Valery Nikolayevich Kubasov

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Valery Nikolayevich Kubasov
Valery Nikolayevich Kubasov
Country: Soviet UnionSoviet Union Soviet Union
Organization: ZKBEM
selected on 1966/27. May 1968
Calls: 3 space flights
Start of the
first space flight: 		October 11, 1969
Landing of the
last space flight: 		3rd June 1980
Time in space: 18d 17h 59min 22s
retired on 3rd November 1993
Space flights

Valery Nikolajewitsch Kubassow ( Russian Валерий Николаевич Кубасов , scientific transliteration Valerij Nikolaevič Kubasov ; born  January 7, 1935 in Vyazniki , Vladimir Oblast , Russian SFSR ; † February 19, 2014 ) was a Soviet cosmonaut .

Work as a designer

Valery Kubasov graduated from the Moscow Aviation Institute with an engineering degree in 1958 . In the early days of manned Soviet space travel, he worked in OKB-1 (renamed in 1966 as "Central Design Office for Experimental Mechanical Engineering") under the chief designer Sergei Koroljow .

Spaceman career

Candidate for the first Vozhod flight

After the Vostok program has been successfully completed, the next manned space flights with Vozhod spaceships should be carried out. At Woschod 1 , only one of the three space travelers was supposed to be a trained pilot, the other two places were intended for a doctor and a scientist or engineer. Kubasov was one of the 14 candidates proposed by OKB-1 in May 1964. He was also among the six that were shortlisted, but Konstantin Feoktistov was ultimately selected for the flight.

Substitute for early Soyuz flights

On a second attempt, Kubasov was integrated into the cosmonaut group in May 1966. At that time the first two manned flights of the new Soyuz spacecraft were being planned. Soyuz 1 was to launch with a single cosmonaut on board, Soyuz 2 with three, with two spacemen leaving their spaceship and transferring to Soyuz 1. The choice of crew developed into a heated dispute. Korolyov's successor, Vasily Mishin , wanted his engineers, including Kubasov, on board. The head of cosmonaut training, Nikolai Kamanin , dismissed this as completely unrealistic because there was not enough time for a well-founded training.

In July 1966, Kubasov was under discussion as a flight engineer for Soyuz 2, and in September he finally took up formal training. Although he had a very good background in aerospace engineering, there was not enough time to qualify him as a spaceman. In November 1966, Kubasov was assigned as a substitute for Soyuz 2. Kubassow would have had a good chance of replacing Alexei Yeliseyev from the main team, because Yeliseyev by no means had much more experience and, for political reasons, was not well regarded at higher levels.

The double launch of Soyuz 1 and Soyuz 2 was scheduled for April 23 and 24, 1967. After Soyuz 1 experienced serious problems in orbit, Soyuz 2 launch was canceled. When Soyuz 1 landed, the parachute failed and cosmonaut Vladimir Komarov was killed, setting the manned space flight of the Soviet Union back by almost two years.

During this time, Kubasov was assigned to the lunar program and could hope for a further assignment to the replacement team on a Soyuz flight. The maneuver planned with Soyuz 1 and 2 with a transfer of two cosmonauts from one spaceship to another was then carried out in January 1969 with Soyuz 4 and Soyuz 5 . Again Kubassow was substitute for Jelissejew, but was not used.

Soyuz 6: First flight

In April 1969 Kubasov was then assigned to a main team for the first time, he was nominated as a flight engineer by Soyuz 6 .

Kubasov took off on his first space flight on October 11, 1969 together with his commander Georgi Schonin . Your spaceship took part in a group flight with Soyuz 7 and Soyuz 8 . A coupling of Soyuz 7 and Soyuz 8 was planned, which was to be observed by Kubassow and Schonin from Soyuz 6, but the coupling did not take place because the Igla approach system failed on all three spaceships. Schonin and Kubassow were at least able to test the Vulkan vacuum welding machine, which was set up in the evacuated orbital module and controlled remotely from the return module. Soyuz 6 landed on October 16.

No flight to Salyut 1

After the Americans won the race to the moon, Soviet space travel focused on building a space station. Salyut 1 started on April 19, 1971. Kubasov was a substitute for the first crew with Soyuz 10 , but was not used. However, the flight of Soyuz 10 had to be canceled because the spaceship was able to dock with Salyut 1, but no pressure-tight connection could be established.

Thus, as a flight engineer for Soyuz 11 , Kubasov had the chance to belong to the first space station crew in history. Three days before takeoff, a medical exam revealed shadows on his lungs. The doctors diagnosed this as the onset of tuberculosis and denied him the ability to fly. With him, his teammates Alexei Leonow and Pyotr Kolodin lost their place in Soyuz 11. It was the substitute team with Georgi Dobrowolski , Viktor Pazajew and Wladislaw Volkov that set a new long-term record on board the Salyut 1.

While Leonow and Kolodin were now planned for Soyuz 12, Kubassow was no longer included in the classification due to the suspicion of tuberculosis. When the Soyuz 11 crew died on landing, all plans were put on hold. Kubassov's inability to fly had saved his and his two comrades' lives, but had sent three others to their deaths.

The diagnosis turned out to be wrong, however, Kubasov did not suffer from tuberculosis and was thus a candidate for a stay on board the second space station, but Salyut 2A exploded on July 29, 1972 shortly after take-off, so that the planned flight of Soyuz 12 was canceled has been. The next two launches of a space station on April 3, 1973 and May 11, 1973 also failed, but it is unclear whether Kubasov was intended as a crew for this, because on May 24, 1973 he was officially presented for another project: the Apollo Soyuz Test Project (ASTP).

Soyuz 19: First international space flight

Together with the commander Alexei Leonow , Kubasov was to form the crew of a Soyuz spacecraft, which was to couple to an American Apollo spacecraft in earth orbit . This first international space flight required intensive preparation with several trips to the USA.

On July 15, 1975, Kubasov and Leonov took off on board Soyuz 19 . It was the first Soviet launch to be televised live. Two days later, the Apollo spacecraft, which carried a specially constructed lock with a coupling adapter, docked. Kubassow spent almost five hours with Tom Stafford , Deke Slayton and Vance Brand on board the Apollo. The return to earth took place on July 21st.

Soyuz 36: Intercosm flight to Salyut 6

For the Americans, after the ASTP, a long pause began until the space shuttle was first launched , while the Soviet Union continued to focus on building and operating space stations. As part of the Interkosmos program, pilots from friendly nations were also accepted as guests in spaceships and space stations.

One such flight, carried out together with a spaceman from Poland , was Soyuz 30 . Kubassow was a substitute for the commander Pyotr Klimuk , but was not used. His research cosmonaut would have been Zenon Jankowski . The flight took place from June 27 to July 5, 1978.

Two years later, Kubasov made his third space flight and his first and only command. On May 26, 1980 he took off with Soyuz 36 to the Salyut 6 space station . Bertalan Farkas from Hungary was on board . After Nikolai Rukawischnikow , Kubassov was the second civilian to become the commander of a manned Soviet space flight. In addition to the scientific program, it was the task of this short-term flight to supply the space station crew Leonid Popov and Valeri Ryumin with a new spaceship. Kubasov and Farkas returned to Earth on June 3 aboard the Soyuz 35 .

After the last space flight

In the following years Valery Kubasov worked again as a designer and on the development of the Mir space station . He left the active cosmonaut corps on November 3, 1993 and became the deputy director of RKK Energija .

Private

Kubasov was married and had two children.

See also

literature

Web links

Commons : Valery Kubasov  - Collection of Pictures, Videos and Audio Files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Participants in the Russian-American Soyuz Apollo mission to Kubasov have died. RIA Novosti, February 20, 2014, accessed February 21, 2014 .
personal data
SURNAME Kubasov, Valery Nikolayevich
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Кубасов, Валерий Николаевич (Russian)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION soviet cosmonaut
DATE OF BIRTH January 7, 1935
PLACE OF BIRTH Vyazniki , Vladimir Oblast , Russian SFSR , Soviet Union
DATE OF DEATH 19th February 2014