Everyone who visited the VDNKH Moscow Park of Culture and Leisure probably remembered the main highlight of the entire vast territory of the exhibition complex - the rocket. It is located just opposite the famous pavilion "Cosmos", which for many years stood unowned.
In fact, this missile is just a model of the real "East". And with its installation is connected a really fascinating story.
Interesting facts about VVC
The history of the creation of the exhibition complex dates back nearly seventy years. Of course, any such object always contains many secrets and mystical stories. Many of them are inaccessible to ordinary people, and some have developed real myths and legends.
For example, few people know about the existence of a real military bunker on the territory of VDNH itself or pavilions walled up in "sarcophagi" with chic interior decoration. And did anyone hear about the unfolding school of scouts in this territory during the Second World War? No? But all this actually exists and even successfully functions. For example, up to three hundred people can hide in a bunker, and an underground passage from it can lead to a sculpture installed in honor of Lenin exactly opposite the entrance to the All-Russian Exhibition Center. Moreover, not everyone knows the name of the rocket at VDNH and the prototype of what it is. But it was her who was used to send Gagarin into space.
It is amazing what progress is capable of, because only in 1938 the entire territory of VDNH and the All-Russian Exhibition Center was occupied by a dense oak forest, and in the summer months gypsies with their wagons and other wandering artists were located throughout its vast area. But thanks to the architect Oltorzhevsky, VDNH became the way we see it now.
What is the "East"?
The rocket at VDNH is a life-size model. It was created in the image of the "East". The Vostok launch vehicle is truly a symbol of the space industry. It consisted of three stages, each of which used liquid fuel. It was with the help of the Vostok that most Soviet and Russian spacecraft were launched into orbit. Many artificial satellites of our planet could not plow space open spaces without the help of the "East".
The rocket tried its first launch in 1958, although it turned out to be unsuccessful, but after a year it had already flown from the cosmodrome very successfully. In 1961, the Vostok launch vehicle launched the ship of Yuri Gagarin into low Earth orbit, thereby making him the first astronaut to visit space.
Its full length, coupled with a fairing, is almost forty meters, just like the height of a sixteen-story building, and the starting mass reaches two hundred and ninety tons. By the way, the height of the rocket at VDNH is the same as that of the prototype.
Pavilion №32
Behind the rocket is the pavilion "Cosmos" at number thirty-two. Previously, its name sounded as "Agricultural Mechanization." The expositions in it were exhibited corresponding, that is, devoted to agricultural machinery and agricultural issues. Here you could see tractors, productive machines, and so on. Then industrial products were added to them, and already during the space boom the pavilion acquired its real name - “Cosmos”.
Since the beginning of the triumphal procession of the USSR, expositions began to be created in the space open spaces in the pavilion, showing models of launched Earth satellites and models of ships on which astronauts plowed the expanses of the Universe. However, after a while the exhibition turned into an agricultural fair - here they began to sell seedlings, seeds and various technical devices for the garden. Only the Vostok rocket and the huge image of Gagarin, installed right under the grand dome of the pavilion, reminded of space. Today, Cosmos has returned its function directly related to the name. Now, interesting exhibitions are taking place inside, participating in which you can even make an interactive flight to space distances.
Rocket description
The masterpiece, published thanks to Soviet designers, was divided into six blocks. The rocket at VDNH fully repeats the real three-stage model of the "East". The presence of the head fairing made it possible to maintain the integrity of the spacecraft itself, in which Gagarin was once located. Indeed, in the dense layers of the Earth’s atmosphere, aerodynamic loads reached incredible heights. In the first and second steps there were five blocks - central and side. It was the so-called power plant or jet engines running on liquid fuel. The central one was usually fixed in a fixed position.
The third stage was endowed with a single engine, it had a separate control. The sum of the power of all engines was equal to twenty million horsepower, and the diameter of the lower part, in turn, was ten meters. This is to understand all the scales of the zone where the engines were mounted.
The appearance of the layout
A rocket at VDNH was installed in 1969. The layout was made hollow inside, but its weight was still impressive - as much as twenty-five tons. One of the participants in the creation of the layout was A. Gurtyakov, who eventually poured all his memories of installing in the newspaper NITPU (National Research Tomsk Polytechnic University).
When he studied at one of the departments of this educational institution, in the summer he was sent for an internship in Moscow at a design bureau under the wing of his close friend Korolev, a laureate of many state awards, academician Barmin. By this time, the layout was already ready, it was made in the Samara RCC (today it is the Progress missile and construction center). The model of the rocket at VDNH was already standing horizontally on its pedestal, or, as the designers called it, the "bed".
Installation
Further work on the ready-made rocket monument at the Exhibition of Economic Achievements was for small - to use the lifting mechanism of the layout, so that it soared above the ground. Initially, it was assumed that all this would not take much time, but these thoughts were erroneous. When you press the button, which, by magic, was supposed to set the lift in motion, a loud explosion suddenly popped with a pop - it burned out the element that fed the whole machine with electricity. Due to a short circuit, the cable from the mechanization of the rocket lift at VDNH fell near the pedestal.
Then we spent about an hour searching for a car that would have an aerial platform so that the electrician could get up and inspect the place of damage. Moreover, the engineers at that time did not even have electrical tape. But the successful work of professionals in their field led to the elimination of the problem and the installation of the rocket in an upright position.
Area "Mechanization"
The place where the Cosmos rocket and pavilion is located was once called the Mechanization Square, and instead of the Vostok launch vehicle at VDNKh in the early years there was the only monument to Comrade Stalin. It was also of enormous size, but could not be compared with the height of the spacecraft. And soon the Yak-42 aircraft appeared on the square.
In 1989, a severe hurricane with heavy rain passed in Moscow. According to eyewitnesses, the wind uprooted the thick trunks of fir trees that grew near the rocket, but the twenty-five-ton model itself was not damaged.
Restoration
In the fall of 2010, a grand restoration of the rocket took place. Specialists and workers removed the rust from the internal fixtures, and also created support for the supports and supporting structures. They re-painted the case with paintwork material and brought it into proper shape, because until this year many people rang the alarm bell because of its poor condition and fears of a rocket crash right on the pedestal.
The workers even thought about returning the rocket to its original position - until 1984 the rocket body was turned towards the main entrance of VDNKh, but they abandoned the idea, since the reconstruction still did not allow the old giant to stay in position, even with reinforced supports.
