History of space cooperation

In the history of relations between the USA and the USSR / Russia there were periods of aggravation of relations and detente, which, naturally, was reflected in the level of cooperation in space exploration. Now, in the next period of strained relations, I think it will be useful to recall how the interaction of our countries in space took place.

Luna-2 and English mediators

From left to right: "Luna-2" telescope. Lavella Jodrell Bank, Eisenhower and Khrushchev
September 12, 1959. The USSR launches the station "Luna-2" with the task of getting into the moon. The Soviet space program was very closed and usually did not announce preparations for the launch of any mission. In order for the world not to have any doubts about the reality of this launch, it would be good to receive a foreign confirmation of the lunar signal and a break in the signal when it hits the moon. It was not possible to contact the Americans directly - the Cold War closed the possibility of communication even for such a peaceful and scientific task. Therefore, it was decided to use a mediator - Professor Lavella, director of the English Observatory Jodrell Bank. The calculation was that the British would tell the station’s flight parameters to the Americans, who would track the Luna-2 flight with their observatories. This happened already on September 14, when the station crashed into the moon, NASA director Dryden told reporters about tracking Luna-2 together with Professor Lovell, confirming the success of the USSR.
On September 15, 1959, Khrushchev made a historic visit to the United States as part of a warming relationship between the superpowers, and a copy of the pennant that was delivered by Luna-2 to the moon was donated to Eisenhower.
Curiously, for the lunar automata of the E-1 series, the cold war did not end at this episode. The USSR organized an exhibition of its achievements, which traveled to exhibitions in capitalist countries. And the CIA spun a whole espionage operation involving dozens of people in order to secretly gain access to the exhibition copy, take measurements and photographs, and steal some of the forgotten wires in the station. It was found that this is a serial device, and not a model prepared for the exhibition, made fifth. Also, according to the measurement results, it was possible to make assumptions about the engine and the characteristics of the third stage ( block “E” ).

High visits

Tereshkova fastens the Armstrong badge in the CPC
Both astronauts and astronauts visited the cities of the “probable enemy”. In 1962, Titov visited the United States:

Glenn, Kennedy, Titov
( you can watch the movie ).
In 1969, astronaut Frank Borman (Gemini-7, Apollo-8) visited the USSR ( News of the Day ), in 1970, Neil Armstrong:

Ear in nature in the area of ​​Novosibirsk. From left to right: Feoktistov, Armstrong, Beregovoy, Academician Lavrentiev, photo source .
Tellingly, people gladly met astronauts and astronauts.

Spy story with "Lunokhod-2"

After landing, "Lunokhod-2" there was almost a spy story. I will quote "Cosmonautics News", No. 23, 1995 :
Oleg Genrikhovich Ivanovsky told a very amusing story about a photo map of the Lunokhod 2 area of ​​work. Immediately after landing the Moon-21 in the Sea of ​​Clarity, the American delegation arrived in Moscow to discuss the results and objectives of the exploration of the planets of the solar system. The meeting was held from January 29 to February 2, 1973 in IKI Academy of Sciences of the USSR. By that time, the landing coordinates of Lunokhod-2 had already been announced. At a meeting at IKI, one of the American scientists cautiously approached Ivanovsky and put a photo in his pocket. It was a detailed photograph of the landing area of ​​the Moon-21. The area was filmed by the Americans on the eve of the landing of the lunar module of Apollo 17. Using this photo in the future and planned route Lunokhod-2.
“Filed” photos turned out to be better than what Soviet scientists had, and new knowledge even changed the program of the Lunokhod-2 movement
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Apollo Soyuz

1970 year The Vietnam War continues. The USSR supports North Vietnam with weapons and military advisers, the United States is fully fighting on the side of South Vietnam and in May invade Cambodia. Nevertheless, on the initiative of Academician Keldysh and NASA Director Thomas Paine, the program of experimental joint flight begins. In October 1970 , a meeting of two delegations took place, working groups for the compatibility of Soviet and American ships were created. The program was officially approved on May 24, 1972.
Probably one of the main problems was the difference in the atmospheres of the ships. In the "Union" the atmosphere was with earth parameters (~ 1 atm, oxygen and nitrogen). In Apollo, pure oxygen under a pressure of 0.35 atm. If the ships simply connected and opened the hatches, the atmospheric automatics of the life support system would not work on both ships, and the astronauts on the Soyuz would feel symptoms of decompression sickness due to a drop in pressure. Therefore, firstly, the atmosphere of both ships was slightly changed (the pressure on the Soyuz was reduced and the Apollo was increased), and, secondly, a transit gateway was developed, in which in an hour of locking it would be possible to move from the ship to ship.
The second interesting technical detail was the androgynous docking unit, which could be used for both passive (the one that waited for the docking) and active (the one that maneuvered for docking) of the ships. Other versions of this unit were used in subsequent joint programs.
Meanwhile, the Vietnam War was in decline - the US was withdrawing from participation in it. On April 30, 1975, the troops of North Vietnam took Saigon, having won a complete and unconditional victory. Vietnam became communist. And on May 15, Soyuz and Apollo started for docking and joint flight.

The mission was very successful from a technical and political point of view. Apollo-Soyuz is probably the best point to signify the end of the Cosmic Race.

Shuttle World

In the 1980s, anything happened between the USSR and the USA. Reagan spoke of the “evil empire” and “declared a nuclear war” before a radio talk. The United States supported the Mujahideen in Afghanistan. The USSR fought with the Mujahideen and conducted large-scale military exercises, testing its readiness for a global nuclear war. But there was also the program “Shuttle Salute”, in which it was proposed to organize flights of “Space Shuttle” to the long-term orbital stations “Salyut”. Unfortunately, this proposal did not go further than ideas.
After the loss of the USSR in the Cold War, the idea was developed as a project "Shuttle-World". The United States did not have its own space stations, and the construction of the Freedom station in the 80s was canceled due to lack of money. And in Russia there was a Mir station and a serious problem with the money for astronautics in the chaos of the 90s. Therefore, already in 1993, the program of joint flights to the Mir station on Soyuz and Shuttle was announced. Thanks to this cooperation, the Spectr and Priroda modules appeared on Mir, which were equipped with equipment from the Russian Federation and the United States, as well as a docking module to provide shuttles docking (with the docking unit - development of the Soyuz-Apollo unit). The Spectrum module was launched after a five-year break in the construction of the Mir station, and most likely it would not have been without the Shuttle-Mir program.
The program "Shuttle World" gave very good results. For seven expeditions to visit the "Mir", 34 astronauts visited, the Americans flew for the first time in the crew of the "Union", and the Russians - the shuttle, many scientific experiments were conducted, interaction was established for the construction of the ISS.

ISS

If you think about it, and even temporarily shake off the habit of perception, then the ISS is a real wonder of the world. A huge station weighing 417 tons with a permanent crew of six people, built with the participation of 15 countries and recently celebrated its fifteenth anniversary. This outpost of humanity in space, born through cooperation on a global scale and giving hope for human progress beyond earth orbit. At the same time, besides the direct scientific goal of the ISS, it also changes us. Astronaut Mike Mullein in his book "Riding Rockets: The Astronaut Outrageous Tales of a Space Shuttle Astronaut" wrote (my translation):

ISS was built in collaboration with the Russians. Godless commies have become our friends. Even Bill Shepherd , who wrote “Swallow it, the dogs-commies” in the photo of the secret payload of the STS-27 mission, turned into Comrade Shepherd, who spent five months on the ISS with two Russians.

Comment on recent events

Alas, it is impossible not to comment on the recent news about the termination of NASA's cooperation with Russia. I am sad that the US government has put NASA in such a stupid and uncomfortable position:

1. First of all, the concept “we cooperate here, we don’t cooperate here, the fish were wrapped up” is puzzling. If you so want to quarrel, why not announce something more rational in the style of "We will execute the already started programs, but we will not start new ones with you?"
2. A consistent break in cooperation will cause damage to both parties, but more so to NASA. It's no secret that NASA will not be able to launch astronauts to the ISS by themselves at least until 2017, and has already signed a contract to launch until the summer of 2017. The American segment of the ISS is not self-sufficient and cannot go into “free swimming”. It is also not a secret that even the US military payload is being launched on the Atlas missiles with Russian RD-180 engines (the fiftieth launch had just taken place the other day). Do you plan to break the relationship here? What then do the United Launch Alliance, which earns on these launches? What to do Orbital Sciences Corporation, one of the now-praised "private companies" with the Antares rocket, which uses the NK-33?
3. The latest news that, as it turns out, “the State Department did not require NASA to suspend cooperation with Russia,” causes double bewilderment .

With such news, it remains only to express the hope that our overseas partners will calm down and act more rationally.
And, in conclusion, the very good position of cosmonaut Alexander Lazutkin: