Dobrovolsky Georgiy Timofeevich - pilot-cosmonaut, Hero of the Soviet Union

Dobrovolsky Georgiy Timofeevich, whose biography is described in this article, is a pilot-cosmonaut, a lieutenant colonel. He was the commander of Soyuz-11 and the orbital station Salyut.

A family

Dobrovolsky Georgiy Timofeevich (his family lived in Odessa) was born on June 1, 1928. He had a brother Alexander. Father, Timofey Trofimovich, left the family in 1930. Worked as head of counterintelligence. He left the service in 1957. Mother George, Maria Alekseevna, brought up children alone. Money was not enough, and she took part-time work at a local store as a cleaner. Then I settled down as a salesman in an artillery school. Brother Alexander was born in 1946. Worked as a mechanic on the trawling fleet.

Childhood

His childhood was spent digging trenches and caring for wounded soldiers. He was trying 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. We found some weapons. The guys buried the machine guns in the ground, and left the pistols and grenades at home.

But they were tracked down. To Dobrovolsky suddenly came the police with a search and found a weapon. George was arrested and sentenced to 25 years of hard labor. Mainly because even during the torture, I did not give a single comrade. And they thanked him by arranging his escape. And less than a month after that, Odessa was liberated from the Germans by Soviet troops.

Education

Dobrovolsky Georgy Timofeevich graduated from the 6th grade of Odessa secondary school. Then, in 1941, the war began, and the study had to be interrupted for a while. In 1944, Georgiy Timofeevich first successfully passed the exams for the 7th and 8th grades and moved to the 9th, then was transferred to the special school of the Air Force. He graduated in 1946. Two years later he entered the Chuguev Military Aviation School. Having graduated from it, in 1950 received the profession of a second-degree fighter pilot .

Service began in the USSR Air Force. Dobrovolsky combined it with further education. He studied at the University of Marxism-Leninism. He graduated from the university in 1952. Then Grigory Timofeevich entered the Air Force Academy (now VVA named after Gagarin) for correspondence courses. After graduating from it, he received command-staff specialty.

Military service

Since 1950, Dobrovolsky served first as a simple pilot. Two years later he became a senior. He was enlisted in the 965th Air Regiment of the 123rd Fighter Division of the Air Defense Force. In 1952, she entered the 71st Fighter Air Corps. Since 1955, Georgii Timofeevich was appointed deputy commander of the squadron for political forces, and in the autumn of that year he was appointed commander of the unit. In 1960 he received the position of navigator and deputy. Commander of the squadron. A year later he was appointed head of the political department. In 1962 Dobrovolsky Georgiy Timofeevich was included in the lists of the best commanders of the air units.

Training for an astronaut

In 1962, after graduating from the Air Force Academy, Dobrovolsky underwent a medical examination at the Central Research Air Station. The medical-flight commission admitted Georgy Timofeevich into space. A year later he joined the ranks of astronauts.

In January 1963 he was enrolled first as a student in the Central Committee. Then two years passed a general special space training. In mid-January 1965, Georgy Timofeevich successfully passed the attestation of the cosmonaut of the air force and ten days later he became an astronaut in the second detachment.

From the beginning of autumn 1966 Dobrovolsky Georgiy Timofeevich was trained in the group. The training was conducted according to the program of flight by the Soyuz 7K-L1 spacecraft of the Moon. From 1967 to 1968 years. Preparation for the flight to space continued under the special program "Almaz". In 1971, during the month he studied under the flight program on the "Salute". Georgy Timofeevich was also preparing for the post of commander, to replace him, if necessary. In this case, Dobrovolsky would supervise the duplicating crew of the cosmonauts "Soyuz-11". This group included V. Volkov and V. Patsayev.

The crew of Soyuz-11

The crew of "Soyuz-11" took shape gradually. In the late 1960's, only two people were flying into space at the same time. But the Americans were the first to launch just three of them. The Soviet Union decided not to lag behind and began to select a crew of 3 people. The main part included A. Leonov, V. Kubasov and P. Kolodin. In the backup - Dobrovolsky, Patsayev and Volkov.

The first and last flight of Dobrovolsky

Dobrovolsky Georgy Timofeevich, whose wife gave birth to him two daughters, continued to serve his homeland. June 4, 1971 the meeting of the State Commission was held. The main crew of Soyuz-11 was replaced by a duplicate crew. The reason is a darkening in the lungs of V. Kubasov. Georgy Dobrovolsky commanded the crew. June 6, 1971 "Soyuz-11" with three cosmonauts started at 7:55 Moscow time.

The next day the ship safely docked with the orbital station. So for the first time in the world there was a scientific manned station. The crew of Dobrovolsky carried out a huge amount of test work for all the station systems and carried out a lot of research and experiments. They opened up great prospects for geography, meteorology and geology, as well as for exploring the ocean, Earth's resources and its vegetation.

The flight lasted 23 days. 18 hours 21 min. And 43 seconds. Then there was an unforeseen tragic incident that killed all the participants of the expedition. During the return of the ship from the orbital station to Earth with the astronauts, the connection was broken first. When Soyuz-11 landed, lifeless bodies had to be removed from the aircraft.

The doctors immediately determined the cause of death - stopping the hearts. And all three at once. We sorted out the reasons later. And then immediately the reanimation brigades tried to return the cosmonauts to life. Especially since the temperature of the bodies was normal. But the hearts did not work.

The cause of death was found later thanks to the decoding of the "black box". It turned out that at an altitude of 150 km there was a depressurization. Pressure began to fall sharply, and after 40 seconds it became almost zero. At the 43rd second after the depressurization of all three astronauts, hearts stopped simultaneously.

According to official data, the reason is the untimely opening of the vent valves. A mistake was found in the design of the spacecraft. The installers screwed the ball valves on it instead of the required force of 90 kg - only from 60 to 65 kg. As a result, there was a big restart, which caused the valves to work. And they could not stand the load and crumbled. A hole with a diameter of 20 mm was formed in the ship. Astronauts first lost consciousness at the 23rd second. And only then their hearts stopped.

Dobrovolsky Georgiy Timofeevich. Personal life: wife and children

Georgiy 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 Natalia.

Ranks and awards

Dobrovolsky Georgiy Timofeevich received the title of Hero and Pilot-Cosmonaut of the USSR in 1971, but already posthumously. He was awarded the medals "Golden Star" and "For Military Merit", as well as the Order of Lenin. During the service, Georgy Timofeevich was awarded seven more jubilee medals. Since 1972, and to this day in the competition for jumping on the trampoline, a special cup of Dobrovolsky is being played. His ashes are kept in the Kremlin wall.