Where the outer space ends

March 19, 1965 in the Permian taiga ended the flight of the spacecraft "Voskhod-2", during which the man first went into outer space. After 52 years and one week, I had the opportunity to visit that taiga place.

Now the feature film “Time of the First” about the heroic flight of Alexei Leonov and Pavel Belyaev at Voskhod-2 is being prepared for release, during which they first mastered the spacewalk technique, and then lived for two days in the taiga after a non-standard landing. In movie theaters, the film should appear on April 6.


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In preparation for the release of the film, the creators provided for the recording of television broadcasts about that flight and the film, and for one of these plots, the Ministry of Defense set aside a helicopter for the flight to the landing site, 180 km from Perm. Together with the crew on board the helicopter, I unexpectedly got there.

Before the flight, we managed to explore the local palace of culture. Cosmic high reliefs deserve special attention, and remind of the same event on the Perm land, which led us.

Looking at the figures of the astronauts, it seems that they can not only go into outer space, but also fight Godzilla.



Flight to the landing site is not an easy task. As in 1965, it is now impossible to land there because of the forest undergrowth, so we could only see and shoot the place from the air. In addition, it turns out that the exact landing place is not indicated on the maps. Even on Wikipedia there are three points.



We flew to the one that was rendered as “updated” in Wikipedia (on the right). A small stone obelisk was installed on the site and he had to suggest that we guessed.

Refinements of geographical coordinates with the crew of the helicopter.



Flew.

Ahead was about an hour flight over the taiga.

Although the “green sea of ​​the taiga” is vast in those parts, there are already many signs of human civilization. Forest cuttings are quite common.



Several times we crossed the wide reservoirs, which were the gulfs of the Kama reservoir.

On the ice of the reservoir, fishermen often met, with whose puzzled looks they had to meet several times during the flight.





The helicopter we got modern. He flew confidently, allowing pilots some recklessness. The interior is also of high quality, to the extent necessary for utilitarian military equipment.



Pilots are satisfied with the work. They say they fly constantly, including to ensure the landing of modern astronauts.



We fly up to the landing site in 1965.



There are no symbols on the earth or signs.



A lot of glades and traces of young landings. It seems that the timber industry in these places worked for more than a dozen years.

I try to look into the navigator, where the mark is, and photograph the desired point from different windows.

Meanwhile, the television team fastens the operator to the safety rope and he tries to shoot, imitating the glance of a helicopter pilot looking for distressed astronauts.



The helicopter at this time wrote out circles and eights in the area of ​​the intended landing site. It hung up several times and slowly went down, allowing the operator to take spectacular shots of clouds of snow from helicopter propellers.



Later I tried to determine whether we managed to capture the right place. At the same time I decided to check how the forest has changed in recent years. In the memoirs pines are repeatedly mentioned that surround the place of emergency landing, but in reality there are only birches and spruces.



Historical images of Google showed a sad picture: there was practically no taiga in this place, in which Voskhod-2 sat. It can be seen that the forest was cut intensively in the 80s and work resumed in the 2000s.



Choosing between the old and the new point, I tend to think that the new one is more accurate. Then it becomes clear why for a long time the square of the forest has not been cut down, around it - the memory was kept. There, in 1968, a titanium stela monument was erected. But in 1999, it was stolen by non-ferrous metal hunters, so now it was replaced with a more modest black stone, but they did not save the taiga.


Photo: Hexpl0rer



Lovers of off-road conquest and tourist exits periodically arrange trips to the memorial. Someone even tries to make archaeological excavations. But, as it seems to me, the search for traces of a historical landing is doomed to failure, due to intensive logging activities in the 80s and 2000s.

After several loops over the forest, the helicopter heads for the nearest rural settlement, Berezovka, 35 km away.



Here we were waiting. However, as it turned out, a rumor was spreading around the village that Aleksey Leonov himself would arrive, so almost a crowd gathered at the cleared site.



As soon as the screws were silent, all local aviation technology experts came running to the helicopter.



The television team was to meet and interview the local woman telephone operator, who in memorable March days in 1965 turned out to be an important telecommunications element of the rescue operation.



She says she spent two days at the post office - they simply did not let her go home. Connection: Berezovka-Perm-Moscow-Kremlin.



For the neighboring settlements, those two days are the most significant event in their entire history.

I walked through the school, looked at children's creativity.



And in the memorial room I met the news from my childhood - the book “But we still fly!”. Once read it.



Attracted the attention of the title page. Year of release: 1984 - two more years before the flight of the base unit of the Mir station, and the artist practically anticipated not only the completed station, but also the program of the 1990s Mir-Shuttle.





Then it seemed the near future, and it even came true. And now this is history ...
But they did not stop flying, so that is no reason for sadness.

After lunch and completing the shooting at school, we again prepare for departure. The next item is the city of Usolye.



After detecting the theft of a titanium stele from the taiga, the local administration decided to erect another monument, but this time closer to civilization. So in the 2000s, a monument appeared in Usolye, on the bank of the Berezniki, on the banks of the Kama Reservoir. Our helicopter went there after Berezovka.

Landing was also not intended, but it was possible to see the obelisk from the air.



At the same time take a few shots of Usolye and distant industrial landscapes of Uralkali.



And when approaching Perm managed to remove a similar view.



PS I haven’t seen the film yet; I only managed to watch three passages of 10 minutes each. Seen hope that the whole film will be of the same quality. I hope you get a good movie.

PPS This flight clearly showed that we need a new camera. There are recommendations for high-quality mirrorless?