Text 2. Gagarin’s First Flight

On April 12, 1961, Soviet Air Force pilot Yuri Alekseyevich Gagarin, riding atop a powerful booster rocket, inside the Vostok spaceship developed by Chief Designer Sergei Pavlovich Korolev, ascended into low Earth orbit.

The first ever manned space mission and a great boost to Soviet science and technology in the eyes of the world ensured that Gagarin entered the ranks of the immortals.

Despite many sensational contemporary stories of cosmonauts being stranded and dying in orbit, or returning to Earth in a mentally unbalanced state and other fates, it is now established that Gagarin’s flight was the first attempt by the Soviets to launch a manned spacecraft.

A young pilot risked his life to pave the new frontier for humanity.

Countless books and films have been made which glorify him and the achievement of that day in 1961.

Gagarin was chosen from an initial batch of 20 candidates who began to report to their training camp in March 1960. Six were chosen from this group to train intensively for the first manned flight into outer space. They were: Yuri Gagarin, German Titov, Gregori Nelyubov, Andrian Nikolaev, Pavel Popovich and Valeri Bykovski.

The small group was chosen after the Vostok simulator had been built on the understanding that it would be too time-consuming to train all the candidates in the group. The simulator instructor was test pilot Mark Gallei.

Gagarin was the first to volunteer to try out the spherical Vostok capsule. By all accounts, Gagarin was the overwhelming choice of the group of candidates to make the first flight, in a poll, only three other names were suggested by the cosmonauts as candidates for the first mission.

The Vostok spacecraft made several flights before the first manned launch, with a mixture of success and failure.

The first Vostok spacecraft launched on May 15, 1960, had no thermal coating; no parachute system and no ejection seat mechanism. It was launched to test flight control systems and was not intended for return to Earth. However, the spacecraft’s infrared sensor failed and the spacecraft was oriented with its braking nozzles downwards. The braking system, when it was activated, fired the spacecraft into a higher orbit.

The second Vostok, launched August 19, 1960, landed safely with the first live specimens flown into space and returned to Earth. These were two dogs – Belka (who vomited on the fourth orbit) and Strelka, two rats, 28 mice and a swarm of pomace flies.

The third mission, launched on December 1, 1960, failed to return safely to Earth when the braking system malfunctioned and the craft burned up in the atmosphere. The test animal aboard became the first to die during reentry from a space mission.

Three weeks late a Vostok was involved in a launch failure. The descent section of the craft was safely separated and the animals aboard survived.

The next launch was on March 9, 1961. The craft carried a dog, Chernushka, and an anthropometric mannequin which held cages with rats, mice and tissue and microorganism samples attached to its chest, stomach and legs. The flight lasted 115 minutes.

 

Vocabulary:

1. booster rocket - ракетный ускоритель, стартовый ракетный двигатель
2. to ascend – подниматься, восходить
3. boost – поддержка, польза
4. stranded – забытый, оставленный
5. attempt – попытка
6. initial - начальный, исходный
7. batch - группа (людей)
8. by all accounts – по общим отзывам
9. overwhelming – несметный, огромный
10. poll - голосование, баллотировка
11. ejection seat – катапультирование
12. to intend – намереваться, планировать
13. infrared sensor - датчик инфракрасного излучения, ИК-датчик
14. nozzle – сопло, форсунка
15. specimen – образец, экземпляр
16. to vomit – страдать рвотой, тошнить
17. swarm – рой
18. pomace (fruit) fly - дрозофила, плодовая мушка
19. to malfunction - не срабатывать, работать неисправно
20. tissue – ткань, материя

 

I. Answer the following questions:

1. Why did Gagarin enter the ranks of the immortals?
2. What candidates did train intensively for the first manned flight?
3. How did the first Vostok spacecraft equipped? What was its mission?
4. What live specimens were flown into space and returned to Earth during the second flight of Vostok?
5. How many times was Vostok launched into space? Were these launches helpful to our science and cosmonautics or not?

 

II. Find the English equivalents of the following phrases:

o выходить на орбиту

o огромная польза для науки

o первая попытка

o сенсационные истории о космонавтах

o трудоёмкий (требующий много времени)

o предложенные кандидатуры

o удача и провал

o вернуться в целости и сохранности

o огромное количество кандидатов

 

III. Make up your own sentences using the phrases listed above.

 

IV. Give the definitions to the following words:

– candidate

– mission

– cosmonaut

– mechanism

– to survive

– choice

 

V. Read the following statements and discuss them with a partner:

1. The first ever manned space mission in the eyes of the world ensured that Gagarin entered the ranks of the immortals.

2. The Vostok spacecraft made several flights before the first manned launch, with a mixture of success and failure.

3. The small group was chosen after the Vostok simulator had been built on the understanding that it would be too time-consuming to train all the candidates in the group.

4. The first Vostok spacecrafts were not equipped properly, that’s why there were many failures during the flight.

 

Giving your opinion you may find the following expressions helpful:

By the way as for me I’d like to know

I see I’m afraid I wonder

It seems to me that I don’t know exactly If I’m not mistaken

 

Text 3. Manned Flights

 

In the last years a new line has emerged in cosmonautics. This line is manned flights in long-life orbital scientific stations. The first vehicle of this kind was the Salyut orbital station. The flights of the Salyut orbital station lasted nearly six months and consisted of several stages. The first stage was marked by the joint flight of the station with the Soyuz-10 spaceship. The crew executed the rendezvous and docking of the Soyuz-10 spaceship to the Salyut station. They checked the functioning of the onboard systems ensuring the delivery of the expeditions aboard the station. After the station had been a month and a half in orbit the Soyuz-11 transport spaceship delivered another crew to the station, which fulfilled a vast research program. The cosmonauts conducted a number of investigations and experiments in the interests of the national economy, they executed observations and took photographs of geological and geographical objects of the Earth’s surface, of atmospheric formations, of the snow and ice cover of the planet.

During this flight the crew carried out a considerable program of medical and biological experiments, measurements and tests to determine the optimal conditions for the life and work of cosmonauts and to establish the possibilities for the fulfillment of different jobs in space. After three and a half month manned flight the Salyut station functioned automatically.

Manned flights of our crews in circumterrestrial space cover a wide range of problems and tasks associated with space research and exploration. Among these the main are:

- improvement of manned spacecraft, development of methods of navigation and control of spacecraft;

- investigation of the physical characteristics of near space, of phenomena and processes occurring in it;

- astrophysical research and observation of the Sun, Moon, stars and planets;

- observation and survey of geological and geographical objects on the Earth’s surface to utilize the data thus obtained for the benefit of the national economy;

- observation and photography of atmospheric formations, the snow and ice cover of the Earth to use the data obtained in short and long-term weather forecasting;

- medical and biological research to study the effect of space flight factors on the human organism.

These tasks were being accomplished both with the help of orbital manned and automatic stations of the Soyuz spaceships. The space crew conducted a thorough comprehensive check and trial of the improved ship’s systems.

On the whole it was a test flight which confirmed the reliability of improved design, on-board systems and units.

The next purpose of the next flight was to conduct astrophysical observations of stars in the ultraviolet band.

 

 

Vocabulary:

1. to emerge – появляться, возникать
2. to execute – осуществлять, выполнять
3. vast – широкий, обширный
4. observation - наблюдение
5. to carry out - выполнять
6. to determine – определять, устанавливать
7. to establish – учреждать, устанавливать
8. circumterrestrial - околоземный
9. near space – ближний космос
10. survey – обзор, осмотр
11. to utilize – использовать, расходовать, употреблять
12. to accomplish – совершать, выполнять, достигать
13. thorough – доскональный, тщательный, основательный
14. comprehensive - всесторонний, полный, всеобъемлющий
15. trial – испытание, проба
16. to confirm – подтверждать, подкреплять
17. ultraviolet band - УФ-диапазон

 

 

I. Answer the following questions:

1. What new line has emerged in cosmonautics?
2. What did the crew of the Soyuz-10 spaceship execute?
3. Where did the Soyuz-11 transport the crew? What was the purpose of its flight?
4. Can you enumerate any of the tasks associated with space exploration?
5. Have all the tasks described in the text been accomplished by the crew?
6. What was the purpose of the next flight?

 

 

II. Find the English equivalents of the following phrases:

· воздействие космоса на человеческий организм

· прогноз погоды

· проводить наблюдения

· исследование ближнего космоса

· оптимальные условия для жизни и работы

· надёжность систем и приборов на борту корабля

· доставка команды корабля на станцию

· делать фотографии различных объектов

· пилотируемый космический корабль

· атмосферные изменения (образования)

· совершить полёт и состыковку

· тщательное (подробное) исследование

 

 

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