Original subtitles

Man has walked the hard path of knowledge on his planet.

He hag always wanted to get where he has not been,

and to know what was not yet known.

Man has set off on a distant voyage despite the grave dangers,

he has conquered the poles,

gone up high above the clouds,

descended into the deep.

Overcoming innumerable difficulties,

he has found the way to the innermost recesses of nature,

penetrated into living cells

and the structure of atoms.

He seeks to unravel the mysteries of the Universe,

to become conscious of himself.

But never before has man broken away from his planet.

And now the time has come

when he tock the first step over the threshold of his house.

It is obvious. Man has grown.

PRAVDA TASS INFORMS

The world's first artificial satellite hag been created.

The world's first artificial satellite hag been created.

"Earth is the cradle of humanity, but one cannot live in a cradle forever."

Teiolkoveky

We dedicate our film to Man's departure into space.

"ROAD TO THE STARS"

The end of the 19th century,

remote Russian province, pious merchant city of Kaluga.

Konstantin Eduardovich Teiolkovsky works as a teacher in a primary school.

Serious childhood illness has made him almost deaf for life.

Communicating with people became difficult.

He had to undergo a self-taught course in High School and then in the University.

But more than deafness,

the difference in interests alienated Tsiclkoveky from hig milieu.

People did not understand him and considered eccentric.

The province, separated from centers of science,

lacked books and magazines, as well as educated people.

He had to learn everything by himself.

And he had a great thirst for action.

He wanted to improve people's lives.

New concepts, startling in their boldness, arose in the mind of the humble teacher:

to break away from the Earth,

to fly into the outer space,

to use the energy of the Sun.

Tsiolkoveky found listeners only among children

who were avid for everything unusual, interesting and new.

Tell me kids, can one go to the moon in a balloon?

In a balloon? Of course not!

Why?

Because the balloon moves only in the air

and the air can be found only here - around the Earth.

Further, there is no air - only a void.

Correct!

But this is only one reason.

There is one more. - What is it?

Look!

I throw a stone up in the air and it comes back down.

Why is that?

- Yeah, why? - I don't know.

Please, be seabed.

Barth draws to itself stones and water

and keeps us close as captives.

On the ground, one can move as one likes,

but one cannot make a step off the Earth.

If one pushes onself off the Earth, it returns one back from the void.

"Do not fly to the moon!"

And no way to escape?

The gravity can be overcome...

The gravity can be overcome with speed.

One has to fly away from the Earth faster than it can draw one back.

This velocity was calculated by Newton.

The Earth draws a stone to itself by B meters per second.

The Earth is spherical.

Within the distance of 8 kilometers,

the surface of the Barth deviates from the plane by 5 meters.

If a stone crosses these 8 kilometers in one second,

it will descend by the same amount as the Barth's surface deviated from the plane.

A stone, thrown with such speed,

will fly neither approaching the ground nor moving away from it.

It it will spin around the Earth.

This is so-called "circular velocity".

8 KPB8 CIRCULAR VELOCITY

A stone thrown with even greater speed

will move around in an ellipse.

Finally, for the escape velocity of 11 km per second

a stone will leave the Earth forever.

11,2 KPS ESCAPE VELOCITY a stone will leave the Earth forever.

11,2 KPS ESCAPE VELOCITY

What tremendous speed!

Ten times greater than the velocity of an artillery shell!

Jules Verne knew these numbers.

JULES VERNE FROM THE EARTH TO THE MOON

He placed the characters of his novel in a shell

and shot them from a huge cannon cast directly in the ground.

Wonderful fantasy...

'but no cannon using gunpowder can give orbital velocity to a projectile.

Besides, people inside the projectile, would be killed by a sudden jolt.

A projectile won't do!

We need a ship that could gain speed gradually

and go wherever we want there, in the void.

But there is nothing to push off from in the void!

There is no land, no water and no air.

I'll show you from what one can push off from in the void!

That support for pushing off from has to be taken up there also.

I don't understand.

You can to push off from any object,

from any substance that has weight or mass.

'We are motionless now.

Now look.

I push off from one oar.

From the other car...

What are you doing?!

From the anchor...

...from the bench...

...from the bucket...

...from the umbrella... - Konstantin Eduardovich!

Well? Are we moving or not?

We are moving! Indeed we are!

Which was to be demonstrated.

In the void, one can only move in this way;

throwing back a portion of your mass.

This is recoil, reaction,

Newton's Third Law:

"To every action there is always opposed an equal reaction."

Note how a cannon recoils when firing.

A cannon...

Might one fly to the moon riding a cannon?

If we imagine a cannon hanging in the void,

after firing it will move in the opposite direction.

If firing again, it will fly faster.

Shooting over and over again the cannon can be accelerated to reach high speed.

The solution is somewhere very close.

ROCKET

A rocket!

A rocket, known for hundreds of years!

Instead of shells, it throws back a gas stream.

Gases push off from a rocket, and vice versa

and they fly in opposite directions.

Gases backwards, and a rocket - forward!

A rocket needs no air for support - the latter only hinders the flight.

But can a rocket develop cosmic velocity?

I must do the calculations and formulate the law of its motion.

The formula of a rocket's movement.

A rocket can increase its speed infinitely,

everything depends on the supply of fuel.

What yesterday was still a fantasy...

now has a solid foundation of mathematical calculations.

A rocket.

This is a genuine ship of the universe.

It will be a huge rocket.

Gunpowder is not suitable.

We must take a more efficient fuel, such as gasoline with liquid oxygen.

Liquid fuel is generally more convenient.

It can be fed into the combustion chamber via pumps.

In front of the rocket, there will be a cabin for passengers.

In order to cool the sheathing,

it needs double walls, which liquid oxygen will pass through prior to combustion.

The stream of gases requires rudders made of a refractory material.

Then the ship will be controllable.

And it has to be controlled automatically.

Teioclkovsky worked on his paper for several years.

This was the beginning of a new science - Astronautics.

His paper was published in 1903

THE SCIENCE REVIEW Monthly scientifie-philosophical and literary magazine #5 rawr

and was entitled "The Exploration of Cosmic Space by Means of Reaction Devices".

How tremendous are the opportunities opened up to the mankind by

departure into space!

Colonization of space,

life without gravity,

visits to other planets...

But these dreams

were so hopelessly distant from real life...

"Rootless fantasist",

"crazy dreamer",

"who needs your reaction devices?"

"What do you want? To be heard in St. Petersburg?"

But the official science of Tsarist Russia

turned her back to the Russian genius.

It bowed subserviently before Europe.

Teiolkovsky wrote then:

"The main driving force of my life

is to do something useful for people.

Not to live my life in vain, but to advance the humanity forward at least alittle bit.

That's why I has taken interest in what doesn't give me neither bread nor power.

But I hope that maybe soon, maybe in the distant future, my work

will give the society mountains of bread and plenty of power..."

Teioclkoveky persisted in his hard work.

After all, the flight into space is possible so far only in theory.

A number of assumptions have been made:

the best fuel,

extremely durable and lightweight materials,

very high combustion temperatures.

Technology is still very far from that...

FUEL FOR A ROCKET Explosives and Combustible

SPACE ROCKET EXPERIMENTAL PREPARATION

The main difficulty lies in the fact

that a space rocket needs a lot of fuel.

A rocket having less fuel hag already spent it.

The second one continues to gain speed.

But it has run out of fuel too.

And the cosmic velocity is not yet reached.

'What to do?

SPACE ROCKET TRAINS

In his declining years, Tsiolkoveky solves this problem also.

He puts together multiple rockets to form a train.

He makes a composite rocket.

In the beginning, it's the first rocket's turn.

When the fuel runs ous,

the rocket gets detached, saving the train from excess weight, and returns to Earth.

The second one continues to gain speed.

The last one still hag full tanks

and the speed is already above 4 kilometers per second. A bit more!

And the cosmic velocity will be reached!

"The mankind will not remain on the Barth forever,

but in the pursuit of light and space,

it will, at first, timidly emerge from the bounds of the atmosphere,

and then advance until it has conquered the whole of the circumsolar space."

1929. Professor Oberth wrote to Tesiolkoveky:

"You have lit the fire and we will not let it go out.

We will make every effort to fulfill the greatest dream of the mankind."

Tens, hundreds, and then thousands of enthusiasts

started practical work on rocket technology.

With the help of the dynamometer they measured the thrust of powder rockets,

then tried to adapt powder rockets to movement on the ground.

Austrian pilot and astronomer Valier's rocket sledge

attained the speed of 100 km per hour with a passenger

and 400 km per hour without a passenger. It was spectacular.

But for land transport the use of rockets proved impractical.

The assault of heights began.

It resembled a war;

there were loud explosions,

and people were dying...

During the test of the liquid-propellant jet engine

interplanetary travel enthusiast Max Valier died.

German engineer Reinhold Tiling died in his laboratory.

But the goal was too ambitious, too tempting...

New enthusiasts were building new rockets.

In 1929, for the first time in the world,

American professor Goddard's rocket flew into the sky.

And in 1933, our country tested its first rocket.

The rocket created by "G.8.R.M." -

the group of study of rocket motion.

The participants of the first start Were nervous.

Will the rocket take off or not?

Will it have enough power to push off from the Earth?

Here the rocket is being filled with gasoline and liquid oxygen.

Everyone moves away, but not too far.

They want to get a better view.

Oxygen pressure is slowly increasing...

Finally 13 atmospheres!

The valve can be opened.

Clear props!

A flame appears.

The rocket roars but doesn't move.

Will it take off or not?

They wanted to run up to the rocket and help it to push off.

But it wasn't necessary.

The rocket's further fate depended on solving multiple problems...

Better rocket fuel had to be found,

as well ag heat-resistant materials for the engine.

It also required light but durable materials for the rocket itself,

provision of control automatics,

and lightening of the design to increase the supply of fuel.

Achievements of many sciences,

and many branches of engineering

have helped to create a modern space rocket.

Instruments are located in its front part.

The main volume is occupied by fuel tanks.

FUEL OXIDIZER The main volume is occupied by fuel tanks.

The rocket engine isin the tail part.

The turbine rotates the fuel pumps,

which continuously feed fuel and oxidizer into the combustion chamber.

The products of combustion are emitted through the nozzle with great speed.

Rudders are placed on either side of the gas stream.

Modern propellants do not allow a single rocket to go higher than 250 km.

Teiolkovsky's idea about a composite rocket came into play.

The two-stage rocket with a top speed of up to 3 kps went up as high as 400 km.

The multistage rocket goes up to over 1,000 meters above ground.

It is able to overcome the distance between any two points on the globe

and even to develop the circular velocity - to become a satellite of the Barth.

Anew celestial body created by the hands of the Soviet people,

appeared in the sky on Oct. 4, 1957.

Radio signals of this "small moon"

informed the world of the beginning of anew era -

an era of interplanetary travel.

For an hour and a half Sputnik makes one full cirele around the Earth.

Now it is flying over Moscow...

In ten seconds, it crosses India...

And in another 25 minutes, it will be seen far in the Antarctic -

on the other side of the globe.

Observations of Sputnik are carried out in different parts of the Earth.

Its flight is marked by chronographs and mapped.

Due to the rotation of the Earth,

Sputnik makes each next circle over new sections of the Earth's surface,

giving scientists a huge amount of invaluable scientific data.

Teioclkovsky said: "First, inevitably, the idea, the fantasy, the fairy tale.

Then, scientific calculation. Ultimately, fulfillment crowns the dream."

Brilliant realization of Teiolkoveky's ideas is underway!

Let us look into the future.

Soon, the hour will come,

after centuries of waiting -

the hour of the humanity's first flight into interplanetary space.

These three will be the first to fly.

The spaceship:

the result of work of tens of thousands of people;

hundreds of enterprises; multiple academies; institutes;

design offices;

laboratories.

Today, each of those involved,

is sending their own small part of this ship into space.

Carefully and cautiously, aman enters into an unknown world.

The first flight is a test flight.

Today, the cosmonauts will spend only afew hours in space, flying around the Earth.

It's necessary to check how people will feel during a space flight.

It's also necessary to check how all the mechanisms and devices perform.

Ready?

Ready.

Ready.

I'll give the signal.

TOWER AUTOMATIC START

Well, comrades, let's begin.

Five minutes before take-off.

Man hag finished his work.

Now, automatic machines will do the rest.

Machines will turn on the engines.

Machines will, at first, also control the ship in flight.

One minute before take-off.

Launch!

The ship picks up speed!

Acceleration creates overload.

The cosmonauts feel a growing increase of their weight.

Great weight forces them into their seats.

Deprives them of mobility.

Overcoming the atmospheric drag,

the ship is already moving twice ag fast as an artillery shell.

Fuel ran out in the first stage of the ship.

Radio-controlled, it will return to the Earth.

The ship's rudders operate automatically,

gradually moving it into the desired orbit.

The speed continues to increase.

6 kilometres per second!

So hard! It seems that the Earth is using all its strength

trying to return the escaping prisoners.

The second stage has got detached.

Due to inertia, the ship moves higher and higher, approaching the desired orbit.

The engines turn on for the third time.

The velocity reaches circular.

The engine has stopped.

Free flight has begun.

The ship has become a celestial body.

It now revolves around the Barth,

in non-atmospheric vacuum,

at the altitude of over 1,000 kilometres.

But what is it? People are flying?

Certainly, for the gravity has disappeared.

So what has happened?

Where has the weightlessness come from?

We are used to seeing people

fall to the floor after jumping, due to the Barth's gravity.

But if the cabin starts falling at the same time, a person can't reach the floor.

They will remain suspended in the air. They will be weightless.

This is what's happened with the ship.

After shutting off the engines, it becomes a free-falling body,

together with the cosmonauts inside.

Maintaining a constant high speed, it, so to say, falls past the Earth.

One circle around the planet takes about 2 hours.

It's difficult at first, having attained zero gravity,

to remain stationary.

Many people assume weightlessness occurs

only at a congiderable distance from the Earth.

This is incorrect.

The state of weightlessness is also experienced by pilots in a diving plane,

and by parachute jumpers during a free-fall jump.

However, weightlessness in these cases, does not last very long.

In space, the daily work begins:

observations are made, and communication is maintained with the Earth.

Hello, Barth?

The locator has given the altitude:

Over Australia: 1,200. Over Europe: 1,300.

Ellipse corresponds to calculated values.

Feeling well.

Passing over the Equator.

The Bun has overheated the starboard.

We'll turn around.

Meteorites?

Small. Proceed.

The boundaries of clouds are observed perfectly.

That's how weather should be forecast.

Entering the Earth's shadow.

It's time to test the space suit.

Are you afraid?

Help me put it on.

And now, the first person,

goes into open space,

taking with him, inside his hermetic suit, into this terrible abyss

a bit of Barth's habitual climate.

Emptiness.

Not a slightest trace of atmosphere, and consequently, silence.

Complete and eternal

silence.

Many dangers await the brave cosmonauts,

who dared leave the shelter of the Barth's atomosphere.

Cosmic rays, not attenuated by anything, penetrate the human body.

Will the fearless travellers pay with their life?

Meteorites - tiny celestial stones, rush around in the void.

Like a bullet, any one of them can pierce through the human body,

stopping the heart.

The Earth remembers its sons.

The contact with the cosmonauts is maintained.

Radio messages from the ship are transmitted regularly.

Ag darkness falls,

thousands of eyes look forit.

A tiny star is crossing the sky.

And onitis... Father!

The first return from its maiden voyage.

Halting its motion slightly, the ship begins its descent.

It's vital to enter the atmosphere slowly,

so as not to burn up like a meteor.

The ship descends in a spiral.

Only by reducing the ship's speed to that of an aircraft is it possible to land.

Another stage in the conquest of space has ended successfully.

It's now possible to move on to the next stage.

Dozens of ships are already primed to be sent into interplanetary space.

They will deliver materials and people into space,

in order to construct out there, in the void,

a permanent space station.

Meanwhile, preperations begin

to send an automatic rocket to orbit around the moon.

Instead of people, in the rocket's nose section

television transmitters are installed;

an automatically operating video camera;

photographic equipment equipped with various optics.

Deep into interplanetary space,

the construction of the space station is underway.

Cargo vessels have delivered construction material into orbit.

The materials weigh nothing, but their mass and inertia remain.

Moving materials in space is only possible using velocity of special rocket engines.

Welding is done with rays of the Sun.

They are always in abundance here.

Whole brigades of assemblers are working in space,

and far away, on the Mother Earth,

millions of friends are avidly waiting for every message

from this heroic construction.

Meanwhile, the automatic rocket ig already over the surface of the Moon.

Being down on the Earth,

We can see mountains,

which are 380,000 kilometres away from us;

stones on which people will soon set foot.

The construction process of the space station is complete.

A huge construction, full of complex equipment,

powered by atomic energy,

hurtles around the Earth with circular velocity.

Here, this terrifying speed is imperceptible.

There's no air to whistle in your ears.

No shocks. No colliding objects passing by.

The outer part of the station rotates due to centrifugal force,

creating the sensation of gravity and improving human well-being.

Let's take a closer look at the station.

The ring is divided into sections with hermetically sealed doors,

in case of damage by meteorites or air leaks.

After all, behind the walls, lies emptiness.

METEOROLOGY SERVICE

The station undertakes large projects. Here is the kingdom of meteorologists.

Observing the Earth from above, they see clouds covering the whole globe.

They are on duty around the clock.

Hello.

In the Pacific ocean, there's a large typhoon moving north-west.

Urgently alert Japanese fishermen.

The current typhoon coordinates are...

Af the space station, large-scale work servicing the home planet is conducted.

ICEBERG SERVICE

Here, the movement of ice in the Arctic seas is monitored.

SUN SERVICE

Ag well as the activity of the Sun.

COMMUNICATIONS AND RELAY SERVICES Television programs are also broadcast.

Dozens of people work at the station.

Here are their living quarters.

People quickly get used to their new living conditions,

and here, into the black abyss,

someone has brought, some familiar earthly comforts.

Of course, one feels homesick,

but here, everything is done to alleviate the isolation from Earth.

BIOLOGICAL LABORATORY

The unusual conditions at the station,

allow biologists to conduct interesting experiments.

In this compartment, set the climate number five and an eight-hour day.

Don't completely shield your hybrid from the Sun.

PHYSICS LABORATORY

A physicist's dream: a space laboratory.

Your work on cosmic rays will be ground-breaking.

You'll see.

And now this.

Agk for more tests on my new plastic

under low temperature conditions.

Good. We only received it on today's ship.

The station has various branches of terrestrial institutes.

Astronomical Observatory

The astronomical observatory.

For centuries, the cloudy atmosphere,

stood between the inquisitive eye of the astronomer and the universe. But now...

You know,

it's as if IT have taken off a pair of dirty glasses.

Look.

Two images of Mars.

Taken by two identical telescopes.

This one was taken through the Earth's atmosphere, and this one is from here.

- What definition, right? - Yes.

The space station is not Just a research institute.

Here, preparation begins for the first ship with people to go to the Moon.

It has a strange shape.

But as there's a vacuum from here to the Moon, a streamlined shape is not needed.

Only cheap and convenient links are needed between the cockpit,

fuel tanks, engines and chassis.

"Center of Communication with the Space Station"

Prepare for launch!

Five minutes before take-off.

How long has it been since we accompanied the first cosmonauts,

on their flight into this circular orbit, then uninhabited?

And now from here, Man will take his next step: a flight to the Moon!

Scientists' and artists' imagination is always ahead of reality.

The first people are still on their way to the Moon.

But already, the dreams of these brave space conquerors, lay ahead of their ship.

The mastered Moon.

Hermetic cities.

Observatories.

Mining operations.

In fact, there, on the Moon, it will be p-ossible to manufacture fuel for ships.

The Moon will become a bage for the conquest of the entire solar system.

On distant celestial bodies,

we'll find answers to the thousands of questions that concern us on Earth.

Mysterious Mars

will expand our knowledge of the adaptability of living things.

Shrouded in clouds, Venus will reveal to us the secret of the origins of life.

The wonderful rings of Saturn will tell us of the birth and death of planets.

Though these are currently dreams, they are certain to become a reality.

Life goes on this island in space,

and first people are flying to the Moon.

Even with the most powerful telescopes on the Barth,

it will be hard to keep track of their ship.

An unquenchable thirst for knowledge leads them to this sleeping world.

Everything is dead: no blue sky, no penumbras, no life and no sound.

The silent world.

It slept, like dead, for billions of years.

Now it will have to

wake up!

Man has come!

"What is impossible today will become possible tomorrow" - Tsiolkoveky

THE END