Russia's Cosmonauts Inside the Yuri Gagarin Training Center Rex D. Hall, David J. Shayler and Bert Vis Russia's Cosmonauts Inside the Yuri Gagarin Training Center Published in association with Praxis Publishing Chichester, UK Rex D. Hall, MBE David J. Shayler Bert Vis Education Consultant Astronautical Historian Firefighter, Dutch Fire Service Chairman of the BIS Astro Info Service Den Haag London Halesowen The Netherlands UK West Midlands UK SPRINGER±PRAXIS BOOKS IN SPACE EXPLORATION SUBJECT ADVISORY EDITOR: John Mason B.Sc., M.Sc., Ph.D. ISBN 0-387-21894-7 Springer Berlin Heidelberg New York Springer is a part of Springer Science + Business Media (springeronline.com) Library of Congress Control Number: 2005922814 Apart from any fair dealing for the purposes of research or private study, or criticism or review, as permitted under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, this publication may only be reproduced, stored or transmitted, in any form or by any means, with the prior permission in writing of the publishers, or in the case of reprographic reproduction in accordance with the terms of licences issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency. Enquiries concerning reproduction outside those terms should be sent to the publishers. # Copyright, 2005 Praxis Publishing Ltd. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. Cover design: Jim Wilkie Project Copy Editor: Mike Shayler Typesetting: BookEns Ltd, Royston, Herts., UK Printed in Germany on acid-free paper This book is dedicated to the staff of the Cosmonaut Training Centre named for Yuri Gagarin who, over the last 40 years, have created a facility that has enabled science fiction to be turned into science fact. They have used their skills and knowledge, gathered from a wide range of disciplines, to enable humans to not only fly into space, but to learn to live and work there for long periods of time. Other books by the same authors in this series David J. Shayler and Rex D. Hall The Rocket Men (2001), ISBN 1-85233-391-X Soyuz: A Universal Spacecraft (2003), ISBN 1-85233-657-9 David J. Shayler Disasters and Accidents in Manned Spaceflight (2000), ISBN 1-85233-225-5 Skylab: America's Space Station (2001), ISBN 1-85233-407-X Gemini: Steps to the Moon (2001), ISBN 1-85233-405-3 Apollo: The Lost and Forgotten Missions (2002), ISBN 1-85233-575-0 Walking in Space (2004), ISBN 1-85233-710-9 With Ian Moule Women in Space: Following Valentina (2005), ISBN 1-85233-744-3 With Andrew Salmon and Michael D. Shayler Marswalk One: First Steps on a New Planet (2005), ISBN 1-85233-792-3 Table of Contents Foreword ..................................................... xiv Authors' Preface .............................................. xvii Acknowledgements .............................................. xxi List of Illustrations............................................. xxiii Prologue ....................................................xxvii THE COSMONAUT TRAINING CENTRE: BIRTH AND GROWTH ...... 1 Finding a Location .............................................. 1 TsPK's first buildings .......................................... 1 The simulator building ......................................... 2 Early EVA training ........................................... 4 Gymnasium ................................................. 4 Struggle for power ............................................ 4 TsPK gets renamed ........................................... 6 The centre expands............................................ 6 Reorganisation ................................................. 9 Boiler installations ........................................... 10 Profilactorium .............................................. 12 Centrifuge TsF-18 ........................................... 13 Engineering and Simulator Building . ............................ 16 Administration Building ....................................... 16 Hydrolaboratory ............................................ 17 The Buran program .......................................... 20 Another restructuring......................................... 22 Monuments, memorials and statues in TsPK ....................... 22 References .................................................... 27 SIMULATORS ................................................ 29 The First Simulators ............................................ 29 The difficult 1960s ........................................... 30 Early Soyuz and the lunar programme ............................ 31 viii Table of Contents Soyuz and Salyut............................................... 34 TKS/Almaz ................................................ 37 ASTP ..................................................... 39 Post-ASTP ................................................. 40 Buran..................................................... 41 Soyuz modifications .......................................... 42 A new player in the field ...................................... 44 The Mir Programme ............................................ 44 The International Space Station ................................. 47 Other simulators and means of training . ............................ 50 Parabolic flights ............................................. 50 Earth Observation ........................................... 52 EVA Training Facilities.......................................... 52 Simulating Spacewalking ...................................... 52 Hydrolab (underwater EVA training) Facility....................... 53 Vykhod 1 (EVA 1-g/zero-g) facility . ............................ 56 Vykhod 2 (EVA 1-g/zero-g) facility . ............................ 56 Russian EVA Training Development (1964-2004) ...................... 57 International EVA Training and Operations .......................... 62 Russian STS EVA training and operations ......................... 63 French Spationaut Salyut EVA training ........................... 63 EuroMir EVA training ........................................ 63 American Orlan training and operations........................... 63 US Astronaut Mir/Orlan EVA training ........................... 65 ISS Russian Segment EVA training . ............................ 66 JAXA candidate EVA training .................................. 67 Manned Manoeuvring Units ................................... 67 References .................................................... 70 OTHER NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL FACILITIES ............ 73 Russia ....................................................... 73 Energiya................................................... 73 TsUP Mission Control ± Moscow . ............................ 74 IMBP..................................................... 75 Khrunichev ................................................ 79 OKB-52 ................................................... 79 Zvezda .................................................... 79 Chkalovskiy Air Base......................................... 82 Interkosmos facilities ......................................... 82 Baykonur cosmodrome........................................ 82 Europe...................................................... 84 EAC ± Cologne ............................................. 84 United States of America......................................... 86 JSC ± Houston, Texas ........................................ 86 KSC ± Florida .............................................. 86 Table of Contents ix Canada ...................................................... 87 Japan....................................................... 89 Tsukuba Training Centre ...................................... 89 Cosmonaut training goes international. ............................ 90 References .................................................... 90 SURVIVAL TRAINING ......................................... 91 The Role of the Third Directorate .................................. 91 Winter Survival Training ...................................... 93 Desert Training and the Heat Chamber ........................... 96 Mountain Training........................................... 97 Swamp Training............................................. 98 Sea Recovery Training ........................................ 98 Parachute Jumping.......................................... 100 References ................................................... 104 THE COSMONAUT GROUP OF THE RGNII TsPK ................. 119 The First Selection............................................. 120 The First Female Selection .................................... 125 Women Cosmonauts Arrive at Star City . ........................... 125 Medical Selection of Cosmonauts ................................. 126 New Cosmonauts ........................................... 129 Command Structure Revised ..................................... 135 New Pilots and a New Direction ............................... 138 Forced Retirements ......................................... 138 Russian Cosmonauts Selected.................................. 139 References ................................................... 145 THE COSMONAUT GROUP OF RKK ENERGIYA.................. 147 Engineers in Space............................................. 147 Formal Structure Established at Energiya......................... 149 A New Chief Designer ....................................... 152 Russian