Photo from open sources
It is known that in the period from 1967 to 1981 in low Earth orbit 40 manned spacecraft Soyuz were launched. Then Soyuz T and Soyuz TM ships appeared to deliver crews to Soviet orbital stations Salyut and Mir, and since February 2003 years and the International Space Station “Alpha”. All Unions designated by serial numbers: “Soyuz-1”, “Soyuz-2” and so on. But there is one exception: there were two “Unions” at number 18 – just Soyuz-18 and Soyuz-18-1.
Directories report that the previous ship, Soyuz-17, starting on January 11, 1975, delivered to the Salyut-4 station astronauts Alexei Gubarev and George Grechko. Soyuz-18 ship “threw” there the next crew – Peter Klimuk and Vitaly Sevastyanova. And about “Union 18-1” it is said that on it in April 1975 years cosmonauts Vasily Lazarev and Oleg Makarov made … suborbital flight (this is the movement of the spacecraft in ballistic trajectory, that is, along the trajectory of the artillery projectile – the ship does not go into orbit around the Earth).
In 1961, two such flights, 15 minutes each, fired Americans: in May – Rear Admiral Navy Alan Shepard and in July – Air Force Colonel Virgil Grissom. Their main goal was at least somehow smooth out the feeling of losing the American space program after the flight around the Earth by Yuri Gagarin.
Well, then, 14 years later, why did we need this very suborbital flight, and even on the “Union” with a strange double number (and the fact is that the flight did not receive a number, since in the USSR they assigned only to successful launches)?
AN EMERGENCY SITUATION
On the morning of April 5, 1975, a launch was being prepared at the Baikonur Cosmodrome. Soyuz-18 ship. The crew was Colonel, Hero of the Soviet Union Vasily G. Lazarev and engineer from OKB-1 named after S.P. Koroleva, candidate of technical sciences, Hero of the Soviet Union Oleg Grigorievich Makarov. Both of them flew together in September 1973 on Soyuz-12. This time, the colleagues went to the Salyut-4 station, to change the previous crew – Gubareva and Grechko – and work out there are not a dozen days.
Exactly at 10:30 the commander and flight engineer took places in the cockpit ship, and in the Mission Control Center began prelaunch countdown. The start went fine, the astronauts heard radio messages in Peter’s well-known voice Climuca:
“100 seconds of flight … Roll and deviation from the direction of flight in the norm. ”
“140 seconds. The pressure in the combustion chambers is stable.”
Devices in the cabin of the Union showed that the second stage the launch vehicle has already worked out. Aerodynamic fairing dropped, the ship left the dense layers of the earth’s atmosphere.
“260 seconds. All in by …”.
The message was interrupted, noise interference occurred, then the voice Klimuk was heard again, but somehow weak, and on him strange sounds overlapping, as if someone (or something) tried unsuccessfully to imitate human speech. Astronauts it seemed that such sounds could be made by a computer trying transmit some information through voice communication. However understand the content of this program, which lasted five to seven seconds, astronauts failed.
A few more seconds passed, the emergency siren howled in the cockpit alarm and at the same time a red light flashing with the inscription “Booster Crash.” By this time, the on-board stopwatch counted out 270 seconds of flight. Before going into orbit there was still same amount, but the failure of the third stage meant that the ship could not reach the calculated orbit, so the system should work emergency rescue, the lander will separate from the rocket and will rush to the Earth.
And at that moment, against the background of messages from the Control Center, which it sounded normal, it completely subsided, the astronauts heard again those weird sounds, like a clumsy imitation of a voice person. The crew again failed to understand their meaning, and there were it is not clear how anyone could connect to the radio channel outsider.
INCREDIBLE GROUNDING
When at an altitude of 192 kilometers the descent vehicle was thrown back from launch vehicle, he randomly somersaulted in the first seconds, and when This caused huge overloads. But soon the stabilization system “calmed” the device, and it began to fall smoothly to Earth. Overload replaced by a state of weightlessness. However, soon the cabin began vibrate with increasing intensity, and in the windows tongues of flame danced: this lander entered the dense layers of the atmosphere. Passed by like tracer shells some kind of fiery clots. There was a noise turning into a piercing whistle, and then a deafening howl. After some time the cabin shook violently several times, and at the same time astronauts felt that the speed of the fall of the device is slowing and the feeling of heaviness returns to them. Vibration is reduced, and then it stopped altogether. Now the cabin just swayed slightly which indicated the activation of the braking parachute.
By this moment, Baikonur already knew that with a booster an accident has occurred. Now everyone was worried about one thought: reacted spacecraft life support system properly? But from the speakers Lazarev’s voice was heard, and in the hall came joyful exclamations: that means the astronauts are alive, and the connection with them works!
We determined the position of the descent vehicle: it was above Altai mountains, near the border with China, about two thousand kilometers from Baikonur.
“Attention, you are over the South-West Altai!” – transferred to the astronauts from Control center. – Go down into the mountains, be careful and be careful! The search and rescue team is already flying out. Hold on they’ll find you soon! ”
Lazarev and Makarov understood that the warning of the Center was not empty words. Below them were hard-to-reach snow-capped mountain peaks. up to three thousand meters high, steep cliffs, steep slopes, abysses. However, astronauts could not make any maneuver. A the cabin continued to slowly decline, swaying under the dome parachute. It only remained to rely on the mercy of fate.
But the crew felt a powerful push, and the descent of the cockpit stopped. She finally found herself on solid ground. Now according regulations, one of the astronauts must press the device button, shooting parachute from the descent vehicle to a giant the dome under the influence of a gust of wind did not drag the cabin on the ground, which with this relief it would be very dangerous. But both astronauts so exhausted that at that moment they simply could not move. Meanwhile, the cabin remained motionless and was almost upright. Over time Lazarev and Makarov felt that they were already able to move, but some kind of “inner voice” strongly advised them not to touch parachute launch button. Instead, they opened the hatch and climbed out. out.
From what they saw, they felt uneasy. Some wonderful force hooked the canopy of a parachute over a ledge of a cliff overgrown with thick shrubbery, and only because of this stretched slings kept the lander on a steep hillside that a few meters below it broke into a deep abyss. Some kind while the astronauts silently and motionless stood almost waist-deep in the snow next to the lander. It was clear to both of them what would happen if they, following the instructions, were separated from him parachute.
THEY DECIDED TO MAKE SURE THAT EVERYTHING IS OK?
When night fell, the astronauts lit a fire. Soon in the sky airplanes appeared above them, they signaled that the place touchdowns detected and flew away. Lazarev and Makarov were sitting near dying bonfire – in silence under the starry sky.
And suddenly they heard a whistle growing in the air and at the same time saw in the sky some kind of luminous object hovering directly above them. To determine its shape, as well as the height above the ground, astronauts do not could. It was only a bright spot, sparkling with violet light. The object hung like that for half a minute, and then, as if making sure that everything okay disappeared.
“I still not only have no doubt that then we with their own eyes they saw a UFO, but also quite sure that this the object tried to contact us using our channel radio communications, “said Vasily Lazarev in an interview with West German reporters in 1996. And added:
“I think that only thanks to his intervention did we land then safe and sound in the highlands, the relief of which more like a moon than an earth. ”
When reporters asked Lazarev why neither he nor Makarov after returning to Baikonur they did not say anything about UFOs, he replied that in those days, if pilots or astronauts reported that seen in the sky unknown objects or any supernatural phenomena, they were suspended from further flights. Lazarev also said that the tape on which their negotiations with the MCC were recorded, and where those same mysterious sounds were clearly audible, subsequently carefully studied. True, the research results nothing to him. it is known, but he knows that then this film disappeared.
USSR Rocket Time �
