THE FIRST ASTRONAUT OF INDEPENDENT UKRAINE

When the first manned satellite went into space in early 1960s, many people felt that the wildest dreams of science-fiction writers were coming true. It was only 50 years earlier that the first aeroplanes had flown.

There are many special achievements mark the progress of space exploration. First was the landing of men of the Moon in 1969. The Moon landing was a more sensational event.

Leonid Kadenyuk is the first astronaut of Ukraine. The first flight Spaceship ‘Columbia’ was in 1981. Preparations were under way at Kennedy Space Centre at Cape Canavel, Florida, USA, to launch the space shuttle ‘Columbia’ on its new mission. Columbia was scheduled to go up on November 19, 1997. The seemed to be to big fuss or excitement at the space centre about it as that forthcoming launch was an almost routine event. That was going to be the eighty seventh mission of US fleet of space shuttles, reusable spacecraft which transport people and cargo into space.

But for the 52 million people of Ukraine that flight was an event worthy of special attention. One of the Columbia crew was going to be the Ukrainian astronaut-researcher Leonid Kadenyuk. L. Kadenyuk came to the USA and had training at the London B. Johnson Space Centre in Houston, Texas. His wife and younger son had been staying with him. Before coming to the USA, L. Kadenyuk had 20 years of special training at the Zoryane Mistechko (‘Astral Town’) space centre in the vicinity of Moscow.

Leonid Kadenyuk had an ambition to become a pilot and fly planes when he was still a small kid and after Yuri Gagarin’s first space flight he passionately wanted to be a cosmonaut. His dream came true and he trained at the Chernihiv Military Pilots Training School. After the graduation he stayed in the town of Chernihiv to live and work there as a pilot-instructor. But he kept cherishing his dream of eventually going into space. He went through a series of very thorough medical check-ups and in some time, he heard the verdict of the highly-qualified board of physicians: fit for space flights. He was trained as a commander of the Soyuz spacecraft and later retrained to be able to pilot Soyuz-TM. Later, he had a full course of training as the commander of the Buran (‘Tempest’) reusable spacecraft. Kadenyuk spent a lot of time working in design offices taking part in designing spacecraft and equipment necessary for their functioning and it helped him understand much better the functions of all the systems of a spacecraft.

When Leonid Kadenyuk learnt about the agreement between the Presidents of Ukraine and the United States concerning a possible future flight of a Ukrainian cosmonaut aboard an American shuttle spacecraft. He decided to try, and wrote a letter to the National Space Agency of Ukraine where he gave a few facts about himself and his professional training. Some time after, he received an invitation to come to Kiev and then to America. Leonid Kadenyuk didn’t do any piloting during the flight. He was engaged in conducting a number of scientific biological experiments, which had been worked out by both Ukrainian and American scientists. Columbia carried some special modules containing plants. One of most interesting experiments dealed with a plant (Brassica Rapa) that had been grown through careful selection to have a very short vegetation period. The shortened growth time made it possible to study its life cycle during one space flight. In outer space the weightlessness affects the process of reproduction, and the artificial pollination of plants may be the first step towards reproduction of life in the weightlessness.

The biological experiments carried out by Colonel Kadenyuk in orbit are part of the efforts of the international community of researchers which are directed at achieving the main aim - to create the best working and living conditions at space stations orbiting around the Earth and in manned spacecraft that will some day fly to other planets. Setting up of a permanent base on Mars will also depend on how successfully we can provide life support systems there. It would be quite impossible to take enough water, food and vitamins on long space voyages to last the whole of long space missions, and plants, grown in space, can be of vital importance as a source of food and vitamins.

For the first time ever the biological experiments to be conducted in space are becoming a part of the international educational programme which involves over two hundred students of high schools and universities in the United States and Ukraine. Seeds of Brassica Rapa (the plant that will be used in the experiments during the mission of Columbia) have been delivered to many schools of both countries and the young would-be biologists will be conducting experiments at the same when Colonel will be doing the same, but in orbit aboard Columbia. The students on earth will be able to watch the experiments in space thanks to live TV broadcasts.

This project has been made possible thanks to the close co-operation of the National Space Agency of Ukraine and of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration of the United States of America.

Questions:

1. How many cosmonauts are there in the world?

2. What cosmonauts do you know?

3. Who is the first astronaut of Ukraine?

4. When did he make his first flight?

5. Where was the spaceship Columbia launched?

6. Where did Leonid Kadenyuk study and train?

7. How did he become a cosmonaut?

8. What did he do on board the spaceship?

Are the biological experiments becoming a part of the international educational programme?

9. Have you ever seen Leonid Kadenyuk?

10.Do you want to be a cosmonaut?

11.Have you got any books about cosmonauts, spaceships at home?

Date: 2016-03-03; view: 864