The conqueror of the Universe Pavel Ivanovich Belyaev left a bright mark in Soviet and world cosmonautics. It was he who controlled the ship "Voskhod-2", from which Alexei Leonov went into outer space. With a failed navigation system and no connection to the Earth, Pavel Ivanovich was able to manually land the Voskhod-2 in the Perm Permanent Taiga, for which he subsequently received the title of Hero of the USSR.
Biography
Pavel Belyaev was born on 06/26/1925 in the village Chelishchevo of the North Dvina province (now it is the Vologda region). His father was a medical assistant, but before the war he changed his job and moved his family from the Vologda region to the Urals, to the city of Kamensk-Uralsky. Pavel, who was a sixth grader at that time, began to study at a regular school No. 3, and it was there, at the lessons of physics and astronomy, that he became infected with the dream of space.
In June 1941, the boy graduated from the ninth grade, and in August the school was converted into a hospital, and the first wounded from the front began to arrive there. The last year of the decade, Pavel Belyaev studied at school number 1. He had a accordion donated by one of his relatives, and at breaks he sometimes played it. Despite his passion for music, the teenager dreamed of becoming a pilot and several times sent applications to the flight school. Pavel enjoyed reading adventure and science fiction literature. He imagined aviation from books about the flights of Gromov and Chkalov and the northern flights of Soviet pilots.
War and post-war years
In 1942, after graduation, sixteen-year-old Belyaev decided to volunteer for the front, but because of his young age he was not taken. Then he began to work at the pipe plant as a turner, was engaged in the production of artillery shells.
In 1943, after reaching the age of eighteen, Pavel nevertheless entered the Yeisk Aviation School, which was then located in Sarapul, Udmurt Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic. In 1945 he graduated from it and went to serve in one of the Air Force units. In August-September of the same year, as a fighter pilot took part in the Soviet-Japanese War, then served in the Navy.
Over the years of the Far Eastern service, Pavel Belyaev flew over five hundred hours and mastered dozens of types of aircraft. From 1956 to 1959 studied at the Air Force Red Banner Academy.
Space flight
In 1960, Pavel Ivanovich was enrolled in the cosmonaut corps. Among the pilots recruited, he was the most age and senior in rank and position. Preparing for flights on ships of the type "Sunrise" and "East".
March 18-19, 1965 the main event in the biography of Pavel Belyaev happened: as a commander of the ship, he made a space flight. On board the Voskhod-2 there was a second pilot with him - Alexei Leonov, who during his flight for the first time in the world went into outer space. Upon returning to Earth, the ship’s orientation system failed. Pavel Ivanovich orientated Voskhod-2 manually and started the brake engine. Such operations in the world cosmonautics were performed for the first time. The pilots landed in the Perm taiga, seventy kilometers from the cities of Usolye, Solikamsk and Berezniki. In total, their flight lasted one day, two hours, two minutes, seventeen seconds. They managed to evacuate the astronauts from the dead taiga only two days later: the rescuers had to cut down the forest in order to prepare the helipad.
After returning to Earth, Pavel Belyaev received the military rank of colonel, the Order of Lenin and the title of Hero of the USSR.
A family
Pavel Belyaev met his wife Tatyana Filippovna while still serving in the Far East. She became his faithful companion. The couple had two daughters: Lyudmila and Irina. They both went to a music school and played the piano, which stood at the Belyaev’s house. Pavel Ivanovich himself was very musical, often sat down at the instrument and performed Schubert’s serenade or Oginsky’s polonaise.
The astronaut’s wife worked in Star City as the director of the Museum named after Gagarin. According to the memoirs of Tatyana Filippovna, when Belyaev and Leonov flew into space, she could not find a place for herself and did not leave the TV. Subsequently, the woman visited the landing site of Voskhod-2 and was shocked that her husband was able to land the ship in such impenetrable more often.
Last years
In the early 1970s, Hero of the Soviet Union Pavel Belyaev again had to make a space flight. It was planned that he would go to the natural satellite of the Earth and fly around him. But in the end, another astronaut, Valery Voloshin, was sent to the moon, and Belyaev was suspended due to health problems.
The doctors did a difficult operation for Pavel Ivanovich, and it would seem that he is recovering. But then the astronaut developed peritonitis, and on 10.01.1970 he died at the age of forty-four. They buried the Hero of the USSR at the Novodevichy cemetery of the capital.
