.

Idol and faith

Alexei Leonov recalls that Sergei Pavlovich Korolev, the designer of Soviet spacecraft, the creator of the space industry in science and industry, a cynic, a pessimist and a skeptic who perceived present and future life only in gloomy colors, was more than a father to the astronauts. He was their god.

I must say that in terms of reliability and safety, Soviet spacecraft were significantly superior to the ships of their competitors - the United States. Since the beginning of space exploration during training and flights, our country has lost five astronauts, while the Americans have buried 17 astronauts. The reason for our tragedies is the so-called human factor. The technology never failed.

Valentin Bondarenko died during tests for psychological stability in conditions of solitary existence. This happened at the Institute of Aviation and Space Medicine as a result of a fire in the pressure chamber. Vladimir Komarov died during landing - the parachute did not open. Georgy Dobrovolsky, Vladislav Volkov and Viktor Patsaev died from depressurization of the ship during landing.

Failed flight

The second flight of Alexei Leonov was to take place in June 1961. The crew consisted of three cosmonauts - Alexei Leonov, Valery Kubasov and Pyotr Kolodin. Shortly before the scheduled launch day, the medical commission found that Valery had a small one. It was decided to send a backup crew. For the first it was a tragedy: Peter never flew into space, but for the understudies it was a lucky break. The flight program was executed brilliantly. During entry into the atmosphere there was a disaster. The astronauts accidentally opened the containment valve.

The ship made a soft landing in the planned area, but people could not be saved. They were Victor Patsaev, Vladislav Volkov and Georgy Dobrovolsky.

Second flight

Alexei Leonov has been in space twice. The first flight took place in March 1965. Alexei Leonov went into outer space once. His assessment is that one can live and work in space.

The second time he visited there was in July 1976. Work in orbit continued for 5 days, 22 hours, 30 minutes and 51 seconds. It was an international project. The goal is to dock modules and scientific experiments. The Soviet Soyuz-19 flew into space with Alexei Leonov and Valery Kubasov and the American Apollo with three astronauts - Thomas Stafford, Donald Slayton and Vance Brand.

Painter's talent

Thanks to the artistic talent of the astronaut, all mankind was able to find out what the world looks like outside the earth's atmosphere, because at that time images in space were obtained only in black and white. Until now, space photography presents certain difficulties. This is due to other than on Earth, the requirements for the resolution of optics, a kind of propagation of light rays, a different refraction.

The uniqueness of the artist Alexei Leonov is that he reproduced the technical features of space technology and the astronaut's suit on his canvases with engineering accuracy. And the sharp look of the painter determined what shades of the spectrum are present in cosmic landscapes.

Alexey Arkhipovich participated in the creation postage stamps on the topic of space. On each of them - the present and the future of astronautics. They are very interesting to look at. Take a look at the photo. Alexei Leonov can be ranked among the realists who are able to foresee the future, because what he depicted did not exist in those years.

Life in the Earth

Alexey Arkhipovich flew into space twice. He was awarded two orders of Lenin and the Red Star, medals of our country and abroad, and is an honorary citizen of thirty Russian and foreign cities.

One of the lunar craters bears his name, as well as the planet of the constellation Libra.

Alexei Leonov, Major General of the Reserve Aviation, devoted his entire life to space. He graduated from the Air Force Engineering Academy. N. E. Zhukovsky, including postgraduate studies. Aleksey Arkhipovich has been training cosmonauts and developing space equipment for a long time. He owns research in the field of visual perception of color and light characteristics after space flight, the perception of space and time in space, the psychological problems of interplanetary flight, as well as other scientific and experimental work.

He is married and has a daughter and two grandchildren.

Beginning of the third millennium

Currently, cosmonaut Alexei Arkhipovich Leonov lives in Moscow. Last year, 2014, President Russian Federation Vladimir Putin presented him with the Order of Merit for the Fatherland, 3rd class. This was how the 80th anniversary of the cosmonaut was celebrated, who all his life worked hard and fruitfully for the good of his Motherland. He will forever remain in our memory as a man who made a huge contribution to space exploration and science, and as an artist who showed people the world beyond the earth's atmosphere. The person by whose example it is possible and necessary to educate the younger generation is, of course, Aleksey Leonov. His biography is incredibly interesting. You can read about his space epic in the book by A. S. Eliseev “Life is a drop in the ocean”. Several documentaries have also been made about him.