Dobrovolsky Georgy Timofeevich, whose biography is described in this article, is a pilot-cosmonaut, lieutenant colonel. He was the commander of Soyuz-11 and the Salyut orbital station.
A family
Dobrovolsky George Timofeevich (his family lived in Odessa) was born on June 1, 1928. He had a brother Alexander. Father, Timofei Trofimovich, left the family in 1930. He worked as the head of counterintelligence. He left the service in 1957. Mother George, Maria Alekseevna, raised her children alone. There was not enough money, and she took part-time jobs at a local store as a cleaner. Then she got a job as a seller in an artillery school. Brother Alexander was born in 1946. He worked as a mechanic in the trawl fleet.
Childhood
Childhood George Timofeevich passed in digging trenches and courting wounded soldiers. He tried to get into some partisan detachment, but he was not taken, since he was still small. Then, together with comrades, the same teenagers, they decided to organize their own. Found some weapons. Guys buried machine guns in the ground, and left pistols and grenades at home.
But they were tracked down. The police suddenly rushed to the Dobrovolsky with a search and found weapons. George was arrested and sentenced to 25 years in hard labor. Mainly because even during the torture he did not betray a single comrade. And they thanked, arranging for him to escape. And less than a month after that, Odessa was liberated from the Germans by Soviet troops.
Education
Dobrovolsky George Timofeevich graduated from 6 classes of Odessa high school. Then, in 1941, the war began, and study had to be interrupted for a while. In 1944, George Timofeevich first successfully passed the exams for grades 7 and 8 and moved to 9th, then he was transferred to the special school of the Air Force. He graduated in 1946. Two years later, he entered the Chuguev Military Aviation College. After graduating from it, in 1950 received the profession of a fighter pilot of the second degree.
Service began in the USSR Air Force. Dobrovolsky combined it with further education. He studied at the University of Marxism-Leninism. He graduated from high school in 1952. Then Grigory Timofeevich entered the Air Force Academy (now VVA named after Gagarin) in the correspondence form of training. After graduating from it, he received a command and staff specialty.
Military service
Since 1950, Dobrovolsky first served as a simple pilot. Two years later he became a senior. He was enrolled in 965 air regiment of the 123rd Air Defense Fighter Division. In 1952, she entered the 71st fighter air corps. Since 1955, Georgy Timofeevich was appointed deputy squadron commander for political affairs, and in the fall of the same year, as a flight commander. In 1960 he received the position of navigator and deputy. squadron commander. A year later, he was appointed head of the political department. In 1962, Dobrovolsky George Timofeevich was on the list of the best commanders of aviation units.
Cosmonaut training
In 1962, after graduating from the Air Force Academy, Dobrovolsky underwent a medical examination at the Central Research Aviation Hospital. The flight medical commission allowed George Timofeevich into space. A year later, he joined the ranks of the astronauts.
In January 1963, he was first enrolled as a student in the Central Committee of the Communist Party. Then another two years passed general special space training. In mid-January 1965, Georgy Timofeevich successfully passed the certification of an astronaut of the air force and ten days later became an astronaut in the second detachment.
Since the beginning of the fall of 1966, Dobrovolsky Georgy Timofeevich was training in a group. The training was carried out according to the program of flying around the Soyuz 7K-L1 spacecraft of the Moon. From 1967 to 1968 preparations for the space flight continued under the special program "Diamond". In 1971, he studied for a month under the flight program on the Salute. Georgy Timofeevich was also preparing for the post of commander, for his replacement if necessary. In this case, Dobrovolsky would lead the backup crew of the Soyuz-11 astronauts. This group included V. Volkov and V. Patsaev.
The crew of Soyuz-11
The crew of the Soyuz-11 was developing gradually. In the late 1960s, only two people flew into space at a time. But the Americans were the first to launch three at once. The Soviet Union decided to keep up and began to select a crew of 3 people. The main team included A. Leonov, V. Kubasov and P. Kolodin. In the backup - Dobrovolsky, Patsaev and Volkov.
The first and last flight of Dobrovolsky
Dobrovolsky Georgy Timofeevich, whose wife bore him two daughters, continued to serve his homeland. On June 4, 1971, a meeting of the State Commission was held. The main crew of the Soyuz-11 was replaced by a backup crew. The reason is a blackout in the lungs of V. Kubasov. The crew was commanded by George Dobrovolsky. On June 6, 1971, Soyuz-11 with three astronauts started at 7:55 AM GMT.
The next day, the ship safely docked with the orbital station. So for the first time in the world there appeared a scientific manned station. The crew of Dobrovolsky performed a huge amount of test work on all systems of the station and conducted many studies and experiments. They opened up great prospects for geography, meteorology and geology, as well as for the study of the ocean, Earth's resources and its vegetation.
The flight lasted 23 days. 18 hours 21 minutes and 43 seconds Then there was an unforeseen tragic incident that killed all the expedition members. During the return of the ship from the orbital station to Earth, the astronauts first lost contact. When the Soyuz-11 landed, lifeless bodies had to be taken out of the aircraft.
Doctors immediately determined the cause of death - a cardiac arrest. And all three at once. Understood the reasons later. And then immediately resuscitation teams tried to bring the astronauts back to life. Moreover, the temperature of the bodies was normal. But the hearts did not work.
The cause of death was found later thanks to the decryption of the "black box". It turned out that depressurization occurred at an altitude of 150 km. The pressure began to drop sharply, and after 40 seconds it became almost zero. At the 43rd second after depressurization, all three cosmonauts simultaneously stopped their hearts.
According to official figures, the reason is the untimely opening of ventilation valves. The mistake was found in the design of the spaceship. The installers screwed ball valves on it instead of the required force of 90 kg - a total of 60 to 65 kg. As a result, a large reboot occurred, which caused the valves to work. But they could not bear the load and crumbled. A hole with a diameter of 20 mm formed in the ship. The astronauts first lost consciousness at the 23rd second. And then their hearts stopped.
Dobrovolsky George Timofeevich. Personal life: wife and children
George Timofeevich was married to Lyudmila Timofeevna. She worked as a teacher. George and Lyudmila had two daughters. The first, Marina, still works at Moscow State University. She is an English teacher. The second daughter is Natalya.
Ranks and awards
Dobrovolsky George Timofeevich received the title of Hero and Pilot-Cosmonaut of the USSR in 1971, but already posthumously. He was awarded the Golden Star and For Military Merit medals, as well as the Order of Lenin. During the service, George Timofeevich was awarded seven more anniversary medals. From 1972 to the present, a special Dobrovolsky Cup has been played in trampoline competitions. His ashes are stored in the Kremlin wall.