Space. Infinite emptiness, cold, and radiation. Man has always gazed at the stars, but only in the 20th century was he able to reach them. And in this race beyond the atmosphere, Russia (then the Soviet Union) was the first, faster, braver. The first satellite, the first man, the first woman, the first spacewalk, the first orbital station. Without Russia, cosmonautics would have been different. On Russia Day, we remember this with pride, but without excess bombast. Let's go in order. Theoretical Foundation: Tsiolkovsky Konstantin Eduardovich Tsiolkovsky — a Kaluga teacher who in the late 19th — early 20th century derived a formula describing the motion of a rocket in a non-uniform gravitational field. His "Tsiolkovsky's Equation" is still the foundation of cosmonautics. He proposed using multistage rockets, the idea of liquid fuel, and considered the possibility of creating orbital stations. Europe and America were fascinated by zeppelins at the time, while Tsiolkovsky already knew that the future belonged to the rocket. He is called the "father of cosmonautics," and for good reason. Korolev — Chief Constructor Sergey Pavlovich Korolev — a practitioner who brought Tsiolkovsky's ideas to life in metal. In the 1930s, he created the GIRD, but was repressed. He continued to work in the camps. After the war, he headed the Soviet rocket program. Under his leadership, the following were created: R-7 (the first intercontinental ballistic missile, becoming the carrier for satellites), "Sputnik-1," "Vostok" (Gagarin's spacecraft), "Luna-1," "Luna-2," "Luna-3." Korolev was a genius of organization. It was he who made space a reality. The First Satellite: October 4, 1957 PS-1 (the simplest satellite) weighed 83 kilograms and was the size of a ball. But its metallic "beep-beep" changed the world. The West was in shock. The satellite showed that the Soviet Union had a rocket capable of delivering a payload to any point. And it also opened the space era. This day is r ... Read more