My heart aches for the cancellation of the Russian plan to send humans to the moon

This is what the participants of a panel of Soviet space program veterans said at the Sputnik jubilee conference held at the Air Force Base on Wednesday

As part of the Sputnik Jubilee Conference, a panel was held with the participation of three veterans of the Soviet Union's space program who immigrated to Israel at the end of their days. Discount - Tal Amber. Note: except for the moderator, all the panelists spoke Russian, and the translation is mostly based on the simultaneous translation, with attempts to improve it)

Tal Inbar introduces the participants in the panel: "The list of space veterans living in Israel covers almost every project that was in the Soviet Union. We are here with Prof. and Tsislav Fromanko worked as deputy director of Yuzhnoy Space Corporation in Ukraine. Semyon Lipkin worked at Kuznetsov Corporation developing rocket engines. Lashrov 25 years at the Zvzda company - worked in the development of space suits. I will ask each of the participants to tell one interesting story from his time working in the space program.

The first speaker was Semyon Lipkin: "The Minister of Defense gave an order to close the NK-33 rocket engine program (the Russian program for manned launches to the moon that was shelved by order of Brezhnev in 1974). Kuznitsov, who ran the place, simply hid the engines in the shack and the local security services helped him. In 92, when the previous ministers resigned with the disintegration of the Soviet Union, the engines were taken out of the shack and it was concluded that they could be tried again. After 18 years the engines continued to work successfully. The Americans purchased the engine and did an experiment, and saw that the results were incredibly good - it was even more successful than the Saturn rocket engines

Vachyslav Promenko: - I cannot help but thank the conference organizers for what they did. My name is Promenko Vyachyslav, deputy director of the Eugenia Corporation in Ukraine. I worked there from 1958 to 1996, then immigrated to Israel. Among the army they said that Korolov works for Tass - the Russian news agency, and Chelomey works for the toilet, so it can be said that there were also important events, also great achievements, and great tragedies. It started with me as a young scientist in 1960 going to Baikonur to participate in the launch of the first intercontinental missile R-16 and there was a failure, a big disaster. Marshal Niedlin lost his life in this disaster and I was 22 years old. I arrived at this place and participated in this launch. I worked at a factory in the city of Dnipropetrovs'k in Ukraine that was engaged in the production of military missiles and satellites for military needs and the main achievements in the end were that precisely in our space research department we were able to develop the MR-16 missile or according to the American model -20SS and other missiles. Some of these missiles are related to the entry of the Soviet Union into Afghanistan. Not far from the border with Afghanistan was a standby array of 256 SS-18 (Satan) missiles. Just imagine 256 missiles each with 10 warheads weighing one megaton, that's ten cities like Hiroshima. You can imagine the power. Many positions for SS-18 missiles (Satan - today the Dnieper satellite launcher) and you can see the remains to this day not far from Afghanistan, and when our colleagues began to act so that the American Pershings that were located in Afghanistan would not threaten this system, the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan. Not only because the elders of the Soviet Union sat inside the Politburo and they were no longer wise and did not know how to manage the affairs of the state, but also because of the missiles. I finished my work in Dnepropetrovsk in the Zenith missile development project in cooperation with Boeing, Norway and Russia - this is a missile for launching satellites from the sea (Sea Launch).

Tal Inbar: How did you feel when the moon plan was canceled?

Fromenko: "There was a terrible feeling, a feeling of grief. All those who developed this missile moved to the department of the TRD engines and we actually did not know, none of us knew, except for a few that the engines were not destroyed and are kept in our shack in a remote place and the engines remained there for several years. After that, as I said, they were opened and sent for testing, and now there are competitors for these engines also in Russia, apparently it has not yet been decided who will participate in this project

Ilya Osherov: "I worked in a space company that is unique in the world because with the Americans, the research in the field of these space suits is scattered among all kinds of institutes and in the Soviet Union they were focused in one place. To this day, this company is engaged in the production of systems and the supply of life systems for pilots and astronauts, as well as rescue means for pilots and astronauts. The company is very successful in this regard. this. The company today has the most successful semi-rigid space suit designed for the cosmonauts to go into open space, and this suit has many advantages and is superior to many models made in the USA, and now it is also used by American astronauts on the space station, because the suit is safer and also allows for more useful work. The first Sputnik launch was not a toy or a toy that was the first time we went into open space. The satellite announced the beginning of a new era in the life of mankind. Because the satellite gave such a strong boost to the development of science and technology that we experience to this day in all areas of life. Unfortunately, the spiritual values ​​did not develop at the same pace as the scientific development and it is a shame that it is so.

"I specialized in the development of space suits. In the beginning, we developed flexible suits - rescue suits and used them inside the spaceships during the launch and when returning to Earth. The first cosmonauts - Gagarin and those who came after him flew in the same suits. Today's cosmonauts take off their suits inside the spacecraft and put them on only when necessary. I was involved in the development of the important suit for going into the ORLAN DMA development space - today I am still in contact with the company, in partnership with one company that works near NASA and the European Agency on the basis of the suit we developed, and I personally also participated in the development of intra-spacecraft systems, since the suit is part of the entire system we developed . Some of the equipment was developed by an energy corporation, but we had our own systems that were integrated into the Soviet and Russian systems, and as a result of the cooperation with the space agencies of the USA and Europe, we designed a state-of-the-art space suit. When we see exits to open space on TV, I see with my own eyes the fruit of my work. I worked as a top-level planner, they tried to transfer me to the management, and I never agreed that the development work was related - it was my life and I always aspired to create and be involved in the production process and not to manage."

Tal Inbar adds that the astronauts on the International Space Station threw away one of the space suits from the space station at the end of its life and put a radio transmitter in it. She became a kind of small satellite. They thought she would last two days and she lasted two months.