The history of manned space flights goes back more than half a century. In the news and television broadcasts, we are told about preparation for flights, the launches themselves, and scientific space programs. And they always talk little and sparingly about who meets spaceships on earth first.
At the same time, very often the life of cosmonauts depends on their professional and operational actions. The joy of returning to earth from a risky journey can be clouded by no less trials than in space itself, and the need to fight for life. Immediately find the cosmonauts who have landed, provide them with technical assistance and moral support and deliver them to the places where specialists will work with them - these are the tasks of the helicopter regiment, which at the beginning of the space era was based in the city of Troitsk, Chelyabinsk region. Today one squadron of spacecraft search engines settled there, in the Chelyabinsk region, in the city of Yuzhno-Uralsk, two others are located in Kamensk-Uralsky, Sverdlovsk region.
How do helicopter pilots who meet spaceships work? 5-6 days prior to the arrival of the cosmonauts, the crews of 12 helicopters are sent to Kazakhstan to their possible landing site: Arkalyk, Karaganda or Dzhezkazgan. The search helicopter unit is armed with two models: the Mi-8 is engaged in the search for the landing ship and the delivery of specialists to it, and the 20-ton Mi-26 transports the heavy equipment necessary for rescue operations. He can lift a load comparable to his own weight. This model is used to transport fuel tankers, all-terrain vehicles and other large equipment.
24 hours before the separation of the descent vehicle, helicopters patrol along the entire estimated path of the ship's movement. The flight control center controls the flight until it enters the atmosphere, then the navigators take control of the descent vehicle. They determine the coordinates of the landing site. But no matter how carefully they were calculated in advance, the ship can land within a radius of 500 kilometers from the intended point. When the spacecraft approaches the Earth at a distance of 6,000 meters, communication is established with the astronauts. If the weather is fine, a parachute is already visible at an elevation of about 3000 meters, and the helicopters calmly and well in advance take off. All stages of meeting and escorting the ship are constantly being improved. The exercises, which practice all search techniques, are usually held at the Uprun airbase in the Uvelsky district of the Chelyabinsk region.
In the Russian space program, almost everything is exclusive. The search and rescue all-terrain vehicle, created back in the 1970s, still has no analogues. Thanks to the blue color and the crane arrow among the rescuers, it received the romantic name "Blue Bird". This machine is capable of taking out a spacecraft capsule from any rugged terrain and the most inaccessible area. The car can accommodate three cosmonauts, the crew of an all-terrain vehicle, and there are places for doctors.
Spaceship search missions have tons of gripping stories worthy of colorful articles and action-packed feature films!
The history of the Soyuz-23 crew will remain in the memory of rescuers and cosmonauts as the most risky and extraordinary story. The ship was piloted by Vyacheslav Zudov and Valery Rozhdestvensky. The ship landed on October 16, 1976. However, it could be called a landing conditionally. He fell at night into the saline lake Tengiz in Kazakhstan. The pond was covered with a mixture of sleet and ice. Locals call it suga. It was impossible for rescue vehicles to move on such a surface! It was impossible to use helicopters either: the situation was complicated by the dark, cloudy and foggy weather. Despite this, the crew of one helicopter managed to land on the shore, and its commander Nikolai Chernavsky managed to get to the capsule, dangling on the surface of the lake, on a rubber boat. He supported the cosmonauts inside, not only morally. Nicholas had to free the ventilation holes from the ice accumulating in them. By doing this, he saved the space crew from air shortage.
Another memorable landing happened in 1999 with the Soyuz TM-29, which was piloted by an international crew consisting of commander Viktor Afanasyev, flight engineer Jean-Pierre Higneres, and research cosmonaut Sergei Avdeev. When landing in the area of the city of Arkalyk, the spacecraft caught fire, since during the passage of dense layers of the atmosphere its outer shell became very hot and the capsule ignited dry grass. There was a danger of poisoning the cosmonauts with combustion products, and then a search and rescue brigade quickly worked.
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A no less dramatic episode is the landing of the Soyuz TMA-11 spacecraft on April 19, 2008. It was also piloted by an international crew consisting of commander Yuri Malenchenko and two women: NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson and South Korea's first female cosmonaut Lee So Young. The spacecraft was returning from the ISS and in the lower atmosphere moved in the uncontrolled descent mode. As a result, it did not reach the landing point of 425 km, and in the absence of rescuers, the astronauts themselves got out of the ship and extinguished the fire that broke out during the landing.
The story of the landing of the crew consisting of Alexei Leonov and Pavel Belyaev, which became an episode of the Russian film hit "Time of the First", requires that the real picture of salvation be restored. According to navigator Vladimir Khomkolov, who served in a helicopter regiment in the South Urals and took part in the rescue operation, the capsule with the cosmonauts really landed in the Perm taiga, and not in the Kurgan region, as planned. But the landing site was found within a few hours. The main difficulty was to quickly provide the cosmonauts with warm clothing, food and take them out of the taiga. The first to meet them on the ground were the foresters sent by the command. They helped to light a fire, keep warm, and delivered food. Warm flight suits were thrown off the plane for the astronauts, and a thermos with the coveted borscht flew to them from the sky,which the conquerors of outer space have terribly missed. And it doesn't matter that the thermos got into the stump and half of the contents spilled. However, to warm and feed the astronauts was half the battle! The main problem was how to get them out! There was an idea to transfer them through the air inside the capsule of the spacecraft, attaching it with a cable to the helicopter. But this idea was abandoned due to the risk of colliding with trees. In the end, Leonov and Belyaev left the place of landing on skis along with the foresters sent to them. A 3 km long ski track was run by local residents especially for this occasion, and foresters cut down a large plot necessary for landing a helicopter, which took the space heroes out of the Perm taiga on March 21, 1965. However, to warm and feed the astronauts was half the battle! The main problem was how to get them out! There was an idea to transfer them through the air inside the capsule of the spacecraft, attaching it with a cable to the helicopter. But this idea was abandoned due to the risk of colliding with trees. In the end, Leonov and Belyaev left the place of landing on skis along with the foresters sent to them. A 3 km long ski track was run by local residents especially for this occasion, and foresters cut down a large plot necessary for landing a helicopter, which took the space heroes out of the Perm taiga on March 21, 1965. However, to warm and feed the astronauts was half the battle! The main problem was how to get them out! There was an idea to transfer them through the air inside the capsule of the spacecraft, attaching it with a cable to the helicopter. But this idea was abandoned due to the risk of colliding with trees. In the end, Leonov and Belyaev left the place of landing on skis along with the foresters sent to them. A 3 km long ski track was run by local residents especially for this occasion, and foresters cut down a large plot necessary for landing a helicopter, which took the space heroes out of the Perm taiga on March 21, 1965. But this idea was abandoned due to the risk of colliding with trees. In the end, Leonov and Belyaev left the place of landing on skis along with the foresters sent to them. A 3 km long ski track was run by local residents especially for this occasion, and foresters cut down a large plot necessary for landing a helicopter, which took the space heroes out of the Perm taiga on March 21, 1965. But this idea was abandoned due to the risk of colliding with trees. In the end, Leonov and Belyaev left the place of landing on skis along with the foresters sent to them. A 3 km long ski track was run by local residents especially for this occasion, and foresters cut down a large plot necessary for landing a helicopter, which took the space heroes out of the Perm taiga on March 21, 1965.
As for the ship, its evacuation was led by the squadron commander, Lieutenant Colonel Kobzar. The two-ton balloon was attached to a Mi-6 helicopter with a 40-meter cable and lifted into the air. The entire district watched the unique operation. People, most likely, did not really understand that they had witnessed the completion of an extraordinary space operation.
Elena Pustygina