Incredible photos from space of astronaut Douglas Wheelock. What are the windows of the Orion spacecraft made of?

It is precisely because glass is not an ideal material for portholes that engineers have been constantly looking for a more suitable material for this. There are many structurally stable materials in the world, but only a few are transparent enough to be used to create portholes.

In the early stages of Orion's development, NASA tried to use polycarbonates as a material for the windows, but they did not meet the optical requirements necessary for obtaining high-resolution images. After this, the engineers switched to acrylic material, which provided the highest transparency and enormous strength. In the USA, huge aquariums are made from acrylic, which protect their inhabitants from the environment that is potentially dangerous to them, while withstanding enormous water pressure.

Today, Orion is equipped with four windows built into the crew module, as well as additional windows in each of the two hatches. Each porthole consists of three panels. The inner panel is made of acrylic, and the other two are still made of glass. It was in this form that Orion had already been in space during its first test flight. During this year, NASA engineers must decide whether they can use two acrylic panels and one glass in the windows.

In the coming months, Linda Estes and her team are scheduled to conduct what they call a “creep test” on the acrylic panels. Creep in this case is a slow deformation of a solid that occurs over time under the influence of a constant load or mechanical stress. All solids, without exception, are subject to creep - both crystalline and amorphous. Acrylic panels will be tested for 270 days under enormous loads.

Acrylic windows should make the Orion ship significantly lighter, and their structural strength will eliminate the risk of the windows breaking due to accidental scratches and other damage. According to NASA engineers, thanks to acrylic panels, they will be able to reduce the weight of the ship by more than 90 kilograms. Reducing the mass will make it much cheaper to launch a ship into space.

Switching to acrylic panels will also reduce the cost of building Orion-class ships, because acrylic is much cheaper than glass. It will be possible to save about $2 million on windows alone during the construction of one spacecraft. Perhaps in the future glass panels will be completely excluded from windows, but for now this requires additional thorough testing.

Famous photograph "Earthrise"(Earthrise, image number in NASA catalogs - AS08-14-2383), and included in the catalog of 100 photographs that changed the world according to LIFE magazine, was taken by astronaut William Alison Anders on December 24, 1968 aboard the Apollo spacecraft. 8" when it was performing its fourth orbit around the artificial satellite of the Moon. This photograph is one of the most famous photographs of Earth from space.

As a quick aside, the article was written on December 24, the 45th anniversary of Earthrise, and was a reaction to previous publications that identified astronaut William Anders as the “probable” author of the famous photo. There were also inaccuracies, which led me to the idea of ​​writing this article. The moderation process took several days, but as soon as the invite arrived, the article was immediately transferred from the “drafts” to the Cosmonautics hub.

Few people know that AS08-14-2383 was not the first photograph of the Earth taken from a similar angle, that is, rising above the horizon of the Moon. Commander Frank Frederick Borman, who was in the left command seat, controlled the spacecraft's roll according to the flight plan (180° turn to the right) for a fixed image of the lunar surface through the left docking window using a rigidly mounted 70 mm Hasselblad 500EL camera. with an 80 mm Zeiss Planar lens (f/2.8), which took automatic photographs of the lunar surface at 20-second intervals on black and white cassette film D ().

Anders, who was near the right seat, photographed the lunar surface through the right side window of the command module on 70 mm black and white film using a Hasselblad 500EL camera with a 250 mm Zeiss Sonnar lens (f / 5.6), while commenting on his observations for recording on the on-board voice recorder. The right window, thanks to the roll turn, turned out to be turned exactly towards the Earth when the Apollo 8 spacecraft began to emerge from behind the far side of the Moon. Anders was the first of the astronauts to see the rising Earth. For the first three orbits in lunar orbit, no one saw it. Seeing the Earth, Anders said: “My God, look at the picture here! This is the rise of the Earth. Wow, that's cute! " Bormann, seeing that Anders was about to photograph the Earth, joked ironically: “Hey, don’t do that, it’s not according to plan.” Photographing the Earth was not part of the plans of the scientists developing the scientific program for the astronauts of the Apollo 8 spacecraft. After Bormann's ironic remark, Anders, laughing at the commander's joke, took a single photograph of the rising Earth (AS08-13-2329) on black and white tape of cassette E ():

Immediately after this photo was taken, Anders asked the command module pilot James Arthur Lovell, Jr., who was on the sextant side of his workplace (Lower Equipment Bay) and was navigating the ship, to give him a cassette with a color film: “Do you have color film, Jim? Give me the color film, quickly, please?” Lovell, supporting the idea, asked: “Where is she?” Anders hurried him, telling him that the tape was color-coded. Having found one cassette, Lovell noted that it was “C 368” film (meaning SO-368 color film, “ectachrome” from the Eastman Kodak Company). Anders continued calmly: “Whatever. Fast." Immediately after Lovell handed over the film to Anders, the latter realized that the Earth had left the view of the side window. At the same time, Anders said: “Okay, I think we lost it.” At this time, due to the rotation of the spacecraft, the Earth could already be observed through the right docking window and the entrance hatch window. Lovell told Anders where he could take the photo. Anders, asking Lovell to move aside, took his famous photo of AS08-14-2383 through the access hatch porthole:

Having clarified the focus settings in a short discussion with Lovell, Anders took a second color, less well-known, image AS08-14-2384 through the right docking window, in which the Earth is slightly higher above the lunar horizon than in the first color image:

Subsequently, 4 more photographs of the Earth's rise were taken (AS08-14-2385 - AS08-14-2388), and on the next fifth orbit 8 more photographs (AS08-14-2389 - AS08-14-2396), but they were not so impressive (example - photograph AS08-14-2392):

These 12 shots were taken through the starboard docking window.
Color film cassette available here: .

The earth in the pictures looked like this:

Antarctica was on the left side of the image (at 10 o'clock);
- the central part of the view of the Earth was occupied by the Atlantic Ocean with cyclones and anticyclones;
- on the sunlit western part of Africa, along the terminator, from left to right you can see the Namib desert, Namibia, the southern part of Angola and the western part of the Sahara. These areas are not covered by clouds. A significant part of the territory of Central Africa and the historical region of Guinea (including the Gulf of Guinea) is covered with layers of clouds.

The animation, narrated by renowned Apollo historian Andrew L. Chaikin and produced in Scientific Visualization Studio (NASA Goddard Space Flight Center), provides a reconstruction of these events. The Moon is modeled according to high-resolution images taken by the LRO (Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter) robot:

Negotiations between astronauts while photographing the Earth rising (in English, the indicated time is flight time, counted from the moment of launch):
075:47:30 Anders: “Oh my God, look at that picture over there! There's the Earth coming" up. Wow, that’s pretty!”
075:47:37 Borman: (ironic) “Hey, don"t take that, it"s not scheduled.”
Laughing, Anders takes a photo of AS08-13-2329 through the side window
075:47:39 Anders: “You got a color film, Jim?”
075:47:46 Anders: “Hand me a roll of color, quick, would you?”
075:47:48 Lovell: “Oh man, that"s great! Where is it?”
075:47:50 Anders: “Hurry. Quick."
075:47:54 Borman: “Gee.”
075:47:55 Lovell: “Down here?”
075:47:56 Anders: “Just grab me a color. A color exterior.”
075:48:00 Lovell: (inaudible)
075:48:01 Anders: “Hurry up.”
075:48:06 Anders: “Got one?”
075:48:08 Lovell: “Yeah, I’m lookin” for one. C 368."
075:48:11 Anders: “Anything. Quick."
075:48:13 Lovell: “Here.”
075:48:17 Anders: “Well, I think we missed it.”
075:48:31 Lovell: “Hey, I got it right here.” (Lovell saw the Earth through the porthole)
075:48:33 Anders: “Let me get it out this one, it"s a lot clearer.” (Anders asked Lovell to make room at the entry hatch porthole, after which he takes his famous photo AS08-14-2383)
075:48:37 Lovell: “Bill, I got it framed, it"s very clear right here! (meaning the right docking window) Got it?”
075:48:41 Anders: “Yep.”
075:48:42 Borman: “Well, take several of them.”
075:48:43 Lovell: “Take several, take several of “em! Here, give it to me.”
075:48:44 Anders: “Wait a minute, just let me get the right setting here now, just calm down.”
075:48:47 Borman: “Calm down, Lovell!”
075:48:49 Lovell: “Well I got it right-aw, that"s a beautiful shot.”
075:48:54 Lovell: “Two-fifty at f/11.”
Anders takes a photo of AS08-14-2384 through the right docking window
075:49:07 Anders: “Okay.”
075:49:08 Lovell: “Now vary-vary the exposure a little bit.”
075:49:09 Anders: “I did.” I took twoo of "em here."
075:49:11 Lovell: “Are you sure you got it now?”
075:49:12 Anders: “Yeah, we"ll get - well, it"ll come up again I think.”
075:49:17 Lovell: “Just take another one, Bill.”

They go on a lunar expedition in a shell equipped with glass windows with shutters. The characters of Tsiolkovsky and Wells look out into the Universe through large windows.

When it came to practice, the simple word “window” seemed unacceptable to space technology developers. Therefore, what astronauts can look out of the spacecraft through is called, no less, special glazing, and less “ceremoniously” - portholes. Moreover, the porthole for people is a visual porthole, but for some equipment it is an optical one.

Windows are both a structural element of the spacecraft shell and an optical device. On the one hand, they serve to protect the instruments and crew located inside the compartment from the influence of the external environment, on the other hand, they must provide the ability to operate various optical equipment and visual observation. Not only observation, however - when on both sides of the ocean they were drawing equipment for “star wars”, they were gathering and aiming through the windows of warships.

Americans and English-speaking rocket scientists in general are perplexed by the term “porthole”. They ask again: “Are these windows, or what?” In English, everything is simple - whether in the house or in the Shuttle - window, and no problems. But English sailors say porthole. So Russian space window manufacturers are probably closer in spirit to overseas shipbuilders.

Two types of windows can be found on observation spacecraft. The first type completely separates the filming equipment located in the pressurized compartment (lens, cassette part, image receivers and other functional elements) from the “hostile” external environment. Zenit-type spacecraft are built according to this scheme. The second type of porthole separates the cassette part, image receivers and other elements from the external environment, while the lens is located in an unsealed compartment, that is, in a vacuum. This scheme is used on Yantar-type spacecraft. With such a design, the requirements for the optical properties of the porthole become especially stringent, since the porthole is now an integral part of the optical system of the filming equipment, and not a simple “window into space.”

It was believed that the astronaut would be able to control the spacecraft based on what he could see. To a certain extent this was achieved. It is especially important to “look forward” during docking and when landing on the Moon - there, American astronauts more than once used manual controls during landings.

For most astronauts, the psychological idea of ​​up and down is formed depending on the surrounding environment, and portholes can also help with this. Finally, portholes, like windows on Earth, serve to illuminate compartments when flying over the illuminated side of the Earth, Moon or distant planets.

Like any optical device, a ship's window has a focal length (from half a kilometer to fifty) and many other specific optical parameters.

OUR GLAZERS ARE THE BEST IN THE WORLD

When the first spaceships were created in our country, the development of windows was entrusted to the Research Institute of Aviation Glass of the Ministry of Aviation Industry (now it is OJSC Scientific Research Institute of Technical Glass). The State Optical Institute named after. S. I. Vavilova, Research Institute of Rubber Industry, Krasnogorsk Mechanical Plant and a number of other enterprises and organizations. The Lytkarinsky optical glass plant near Moscow made a great contribution to the melting of various brands of glass, the production of portholes and unique long-focus lenses with large apertures.

The task turned out to be extremely difficult. At one time, mastering the production of airplane lights took a long time and was difficult - the glass quickly lost its transparency and became covered with cracks. In addition to ensuring transparency, the Patriotic War forced the development of armored glass; after the war, the increase in the speed of jet aircraft led not only to increased requirements for strength, but also to the need to preserve the properties of glazing during aerodynamic heating. For space projects, the glass that was used for lanterns and airplane windows was not suitable - the temperatures and loads were not the same.

The first space windows were developed in our country on the basis of Resolution of the Central Committee of the CPSU and the Council of Ministers of the USSR No. 569-264 of May 22, 1959, which provided for the start of preparations for manned flights. Both in the USSR and in the USA, the first portholes were round - these were easier to calculate and manufacture. In addition, domestic ships, as a rule, could be controlled without human intervention, and accordingly there was no need for too good an aircraft-like overview. Gagarin's Vostok had two windows. One was located on the entrance hatch of the descent vehicle, just above the astronaut’s head, the other was at his feet in the body of the descent vehicle. It is not at all out of place to recall the names of the main developers of the first windows at the Aviation Glass Research Institute - these are S.M. Brekhovskikh, V.I. Alexandrov, H. E. Serebryannikova, Yu. I. Nechaev, L. A. Kalashnikova, F. T. Vorobyov, E. F. Postolskaya, L. V. Korol, V. P. Kolgankov, E. I. Tsvetkov, S. V. Volchanov, V. I. Krasin, E. G. Loginova and others.

Due to many reasons, when creating their first spacecraft, our American colleagues experienced a serious “mass shortage.” Therefore, they simply could not afford a level of automation in ship control similar to the Soviet one, even taking into account lighter electronics, and many functions for controlling the ship were limited to experienced test pilots selected for the first cosmonaut corps. At the same time, in the original version of the first American spacecraft “Mercury” (the one about which they said that the astronaut does not enter it, but puts it on himself), the pilot’s window was not provided at all - even the required 10 kg of additional mass was nowhere to be found.

The window appeared only at the urgent request of the astronauts themselves after Shepard’s first flight. A real, full-fledged “pilot’s” window appeared only on the Gemini - on the crew’s landing hatch. But it was made not round, but of a complex trapezoidal shape, since for full manual control when docking the pilot needed forward visibility; On the Soyuz, by the way, a periscope was installed on the window of the descent module for this purpose. The Americans developed portholes by Corning, while the JDSU division was responsible for glass coatings.

On the command module of the lunar Apollo, one of the five windows was also placed on the hatch. The other two, which ensured approach when docking with the lunar module, looked forward, and two more “side” ones made it possible to glance perpendicular to the longitudinal axis of the ship. On the Soyuz there were usually three windows on the descent module and up to five on the service compartment. Most of all there are windows on orbital stations - up to several dozen, of different shapes and sizes.

An important stage in window construction was the creation of glazing for space planes - the Space Shuttle and Buran. Shuttles land like an airplane, which means the pilot needs to have a good view from the cockpit. Therefore, both American and domestic developers provided six large windows of complex shape. Plus a pair in the roof of the cabin - this is to ensure docking. Plus windows in the rear of the cabin - for operations with payload. And finally, along the porthole on the entrance hatch.

During dynamic phases of flight, the front windows of the Shuttle or Buran are subject to completely different loads, different from those to which the windows of conventional descent vehicles are exposed. Therefore, the calculation of strength is different here. And when the shuttle is already in orbit, there are “too many” windows - the cabin overheats, and the crew receives extra “ultraviolet light”. Therefore, during an orbital flight, some of the windows in the Shuttle cabin are closed with Kevlar shutters. But the Buran had a photochromic layer inside the windows, which darkened when exposed to ultraviolet radiation and did not allow “extra” into the cabin.

FRAMES, SHUTTERS, CLATCHES, CARVED WINDOWS...

The main part of the porthole is, of course, glass. “For space”, not ordinary glass is used, but quartz. During the “Vostok” era, the choice was not particularly large - only the SK and KV brands were available (the latter is nothing more than fused quartz). Later, many other types of glass were created and tested (KV10S, K-108). They even tried to use SO-120 plexiglass in space. Americans know the Vycor brand of thermal and impact-resistant glass.

Glass of different sizes is used for windows - from 80 mm to almost half a meter (490 mm), and recently an eight-hundred-millimeter “glass” appeared in orbit. External protection of “space windows” will be discussed later, but to protect crew members from the harmful effects of near-ultraviolet radiation, special beam-splitter coatings are applied to the windows of windows working with non-stationary installed devices.

A porthole is not just glass. To obtain a durable and functional design, several glasses are inserted into a holder made of aluminum or titanium alloy. They even used lithium for the Shuttle's windows.

To ensure the required level of reliability, several glasses were initially made in the porthole. If something happens, one glass will break, and the rest will remain, keeping the ship airtight. Domestic windows on the Soyuz and Vostok had three glasses each (the Soyuz has one double-glass window, but it is covered by a periscope for most of the flight).

On the Apollo and Space Shuttle, the “windows” are also mostly three-glass, but the Americans equipped Mercury, their “first swallow,” with a four-glass porthole.

Unlike the Soviet ones, the American porthole on the Apollo command module was not a single assembly. One glass worked as part of the shell of the load-bearing heat-protective surface, and the other two (essentially a two-glass porthole) were already part of the pressurized circuit. As a result, such portholes were more visual than optical. Actually, given the key role of pilots in managing Apollo, this decision seemed quite logical.

On the Apollo lunar cabin, all three windows themselves were single-glass, but on the outside they were covered by external glass, which was not part of the pressurized circuit, and from the inside by internal safety plexiglass. More single-glass windows were subsequently installed at orbital stations, where the loads are still less than those of spacecraft descent vehicles. And on some spacecraft, for example, on the Soviet interplanetary stations “Mars” in the early 70s, several windows (double-glass compositions) were actually combined in one frame.

When a spacecraft is in orbit, the temperature difference on its surface can be a couple of hundred degrees. The expansion coefficients of glass and metal are naturally different. So seals are placed between the glass and the metal of the cage. In our country, they were dealt with by the Scientific Research Institute of the Rubber Industry. The design uses vacuum-resistant rubber. Developing such seals is a difficult task: rubber is a polymer, and cosmic radiation eventually “cuts” the polymer molecules into pieces, and as a result, “ordinary” rubber simply creeps apart.

The forward glazing of the Buran cabin. Internal and external part of the Buran porthole

Upon closer examination, it turns out that the design of domestic and American “windows” differs significantly from each other. Almost all glass in domestic designs is cylindrical in shape (naturally, with the exception of the glazing of winged craft such as “Buran” or “Spiral”). Accordingly, the cylinder has a side surface that must be specially treated to minimize glare. For this purpose, the reflective surfaces inside the porthole are covered with special enamel, and the side walls of the chambers are sometimes even covered with semi-velvet. The glass is sealed with three rubber rings (as they were first called - rubber seals).

The glass of the American Apollo spacecraft had rounded side surfaces, and a rubber seal was stretched over them, like a tire on a car rim.

It is no longer possible to wipe the glass inside the window with a cloth during the flight, and therefore no debris should categorically get into the chamber (the space between the glass). In addition, the glass should neither fog up nor freeze. Therefore, before launch, not only the tanks of the spacecraft are filled, but also the windows - the chamber is filled with especially pure dry nitrogen or dry air. To “unload” the glass itself, the pressure in the chamber is provided to be half that in the sealed compartment. Finally, it is desirable that the inside surface of the compartment walls is not too hot or too cold. For this purpose, an internal plexiglass screen is sometimes installed.

THE LIGHT HAS BEEN A WEDGE ON INDIA. THE LENS TURNED OUT WHAT WE NEED!

Glass is not metal; it breaks down differently. There will be no dents here - a crack will appear. The strength of glass depends mainly on the condition of its surface. Therefore, it is strengthened by eliminating surface defects - microcracks, nicks, scratches. To do this, glass is etched and tempered. However, glass used in optical instruments is not treated this way. Their surface is hardened by so-called deep grinding. By the early 70s, the outer glass of optical windows could be strengthened by ion exchange, which made it possible to increase their abrasive resistance.

To improve light transmission, the glass is coated with a multilayer antireflective coating. They may contain tin oxide or indium. Such coatings increase light transmission by 10-12%, and they are applied by reactive cathode sputtering. In addition, indium oxide absorbs neutrons well, which is useful, for example, during a manned interplanetary flight. Indium is generally the “philosopher’s stone” of the glass, and not only glass, industry. Indium-coated mirrors reflect most of the spectrum equally. In rubbing units, indium significantly improves abrasion resistance.

During flight, windows can also become dirty from the outside. After the start of flights under the Gemini program, the astronauts noticed that fumes from the heat-protective coating were settling on the glass. Spacecraft in flight generally acquire a so-called accompanying atmosphere. Something is leaking from the pressurized compartments, small particles of screen-vacuum thermal insulation are “hanging” next to the ship, and there are combustion products of fuel components during operation of the attitude control engines... In general, there is more than enough debris and dirt to not only “spoil” view”, but also, for example, disrupt the operation of on-board photographic equipment.

Developers of interplanetary space stations from NPO named after. S.A. Lavochkina says that during the flight of the spacecraft to one of the comets, two “heads” - nuclei - were discovered in its composition. This was recognized as an important scientific discovery. Then it turned out that the second “head” appeared as a result of fogging of the porthole, which led to the effect of an optical prism.

The windows of the windows should not change light transmission when exposed to ionizing radiation from background cosmic radiation and cosmic radiation, including as a result of solar flares. The interaction of electromagnetic radiation from the Sun and cosmic rays with glass is generally a complex phenomenon. Absorption of radiation by glass can lead to the formation of so-called “color centers,” that is, a decrease in the initial light transmission, and also cause luminescence, since part of the absorbed energy can immediately be released in the form of light quanta. The luminescence of the glass creates an additional background, which reduces the image contrast, increases the noise-to-signal ratio and can make the normal functioning of the equipment impossible. Therefore, glass used in optical windows must have, along with high radiation-optical stability, a low level of luminescence. The magnitude of luminescence intensity is no less important for optical glasses operating under the influence of radiation than color resistance.

Among the factors of space flight, one of the most dangerous for windows is micrometeor impact. This leads to a rapid decrease in the strength of the glass. Its optical characteristics also deteriorate. After the first year of flight, craters and scratches reaching one and a half millimeters are found on the external surfaces of long-term orbital stations. While most of the surface can be shielded from meteoric and man-made particles, the windows cannot be protected this way. To a certain extent, lens hoods, sometimes installed on the windows through which, for example, on-board cameras operate, help. On the first American orbital station, Skylab, it was assumed that the windows would be partially shielded by structural elements. But, of course, the most radical and reliable solution is to cover the “orbital” windows from the outside with controllable covers. This solution was applied, in particular, at the second-generation Soviet orbital station Salyut-7.

There is more and more “garbage” in orbit. On one of the Shuttle flights, something clearly man-made left a rather noticeable pothole-crater on one of the windows. The glass survived, but who knows what might come next time?.. This, by the way, is one of the reasons for the serious concern of the “space community” about the problems of space debris. In our country, the problems of micrometeorite impact on the structural elements of spacecraft, including windows, are actively studied, in particular, by professor of the Samara State Aerospace University L.G. Lukashev.

The windows of the descent vehicles operate under even more difficult conditions. When descending into the atmosphere, they find themselves in a cloud of high-temperature plasma. In addition to the pressure from inside the compartment, external pressure acts on the window during descent. And then comes the landing - often on snow, sometimes in water. At the same time, the glass cools sharply. Therefore, special attention is paid to issues of strength here.

“The simplicity of the porthole is an apparent phenomenon. Some opticians say that creating a flat illuminator is a more difficult task than making a spherical lens, since building a “precise infinity” mechanism is much more difficult than a mechanism with a finite radius, that is, a spherical surface. And yet, there have never been any problems with the windows,” - this is probably the best assessment for the spacecraft unit, especially if it came from the lips of Georgy Fomin, in the recent past - First Deputy General Designer of the State Scientific Research and Production Space Center "TsSKB - Progress".

WE ARE ALL UNDER THE "DOME" OF EUROPE

Cupola overview module

Not so long ago - on February 8, 2010, after the Shuttle flight STS-130 - an observation dome appeared on the International Space Station, consisting of several large quadrangular windows and a round eight-hundred-millimeter window.

The Cupola module is designed for Earth observations and work with a manipulator. It was developed by the European concern Thales Alenia Space, and was built by Italian machine builders in Turin.

Thus, today the Europeans hold the record - such large windows have never been put into orbit either in the USA or in Russia. The developers of various “space hotels” of the future also talk about huge windows, insisting on their special significance for future space tourists. So “window construction” has a great future, and windows continue to be one of the key elements of manned and unmanned spacecraft.

"Dome" is a really cool thing! When you look at the Earth from a porthole, it’s like looking through an embrasure. And in the “dome” there is a 360-degree view, you can see everything! The earth from here looks like a map, yes, most of all it resembles a geographical map. You can see how the sun goes away, how it rises, how the night approaches... You look at all this beauty with some kind of freezing inside.

Do you think that now, at this very moment, automatic probes were launched by the European Space Agency or NASA??? No? What are you talking aboutat alldo you think?

In fact, you don’t even need to think about it! You need to look at the pictures from space that were obtained from these same probes! Only thanks to them, we draw some conclusions about the “appearance” of our solar system. Currently, several probes are in outer space, making observations in the orbits of Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars and Saturn; of course, the Sun is not left without attention. "Smaller spaceships study the galaxy as a whole. For example,Space Shuttle.Spaceships like The Space Shuttle is small in size, but several astronauts can easily live in it. Maybe it’s cramped for them there... but haven’t any of us thought about seeing our Earth from space? Did anyone envy those who saw the stars through the rocket window? Since we don’t have the opportunity to be on board a spaceship, we invite you to travel around the Vesta asteroid with the help of photographs, walk along the dusty surface of the planet Mars with a rover, and admire the satellites of Saturn!

The NASA observatory is directly involved in studying any changes on the surface of celestial bodies. For example, in the photograph above you can clearly see a change in the cycle of solar plasma lines - in our opinion, in Russian, the photograph clearly shows the influence of the magnetic field of the solar atmosphere on its modifications. If you are not involved in astronomy, then know that these modifications are caused by solar flares. For us, these are warm soft rays of the sun! And there, in space, everything is serious!

Below is a photo: the comet is approaching the Sun. The idea is that this is a unique photo. The temperature near the Sun is more than a million degrees. The comet should already have melted, in fact, like the photographers themselves - it doesn’t matter if it’s a crew or just a probe. Astronauts and astronomers are at great risk somewhere. Burning alive for the sake of a comet - a victim of science...

To be honest, science has made many leaps forward. Science is moving forward! Modern technology can withstand both very low and unimaginably high temperatures.

Each spacecraft (probe, rocket, satellite) is assigned to someone on Earth. Thus, thousands of devices send their “photo reports” to their curators. For example, the photo below was sent from the probe to Carnegie University of Washington scientist John Hopkins. Hopkins was happy to share the image with people.

Amazing photo: a space station just 390 km from the Moon!

And this is what the Moon looks like behind the surface of the Moon. It feels like it is hiding in the clouds of our atmosphere. However, nothing like that. Astronauts on the space station where the photo was taken say it's just lens distortion.

This is our real night life. View fromInternational Space Station. The picture shows Washington, Boston, New York and a piece of Long Island. Pittsburgh and Philadelphia are in the center.

But the most important thing in the photograph is the Russian satellite in the foreground, where would we be without them! We follow America: both day and night!

The photographs are fascinating, but they are taken either by machines or by astronauts who live in space in not so comfortable conditions. But many argue that when there is such beauty outside the window, you don’t really think or regret about comfort.

It is clear why astronauts do not strive to return from space to earth. Landing is not the most pleasant. Terrible pressure, incredible speed, the capsule is disconnected, the ship burns up in the atmosphere, and a very hard landing.

Takeoff is much easier, albeit with the same pressure and no less shaking...

But then there is silence, and weightlessness - an amazing feeling of flight. You look out the window, and behind the glass are the northern lights and swirling clouds of the planet’s atmosphere...beauty!

In order for flights to proceed smoothly, astronauts are required to make “extravehicular forays” to check the equipment and operation of instruments overboard.A check must be carried out every 6 hours. Within 15 minutes the flight engineer checks everything. Also, when docking ships, astronauts from both space stations must control this process.

On July 20, 1969, the astronauts of the manned spacecraft Apollo 11"became the first people to set foot on the surface of the Moon. Years of effort, dangerous experiments and ambitious missions have led to the fact that for the first time in history, the inhabitants of the Earth have landed on the surface of another celestial body. This event was watched live by millions of people around the world. Astronauts Neil Armstrong, Michael Collins and Edwin Aldrin left Earth on Wednesday, landed on the Moon on Sunday, spent just over two hours on the lunar surface, deployed a suite of scientific instruments and collected lunar soil samples before splashing down in the Pacific Ocean the following Thursday.

The sequel presents a grand gallery of photographs of this historic mission.

NASA
Astronaut Edwin Aldrin, lunar module pilot, on the lunar surface near the lunar module Eagle support on July 20, 1969. This photo was taken by astronaut Neil Armstrong, commander of the Apollo 11 mission. While Aldrin and Armstrong explored the Sea of ​​Tranquility, astronaut Michael Collins, the command module pilot, remained in Columbia in lunar orbit.

NASA
Apollo 11 crew: Neil Armstrong, Michael Collins, Edwin Aldrin.

NASA
An aerial view of the Saturn V launch vehicle for the Apollo 11 mission, May 20, 1969.

NASA
Apollo 11 crew members and astronaut chief Donald Slayton attend the mission's traditional launch breakfast, July 16, 1969.

NASA
Technicians work on top of the white room through which astronauts enter the spacecraft, July 11, 1969.

AP Photo/File
Neil Armstrong and members of the Apollo 11 mission crew before heading to the launch pad for the lunar launch vehicle at the Kennedy Space Center in Merritt Island, Florida, on July 16, 1969.

AP Photo/Edwin Reichert
Berlin residents stand in front of a television store window and watch the start of the Apollo 11 mission, July 16, 1969.

NASA
Apollo 11 launched on Wednesday, July 16, 1969. When the Saturn 5 launch vehicle launched, the thrust force was 34.5 million Newtons.

AFP/Getty Images
US Vice President Spiro Agnew and former US President Lyndon Johnson watch the launch of the Apollo 11 mission at Kennedy Space Center, Florida, July 16, 1969.

NASA
View of the Apollo 11 flight from a Boeing EC-135N.

NASA
View of planet Earth from the Apollo 11 manned spacecraft.

NASA
This photo was taken by astronaut Neil Armstrong before landing on the moon. The photo shows Edwin Aldrin in the lunar module.

NASA
View of the lunar module against the background of the Earth during the astronauts’ stay on the surface of the Moon.

NASA
Having reached lunar orbit, a view of Daedalus Crater from Apollo 11.

NASA
View from the Apollo 11 spacecraft of the Earth rising above the lunar horizon.

NASA
Command Module Columbia above craters in the Sea of ​​Plenty.

NASA
Astronauts who remained in contact with the crew of the Apollo 11 mission: Charles Moss Duke, James Arthur Lovell and Fred Wallace Hayes.

NASA
Lunar module "Eagle" in landing configuration. The image was taken in lunar orbit using the Columbia command module.

NASA
View from Neil Armstrong's window of the lunar craters Messier and Messier A.

AP Photo
Apollo 11 astronaut Neil Armstrong steps onto the surface of the Moon, July 20, 1969.

AFP/Getty Images
In Paris, France, a family watches as the Apollo 11 commander steps onto the lunar surface on July 20, 1969.

NASA
The first photograph taken by Neil Armstrong after walking on the surface of the Moon. The white bag in the foreground is a bag of garbage.

NASA
Crater next to the lunar module "Eagle".

NASA
One of the first footprints left by Edwin Aldrin, a member of the Apollo 11 mission crew.

NASA
Edwin Aldrin's shadow against the lunar surface.

NASA
Buzz Aldrin salutes the American flag unfurled on the Moon during the Apollo 11 mission. The photo was taken by astronaut Neil Armstrong.

NASA
A crowd in New York's Central Park watches the Apollo 11 crew landing on the moon, July 20, 1969.

NASA
Aldrin unpacks experimental equipment from the lunar module.

NASA
Astronaut Buzz Aldrin carries experimental equipment for deployment on the lunar surface.

NASA
Aldrin builds passive seismic experimental equipment - a device for measuring moonquakes.

AP Photo
A family in Tokyo, Japan, watches US President Richard Nixon's speech on television as the Apollo 11 astronauts are greeted live from the moon in July 1969.

NASA
Armstrong photographs the lunar module Eagle.

NASA
A module located on the surface of the Moon against the background of the Earth.

NASA
Lunar module staircase and memorial plate: “Here people from planet Earth first set foot on the Moon. July 1969 AD. We come in peace on behalf of all humanity."

NASA
Astronaut Neil Armstrong in the lunar module after his historic walk on the Moon.

NASA
After liftoff from the lunar surface, the Eagle module prepares to dock with the command module in the background.

NASA
View of the full lunar disk.

NASA
The ground as seen through the window of the Columbia command module during the return flight.

AP Photo
Apollo 11 crew members aboard a helicopter after its successful splashdown in the Pacific Ocean, July 24, 1969.

NASA
Controllers at the Manned Space Flight Center in Houston celebrated the successful completion of the Apollo 11 mission on July 24, 1969.

NASA
US President Richard Nixon greets the Apollo 11 crew in a quarantine van. From left to right: Neil Armstrong, Michael Collins, Edwin Aldrin.

NASA
New Yorkers cheer as a convoy of Apollo 11 astronauts heads down 42nd Street toward the United Nations building.

NASA
Astronauts in sombreros and ponchos surround an astonished crowd in Mexico City during a presidential goodwill tour that took the Apollo 11 crew and their wives to 27 cities in 24 countries over forty-five days.