Biography
Soviet speaker-astronaut, twice Hero of the Soviet Union Grechko Georgy Mikhailovich knew all Russia and the post-Soviet space. The biography of a brave researcher, a faithful and reliable comrade is full of interesting, and sometimes fantastic events.Childhood and youth
Childhood and youthful years of the future researcher and cosmonaut passed in Leningrad. Here he was born. A happy event in the family of the Father of the cosmonaut Mikhail Fedorovich and Mother Alexandra Yakovlevna occurred on May 25, 1931. Mother George arrived in Leningrad from Belarus, father from Ukraine, so according to the nationality of George, he was half a Ukrainian, half of Belarus.
A week before the attack of the German fascist invaders, a ten-year-old boy was taken to swim to her grandmother in Ukraine. Two years he lived in the occupied territory, in 1943 returned home. In 1947, the schoolboy Georgy Grechko goes to the Kola Peninsula and participates in geological exploration.
The secondary school ends in 1949, enters the Leningrad "Military" and in the 1955th ends it to "excellent." After the institute receives the distribution in CB S. Queen, the diploma defense also took place here.
The young engineer possessing unique technical knowledge, together with other specialists, is developing a new rocket to launch the first artificial satellite satellite into the orbit. Subsequently, he participates in the preparation for the launch of other aircraft.
Cosmonautics
The era of astronautics occurred, her starry hour. Work under the leadership of Sergey Queen for Georgy Mikhailovich was the main thing. In the troops of the cosmonauts began to take engineers and scientists. Georgy passed a medical examination, his physical form, height and weight turned out to be suitable, and buckwheat fell into the number of lucky. So, in the 35th age (in May 1966) he is credited to astronauts.
First, Georgy Mikhailovich leads a group of future test cosmonauts, then in April 1968, it is appointed by the test, and in May it is credited to the CCBM cosmonauts squad. Before the first flight, it is still far away, it enters the accident, breaks the leg and is in reserve for a long time. Meanwhile, the cosmonaut does not stop training and improves its skills.
As part of George Group, it takes common space training, preparing for flights to the moon on the Soviet program. After it is closed, the astronaut is transferred to the preparation for the piloting of the "Union" type ships and work in the Salute orbital stations. When the Soyuz-9 launch in June 1970, and Soyuz-12 in 1973, Grechko is part of the spare crew.
Soon he leaves the "spare bench" and performs three flights to space. On January 10, 1975, on the ship "Soyuz-17" goes to the first space flight along with the flight engineer Alexei Gubarev. The flight lasted 29 days, astronauts returned to Earth on February 9.
On December 10, 1977, Soyuz-26 starts and the Salute-6 orbital complex - Soyuz-26. On-board engineer - Yuri Romanenko. The flight lasted 96 days (until March 16). December 20, during the flight, the cosmonaut goes into open space for checking and evaluating the docking unit of the station. Stay in open space - 1 hour 28 min. For the first two flights, Grechko doubled the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.
On September 17, 1985, the third flight of buckwheat was held on the ship "Union T-14" as a flight engineer. The flight program was short-term at the time of reference to Salute-7. The astronaut returned to Earth on September 26 on the ship "Union T-13". This flight was made in 54 years, which was the next achievement of the cosmonaut.
In the interval between the second and third flight, Guckling was trained in international programs. In April 1984 he enters the duplicating Soviet-Indian crew "Union T-11". For three flights, the stay in space in space amounted to 134 days 21 hours 32 minutes 52 seconds.
In 1989, the cosmonaut put forward to the people's deputies, but he gives Boris Yeltsin's votes.
In 1977-1990, leads the program "This Fantastic World". The heroes of the transfer were popular science fiction writers. For decades, buckwheat collaborated with cinematographers, helping to create paintings on space. He became the main consultant of the films "Lilac Ball" Pavel Arsenova (1987) and "under the constellation of Gemini" Boris Ivchenko (1979). Grechko played himself in "Doesn't Send us ..." Fair? " (1998).
The filmography of Cosmonaut includes two documentaries 2011 "Georgy Grechko. The trajectory of fate "and" Georgy Grechko. I was in space, I believe in God. " In the same year, the cosmonaut collaborated with the TV channel "Culture". Grechko became an expert for the popular science film "Living Universe." The cycle was four paintings about the Moon, Venus, Mars and the Sun.
In the second half of the life, George Grechko consciously came to faith. Initially, Grechko was looking for signs of aliens's life, and in the 1960s, the queen, created on the occasion of the study of the alleged alien cosmole, who was actually actually, in their opinion, was actually leaving the expedition. Later, Grechko was engaged in ufological studies together with Vadim Chernobrov.
In 2006, they went to the expedition to find the "Cave of Moses" and the "White Disco Object" on Sinai in Egypt. Four years later, colleagues were arranged to depart in the village of Chapel in Pavlovo-Posad district, which is considered an abnormal zone.
In the memoirs, the cosmonaut reflects on the role of science and religion in the fate of mankind and came to the conclusion that science is neutral to good and evil. Since parents were atheists, one grandmother of the boy as a child secretly baptized her grandson. But the second did not know about it, so re-addressed the church for the sacrament. Later George Grechko said in a joke that he had two guardian angel.
After the flights, George Grechko had to respond to the favorite questions of reporters: about aliens and about God. Cosmonaut for answers used jokes. Initially, George argued that he saw a UFO in the porthole. Then the cosmonaut recovered that it was a joke.
In an interview, Grechko also told the anecdote about God, the existence of which was asked after the flight of Yuri Gagarin Nikita Khrushchev and Pope. The meaning of history, according to the cosmonaut, was reduced to the fact that God must notice not in space, but in the shower. Many cosmonaut phrases were perceived as aphorisms and were used as a quotation.
Personal life
Personal life George was also saturated with events, as evidenced by three marriages, the presence of children and grandchildren. His peer of Tutinina Nina Viktorovna was the first wife of the pilot-cosmonaut - an engineer in the GKB NPO "Energia". In a second marriage with a Foreign Language Teacher Kazekina Maya Grigorievna (1938 birthday) two children were born - Sons Alexey (1958) and Mikhail (1962).
The third wife became Lyudmila Kirillovna born in 1953, who worked as a chief physician in the cosmonautics Federation. In 1979, Olga daughter was born in the family.
George Mikhailovich had a lot of different hobbies: skiing, descended under water with aqualung, was engaged in shooting and loved motor racing. Since childhood, after he was presented with the album with stamps, fascinated by philatelee. The collection of his brands is devoted to astronautics.
Grechko was a passionate fan of science fiction and works of the classics of world literature: F. Dostoevsky, Green, R. Burns and others. He himself also wrote and became the author of several books. One of them is "Cosmonaut No. 34. From Luchin to Aliens" - contains memories of people flying into space, funny and some sad scenes from life. There are many unique photos and drawings in the book.
The health of the veteran of space for many years did not worry buckwheat, and he remained the most eldest astronauts living in the new century.
Death
Pilot-cosmonaut Georgy Grechko died early in the morning of April 8, 2017 for 85 years of life. Information on preliminary hospitalization was not confirmed. According to his daughter, he came to the hospital to consult with the doctor. Before the death of George Grechko survived a sharp drop in pressure, to restore that even resuscitation means did not help.
In the last minutes, Lyudmila's wife was located next to her husband. The cause of death is heart failure. The funeral of George Mikhailovich Grechko took place on April 11 in Moscow at the Trocerovsky cemetery. The grave of the Hero of the USSR is on the Alley of Cosmonauts.
Awards
- 1961 - Medal "For Labor Difference"
- 1070 - Medal "For Valiant Labor. In commemoration of the 100th anniversary of the birth of V. I. Lenin "
- 1970 - Medal "For the development of virgin lands"
- 1975, 1978 - Two medals "Golden Star" Hero of the Soviet Union
- 1975, 1978, 1985 - Three orders of Lenin
- 2011 - Medal "For merits in the development of cosmos"