In Russia of the twentieth century, a whole galaxy of scientists, brilliant technicians, whose contribution to the conquest of the Universe cannot be overestimated, has formed. It is believed that the scientist-designer Boris Evseevich Chertok occupies a special place among them. His skate was the unique development of the "hearts" of missiles - management systems. He paid much attention to the development of satellite communications.
Replaced the twenty-ninth with the first
Having been born in 1912, long before the October Revolution, Chertok died recently (in 2011). To live without a small eyelid and maintain a lively moving mind is worth a lot! “You need to work as long as possible for the good of society - this is the secret,” Chertok claimed. Boris Evseevich, whose biography began in Lodz (today Polish, and previously located on the lands of the Russian Empire), came to this world on February twenty-ninth. Issuing the testimony, the ancestors indicated the first of March.
1914 is a time when floods of refugees escaped from the horrors of the First World War. Running away from the terrible scenes of the battle for Lodz, taking away a small son in the arms, parents thought only about one thing: how to survive. Years will pass and the boy will become an academician, a space genius. The name of the Hero of Socialist Labor, winner of many awards was included not only in the list of “The Best Aircraft Designers of Russia”, but also in the world ratings of conquerors of the cosmic field.
Devil's enthusiasm for technology manifested itself from school. He graduated from the nine-year-old in 1929. However, a year earlier, the first development of a simple Soviet guy (universal tube radio) came out in the journal Radio for All.
On the way to university diploma
In one thousand nine hundred and thirty years, a young man came to the country's largest aviation enterprise - plant No. 22. MPEI (Energy Institute) graduated only in the forties, having received the specialty of an electrical engineer. By that time, the newly-made specialist had more than one copyright certificate for important technical solutions (all of them are super-serious, take at least an automatic bomb-thrower subordinate to smart electronics).
The trust of colleagues "ahead" of a university diploma. In one thousand nine hundred and thirty-fifth, a talented part-time student (before graduating from university he switched to full-time), he engineer at the Design Bureau, where Viktor Bolkhovitinov was king and god (since 1936, the design bureau operated on the premises of Plant No. 84, in 1939 - enterprise number 293 in Khimki).
Here Boris Chertok worked all the war years, starting with the nineteen forties. The rich track record also contains such information: as an electrician (leading engineer), he prepared for flight the winged cars of future North Pole conquerors (the leader of the “first flight” - Mikhail Vodopyanov), as well as the winged machine Sigismund Levanevsky, on which the brave man made a non-stop flight the Soviet Union - America.
In evacuation
In the Bolkhovitinovsky Design Bureau, Boris Evseevich created unique electrical equipment projects. On their basis, employees of the All-Union Electrotechnical Institute collected samples of devices subject to rigorous testing. Heavy bombers needed to equip the emerging military equipment innovations with the most reliable aircraft generators and electric alternating current motors.
Many people know the name of Academician Claudius Schoenfer. He headed the department of electrical machines at the Electrotechnical Institute and strongly supported the young specialist. Steps to introduce original aircraft systems promised success. But the clouds were gathering: war broke out against the fascist invaders.
In nineteen forty-one, the most important defense enterprises were evacuated to the rear. Many employees and the main equipment of the plant No. 293 NII-1 NKAP temporarily settled in Bilimbay, Sverdlovsk region. Boris Chertok recalled how much he worked physically at an air temperature of minus 50 degrees, starving (he did not save a very modest food ration).
In the spring of 1945, a special group of scientists went to Germany with official assignment. It was necessary to gently study the excellent rocket technology of the Germans. The team was headed by Chertok. Boris Evseevich performed the mission with honor until the beginning of 1947. He and Aleksei Mikhailovich Isaev made a lot of efforts to open the Voron enterprise (Rabe) in Thuringia, controlled by the troops of the victorious power of the USSR. The world lay in the post-war ruins, and the Soviet-German Missile Institute was gaining momentum in the Hitlerite citadel!
As early as 1944, the Third Reich made rocket science an industry of the latest industry. The stunning developments of German scientists pushed the growth of research activity of the USSR and the USA. Chertok and his colleagues stubbornly developed a device for igniting a fuel-air mixture. Difficult searches were crowned with an avant-garde system. Electric ignition of liquid propellant rocket engines (liquid, or chemical rocket engines) was a breakthrough. The novelty was tested in one thousand nine hundred and forty-second, installing "BI-1" on the nearest fighter (the fathers-creators - Bereznyak and Isaev). Nitric acid and kerosene were used as fuel.
Cherished meeting
NII-1 developed an important direction: control systems for missiles of the "ground-to-ground" class (long-range intercontinental ballistic missiles). In 1946, the Nordhausen Institute began its work on the basis of Rabe (it also included Montania, where they produced the Fau-22 and Leesten base). The whole planet subsequently recognized the name of the Chief Engineer of this enterprise - S. P. Korolev (General Designer of the USSR Rocket and Space Industry).
Beginning in 1946 and until the 1950s, Boris Evseevich combined two posts: he was deputy chief designer Sergei Pavlovich and head of the control systems department of NII-88 of the Ministry of Armed Forces of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. In 1951, he was the head of the Department of Management Systems of the first Design Bureau. Famous Russian aircraft designers Chertok and Korolev worked closely from the day they met until the death of one of them (the last was gone in 1966).
Second roles of the first person
“Budding” from NII-88 (1956) was a step towards a new independent enterprise called “Experimental Design Bureau No. 1”. From 1957 to 1963 Boris Chertok is the right hand of Sergei Korolev, the head of this unique organization.
D. so-called. Chertok in 1963 received the post of deputy first person of the enterprise in scientific. work and at the same time headed the branch number 1, where the development of spacecraft and their control systems was in full swing. After the death of the Queen, Vasily Mishin became the Chief Designer. The experienced and clever Boris Chertok became his deputy, plus he managed the complex of the Central Design Bureau of Experimental Engineering.
From 1974 to 1992 - Deputy Chief (and then General) designer of the Energia research and production complex for control systems (NPK - the former OKB-1, then the Central Design Bureau of Chemical and Chemical Engineering in different years was headed by V. Mishin, V. Glushko, Yu. Semenov).
Irreplaceable
From one thousand nine hundred and ninety-three years until the departure of another world (2011) as a potential “shooting at the Universe,” Boris Chertok regularly gave professional recommendations to the General Designer of the SP Korolev Rocket and Space Corporation Energia (previously OKB-1 )
Having followed the stages of a long journey, the conclusion suggests itself: all the activities of a scientist and engineer are the implementation of strategic plans aimed at equipping rockets and spacecraft with such control levers that will make them capable of the longest flight.
The school, created by a brilliant scientist, is still proud, they are guided by it when developing new scientific areas. It is used to judge the level reached by Russian manned space technology. Chertok developed the theory of the inviolability of structures, the organization of production of steering machines and drive devices.
Everything is independent and united
The solution of basic questions stimulated the further development of the theory and technology of rocket and space drives. It became possible to produce complex mechanisms for docking ships, hydraulics with digital control appeared, and much more. Man was able to stay in outer space for a long time.
Chertok Boris Evseevich and his colleagues developed the basics of designing autonomous devices as part of a single system of intercontinental missiles. Their titanic work made rockets a reality for launching payloads (carriers).
We began to study closely the patterns of the distribution of the failure of technical devices and structures (reliability theory). The causes and models of the occurrence of problems have become clearer. A qualitative leap led to the emergence of the R-7 intercontinental missile. Further principles were honed on modifications of this miracle of military equipment.
He remembered everyone, remembered everything
In 1999, a book was published, which was composed of four monographs. Since then, it has been the bestseller, the “space encyclopedia,” which experts from different countries dreamed of getting, millions of ordinary readers. On the uncomplicated cover: "B. E. Chertok" Missiles and People "." Everything ingenious is simple, but how complicated!
The wife of the designer Ekaterina Golubkina (1910-2004) insisted that her husband, whose work biography had been hidden under the heading "secret" for many years, told his descendants about those with whom he worked side by side. Prominent scientists developed space rocket science and created an industry previously unknown.
Valuable memories of the formation of the industry reached the inhabitants of the 21st century. Having become acquainted with the first volume, you can in great detail study the course of the tense duel of the mind: Soviet scientists against English and American specialists.
In book No. 2, the designer talks about the hot time that preceded the launch of a spacecraft rotating around the Earth in a geocentric orbit (artificial satellite), about the flights of fantastic vehicles directed to the Moon, Venus, Mars. A lot of pages are devoted to the history of the creation of the "East", on board of which Yuri Gagarin went into the unknown distance.
Message to posterity
In the third volume, Boris Chertok talks about how Soviet man became a pioneer in creating orbital stations. In the West and in the USSR, many articles and books were written on the history of the space program of the country of victorious socialism. It is believed that the memoirs of Academician Boris Chertok became the most informative, detailed. The book "Rocket and Man" has been reprinted more than once in the country and abroad.
In the last, fourth monograph, the scientist leads a fascinating story about a program covering the period from 1968 to 1974, when one after another the victories of the Americans in the study of the closest Earth satellite - the Moon - followed.
One of the distinguishing features of this volume is a detailed description of the origin of the Soviet project, which began to be implemented in the 1970s with the construction of Salyut space stations and ended with the Mir multi-module complex (1980s).
The most memorable chapters are related to the tragedy of Soyuz-11, when the cosmonauts Dobrovolsky, Volkov and Patsaev died. The book closes with a description of the end of program N-1 and the birth of the ISS Energia-Buran under the direction of Glushko. This is a breathtaking inside look at political, technological and personal conflicts at a time when the Soviet space program was at its zenith.
In two thousand and nine, the First Channel of Russian Television organized the premiere screening of a documentary film by Roscosmos television studio Boris Chertok. Shot at the Universe. ” The great man, the holder of many awards, the conscience of all engineers of the modern era, as always, spoke the truth, without offending, humiliating anyone, thinking about what he had lived and experienced. In the last frames, he apologized to young scientists for the fact that his generation was not able to save the great power - the USSR.