Astronomy |
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Astronomija |
Meet the astronauts of planet Earth
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Upoznajte astronaute s planete Zemlje
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Jim Lovell, United States
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Jim Lovell, SAD
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Sergei Krikalev, USSR/Russia
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Sergei Krikalev, SSSR/Rusija
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Claudie Haigneré, France
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Claudie Haigneré, Francuska
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Chris Hadfield, Canada
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Chris Hadfield, Kanada
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Rakesh Sharma, India
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Rakesh Sharma, Indija
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Abdul Ahad Momand, Afghanistan
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Abdul Ahad Momand, Afganistan
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Sheikh Muszaphar Shukor, Malaysia
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Šeik Mušafar Šukor, Malezija
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Meet the astronauts of planet Earth
The human history of space began on the morning of April 12, 1961.
After a breakfast of meat paste and marmalade, squeezed from a tube, a 27-year-old lieutenant in the Soviet air force, Yuri Alekseyevich Gagarin, was helped into a bulky orange flying suit.
He was driven in a bus to a launch pad on the desolate site on the steppes of Kazakhstan.
According to Soviet lore, Gagarin then gave a short speech to the crowd of engineers, scientists and mechanics gathered in the early morning sunshine.
"Dear friends. What can I tell you in these last minutes before the launch? My whole life appears to me as one beautiful moment. All that I previously lived through and did was lived through and done for the sake of this moment".
Those words, written for Gagarin, had actually been recorded in Moscow.
On the morning of his flight, he simply said goodbye and was then taken up and strapped into a small spherical pod attached to a 300-tonne-rocket that had been designed to carry nuclear weapons.
For the next two hours, as the scientists fussed and took tranquiliser pills, Gagarin became slightly bored and asked for some music to be piped in.
He said the first, true human words of a cosmonaut as his Vostok "satellite-ship" began to rise, his heart beating almost three times a second...
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Upoznajte astronaute s planete Zemlje
Svemirska povijest čovječanstva započela je ujutro 12. travnja 1961. godine.
Nakon što je doručkovao mesnu paštetu i marmeladu, istisnute iz tube, 27-godišnji poručnik sovjetskih zračnih snaga Jurij Aleksejevič Gagarin ušao je uz pomoć kolega u pozamašno narančasto letačko odijelo.
Prevezen je autobusom do lansirne rampe na osamljenoj lokaciji u stepama Kazahstana.
Prema sovjetskoj predaji, Gagarin je zatim održao kratak govor mnoštvu inženjera, znanstvenika i mehaničara koji su se okupili u ranim sunčanim jutarnjim satima.
"Dragi prijatelji. Što vam mogu reći u ovih posljednjih nekoliko minuta prije lansiranja? Cijeli moj život čini mi se kao jedan lijep trenutak. Sve što sam ranije proživio i učinio bilo je proživljeno i učinjeno zbog ovog trenutka".
Te riječi, napisane za Gagarina, zapravo su snimljene u Moskvi.
Ujutro prije svog leta on je jednostavno rekao zbogom, a zatim su ga podigli i privezali unutar malene okrugle kapsule pričvršćene na raketu od 300 tona koja je bila projektirana za nošenje nuklearnog oružja.
Unutar sljedeća dva sata, dok su znanstvenici galamili i pili tablete za smirenje, Gagarinu je postalo malo dosadno i zamolio je za malo glazbe.
Izgovorio je prve prave ljudske riječi jednog kozmonauta dok se njegov "satelitski brod" Vostok počeo dizati, a srce mu je tuklo gotovo tri puta u sekundi...
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Jim Lovell, United States. Flights: 1965, 1966, 1968, 1970
As the former astronaut, who turned 83 on March 25, Jim Lovell climbs the stairs to his office, his age starts to show.
His shoulders hunch over, one nostril is caked in dry blood because of a sinus problem, and he confesses that his recent ski trip was probably his last.
Lovell is genial, direct and plain-spoken.
He talks fast and without superlatives, fitting for a man chiefly remembered for one of history's most famous sentences - "Houston, we have a problem" (In fact, he actually said, "Houston, we've had a problem".)
Lovell situates his life within the history of flight.
"I was born a year after Lindbergh made his historic trip across the Atlantic," he says.
"Boys like either dinosaurs or airplanes. I was very much an airplane boy".
As a child, he built home-made rockets in his back garden using US postal service mailing tubes.
"For fuel, we mixed sulphur, potassium nitrate and charcoal - the ingredients of gunpowder," he laughs.
Lovell suffered setbacks on his path to becoming an astronaut.
His first application to the US Naval Academy was rejected.
His first attempt to be a Navy pilot was also dismissed...
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Jim Lovell, SAD. Letovi: 1965. godine, 1966. godine, 1968. godine, 1970. godine
Kao bivši astronaut, koji je napunio 83 godine 25. ožujka, Jim Lovell se penje stepenicama do svojeg ureda, a njegova starost počinje biti vidljiva.
Ramena mu vise, jedna nosnica mu je puna suhe krvi zbog problema sa sinusima, a on priznaje kako je njegov nedavni skijaški izlet vjerojatno i njegov posljednji.
Lovell je genijalan, izravan i jasan.
On govori brzo i bez superlativa, kako i dolikuje čovjeku kojeg se prvenstveno pamti po jednoj od najpoznatijih rečenica u povijesti - "Houston, imamo problem" (Iako je u stvari rekao: "Houston, imali smo problem".)
Lovell smješta svoj život u povijest letenja.
"Rodio sam se godinu dana nakon što je Lindbergh završio svoj povijesni put preko Atlantika", kaže on.
"Dječaci vole ili dinosaure ili zrakoplove. Ja sam bio dječak koji je volio zrakoplove".
Kao dijete, izrađivao je rakete u kućnoj radinosti u svom vrtu koristeći tuljke kakve je koristila američka poštanska služba.
"Za gorivo, miješali smo sumpor, kalijev nitrat i ugljen - sastojke baruta", smije se.
Lovell je trpio neuspjehe na svom putu da postane astronaut.
Njegov prvi zahtjev za Američku pomorsku akademiju je odbijen.
Njegov prvi pokušaj da postane pilot ratne mornarice također je odbijen...
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Sergei Krikalev, USSR/Russia. Flights: 1988, 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2005
After spending more time in space than any other human being, Sergei Krikalev now has a desk job running the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Centre, popularly known as Star City.
"I beat the record with the days I spent in space," he says, scanning the horizon, as three trainee cosmonauts clamber into a mock-up Soyuz spacecraft behind him.
"But records are not important. Results are what count".
Krikalev grew up in Leningrad (now St. Petersburg) in the 1960s, when the Soviet space industry was at its height.
As a civilian - albeit one who had won a national championship for aerobatic flying - he was something of an outsider when he was selected for training at Star City in 1985.
Today, Krikalev is Russia's most famous living cosmonaut.
He has flown on six missions, logging more than 803 days in space and earning a reputation as a fearless man.
In 1991, in one of the more bizarre misadventures in space history, he was stranded at Mir for almost four additional months, when the Soviet Union collapsed.
A consummate professional, Krikalev refuses to be portrayed as the self-sacrificing hero who kept the Mir programme alive.
"Space can be fun, depending on who you are with," he says...
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Sergei Krikalev, SSSR/Rusija. Letovi: 1988. godine, 1991. godine, 1994. godine, 1998. godine, 2000. godine, 2005. godine
Nakon što je proveo više vremena u svemiru od bilo kojeg drugog ljudskog bića, Sergej Krikalev sada ima uredski posao vođenja Gagarinovog centra za obuku kozmonauta, popularno poznatog pod nazivom Zvjezdani Grad.
"Srušio sam rekord po danima koje sam proveo u svemiru", kaže on, gledajući prema horizontu, dok se tri pripravnika kozmonauta penju u maketu letjelice Sojuz iza njega.
"No, rekordi nisu važni. Računaju se rezultati".
Krikalev je odrastao u Lenjingradu (današnji St. Petersburg) u 1960-tim godinama, kada je sovjetska svemirska industrija bila na vrhuncu.
Kao civil - iako civil koji je osvojio državno prvenstvo u akrobatskom letenju - bio je pomalo autsajder kada je izabran za obuku u Zvjezdanom Gradu 1985. godine.
Danas je Krikalev najpoznatiji živući kozmonaut u Rusiji.
Letio je na šest misija, zabilježio više od 803 dana u svemiru i zaradio reputaciju kao neustrašiv čovjek.
U jednoj od bizarnijih nezgoda u povijesti svemira, 1991. godine ostao je napušten na postaji Mir gotovo četiri dodatna mjeseca, kada se raspao Sovjetski Savez.
Besprijekorni profesionalac, Krikalev odbija da ga se prikazuje kao heroja koji se sam žrtvovao kako bi održao program Mir na životu.
"Svemir može biti zabavan, ovisno o tome s kim se nalazite u njemu", kaže on...
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Claudie Haigneré, France. Flights: 1996, 2001
The day Neil Armstrong landed on the Moon, 12-year-old Claudie Haigneré was on holiday.
The first Frenchwoman in space, now the elegant 53-year-old president of Paris's museum "Cite des Sciences", recalls: "My father, an engineer, always very curious, told us that something extraordinary will happen. The weather was beautiful, it was July, and so we sat outside our tent and watched TV with other campers. That image has stayed with me: to see in black-and-white on the screen a man climbing down that ladder, and at the same time to see in the sky a thing that looked inaccessible and very far".
After the Moon landing, the precocious girl read and watched whatever she could about space.
Going there herself seemed unimaginable.
She worked as a doctor and medical researcher until one day she spotted a message on the hospital notice board.
France's space centre was looking for astronauts.
Of 1,000 candidates, seven were chosen: six men and Haigneré.
Seven years after seeing the notice, she started training.
She also qualified as an engineer of the space shuttle, an emergency pilot and learnt Russian.
She found Yuri Gagarin's shadow everywhere...
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Claudie Haigneré, Francuska. Letovi: 1996. godine, 2001. godine
Na dan kada je Neil Armstrong sletio na Mjesec, 12-godišnja Claudie Haigneré bila je na praznicima.
Prva Francuskinja u svemiru, a sada elegantna 53-godišnja predsjednica pariškog muzeja "Cite des Sciences", prisjeća se: "Moj otac, inženjer, uvijek vrlo znatiželjan, rekao nam je da se će se dogoditi nešto izvanredno. Vrijeme je bilo predivno, bio je srpanj, pa smo sjedili izvan šatora i gledali TV zajedno s drugim kamperima. Ta slika mi je ostala: vidjeti u crno-bijeloj tehnici na ekranu kako se čovjek spušta niz ljestve, a u isto vrijeme na nebu vidjeti stvar koja izgleda nedostupna i vrlo daleka".
Nakon slijetanja na Mjesec, rano sazrela djevojka čitala je i gledala sve što je mogla o svemiru.
Odlazak tamo joj se činio nezamislivim.
Radila je kao liječnik i medicinski istraživač sve dok jednog dana nije uočila poruku na oglasnoj ploči u bolnici.
Francuski svemirski centar tražio je astronaute.
Od 1.000 kandidata odabrano ih je sedam: šest muškaraca i Haigneré.
Sedam godina nakon što je vidjela oglas, započela je s obukom.
Također se kvalificirala za inženjera svemirskog šatla, pilota za hitne slučajeve i naučila ruski jezik.
Svuda je vidjela sjenu Jurija Gagarina...
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Chris Hadfield, Canada. Flights: 1995, 2001, 2012
Chris Hadfield was aged nine and living on a corn farm in Ontario when astronauts walked on the moon for the first time, in July 1969.
He vowed that one day he, too, would blast off into space.
Two degrees in mechanical engineering and five years as a test pilot later, his typical workday finally involves walking into Building 9 at NASA in his blue jumpsuit.
Hadfield's work life is a non-stop training programme.
Some days he spends six hours underwater, dressed in full space suit, in a NASA lab that simulates weightlessness.
Other days, Hadfield takes exams on everything from operating the electrical power system on the space station to using the advanced resistive exercise device.
Claustrophobia is a foreign concept to Hadfield.
In one of the many tests he had to pass, he was zipped into a pouch the size of a large beach ball without being told how long he might be kept there.
He found it "nice and quiet, comforting place".
During the half hour he was zipped up, he fell asleep.
Recalling his flight 10 years ago on the space shuttle "Endeavour" for his second space mission, he says: "It is psychologically stupefying to be up there...
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Chris Hadfield, Kanada. Letovi: 1995. godine, 2001. godine, 2012. godine
Chris Hadfield je imao devet godina i živio na farmi kukuruza u Ontariju kada su astronauti prvi put hodali na Mjesecu, u srpnju 1969. godine.
Obećao je sam sebi da će i on jednog dana poletjeti u svemir.
Nakon dvije diplome iz strojarstva i pet godina provedenih u ulozi probnog pilota, njegov tipičan radni dan napokon uključuje ulazak u NASA-inu zgradu broj 9 u plavom kombinezonu.
Hadfieldov radni život je neprekidan program obuke.
Neke dane provodi šest sati ispod vode, obučen u kompletno svemirsko odijelo, u laboratoriju NASA-e koji simulira bestežinsko stanje.
Ostale dane Hadfield polaže ispite iz svega, od operativnog elektroenergetskog sustava svemirske postaje do korištenja naprednog uređaja za vježbu uz pomoć otpora.
Klaustrofobija je Hadfieldu nepoznat pojam.
U jednom od mnogih testova koje je morao proći, zatvoren je pomoću patentnog zatvarača u torbicu veličine velike lopte za plažu bez da mu je rečeno koliko dugo bi mogao ostati unutra.
Za njega je to bilo "lijepo i tiho, ugodno mjesto".
Tijekom tih pola sata dok je bio zatvoren, zaspao je.
Prisjećajući se svojeg leta prije 10 godina na svemirskom šatlu "Endeavour" tijekom svoje druge svemirske misije, on kaže: "Psihološki je zapanjujuće biti tamo gore...
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Rakesh Sharma, India. Flight: 1984
Rakesh Sharma was a test pilot in the Indian Air Force in 1982 when he was asked if he would be interested in a secret assignment.
He would need to undergo far-reaching medical examinations - psychological tests, being put in a small chamber, having his hands put in hot and cold water at the same time - without knowing the reason why.
The 33-year-old veteran of the 1971 Indo-Pakistan war says: "It was all so secret that I do not think there was anybody who said no".
Sharma put his eventual selection as India's cosmonaut - out of 250 candidates - down to his equanimity.
"Call it calmness, call it acceptance, I never took it that seriously," he says.
After 18 months of training in Star City, Sharma flew to the Soviet Salyut space station and became the first man to practise yoga in weightless conditions.
From orbit, India looked "better than the whole world", as he told Indira Gandhi, the Indian prime minister.
"There were the deserts and the coastlines, the Himalayas, the purple deep valleys and the snow-capped mountains, so it was truly a pretty sight," he recalls from his home in the hill station of Coonoor, Tamil Nadu...
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Rakesh Sharma, Indija. Let: 1984. godine
Rakesh Sharma bio je probni pilot u indijskim zračnim snagama 1982. godine kada je dobio pitanje da li bi bio zainteresiran za tajni zadatak.
Trebao bi prolaziti kroz opsežne zdravstvene preglede - psihološke testove, u maloj komori, a da mu ruke budu stavljene istovremeno i u toplu i u hladnu vodu - ne znajući zašto.
Taj 33-godišnji veteran iz indijsko-pakistanskog rata iz 1971. godine kaže: "Sve je bilo tako velika tajna da mislim kako ne postoji nitko tko je rekao ne".
Sharma je sveo razlog svojeg konačnog izbora za indijskog kozmonauta - između 250 kandidata - na svoju mirnoću.
"Nazovite to smirenošću, nazovite to prihvaćanjem, nikada to nisam doživio toliko ozbiljno", kaže on.
Nakon 18 mjeseci obuke u Zvjezdanom Gradu, Sharma je letio do sovjetske svemirske postaje Saljut i postao prvi čovjek koji je prakticirao jogu u bestežinskom uvjetima.
Iz orbite, Indija mu je izgledala "bolje od cijelog svijeta", kako je rekao Indiri Gandhi, indijskoj premijerki.
"Vidjele su se pustinje i obale, kao i Himalaja, ljubičaste duboke doline i planine prekrivene snijegom, tako da je to bio zaista lijep prizor," prisjeća se on iz svoje kuće u gradu na velikoj nadmorskoj visini po imenu Coonoor, Tamil Nadu...
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Abdul Ahad Momand, Afghanistan. Flight: 1988
Abdul Ahad Momand says he has made two flights into outer space - the first as an Afghan cosmonaut in 1988, and the second a few years later when he sought political asylum in Germany.
"My second trip to outer space has been the more difficult one - the language, the laws, the culture, everything was new," the 52-year-old father of three children says in his house on the outskirts of Stuttgart.
The flight to the orbit was something he could prepare myself for but he was not able to do the same thing for his voyage to Germany.
All he had with him on arriving there in 1992 was his family and one suitcase, after hastily escaping the mujahideen, who had swept the government out of power, murdering some of his confidants.
Momand's space trip was a propaganda mission.
In 1987, the USSR withdrew its tanks from Afghanistan.
The Soviet-backed government that remained needed a symbolic gesture, so they decided to fire an Afghan citizen into outer space.
The Soviets selected Momand, who had fought against the mujahideen, out of 20 jet pilots.
"I did not have any acquaintances in the government - I was a simple army officer," he says.
The former cosmonaut now does a job that does not please him, one he even refuses to talk about...
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Abdul Ahad Momand, Afganistan. Let: 1988. godine
Abdul Ahad Momand kaže da je dvaput letio u svemir - prvi put kao kozmonaut u Afganistanu 1988. godine, a drugi put nekoliko godina kasnije, kada je zatražio politički azil u Njemačkoj.
"Moje drugo putovanje u svemir bilo je teže - jezik, zakoni, kultura, sve je bilo novo," kaže 52-godišnji otac troje djece u svojoj kući na periferiji Stuttgarta.
Let u orbitu je bio nešto na što se mogao pripremiti, ali nije bio u mogućnosti učiniti isto i za svoje putovanje u Njemačku.
Sve što je imao sa sobom kada je tamo stigao 1992. godine bili su njegova obitelj i jedan putni kovčeg, nakon žurnog bijega pred mudžahedinima koji su svrgnuli vladu i poubijali neke od njegovih pouzdanika.
Momandov put u svemir bio je propagandna misija.
SSSR je 1987. godine povukao svoje tenkove iz Afganistana.
Vlada iza koje su stajali Sovjeti a koja je ostala na vlasti trebala je simboličnu gestu, pa su odlučili poslati afganistanskog državljanina u svemir.
Sovjeti su odabrali Momanda, koji je ratovao protiv mudžahedina, između 20 pilota mlaznih zrakoplova.
"Nisam imao nikakva poznanstva u vladi - bio sam običan vojni časnik", kaže on.
Bivši kozmonaut sada radi posao koji ga ne zadovoljava, čak odbija i pričati o njemu...
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Sheikh Muszaphar Shukor, Malaysia. Flight: 2007
Sheikh Muszaphar Shukor had wanted to go to space since he was 10 years old and obsessed by Star Trek and Superman.
However, as Malaysia had no space programme he decided to go into medicine instead.
Then, in 2003, it was announced that Russia would include a Malaysian in a crew bound for the International Space Station.
Shukor, by then a 31-year-old orthopaedic surgeon, restaurant co-owner and part-time model, was one of 11,425 people who applied.
"I knew it was my destiny," he says.
After 18 months of training, he blasted off in October 2007.
During his trip, Shukor performed experiments on liver cancer and leukaemia cells, microbes and protein crystals.
"The journey into space was quite smooth but, on the way back, we had to have a ballistic landing several hundreds of kilometres off-target," says Shukor.
"We had been taught to be fearless - but we experienced forces in excess of 9 Gs, which is like nine times your own bodyweight. The worst part was not being able to breathe, and I was worried about my experiments. Any vibration and they would have been destroyed...
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Šeik Mušafar Šukor, Malezija. Let: 2007. godine
Šeik Mušafar Šukor želio je ići u svemir još kao 10-godišnjak i bio je opsjednut Zvjezdanim stazama i Supermanom.
No, s obzirom na to da Malezija nije imala svemirski program, odlučio se umjesto toga baviti medicinom.
A zatim je 2003. godine bilo objavljeno da će Rusija uključiti i jednog Malezijca u posadu koja bi trebala ići na Međunarodnu svemirsku postaju.
Šukor, tada već 31-godišnji ortopedski kirurg, suvlasnik restorana i povremeni model, bio je jedan od 11.425 ljudi koji su se prijavili.
"Znao sam da je to moja sudbina," kaže on.
Nakon 18 mjeseci obuke, poletio je u listopadu 2007. godine.
Tijekom svog putovanja, Šukor je izvršio eksperimente na jetrenim stanicama raka i leukemije, mikroorganizmima i kristalima proteina.
"Put u svemir prošao je glatko, ali na putu natrag morali smo izvršiti balističko slijetanje nekoliko stotina kilometara dalje od predviđenog mjesta," kaže Šukor.
"Naučili su nas da budemo neustrašivi - ali smo doživjeli sile veće od 9G, što je otprilike 9 puta više od naše vlastite težine tijela. Najgori dio je bio nemogućnost disanja, a bio sam i zabrinut za svoje eksperimente. Bilo kakva vibracija bi ih uništila...
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