There was once a man who set a world record for the length of time he spent in space – 803 days, 9 hours and 39 minutes.
It was only in 2015 that this record was broken by a Russian cosmonaut.
In fact, the most talked-about thing about this astronaut is not the length of his stay in space, but the fact that he found that the country was gone after he landed.
He was also forgotten in the space station because of the disappearance of his country, and almost became a wanderer in space, but after a series of twists and turns, he returned to the sea.
Who is this astronaut?Why is he forgotten again?What has he experienced in outer space?
Let's find out today!
After World War II, the two superpowers, the United States and the Soviet Union, began to divide their spheres of influence in the world because of their completely different institutional forms.
As we all know, having leading aerospace technology, especially nuclear and intercontinental missile technology, is the key to maintaining ***.
The United States and the Soviet Union at that time, in response to the situation in their own countries, began to make large-scale investments in aerospace.
After World War II, the Soviet Union began the development of the aviation industry, and in 1955 the Soviet Air Force was formed.
With the rapid development of US space technology, the Soviet Union also rapidly accelerated the pace of development and successfully launched the first artificial satellite, Sputnik-1.
In 1961, Soviet cosmonaut Gagarin became the first human to go to outer space.
The United States followed, and on July 20, 1969, American astronaut Armstrong stepped out of the "Apollo 11" capsule and carefully stretched out his left foot to make contact with the lunar ground, taking the first human step on the moon.
In the 60s of the 20th century, the United States and the Soviet Union successively sent more than 30 manned spacecraft into space and completed more than 60 space flights.
Driven by the struggle for hegemony between the United States and the Soviet Union, the development of science and technology at that time was greatly promoted.
The successful launch of manned spaceflight one after another has also allowed people on the earth to successfully see the blue planet we live in, and the beautiful scene has fascinated many people.
Therefore, during the period of hegemony between the United States and the Soviet Union, it was the dream of almost every child to become an excellent cosmonaut, including Krikalev.
Krikalev was born into a family of high-ranking intellectuals, his father was an engineer, and his mother was an educator.
Growing up in his family, he always hoped to grow into a useful person to society.
As a child, he saw Gagarin in space, and the man sitting in the spaceship became his idol, and going to space became his lifelong dream.
He wants to be an astronaut, to go into the universe and see the blue planet he lives on.
Perhaps due to family factors, he has been particularly talented in science and engineering since he was a child.
At the age of 18, he was successfully admitted to the local mechanical-related major.
After three years of study, he successfully joined the space group to study launch vehicles and space systems.
This is the closest he has come to his dream.
After that, he devoted himself to the cause he loved, and fought for it, and at one event, he came into contact with astronauts' spacesuits for the first time.
He carefully touched his childhood ideals, and this dress appeared in his dreams countless times.
He started from the grassroots level, and at first he only did some simple equipment testing, even if it was boring, he felt that it was interesting.
He knew that he was now moving forward step by step, and he was getting closer and closer to his dream of being an astronaut.
Later, the Soviet manned program was implemented again, and he signed up for the selection.
Out of hundreds of candidates, only five were selected!
Then pick the best two from these five candidates.
He worked hard to improve his personal physical fitness, made up for relevant knowledge in his spare time, and finally passed the layers of selection, and he finally became this special 1 2
In 1985, he was successfully selected as an astronaut and began a three-year special training for his subsequent journey into space.
In 1988, Krikalev aboard the TM-7 spacecraft, finally became the cosmonaut of his dreams, and set foot on his long-awaited space.
It was his first time in space, and his first mission to space, and they successfully installed modules on the space station.
The two returned home on April 27, 1989.
In May 1991, he embarked on his second aviation mission.
There were three people on the mission, in addition to Krikalev, as well as former Soviet cosmonaut Alzbalsky and British Helen Sharman.
They are not affiliated with a single country, and when their missions are completed, they will each apply to return home.
After the mission was completed, everyone else went back one after another, but Krikalev did not receive any news.
But he wasn't in a hurry.
He loved the feeling of looking at the blue planet from outer space, and for the first time he felt so proud, it was so wonderful to look at the planet he lived on from space.
A week after the mission was successfully completed, the astronauts around him were all picked up, but when it was his turn to return to Earth, there was no response from the ground.
Gorbachev, the leader of the Soviet Union on the ground, was as isolated as the cosmonauts on the space station.
The reason for this has to start with the previous leader:
During the Brezhnev administration, he implemented ** rule, which laid a major hidden danger for the later Gorbachev administration, when Brezhnev arranged all the top leaders of the Soviet Union as his cronies.
After Gorbachev came to power, he faced a major economic gap in the Soviet Union, extremely unbalanced development of light and heavy industries, external worries, and even the distrust of the first people in him.
* Gorbachev tried to change the situation due to the severe erosion of internal order and the serious deterioration of social morals, but in the end the collapse of the Soviet Union was caused by overly radical reforms.
At that time, the army already had its own belonging, and Yeltsin, who held the army, successfully established Russia.
And the declaration of independence of Russia and other countries also officially announced the dissolution of the Soviet Union!
At this time, Krikalev, who was adrift in space, lost his country without knowing it.
After the collapse of the Soviet Union, it was dispersed into various countries, and various countries began to compete for the materials left by the Soviet Union.
But everyone forgot about the astronauts in space!
At this time, Krikalev, who was wandering in space, began to study the stars that could be seen in order to pass his time, and in his spare time, he would also think about some of the scientific knowledge he had studied at the Academy of Astronautics.
At this time, Krikalev did not know what was happening on the planet, and only thought that the state was too busy and did not reply to his messages in time.
"Everything came so fast that I didn't even react, and my only thought at the moment was that the space industry must have suffered a huge trauma."
This was the only thought he had in his heart after learning of the collapse of the Soviet Union.
Knowing that after the collapse of the Soviet Union, he began to think crankily, but then he thought that the current country is indeed facing an economic crisis, and if it costs a lot of money to take him back, then he should indeed postpone his return first.
Staying on the space station will have a detrimental effect on my body, but saving money is what needs to be done more than the big picture of the country."
With his indomitable will and overall view, he made everyone feel emotional.
At that time, the struggle for hegemony between the United States and the Soviet Union had ended, and when Russia was just established and did not have enough materials to support his survival in space, the United States rarely extended a helping hand, which made him survive in the space station for several months.
But the United States never gives without reciprocat, and the reason why he is willing to help is because he takes a fancy to Krikalev and hopes that after he returns from the space station, he will be grateful for this kindness of the United States and be loyal to the United States.
But Krikalev made clear his allegiance to the Soviet Union, even though it no longer exists.
In the time that followed, he tried to get in touch with Russia several times, but Russia's current chaotic economic situation simply did not allow him to be brought back from the space station.
Later, Russia chose some aviation-related projects due to its inability to support the huge expenditure on the space station, and Krikalev was also given a turnaround.
At that time, Germany spent 24 million US dollars to buy the air station left by the Soviet Union from Russia, and Krikalev, who remained at the air station, was finally able to return smoothly with the help of Germany.
On March 25, 1992, Krikalev, who had been trapped on the space station for 311 days, finally returned home.
It's a pity that he is no longer back to the Soviet Union, which he dreamed of, but a completely new country, Russia.
He went from being the last space hero of the USSR to the first space hero of Russia.
In the face of this new everything, the new system, he seems to be a little at a loss.
But compared to the mental pain, the physical pain of staying in outer space for the first time and touching the ground made him more painful.
When he first touched the ground, he could barely stand upright, so the foreign media reported that he was like a kneaded ball of dough.
Just when everyone thought that the last flight of the space hero would follow the Soviet Union.
On February 3, 1994, as soon as Krikalev recovered his health, he once again set foot on NASA's space shuttle "Discovery".
When he was on the space station, he accepted the help of the United States, and now it can be regarded as a return to the United States.
This aerospace hero has completed many subsequent missions and made important contributions to the development of aerospace industry to the best of his ability.
In 2007, he announced that he was retiring and moved behind the scenes as director of the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center and later as vice president of the aviation group.
Until 2015, the space hero was the longest-flying cosmonaut in space, and his tenacious and hard-working spirit became an important part of the learning content of Russian cosmonauts.
Krikalev continued to work hard because of his childhood dream, and finally set foot on space, but after all, he lost his country because of the hegemony between the United States and the Soviet Union.
The West once joked that he was a wanderer in space, and that he was not so much a brave dreamer as a victim of the US-Soviet struggle for hegemony.
The struggle for hegemony between the United States and the Soviet Union greatly promoted the development of military technology, but it also brought indelible damage to the economic development of the Soviet Union and the United States.
Although it has led to the development of the aerospace industry, some countries have also brought irreversible results because of the blind development of the aerospace industry.
Peace and development have always been an important orientation of the development of the world economy, and in today's world, peaceful coexistence and common development are the common pursuit of all