Cosmonaut: Vladimir Viktorovich Aksenov (02/01/1935)
- 36th cosmonaut of Russia (79th in the world)
- Flight duration (1976): 7 days 21 hours 52 minutes, Yastreb-2
- Flight duration (1980): 3 days 22 hours 19 minutes, Jupiter-2
Vladimir Viktorovich was born on February 1, 1935 in a village called Giblitsy, located within the Ryazan region. He graduated from seven classes of a local school, after which in 1949 he was enrolled in the mechanical engineering college of the city of Mytishchi. Having completed his special education in 1953, he entered the pilot school (VASHPOL) in Kremenchug, Ukrainian SSR. From 1955 to 1956, he served at the aviation school in the city of Chuguev, where cosmonaut Georgy Dobrovolsky had previously served. However, Vladimir Aksenov was unable to graduate from college due to the reduction of air forces and his premature demobilization.
At the beginning of 1957, the future cosmonaut got a job as a designer at the OKB-1 rocket-building enterprise, today RSC Energia. In 1963, he completed his education in the field of Mechanical Engineering Technologies at the All-Union Correspondence Polytechnic Institute in the capital of the USSR, and in the same year he became a design engineer.
Space career
In February 1972, the second time, Vladimir Viktorovich managed to pass the medical commission in order to have access to special training. Two years later, Vladimir Aksenov was already training for space missions.
First flight
On September 15, 1976, the Soyuz-22 spacecraft launched from Earth, with crew commander Valery Bykovsky and on-board engineer Vladimir Aksenov on board.
The ship was equipped with a six-lens camera MKF-6, which was a joint project of the GDR and the USSR. For a week, the astronauts photographed the surface of our planet using ICF-6. The camera covered not only the visible, but also the infrared region of electromagnetic radiation. After this experiment, a modified version of such a camera was installed on board the Salyut-6 earth orbital station. Today, multispectral cameras such as MKF-6 are used for satellite imaging.
For a week-long stay in Earth orbit and conducting scientific research, cosmonaut Aksenov was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union, as well as Pilot-Cosmonaut of the USSR
Second flight
On June 5, 1980, Vladimir Viktorovich launched as a flight engineer on the Soyuz T-2 spacecraft. The crew commander was Yuri Malyshev, who left the Earth for the first time. The cosmonauts' task was to test the modified spacecraft, as well as docking with the Salyut-6 station. The ship was equipped with an updated automatic docking system, which malfunctioned during docking. As a result, manual docking was successfully completed. Having noted all the shortcomings in the design and mechanism of the ship, on June 9 the Soyuz T-2 crew returned to Earth.
For his courage and courage during the space mission, Vladimir Aksenov was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union for the second time.
Future life
In 1981, a year after the end of his last space flight, cosmonaut Aksenov defended his thesis for a candidate of technical sciences at the Institute of Space Research. Until 1988, Vladimir Viktorovich continued to serve in the cosmonaut corps, at the same time he continued to work as a designer at NPO Energia. In 1988, he left the cosmonaut corps and took a position as director of the Research Institute for the Study of Natural Resources, where spacecraft for remote sensing of our planet were designed. Since 1983, he held a leadership position in the Soviet Peace Fund (since 1992, the name “International Association of Peace Funds”), from 1990 to 1992 he was the general director of the NGO Planet. Since 1996 - Chairman of the Spiritual Movement of Russia. And since 2001, Vladimir Aksenov has been the president of a foundation called the Institute for Security and Sustainable Development.
MOSCOW, July 1 - RIA Novosti, Alexander Kovalev. Twice Hero of the Soviet Union, pilot-cosmonaut Vladimir Aksenov, on the day of the death of Yuri Gagarin, on March 27, 1968, who underwent a pre-flight medical examination with him at the airfield, but flew on a different plane, for the first time presented the most plausible and not yet officially announced version of the MiG fighter plane crash. 15 UTI, which ended the life of the first cosmonaut on the planet and the commander of the flight regiment of the Cosmonaut Training Center, Vladimir Seregin.
Vladimir Aksenov outlined the reasons for the death of Yuri Gagarin in the book “On Roads of Testing,” which was published in a limited edition. The pilot-cosmonaut gave one autographed copy of the publication to a RIA Novosti correspondent at the Memorial Museum of Cosmonautics.
Gagarin and Aksenov underwent a medical examination together, but flew on different planes
“The presented version was first formulated in the first days after the death of the crew by Sergei Anokhin, Hero of the Soviet Union, Honored Test Pilot, member of the State Commission for the Investigation of the Air Crash. He was one of the first to tell it to me, not only because we had very close friendly relations and understood a lot related to aviation in a nutshell, but probably also because on that tragic day I had to get dressed for flights in the same room with Yuri Gagarin in the morning, undergo the necessary pre-flight examination from the same doctor, and receive information about the weather conditions from one meteorologist ", recalls Aksenov.
According to him, after this the crews went to different planes: Yuri Gagarin - together with Vladimir Seregin - to perform a control flight on the MiG-15, and Aksenov - to another plane, on which weightlessness training took place that day.
Prerequisites for a plane crash: difficult weather conditions
The pilot-cosmonaut clarifies that the weather conditions on the day of the plane crash were difficult, but quite acceptable for carrying out flight missions.
“The cloud cover that day was unusual: the lower edge of almost continuous clouds was at an altitude of approximately 600 meters above the ground. Then, up to an altitude of 4 thousand meters, the cloudiness was dense, with slight thinning. There were no clouds above the upper edge: clear skies and very good visibility. We They even showed photographs of the upper edge taken from a weather reconnaissance plane,” notes Aksenov.
Gagarin's last words
According to him, the last message from Yuri Gagarin’s plane was that he and Vladimir Seregin had completed a flight mission carried out above the top of the clouds, that is, at an altitude of more than 4 kilometers.
Aksenov believes that the pilots most likely made their message after leaving the final figure, at low speed in a calm flight, but while still at a fairly high altitude. After that, they needed to perform a significant descent and then prepare and pass through the cloud layer.
A few minutes left before Gagarin's death
“The descent from the aerobatics zone can be performed in different ways: either by a downward spiral over several circles, or by making a flip with the exit of a dive towards the airfield. The second method - an intensive descent by turning over - is used by many pilots who need to quickly complete their mission and provide the aircraft to other pilots And on that day cosmonaut Evgeny Khrunov was also supposed to fly, so there were motives for the fastest descent,” states Aksenov.
In his opinion, having completed the coup, Gagarin and Seregin were delayed for two or three seconds in exiting the dive and unexpectedly found themselves in a layer of continuous clouds. Aksenov clarifies that other circumstances could have become prerequisites for getting into dense clouds after the coup: an increase in the height and density of clouds compared to its general level at the point where the aircraft entered it, or an insufficient initial altitude for the MiG-15 to enter the coup.
Causes of the plane crash according to Aksenov
“Thus, the cause of the disaster could have been a complicated weather situation with the upper edge of continuous clouds located at an altitude of about 4 kilometers, and the lower edge at an altitude of only 600 meters from the ground; underestimation by the pilots, primarily Vladimir Seregin, of the complexity of the existing weather conditions, and "What also came as a surprise to the pilots was getting into continuous clouds at high speed in an intensive descent mode, and, as a consequence, the impossibility of stable piloting using instruments. Another reason for the plane crash was the lack of altitude from the lower edge of the clouds to the recovery of the aircraft from the dive," concludes Aksenov.
A tailspin and the death of the crew
The most likely outcome of an aircraft unexpectedly entering dense clouds at high speed without stable operation of attitude instruments, primarily the attitude indicator, was that the aircraft would be pulled into a deep downward spiral, or, with intensive attempts to go up, a stall into a high-speed tailspin.
According to official investigation data, the plane with Gagarin and Seregin, after leaving the clouds, approached the ground almost vertically at a speed of about 700 kilometers per hour. At this speed, the MiG-15 flew the 600 meters remaining to the ground in about three seconds.
They didn't try to eject from the plane
“The lack of attempts to eject from both Gagarin and Seryogin, as well as attempts to get in touch, can be explained by the fact that getting into cloud cover came as a surprise to them, and after that they both tried to find a way out of the situation. If there was an emergency is associated with some external reason, then the pilots would immediately report this via radio communication,” Aksenov is sure.
He also notes that vertical aerobatics on a heavy MiG-15 UTI aircraft is a very difficult task.
“At the lowest point of performing maneuvers and flips, the speed of the aircraft is almost maximum - about 700 kilometers per hour. On the MiG-15, during an intensive descent, it is quite possible to jump an extra few hundred meters or even a kilometer,” concludes Twice Hero of the Soviet Union, pilot-cosmonaut Vladimir Aksenov .
The reports of the state commission on the death of Gagarin are still classified.
At the same time, the government state commission, which meticulously studied all the circumstances of the death of the planet’s first cosmonaut, was unable to unambiguously explain the causes of the tragedy, and its report is still classified.
The official conclusions are briefly as follows: the crew, due to a change in the air situation during the flight (the details were not specified), made a sharp maneuver and went into a tailspin. Trying to take the car into horizontal flight, the pilots collided with the ground and died. No equipment failures or malfunctions were found. Chemical analysis of the remains and blood of the pilots did not reveal any foreign substances.
Aksenov denied rumors that before the flight, Gagarin and Seryogin each took a glass of vodka
The atmosphere of secrecy gave rise to a lot of incredible rumors. One of them, which received wide popular recognition, boils down to the fact that Gagarin and Seryogin each took a glass of vodka before the flight. According to official sources, this version is refuted by the conclusion that no alcohol was detected in the blood of both pilots. Vladimir Aksenov also categorically rejects it.
“Knowing the complexity and responsibility of that flight day for Yuri Gagarin, all of us who knew the situation from the inside, as indeed all the pilots, find all the gossip and discussions about the fact that Gagarin and Seregin allegedly went on the flight drunk to be simply wild,” notes Aksenov.
Folk versions of the tragedy
There is an unofficial version that Gagarin had a conflict with the top leadership of the country, and the disaster was staged by KGB specialists, whose agents took an active part in the investigation of what happened. There are still rumors that the officially declared disaster is a falsification of the authorities, but in fact Gagarin was secretly arrested by the special services and, after plastic surgery on his face, was placed in one of the provincial psychiatric hospitals, where he subsequently died.
A number of “researchers” claim that Gagarin himself staged the disaster by faking his death, after which he lived for many years under an assumed name in a village in the Orenburg region, where he died as an elderly man in a hunting accident. Another version of the so-called small “Soviet lunar conspiracy” contains justification and a number of arguments in favor of the fact that Gagarin died not during a training flight on the MiG-15, but a few days earlier, during the launch of a new secret spacecraft as part of the USSR program on the exploration of the Moon.
Years have passed since the legendary flight of Yuri Gagarin. Several generations have already grown up without witnessing this significant event. Meanwhile, the direct participants in the very first steps in space exploration are alive and well.
Thirty-seven years ago, on September 15, 1976 at 12:48 (Moscow time), the Soyuz-22 spacecraft was successfully launched with cosmonauts Valery Bykovsky and Vladimir Aksenov on board. And less than four years later, in the summer of 1980, Vladimir Viktorovich Aksenov made his second space flight. For successful work in space, he was twice awarded the “Gold Star” of the Hero of the Soviet Union. In addition to performing complex flight missions in space orbit, this man made a huge contribution to the development of rocket space technology, automated systems for studying the environment and searching for the Earth's natural resources. The Soviet cosmonaut was awarded many Soviet and foreign orders and medals. He has over a dozen inventions and is a full member of the K.E. Academy of Cosmonautics. Tsiolkovsky and the Russian Academy of Sciences.
As you know, roads to space begin on Earth. Volodya Aksenov was born on February 1, 1935 in the forested Meshchersky region, in the village of Giblitsy, located in the Kasimovsky district of the Ryazan region. His mother, Alexandra Ivanovna Aksyonova, worked as an accountant on a collective farm. In 1940, Vladimir had a younger brother, who was named Valentin. When the Great Patriotic War began, my father, Viktor Stepanovich Zhivoglyadov, went to the front. He died in 1944. The childhood of the two brothers was difficult and passed under the care of their mother’s parents.
Did Volodya dream about space in his youth? In those days there were no such words. Shortly before his first flight, the astronaut will say: “My grandparents put me on my feet.” His grandfather, Ivan Prokofievich, taught him to mow grass, store firewood and much more. Along with the adults, Volodya and Valentin worked on the collective farm field - knitting sheaves and picking potatoes. Grandmother and grandfather were well-known teachers of literature and Russian language in the area. They instilled in the boy a love of reading and music.
Ivan Prokofievich came from a peasant background, and thanks to his abilities, he entered (and then successfully graduated from) the Ryazan Alexander Seminary. In addition to teaching literature, he played the violin remarkably and headed the school and church choirs. And my grandmother, Vera Fedorovna Aksyonova, worked at a local school for fifty-one years and was awarded the Order of Lenin and the medal “For Valiant Labor during the Great Patriotic War.” The doors of their house were open at all times. Teachers were respected by both adults and children; people often came to them for help and advice.
In 1942, Vladimir went to a rural school. He studied well, graduated from seven classes with the right to enter a technical school without exams. He was awarded Certificates of Merit for the fourth, fifth and seventh grades. In 1949, Aksenov entered the industrial technical school in Kasimov. He studied there for only one year. In order number 58 (dated July 17, 1950) for group 2A, he is listed as the first among those transferred to the next course with a scholarship.
However, his mother died, and her sister, Zinaida Ivanovna Semakina, took the guy to Kaliningrad. Like her parents, she worked as a teacher, and Volodya continued his studies at the Mytishchi Mechanical Engineering College from his second year. He graduated from this educational institution in 1953, and on the recommendation of the local city committee of the Komsomol, he was sent to the tenth military aviation school, located in the city of Kremenchug, Poltava region. Two years later, having completed initial flight training, he continued his studies at the Chuguev Aviation School for Fighter Pilots. For exemplary discipline and excellent academic achievements, the cadet was repeatedly awarded by the command.
But it so happened that in 1956-1957 a large-scale reduction of the country's air force began. In connection with the development of rocket technology, a government decree was adopted to reduce the Air Force. The reduction and retraining affected the aviation design bureaus of Lavochkin, Tsybin, and Myasishchev. Regiments and divisions were reduced, and entire courses in schools were sent to reserve. Among pilots, the reduction was called the “Khrushchev crackdown on aviation.” These events also affected twenty-one-year-old Vladimir Aksenov. After studying for a year and a half at the Chuguev Aviation School, he was demobilized.
He was transferred to the reserve, but the craving for heaven remained. Since Aksenov graduated from a mechanical engineering college, he was hired in the fifth department of OKB-1 as a third-category designer. This happened on January 30, 1957, even before the launch of the first artificial Earth satellite. So rocketry became his destiny. He has been involved in the design, development, evaluation and experimental studies of spacecraft compartments. Aksenov himself wrote: “...since January 1957 I began to work as a designer at the Kaliningrad Special Design Bureau. Our chief designer was Sergei Korolev. For a new business I needed in-depth knowledge...”
In October 1957 he was assigned the second category, and in November 1959 Aksenov became a designer of the first category. In the early sixties, he first met with the guys from the first set of cosmonauts, among whom was his classmate from the Kremenchug tenth VASHPOL - Alexey Leonov. And in 1963, Vladimir, a year earlier than his classmates, without interrupting his work, graduated in absentia from the All-Union Polytechnic Institute, whose training and consulting center was located at the enterprise. By that time he was already working as a senior design engineer. The specialty he chose at the institute was called “Mechanical Engineering Technology, Metal-Cutting Machines and Tools,” and the topic of Aksenov’s thesis was called: “Life support systems for a spacecraft for flights to the Moon.”
In 1965, Vladimir Viktorovich was transferred from the design department to the newly created flight test department, which was headed by the famous test pilot and legend of Soviet aviation Sergei Nikolaevich Anokhin. His experience and the highest human qualities gave a lot to future cosmonauts. Anokhin led the detachment for twenty-five years, until his death in 1989. In the new department, Vladimir Aksenov was entrusted with testing space technology in zero gravity. This was necessary because a wide variety of crew work was planned on Soyuz-type ships, including in outer space. Working out the working methods of people and space technology, training the ship’s personnel to operate in conditions of weightlessness and lunar gravity (including the transition from one device to another) became Aksenov’s main task. The most experienced pilots performed “zero-gravity” flights, and Vladimir Viktorovich was the technical leader of the tests. This experience was very useful to him in the future. He himself made over 250 test flights on the TU-104 laboratory aircraft, which created conditions for short-term weightlessness. 1200 times Aksenov was in artificial weightlessness mode (which approximately equaled 9 hours in “pure” weightlessness) and 150 times in lunar gravity mode (about 40 minutes).
Immediately after his transfer to the flight test department, Vladimir Viktorovich brought Korolev an application with a request to enroll him in the corps of civilian test cosmonauts. The fact is that several selected OKB-1 specialists were part of the cosmonaut corps along with military pilots. Despite the mixed crews consisting of “civilian” and “military” astronauts, the selection and training systems were the same. All participants occupied the same positions as test cosmonauts and could replace each other during the flight. With all that, the cosmonauts of the enterprise also had some additional functions - testing and evaluating the manufactured space technology during its direct operation in space. Aksenov’s candidacy was reviewed and approved personally by Sergei Pavlovich, after which the stage of his medical selection began without interruption from his main activity.
The medical commission lasted almost two months. Using special methods, doctors checked the functioning of the entire body as a whole, as well as each organ separately under maximum load. We collected information about human life resources. The selection based on medical requirements was truly “cosmic”; during it, the majority of applicants were eliminated. According to statistics at that time, only two or three out of a hundred people received a “fit” conclusion.
For Vladimir Viktorovich, this period was very difficult and long. At the first medical examination, held at the Institute of Medical and Biological Problems, for some important tests he received “satisfactory” ratings, indicating a lower level of suitability. And although these were passing grades, they were not enough to conclude “fit for special training.” The doctors advised Aksenov to better adhere to the regime and come back in a year for the next examination. Vladimir Viktorovich followed their advice and successfully passed the medical examination a year later. However, by this time the first recruitment into the OKB-1 corps of civilian cosmonauts had already ended. And the certificate of suitability was given by the medical commission for only a year. At the end of this period it had to be confirmed again, in full.
At the same time (in January 1966), the “father of Soviet cosmonautics” Sergei Pavlovich Korolev, under whose leadership Aksenov worked for nine years, died. Later, Vladimir Viktorovich will write about him: “Sergei Pavlovich was the founder of practical astronautics throughout the world. Largely thanks to his will, outstanding abilities as a politician and organizer, talent as a scientist and engineer, our country became a pioneer in the space age of mankind... Korolev’s works are an example of the depth of scientific and engineering thought and focus on the final result. Working under the guidance of such a person is a great success in life, giving a lot of necessary practical experience and life concepts...”
In August 1966, Vladimir Aksenov was assigned to head one of the OKB-1 groups, and in February 1970 he became the head of the flight test laboratory of the 731st department. Having no information in advance about when the next set of test cosmonauts would take place, Vladimir Viktorovich tried to pass all subsequent annual medical examinations on time, so that he would have all the documents in order for the set. He was in such a “ready mode” for eight whole years, only in 1973 (March 21) he joined the detachment as a test cosmonaut of the 291st department of the Central Design Bureau of Mechanical Engineering.
The long selection period, accompanied by work on flight tests, was not in vain. Soon after enlisting, Aksenov, together with Valery Bykovsky, was included in the main crew for the upcoming flight into space. From the beginning of 1974 to the end of 1975, Vladimir underwent training on the 7K-S transport ship together with Leonid Kizim. At the same time, he led a detachment of civilian flight engineers training under the same program. Then, from January to July 1976, as a flight engineer, together with Bykovsky, he was trained under the testing program for the MKF-6 multispectral camera, developed by Soviet and German scientists and produced in the GDR at the Carl Zeiss Jena plant.
Every flight into space is a step into the unknown. A step that requires the highest skill, boundless courage and strong will from the astronaut. Vladimir Viktorovich's first flight began on September 15, 1976 on the Soyuz-22 spacecraft. The expedition took place within the framework of the use and exploration of outer space for peaceful purposes, Vladimir Aksenov’s call sign was “Yastreb-2”. This was the first flight under the Intercosmos program, but the crew included only Soviet cosmonauts. Their main task was to test the new MKF-6 camera, photographing areas of various continents of the Earth, the territories of the Soviet Union and the GDR using a multispectral method. In addition, the latest navigation equipment was tested, biological experiments were carried out, and ship orientation techniques were developed.
The astronauts worked sixteen hours a day, the work required them to be very focused. Various types of failures also occurred. For example, after the cassettes loaded while still on the ground were filmed, they had to be replaced. The operation was performed in complete darkness and according to established techniques. However, it turned out that the rather complex mechanisms of the filmed cassettes jammed during removal. After several dozen unsuccessful attempts, the astronauts had a dilemma: try further or change it in the light, exposing quite large parts. Given the enormous information value of the photographs taken, the astronauts spent a lot of time trying to get the tapes in the dark until they succeeded. After returning, the designers modified the camera, and by the next time it was used on Salyut-6, this defect did not appear.
There was one more episode. The camera was not planned to be returned to Earth; it was to burn up along with the household compartment in the atmosphere. However, to further improve decoding techniques, filters were needed on all lenses. And at the unofficial request of scientists, the astronauts decided to dismantle them. The work was not provided for by the program; they had to disassemble and break the entire apparatus for several hours. As a result, various parts of the device scattered throughout the ship. However, the filters were returned to Earth.
On September 23, the astronauts landed safely. The recorded flight duration was 7 days, 21 hours, 52 minutes and 17 seconds. The results were considered very successful. The developed and decrypted photographic films produced a color image with a quality and richness of information that exceeded our wildest expectations. In addition, the Soyuz-22 flight was perfectly coordinated by various ground services planning surveys of the earth's surface, choosing routes for them and assessing weather conditions at the survey sites. All this allowed us to obtain almost 95% of images of excellent quality. During the entire flight, twenty million square kilometers of the earth's surface were photographed (of which 10 million were the territory of the USSR). For the successful completion of tasks, Vladimir Viktorovich Aksenov was awarded a “Gold Star”. The descent module of the ship on which he flew is now in the Tsiolkovsky Museum in the Ryazan region in the village of Izhevsk.
The second (and last) space flight of Vladimir Aksenov began on June 5, 1980. As a flight engineer (call sign “Jupiter-2”), he, together with crew commander Yuri Vasilievich Malyshev, tested the new transport spacecraft Soyuz T-2. The peculiarity of this ship was that all its main systems could be controlled through an on-board computer, the control panel and display from which were displayed to the crew. Spacecraft of this class did not yet exist in the world at that time. The American Shuttle, which also has centralized control through an on-board computer, set off on its first flight only a year later.
During the flight, the crew tested new onboard systems and practiced various control modes in a manned version. In addition, the cosmonauts were given a difficult task - to dock their spacecraft with the Salyut-6 orbital station, where cosmonauts Valery Ryumin and Leonid Popov were located. To do this, they needed to perform a complex maneuver: at the first stage, the approach of the Soyuz T-2 apparatus with the research complex took place in an automatic control mode, but further actions, namely direct approach to the station and mooring, had to be performed manually.
Neither Aksenov nor Malyshev could even imagine what difficulties they would have to face. When approaching the Salyut, the crew commander was unable to reach the calculated trajectory for docking. And the device had a limited supply of energy intended for maneuvers. Control of the ship is the exclusive prerogative of the commander, and during docking Aksenov could only sit in his chair and silently worry about the outcome of the operation. If the correction had failed, the astronauts would have flown past the station and returned to Earth without completing the main task. When there was very little energy left, Vladimir Viktorovich, unable to bear it, asked to transfer control to him. Surprisingly, however, Malyshev did not object. He later admitted that at that moment he clearly understood what he should do, although it went against all the “iron” instructions. Having completed all the required operations, Vladimir Aksenov managed to safely dock the Soyuz T-2 spacecraft with the Salyut-6 station from the side of the power module.
The test flight was accompanied by other emergency situations of various kinds, but all of them were successfully overcome. The flight was also considered successful, and the overall program was completely completed. All failures were eliminated on subsequent devices. The astronauts stayed in weightlessness for about four days (flight duration - 3 days, 22 hours, 19 minutes and 30 seconds). Upon arrival on Earth on June 9, Vladimir Aksenov and Yuri Malyshev were awarded Gold Star medals for the courage and heroism shown during the expedition.
While in the ranks of the detachment, Aksenov, like all civilian cosmonauts, simultaneously worked in the design bureau, participated in testing equipment and preparing crews for new flights into space. At the end of 1981, Vladimir successfully defended his dissertation at the Space Research Institute, receiving the degree of Candidate of Technical Sciences. For more than thirty years, he worked in various testing, design and engineering departments of the enterprise in various positions, eventually becoming deputy head of the complex, developing key systems for spacecraft: descent, docking, propulsion, etc.
Vladimir Viktorovich was expelled from the cosmonaut corps on October 17, 1988. In the same year, with the consent of the management, he moved to another department - the State Research Center for Hydrometeorology and the Study of Natural Resources - to the position of director. This Center was engaged in the creation of automatic satellites capable of studying the surface of the planet using space imaging methods. Work was carried out only in the direction of creating satellites, developing an instrument base for them and launching vehicles into orbit. This seemed insufficient to Aksenov. He was able to justify the need to create a closed system within the framework of one research and production association, including control of satellites in flight, receiving information from them and interpreting it in a form suitable for specific consumers (in particular, forestry workers, geologists, agricultural enterprises).
His proposal was considered, which resulted in a government decree on the creation of the NGO Planeta (in 1990). Vladimir Aksenov began to simultaneously serve as the general director of the NPO Planeta and director of the institute. The NPO Planeta, which was created and included the Research Center as its main division, was engaged in the development, production, and operation of automatic systems that study the Earth from space. Unfortunately, this association collapsed during the years of perestroika, after it completely lost state funding. On this occasion, Aksenov said in an interview: “What happened can be attributed to the trend of curtailing national space exploration programs at the end of the last century, a trend that we, astronautics specialists, found negative.”
Among other things, Vladimir Aksenov carried out considerable public work. He was deputy chairman of the Soviet Peace Foundation, then chairman of the standing commission “Peace and Sustainable Development” of the International Association of Peace Foundations, which the Soviet Foundation became in 1992. In 1996, he was appointed chairman of the Presidium of the public association “Spiritual Movement of Russia”, which studies world religions, problems of philosophy, issues of linguistics, the development of human cultures and the state structure of countries. Since 1999, the famous cosmonaut was a member of the Central Council of the public movement “Orthodox Russia”, and in 2001 he became president of the scientific foundation “Institute of Security and Sustainable Development”. Even one of these social loads would be enough for another person. However, Vladimir Viktorovich managed to make presentations on environmental issues, in particular, in Rio de Janeiro (at the World Conference on Environmental Problems) and at the UN in New York. He participated in many international conferences and was appointed chairman of the organizing committee of the first UN conference on conversion problems (in which over 100 countries took part).
In his free time, Vladimir Viktorovich went in for swimming, skiing, athletics, and played chess. He has sports ranks in all these sports. He loved to go hiking in the mountains for several weeks. Friends note his passion for singing in large companies, and Vladimir Viktorovich himself first of all names reading among his hobbies: “I am interested in philosophical and historical literature. Now it’s more professional, studying the origins of philosophy, religions, views that reflect different aspects of people’s ideas about the world.” In 1999, he wrote a short booklet called The Illusion of Security. It was published by the publishing house of the Patriot newspaper and is devoted to the problems of using nuclear weapons in modern military concepts. To the question: “What can astronautics achieve in the coming decades?”, Vladimir Viktorovich answers: “In my opinion, in the future it is imperative to develop national programs for the development of near-Earth space. Pay attention to targeted flights by individual ships. An observatory on the Moon can provide a considerable amount of new knowledge. This is a real project, especially if it is international. And of course, it is necessary to implement a flight to Mars. No machines operating according to a pre-set program can replace a person who has the ability to select an object of study and perform a comprehensive analysis.”
The authority of Vladimir Aksenov is great both in our country and abroad. Honest and modest, with enormous efficiency and deep knowledge, always ready to help everyone who turned to him. He never severed his ties with his small homeland, often came to Giblitsy, Kasimov and Ryazan, spoke to young people in work groups, met with scientists, local historians and journalists, and tried to help solve many problems at the federal level.
I would like to wish Vladimir Aksenov health and long life. The constant companion of this courageous man has always been and is his wife, Marina Vasilievna. They have two sons, now grown and married. The eldest son Valery is a candidate of economic sciences, he works at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The youngest son Sergei chose the profession of a doctor. Vladimir Viktorovich’s grandchildren are already growing up: Alexander and Ksenia.
From the biography of the astronaut at http://www.rgdrzn.ru/pages/show/honor/honor_detail/16 and an interview with him at http://88.210.62.157/content/numbers/226/37.shtml
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His father died at the front in 1944, his mother died in 1949.
The future cosmonaut was raised by his grandfather and grandmother, well-known teachers of Russian language and literature in the region.
In 1949, Vladimir Aksenov graduated from seven classes of school in the village of Giblitsy and entered an industrial technical school in the city of Kasimov. In the same year, due to the death of his mother, he moved to her sister in the city of Kaliningrad (now Korolev) in the Moscow region. In 1953 he graduated from the Mytishchi Mechanical Engineering College. He studied for two years at the 10th Military Aviation School for initial training of pilots in the city of Kremenchug (Poltava region, Ukraine), after which he became a cadet at the Chuguev Higher Military Aviation School of Pilots, but in 1956 he was transferred to the reserve due to a massive reduction in Air Force personnel .
Since 1957, Aksenov has been working at OKB-1 (now the S.P. Korolev Rocket and Space Corporation Energia). Designer, design engineer, after graduating from the All-Union Correspondence Polytechnic Institute with a degree in Mechanical Engineering Technology, Metal-Cutting Machine Tools and Tools (1963) - leading engineer, head of the flight test laboratory.
He led a flight test laboratory based on the Tu-104 aircraft, designed to create artificial weightlessness.
He practiced the actions of astronauts in outer space, including the transition from ship to ship. He made 250 flights on a simulator plane, was in conditions of artificial weightlessness 1250 times (about 10 hours) and 150 times in conditions of lunar gravity (about 40 minutes).
On March 27, 1973, the State Commission recommended him for enrollment in the cosmonaut corps.
In 1974-1976, Aksenov underwent training for a flight on the 7K-S transport ship, crewed by Leonid Kizim. Initially, 7K-S was developed for military-technical research, then (under the designation 7K-ST or Soyuz T) - for delivering crews to orbital stations.
From January to June 1976 he underwent training in a crew with Valery Bykovsky .
Vladimir Aksenov visited space twice as a flight engineer: on the Soyuz-22 spacecraft (crew commander Valery Bykovsky, call sign Yastreb) from September 15 to 23, 1976, and on the Soyuz T-2 spacecraft (crew commander Yuri Malyshev, call signs "Jupiter") from June 5 to June 9, 1980.
The total duration of Vladimir Aksenov's two flights into space is 11 days 20 hours 11 minutes 47 seconds.
Since 1984, Aksenov worked at the Yu. A. Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center as an instructor-cosmonaut-tester, developing control systems, docking and descent of spacecraft. Expelled from the cosmonaut corps on October 17, 1988 due to retirement and transfer to another job.
In October 1988, he became director of the State Research Center for the Study of Natural Resources (GOSNITSIPR), where they designed automatic spacecraft for remote sensing of the Earth. In 1990-1992, he headed the NPO Planet, which included GOSNIITSIPR and development enterprises. In 1990-1996 he was deputy chairman of the board of directors of Mosbusinessbank.
In 1983-1992, Vladimir Aksenov was deputy chairman of the board of the Soviet Peace Fund, then deputy chairman of the International Association of Peace Funds, chairman of the standing commission on the problems of “Peace and Sustainable Development”. He headed the presidium of the public organization "Spiritual Movement of Russia", is a member of the central council of the public movement "Orthodox Russia".
Vladimir Aksenov - lieutenant colonel reserve engineer, pilot-cosmonaut of the USSR, instructor-test cosmonaut 2nd class, Honored Master of Sports of the USSR.
Twice Hero of the Soviet Union (1976,1980), awarded two Orders of Lenin (1976, 1980), medals, including "For Merit in Space Exploration" (2011), as well as the Order of Karl Marx (GDR, 1976) and a gold medal " For services to science and humanity" (Academy of Sciences of the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic).
Honorary citizen of Ryazan, Kasimov, Kaluga, Zeya, Mytishchi district of the Moscow region, the village of Giblitsy of the Ryazan region, Jefferson County (Kentucky, USA).
Vladimir Aksenov is married, his wife Marina Vasilievna worked at NPO Energia, and is now retired. Sons Valery (born in 1964) and Sergei (born in 1970).
Aksyonov Vladimir Viktorovich - pilot-cosmonaut of the USSR, 36th cosmonaut of the USSR and 79th cosmonaut of the world, flight engineer of the Soyuz-22 spacecraft and the Soyuz T-2 transport ship.
Born on February 1, 1935 in the village of Giblitsy, now Giblitskoye rural settlement of the Kasimovsky district of the Ryazan region. Russian. In 1949, he graduated from seven classes of school in the village of Giblitsy and entered an industrial technical school in the city of Kasimov. In the same year he moved to the city of Kaliningrad (now Korolev) in the Moscow region. In 1953 he graduated from the Mytishchi Mechanical Engineering College.
In 1953-1955 he studied at the 10th Military Aviation School for initial training of pilots in the city of Kremenchug (Poltava region of the Ukrainian SSR). In 1955 he became a cadet at the Chuguev Higher Military Aviation School of Pilots, but in 1956 he was transferred to the reserve. In 1963 he graduated from the All-Union Correspondence Polytechnic Institute with a degree in Mechanical Engineering Technology, Metal-Cutting Machines and Tools.
From January 30, 1957, he worked as a 3rd category designer in the 5th department of OKB-1 (now RSC Energia OJSC named after S.P. Korolev). On August 18, 1957, he was transferred to the 18th department, where he first worked as a designer of the 3rd category, then of the 2nd category (from October 9, 1957), 1st category (from November 1, 1959), and as a design engineer (from 1 February 1962), senior design engineer (since July 1, 1963). From October 16, 1964, he worked as a senior engineer in the 90th department, from August 2, 1966 - head of the group of the 732nd department, from August 7, 1967 - head of the group of the 731st department of OKB-1.
From August 2, 1968 - leading engineer, from February 23, 1970 - head of the flight test laboratory of the 731st department of OKB-1. He led the flight test laboratory created on the Tu-104 aircraft, designed to create artificial weightlessness. He was involved in the assessment, design and experimental testing of spacecraft compartments. He practiced the actions of astronauts in outer space, including the transition from ship to ship, in conditions of artificial weightlessness and lunar gravity. He made 250 flights on a simulator plane, was in conditions of artificial weightlessness 1250 times (about 10 hours) and 150 times in conditions of lunar gravity (about 40 minutes).
I passed a medical examination at the Institute of Medical and Biological Problems only the second time. After this, an annual medical examination took place, since the certificate of fitness was given for only one year. The next conclusion of the Main Medical Commission on suitability for special training was received on February 24, 1972. At a meeting of the State Interdepartmental Commission on March 27, 1973, he was recommended for enrollment in the cosmonaut corps.
From January 1974 to January 1976, he trained for a flight on the 7K-S transport ship in the crew together with L.D. Kizim. At the same time, he headed a group of civilian flight engineers training under this program. Initially, 7K-S was developed as a ship for conducting military-technical research and experiments in autonomous flight, then, since 1974, for delivering crews to orbital stations. From January to June 1976, he was trained as a flight engineer of the first crew under the test program for the MKF-6 multispectral camera (manufactured in the GDR), together with V.F. Bykovsky.
He made his first flight into space from September 15 to 23, 1976 as a flight engineer of the Soyuz-22 spacecraft, together with V.F. Bykovsky. The flight was carried out as part of the Intercosmos program. The flight duration was 7 days 21 hours 52 minutes 17 seconds.
By Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR dated September 28, 1976, for the successful implementation of an orbital flight on the Soyuz-22 spacecraft and the courage and heroism shown during this Aksenov Vladimir Viktorovich awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union with the Order of Lenin and the Gold Star medal.
From September 1976 to October 1978 he continued training in the 7K-ST group. From October 1978 to May 1980, he was trained as a flight engineer of the Soyuz T spacecraft under the first test flight program, together with Yu.V. Malyshev.
He made his second flight into space from June 5 to June 9, 1980 as a flight engineer of the Soyuz T-2 transport ship (6th visiting expedition), together with Yu.V. Malyshev. The ship was docked with the orbital research complex "Salyut-6" - "Soyuz-36", on which the crew of the main expedition (L.I. Popov, V.V. Ryumin) worked. The flight duration was 3 days 22 hours 19 minutes 30 seconds.
The total duration of the two flights into space is 11 days 20 hours 11 minutes 47 seconds.
By a decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the SSR dated June 16, 1980, he was awarded the Order of Lenin and the second Gold Star medal for the successful testing in space of the improved Soyuz T-2 transport ship and for the courage and heroism displayed.
After the flight, he continued to work at the Yu.A. Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center and participated in preparing crews for new space flights. Since October 16, 1984, he worked as an instructor-test cosmonaut 2nd class, deputy head of complex No. 3. He was involved in the development of control systems, docking and descent of spacecraft and orbital stations. He was expelled from the cosmonaut corps on October 17, 1988 due to his retirement and transfer to another job.
In October 1988, he became director of the State Research Center for the Study of Natural Resources, which was engaged in the design of automatic spacecraft for remote sensing of the Earth. In 1990-1992, he was the general director of NPO Planeta. In 1990-1996, he was Deputy Chairman of the Board of Directors of Mosbusinessbank.
Conducts active social activities. In 1983-1992 he was deputy chairman of the board of the Soviet Peace Fund, since 1992 - deputy chairman of the International Association of Peace Funds, chairman of the standing commission on the problems of “Peace and Sustainable Development”. Since 1996, he has been chairman of the presidium of the public organization “Spiritual Movement of Russia”. Since 2001, he has been president of the scientific foundation “Institute of Security and Sustainable Development”.
Lives in Moscow.
Lieutenant Colonel-Engineer, pilot-cosmonaut of the USSR (09/28/1976), instructor-test cosmonaut 2nd class (07/17/1980), Honored Master of Sports of the USSR. He was awarded 2 Orders of Lenin (09/28/1976, 06/16/1980), medals, including “For Merit in Space Exploration” (04/12/2011), as well as the Order of Karl Marx (10/13/1976, GDR). Awarded the gold medal “For services to science and humanity” (Academy of Sciences of the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic).
Honorary citizen of Ryazan (11/29/1976).