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Mike Gruntman From Astronautics to Cosmonautics ISBN-10:  1-4196-7085-5 ISBN-13:  978-1-4196-7085-5 84 pages with 24 photos Bibliography: 75 references     This book on Amazon.com Amazon's SEARCH INSIDE THE BOOK   Book preview

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Books on history of rocketry and space

Space:  From Firecrackers to Interstellar Flight (webcast)

Mike Gruntman
From Astronautics to Cosmonautics, 2007

Preface

Chapter 1. Astronautics Was the First

Chapter 2. Dreams about Space and Communism

Chapter 3. REP-Hirsch Encouragement Award

Chapter 4. Cosmonautics - this web site

Chapter 5. Socialism Bites Back

Chapter 6. In the Spotlight

Chapter 7. In His Adopted Homeland

Appendix: Bibliography

Index

Chapter 4.  Cosmonautics  (text boxes are shown with the gray background)

After accepting the REP-Hirsch Encouragement Award Sternfeld began to receive “very serious and attractive offers of continuing [his] scientific work in the West” (Shternfel’d 2005, 101). At least, this is how he described the events later. (Socialist states tightly control publications, routinely forcing authors to bend the truth, distort the history, and exercise self censorship.)

Sternfeld wrote that he

… replied then to all of them ‘no’ and ‘no.’ It was so that I had firmly decided to relocate to the Soviet Union forever, in order to facilitate development of cosmonautics with all [my] abilities in the then-only socialist country. Already at that time, I deeply believed that the Soviet Union would be the country to open the road to cosmos to the humankind. (Shternfel’d 2005, 101)

On 14 June 1935, Ary Sternfeld and his wife arrived to the Soviet Union to settle permanently. One month later, Sternfeld joined Moscow’s Jet Propulsion Scientific Research Institute, the famous RNII. Marshal Mikhail Tukhachevsky formed RNII in September 1933 to consolidate the Soviet effort in jet propulsion. The institute embarked on a large-scale research and development programs in solid- and liquid-propellant missiles and rockets. Many leading Soviet pioneers of rocketry and spaceflight worked at RNII in 1930s, including Fridrikh A. Tsander, Valentin P. Glushko, Sergei P. Korolev, and Mikhail K. Tikhonravov (Gruntman 2004). The transformation of Ary Jacob Sternfeld (A.J. Sternfeld) into Arii Abramovich Shternfel’d (A.A. Shternfel’d) has begun. He became a Soviet citizen on 4 September 1936 (Prishchepa and Dronova 1987, 171).

From A.J. Sternfeld to A.J. Shternfel’d to A.A. Shternfel’d

This one page text box is in the print edition only

In RNII, Sternfeld concentrated on various problems of rocket dynamics. He also prepared his manuscript “Initiation à la Cosmonautique” for publication with the help of deputy director of RNII Georgii E. Langemak, who translated it into Russian. As Sternfeld described it,

During my first year of work in Jet Propulsion Scientific Research Institute I wrote all my works in French. “Introduction to Cosmonautics” was being translated into Russian by a leading specialist in rocketry, deputy director of RNII for science Georgii Erikhovich Langemak. We met a few times each week after working hours, comparing our notes. (Shternfel’d 2005, 102)

In 1937, the leading Soviet publishing house of technical literature printed two thousand copies of the book “Vvedenie v Kosmonavtiku” (“Introduction to Cosmonautics”) by A.Ya. Shternfel’d (Shternfel’d 1937). The book was largely based on Sternfeld’s original manuscript for which he had received the REP-Hirsch Encouragement Award. A few omissions included hypothetical inhabitants of other planets described by earlier writers and the concept of mirrors in space illuminating Earth (Shternfel’d 1974, 10). The book’s cover page explained that it was translation “from a manuscript in French” and that the original manuscript had been “augmented by new research results obtained in 1935–1936.”

Fig. 4.1. Cover of Sternfeld’s book “Vvedenie v Kosmonavtiku” (“Introduction to Cosmonautics”), 1937 (Shternfel’d 1937). Courtesy of Maya A. Shternfel’d and Polytechnic Museum, Moscow. Figures and photographs are not shown here. Please see the print version of the book.

Fig. 4.2. Cover page of Sternfeld’s “Vvedenie v Kosmonavtiku” (Shternfel’d 1937). The page explains that it is a translation from a manuscript in French and that it was augmented by new research results obtained in 1935–1936. The book price was 7 rubles. Courtesy Maya A. Shternfel’d. Figures and photographs are not shown here. Please see the print version of the book.

 Sternfeld’s “Introduction to Cosmonautics” was a major treatise on the fundamentals of the new science called, in the title, cosmonautics. He described conditions (environment) in space, rocket dynamics, processes in combustion chambers and nozzles, applications of rockets, physiological effects of spaceflight, and orbital mechanics, including flights to the Moon and planets. The book preface (dated “Paris, December 1933”) opened as follows,

During several centuries a number of scientists, whose names the reader would see many times in this book, contributed to the science that we now call cosmonautics ... (Shternfel’d 1974, 9)

Why did Sternfeld insist on using the new word, cosmonautics, instead of the already established and widely accepted astronautics? In the book’s second edition (Shternfel’d 1974) he added the following explanation footnote:

The author believes that the word “cosmonautics” (cosmonautique) used in the English and German languages and introduced by him to the French terminology is more correct than “astronautics” (astronautique) because the definition of a science studying motion in interplanetary space should provide the notion of the medium where the motion is assumed to occur (cosmos) but not one of its goals [goals of the motion]. (Shternfel’d 1974, 9)

The introduction of the new word kosmonavtika (cosmonautics) was not first welcome in Russia. A prominent Soviet space writer, Yakov I. Perel’man, wrote in his book review of Sternfeld’s “Introduction to Cosmonautics,”

The translator of the book uses the word “kosmonavtika” [cosmonautics]. While this word may be preferred in French compared to “astronavtika” [astronautics], it is hardly justified to introduce the word to the Russian language with the existing [Russian] word “zvezdoplavanie” [star sailing] already established to a certain degree. “Zvezdoplavanie” is more in the spirit of the Russian language than “kosmonavtika” ... (Perel’man 1938, 76)

The compound word zvezdoplavanie is similar to, a linguistic calque of, the word astronautics: zvezda means a star and plavanie means navigating or sailing. The word zvezdoplavanie was structured similarly to another word common in the Russian language of the early 20th century, vozdukhoplavanie (vozdukh means air). A word of similar meaning, aeronavtika (aeronautics), later largely replaced vozdukhoplavanie.

Moreover, Tsiolkovsky himself anointed the word zvezdoplavanie and the related word zvezdolet, or a starship. Tsiolkovsky however also used the word astronautics, e.g., in private correspondence to Fridrikh Tsander in 1932 (Kramarov 1965, 41). Perel’man wrote in 1932,

“Zvezdoplavanie” — controlled motion of a vehicle (“zvezdolet”) in space. Both words [“zvezdoplavanie” and “zvezdolet”] are suggested by me and approved by Tsiolkovsky, who uses them in his latest publications. (Perel’man 1932, 45)

A major authority in the pre-WWII Soviet space literature Yakov Perel’man, 1882–1942, was known for his numerous popular books about mathematics, physics, mechanics, rockets, and interplanetary travel. He personally had known Tsiolkovsky since as early as 1913 (Perel’man 1932, 49). Perel’man published his famous popular book “Mezhplanetnye Puteshestviya” (“Interplanetary Travel”) in 1915. In 1935, the book went through the tenth edition of 50,000 copies (Perel’man 1935). It was Perel’man who, through his popular publications, made Tsiolkovsky’s ideas and writings known to broad segments of the public in Russia (Tsiolkovsky in Perel’man 1935, 6; Chernyshev 1953; Odnazhdy i navsegda ... 1958; Gruntman 2004).

Pervaya Kosmicheskaya Skorost’ (First Cosmic Velocity)

A circular velocity [of orbiting spacecraft] near the surface of the Earth can be conveniently assigned a value of unity for comparison of cosmic [spaceflight] velocities characterizing a given planet (“first cosmic velocity”).

Shternfel’d 1974, 111

The values of the three cosmic velocities appeared prominently on the cover of the Sternfeld’s manuscript that brought him the REP-Hirsch Encouragement Award. The cover was first published as frontispiece in the first edition of the translation of the manuscript into Russian (Shternfel’d 1937). The above quote — from the available to me second edition of Sternfeld’s book (Shternfel’d 1974) — is the first introduction of the term “first cosmic velocity.” The second edition of the book augmented the first edition by endnotes by the author. Sternfeld described in the second edition of the book, and presumably in the original manuscript in 1933, the second and third cosmic velocities (Shternfel’d 1974, 115 and 116, respectively). But, he did not identify them as such (e.g., “second cosmic velocity”), in contrast with explicitly naming the first cosmic velocity. His endnotes in the second edition in 1974 specifically called them the “second cosmic velocity” and “third cosmic velocity” (Shternfel’d 1974, 225).

In spite of Perel’man’s disapproval, the word cosmonautics would eventually become accepted. It had first to compete with the word astronautics that dominated Soviet technical and popular writings for many years. Many authors also continued to use the word zvezdoplavanie (e.g., Chernyshev 1953).

For example, when Moscow spaceflight enthusiasts, including Ary Sternfeld, formed a group in the V.P. Chkalov Central Aero Club in January 1954, they called it a Section of Astronautics. Sternfeld himself published a large article, titled “Astronautics,” about spaceflight in an official magazine for high-school physics teachers (Shternfel’d 1955a). He described in this article the “first astronautical velocity,” “second astronautical velocity,” etc. These characteristic spaceflight velocities would later be called “cosmic velocities” in the Russian technical literature.

Sternfeld’s highly popular book on artificial satellites (Shternfel’d 1956) published in 1956 and then in an expanded version in 1958 (Shternfel’d 1958a) after the Sputnik launch also used the word astronautics. Pravda, the official organ of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and the ultimate authority on all forms of “political correctness” in the USSR, described the new science as astronautics in an article celebrating the successful hit of the Moon by a Soviet space probe in 1959 (Ryabchikov 1959).

Finally, the word cosmonautics won supremacy. The flight of the first man — a cosmonaut — to space in April 1961 effectively ended any competition between the two words. The field of science and engineering would be uniformly called kosmonavtika (cosmonautics), with kosmonavty (cosmonauts) traveling in space.

Fig. 4.3 Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR establishing the Cosmonautics Day. The Decree reads,

In commemoration of the first in the world flight of a Soviet man in space, the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR decrees: Establish celebration of the “Day of Cosmonautics.” To celebrate the “Day of Cosmonautics” annually on 12 April.

Signed, Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR L. Brezhnev; Secretary of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR M. Georgadze. Moscow, Kremlin, 9 April 1962.

Pravda, 10 April 1962. Figures and photographs are not shown here. Please see the print version of the book.  

Colonel-General Nikolai P. Kamanin headed training of Soviet cosmonauts since the inception of the space program. Kamanin kept extensive and unusually independent-minded ­— for a Soviet general — diaries, beginning 17 December 1960. Kamanin’s family published his diaries only after the collapse of the communist regime (Kamanin 1995, 1997, 1999, 2001). Kamanin never used the words astronaut or astronautics. The word cosmonaut appears for the first time in the very beginning of his diaries in the entry of 6 January 1961 (Kamanin 1995, 12).

The first six cosmonauts — Soviet Air Force officers Yurii A. Gagarin, German S. Titov, Grigorii G. Nelyubov, Andrian G. Nikolaev, Valerii F. Bykovsky, and Pavel R. Popovich — completed training and successfully passed the graduating exams on 17–18 January 1961. The Commander-in-Chief of the Soviet Air Force Air Chief Marshal Konstantin A. Vershinin bestowed upon them, for the first time, the ranks of pilot-cosmonauts of the Air Force.

Cosmonautics Day

Today we celebrate for the first time the Day of Cosmonautics. It was necessary [for me] to put some work in order to arrange the decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR to establish this celebration. More than a month ago, I convinced [Commander-in-Chief of the Air Force Air Chief Marshal K.A.] Vershinin and [Chief of the Political Directorate Colonel-General A.G.] Rytov of the necessity to ask [the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union] CC CPSU to establish the celebration of the 12th of April. In the draft of the request I listed the establishing of the Day of Cosmonautics as the item number one. During obtaining the [endorsing] signatures, [Colonel General P.I.] Efimov ([first] deputy of [the head of the Chief Political Directorate of the Soviet Army and Navy] Marshal [F.I.] Golikov) persuaded Rytov and Vershinin to remove this suggestion. Then, simultaneously with the request [forwarded by the Air Force] I arranged a letter from [the second Soviet cosmonaut German S.] Titov [directly] to [Nikita S.] Khrushchev on the establishing of the celebration [Cosmonautics] day .... and it [Titov’s letter] has worked.

Diary entry on 12 April 1962, N.P. Kamanin 1995, pp.101–102

Two days after Gagarin’s first flight to space on 12 April 1961, the government decree established the new rank of “Pilot-Cosmonaut of the USSR” (Pravda, 15 April 1961). A month later, another decree formalized the regulations for the rank and described the cosmonaut badge (Pravda, 12 May 1961). On 12 April 1962, the Soviet Union marked the first anniversary of Yurii Gagarin’s spaceflight by establishing and officially celebrating the first Day of Cosmonautics (Pravda, 10 April 1962).