How astronauts were lost

On the morning of July 7, the Soyuz spacecraft of the new MS version successfully launched to the ISS. Various systems were improved in it, and for the first time telemetry and voice communication with astronauts will be available at any turn. Space communication even in a near-earth orbit is not as simple as it may seem, and the history of astronautics keeps many stories, as because of problems with communication for some time astronauts were “lost”.

A bit of physics

Why are there any problems with communication in space? Just because the earth is round. And on the round Earth, the radio waves propagate in different ways. Ultrashort waves (VHF, UHF) propagate only in the direct line of sight, and when your interlocutor disappears over the horizon, the connection disappears. Short waves (HF, HF, VHF), in addition to direct visibility, can be reflected from the ionosphere, and you can talk with a very distant interlocutor. There are stories about how, in the region of the south pole, they listened to the KV radio of Moscow, which came down through multiple reflections from a powerful layer in the ionosphere.


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In the first spacecraft, receivers and transmitters of the HF and VHF bands were used. Despite reflection from the ionosphere, communication with the spacecraft on short waves is possible. Therefore, in the field of visibility of ground stations, VHF was usually used, and outside of them they hoped for HF communications, which could or could not be.

First flights

From the very first flights, astronauts were required to keep in touch, to keep a report in order to duplicate the telemetry readings and more fully than the instruments, to report their well-being. And the inevitable problems with communication led to the fact that in the historical negotiations of the first flights the interlocutors constantly try to check whether they are heard?

Fragment of talks between Yuri Gagarin and the Earth on the VHF channel:

9.25
Cedar: "Dawn-3" on the link. How do you hear me?
Cedar: "Zarya-3", how do you hear me, how do you hear me? "Spring" can not hear, can not hear "Spring" ...
Dawn 3 (Karpenko): I understand you, I hear satisfactorily.
Cedar: The flight goes well, everything goes well. What can you tell me?
9.26
Cedar: The flight is successful. The feeling of weightlessness is normal. Feeling good. All appliances, the whole system works well. What can you tell me?
Dawn 3 (Karpenko): I hear you well, the devices are working normally, the state of health is normal.
Cedar: I hear you perfectly. What can you say about the flight? What can you tell me?
Dawn 3 (Karpenko): There are no instructions from the 20th (Queen), the flight is proceeding normally.
9.27
Cedar: I understand you, there are no instructions from the 20th. Report your flight details! Hi Blondin! (The cosmonaut of the station lontov LEONOV, who was on the VHF of the Zarya-3 radio station in Yelizovo, was named the blond one).
Dawn 3 (Karpenko): How do you hear me?
Cedar: I hear you well. Like me?
9.29
Dawn 3 (Karpenko): How do you feel?
Cedar: My health is excellent, excellent, excellent, excellent. Let me know the results of the flight!
Dawn 3 (Karpenko): Repeat, I can not hear.
Cedar: I feel very good, very good, good.
9.30
Cedar: Tell me your flight details!
Dawn 3 (Karpenko): How can I hear?

In Gagarin’s flight with the call sign “Zarya”, negotiations were conducted on VHF, and on HF, the call sign “Spring” was used:

1. Novosibirsk
The station worked on the transmission from 9.22 to 9.39. A variety of music was transmitted on board, and against the background of music by the telegraph, the call sign “BCH” after 30 seconds. Messages from the board did not accept.

2. Alma-Ata
The station worked from 9.52 to 10.02 on the transfer. The songs were transmitted by Baglanova and on the background of the songs by the telegraph, the call sign “BCH” after 30 seconds. From the board did not receive signals.

3. Khabarovsk
The station worked from 9.42 to 9.52 for transmission according to the program. The “Amur Waves” were also transmitted, and against the background of the song by the telegraph, the call sign “BCH” after 30 seconds. Signals from the board were received, starting from 9.21 to 10.11 with interruptions. Two-way communication was established between 9.53 and 10.57.

4. Moscow
The station worked on the transmission from 10.03 to 10.37. Songs about Moscow were transmitted and on their background the call sign “BCH” after 30 seconds. The connection with "Kedr" was established short-term at 10.13.
10.13
Spring (Khoroshilov): How do you hear?
Cedar: I hear you well. The flight proceeds ... flax ...
10.16
Spring (Horoshilov): The flight proceeds normally.
- (no response).
10.18
Spring (Khoroshilov): Major GAGARIN, your flight is proceeding normally.
- (no response).

Over the ocean, about the same thing happened.

00 01 02 00

Hello, Friendship-7, operator Woomera (Australia). How do you hear me? Reception

00 01 02 04
John glenn
Understood you, operator Woomera, still hear you loud and clear. How do you hear me?

00 01 02 08
Capcom
Weak, but legible, Friendship-7. All systems are fine. Pressure 125/90. You have a HF communication check in 2 minutes 30 seconds and an entrance to the Canton communication zone (an atoll in the Pacific Ocean) in about seven minutes. Reception

00 01 02 22
John glenn
Understood, this is Friendship-7. Thank you very much, all the systems are okay now, I switch to HF. Reception

00 01 02 31
Capcom
Understood, Friendship-7, this is Woomera, the end of communication.

00 01 03 17
John glenn
Hello, Woomera, this is Friendship-7 on HF, can you hear me? Reception

00 01 04 00
John glenn
This is Friendship-7, this is Friendship-7, I blindly transmit to the communication network “Mercury”. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. This is Friendship-7, the end of communication.

00 01 04 16
Capcom
This is the operator Canaveral, check KV, GMT 15 52 05, time (time stamp for synchronization). I do not accept the ship, this is Cape, hang up.

00 01 05 17
Capcom
Friendship 7, this is Kano (Nigeria). GMT 15 53 02. I did not accept your message, this is Kano, the end of communication.

00 01 05 32
Capcom
Friendship-7, this is Zanzibar operator, this is Zanzibar operator, end of communication

00 01 09 44
Comm Tech
Friendship-7, this is the operator of Canton, do you hear me? Reception

00 01 09 53
John glenn
Hello, Canton, Hello, Canton, this is Friendship-7, I hear you loud and clear, how do you hear me? Reception

00 01 10 00
John glenn
Hello, Canton, Hello, Canton, this is Friendship-7, I hear you loud and clear, how do you hear me? Reception

00 01 10 08
Comm Tech
Friendship-7, this is the technician of Canton, I hear you loudly and clearly, expect the operator.

Deaf orbits

The USSR had less opportunity to establish communication stations in the region of the equator and the southern hemisphere, therefore for a long time in our space program there existed such a concept as “deaf turns”. On them, the spacecraft passed far from the communication stations on the territory of the USSR, stable communication was impossible, and at best it was possible to receive HF telemetry. Therefore, on these turns there were usually no important operations, and the astronauts rested or slept.



Over time, the USSR built several ships for space communications, which slightly improved the situation, but did not completely solve the problem. In the USA, the network of ground stations was used until the end of the 1980s, when it was replaced by the network of TDRSS space repeaters. The satellites in geostationary orbit perfectly saw objects in low orbit and relayed data to Earth, which was also in direct visibility.

Search and rescue

The first ships landed in the mode of ballistic descent, which led to low precision landing, the goal was to hit "about this area." The descent vehicle had a special transmitter that signaled its location, but the accuracy of ground-based direction finding of the landing site was also imperfect. All this inevitably led to the fact that the first astronauts could search, and for quite some time.

The first people who met Gagarin were the forester’s wife and daughter, who happened to be around by chance. Then the local PVOshniki and collective farmers arrived. And only then regular search and rescue services could arrive at the landing site. After landing Popovich (Vostok-4), the airplanes with the landing force of the rescue services arrived quickly, but due to the failure of the radio, he could not convey that everything was alright with him, and he already had to assist the troops of the doctors.

He took off his spacesuit, started killing a radio station (neither the main nor the backup one worked). Then I see - the plane appeared. I then began to launch rockets. They saw me and started to decline, and I started to run back and forth to show that I am alive and well, everything is fine with me and I don’t need to jump - I don’t need help. On the plane, a team of doctors who should help me, and I thought that they would all be killed in such a wind, because they only have 4-5 jumps. But they still jumped ... It turned out to be a curious picture: the one they have to save is worn across the steppe and puts out the domes ... The doctor, the lieutenant colonel, runs up to me and his face is torn. I say: "Is there iodine?" - "Yes." - "Come on, I'll brush your face ..."

Beyond the ocean, the second orbital flight ended almost anecdotically. Due to the astronaut's error and equipment failure, the Aurora-7 with the astronaut Scott Carpenter crashed 400 km from the target. Carpenter climbed out of the ship, comfortably settled on an inflatable liferaft, and waited for rescuers while the press speculated that the United States may have lost its first astronaut. I do not know what Carpenter was thinking about, but he managed not to notice the rescue plane, and was very surprised when suddenly another person appeared next to his boat. Carpenter was searched for almost forty minutes, and on the aircraft carrier providing the landing, he was only in more than four hours.

The landing of the first multi-seat ship "Voskhod-1" took place normally, in the area there was even an airplane, the pilot of which could directly see what was happening. It was useful - there was no connection.

All those gathered were intensely silent, waiting for the reports of the head of the search service, General Kutasin. When he reported that the pilot of the IL-14 "sees the object," Korolev could not stand it, took the microphone from Gagarin and shouted:
“I am the twentieth!” How many parachutes does the pilot Mikhailov see - one or two?
If only one dome has opened, this is bad. The landing speed can be 8-10 meters per second. If, in addition, the soft-landing engine does not work, the injury of the astronauts is inevitable.
After a painful pause, Kutasin reported that the ship was descending on two parachutes.
Waiting again.
Finally:
- Pilot Mikhailov sees a ship on the ground and three people around him waving their arms.
Dear and unknown pilot Mikhailov! If only you knew what a thunder of applause, what hugs followed your short message!

Landing in an unplanned area, Gemini-3, Gemini-5 and Gemini-8 also waited for rescuers for a long time, and the epic Voskhod-2, when Belyaev and Leonov spent several days in the forest, definitely holds a record for the most "Fun" landing. And if the Space Shuttle started flying, it landed on the runway, which simplified the search and evacuation, the Soyuz could give a surprise. In the normal mode, the Soyuz performs a controlled landing when the on-board computer with the ship's roll changes lift and takes aim at the calculated landing point. But if something goes wrong, the emergency mode of ballistic descent is activated. In this case, the control system trivially twists the ship. Overloads grow two times, and the ship sits down with a large undershoot, but the lives of astronauts will be out of danger. In 2003, the Soyuz TMA-1 spacecraft with Nikolai Budarin, Ken Bowersox and Donald Pettit broke into a ballistic descent and did not reach the target 500 km. The astronauts searched for three hours, and it was a very nervous time - in the same year, under similar-looking circumstances, the Columbia shuttle with the entire crew died. Since then, the installation of the "Union" included a satellite phone and a navigator. After that, the Soyuz twice sat in ballistic descent mode, but the rescue services were ready, and the ship was found much earlier.

What now?

Do not be surprised if the satellite phone with the navigator has not yet been removed from the installation of the "Union", just in case. But they were already replaced by more advanced equipment. The unified command telemetry system ECTS-TKA will provide permanent digital communication without blind coils. So far, 70% of the coverage is provided, and with the commissioning of the Klen-R station at the Vostochny cosmodrome, the coverage will be 100%. And the exact coordinates of the ship on the descent by parachute and after landing will be transmitted, again via satellite, by the Cospas-Sarsat system.

A small announcement : From July 14 to July 17, the Sea of ​​Clarity festival will be held at the Moscow Museum of Cosmonautics . There will be astronauts, industry representatives and popularizers (including me). For foreign people promised to broadcast on the Internet. Do not pass by.