By akademiotoelektronik, 11/11/2022

Why should the spatial combination of Gagarin not appear in the photos?

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Before the members of the State Committee after his legendary flight, Iouri Gagarin, the first man to have gone into space, did not forget to specify a very important detail: "There, I took some photosfor pleasure.At that time, I had already removed the spatial combination.I only wore blue thermal clothes and I did not take photos with the orange and gray outfit and the pressurized helmet.We put the costume in the car ».

Gagarin landing capsule that joined the earth in the Saratov region

Sputnik

Indeed, in all the photos taken after landing, the cosmonaut is dressed in a hot jacket, which recalls a simple Soviet vatnik (hot clothing carried by prisoners in the camps).In fact, it is a B-3 thermal combination, carried by Gagarin under its space combination.However, the latter does not appear zero.

Why should the space combination be hidden?

That it flies without spatial combination

Guerman Titov (in the center on the left) and Iouri Gagarin (in the center, second on the left) familiarize themselves with space equipment at the Cosmonaut preparation center

Sputnik

The battle around the spatial combination for the first human flight in space was intense.What should the first cosmonaut in history have for such a perilous trip?

It seems absurd today, but at the time, some experts seriously thought that Iouri Gagarin could go there in this thermal outfit.It was designed to save the cosmonaut only after landing or bittering, and to avoid hypothermia;In case of depressurization of the spaceship in space, it was however of no use.In other words, they wanted to send the cosmonaut without spatial combination at all.

This option was envisaged because the designers of the Vostok spaceship realized, in February 1960, that they had serious overload problems and that they had to relieve the equipment as much as possible on board.At the same time, they made very optimistic forecasts: the probability of a depressurization of the cabin being very low, a spatial combination was therefore useless and only added weight.

Iouri Gagarine speaking on the phone with Khrushchev following his flight

Sputnik

The debate on the need for a spatial combination for the cosmonaut continued until the summer, when the father of Soviet cosmonautics, the designer Sergei Koroliov, decided.He said he was ready to "give 500 kg [to the detriment of the technical equipment of the ship], but to have a space combination with a survival system ready by the end of the year".

There was therefore 8 months incomplete before the flight planned to invent the first space combination of history-Gagarin's SK-1.

Read also: the first cosmonaut Iouri Gagarine as you had never seen it

The first costume

Gagarine combination

Ivtorov (CC BY-SA 4.0)

It was decided to take a shortcut and to use, as a prototype, the Vorkouta combination, intended for the pilots of su-9 hunters, where the regulation of the pressure and the oxygen supply were also crucial.

SK-1 was a "flexible" combination of two layers of fabric.One was in terephthalate polyethylene - a thermoplastic.At the time, it was the most recent material, obtained in the laboratory of macromolecular compounds of the Academy of Sciences relatively recently, in 1949.It was used to make the resistance layer of the space combination (today, it is used to produce plastic bottles, for example).

The second layer, called hermetic, was in rubber.The outer layer, visible by all, was an orange waterproof shell.It was orange to facilitate cosmonaut research operations, in case it ejects cockpit and parachute would land.

The helmet was irremovable and pressure sensors were connected to it.In the event of a pressure drop, the helmet closed automatically and the hose which breathes air into the inner layer of the combination from the cockpit of the ship was cut.The air supply would then come from the oxygen bottle.Of course, such a combination was not adapted to extravalicular outings in space, but the cosmonaut could wear it inside the cabin for five hours, regardless of the spacecraft.By the way, even the first space combination was already equipped with a sanitation device, so it was not necessary to remove it to relieve oneself.

Gagarin before takeoff

Sputnik

The SK-1 was strictly manufactured according to the standards of the first cosmonaut group, that is to say that it was not universal.The space combination, with the helmet, weighed 20 kg.We couldn't put such a suit without external help.There was a clear instruction on the way of proceeding - in what order to put the legs, the arms, etc..However, the costume was to be removed by oneself.

Gagarin actually wore several layers of clothing: underwear, a combination of thermal protection, a layer of terephtalate polyethylene, a layer of rubber, and finally the orange shell.But why shouldn't he be photographed in this outfit?

Read also: The evolution of Russian and Soviet Spatial Combinations of Gagarin to the present day (photos)

Man with secret mission

Gagarin after her return to earth, alongside Ota Bakhramov

Alexandre Sergueïev/Sputnik

The answer lies in the secret character of the spatial combination.It was rightly considered as a Soviet creation - the materials and all its construction in the conditions of the space race were assimilated to the state secret.The bright orange outer layer was, among other things, intended to hide in prying eyes what was below.

Iouri Gagarin, among his instructions, therefore received the order to take measures to save or destroy the spatial combination after landing, whatever the place.In order to control the process, one of the combination engineers, Ota Bakhramov, was sent to Gagarin.On April 12, 1961, he carried out a secret mission of which only a few people were aware.

Roscosmos

Bakhramo was to recover the spatial combination of Gagarin's hands or the head of the research and rescue team in the landing area.That day, the engineer in charge of this secret mission was photographed by several amateurs.This robust man carrying a hat and a sheepskin coat was taken by the inhabitants of the city of Engels for a bodyguard of the cosmonaut and a member of the state security service responsible for watching over the national hero.However, the truth was much more prosaic.Bakhramov had just come to seek the combination.

In this other article, we looked at the theory that there was a man in space before Gagarin.

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