The Cosmonaut Training Center in the 1960s: Problems of Logistics and Organization

Abstract

Based on declassified archival documents, this article examines key difficulties of the initial period of human preparation for space flight, carried out in the USSR at the Cosmonaut Training Center (CPC). In historiography, much has been said about the medical and psychological selection of the first group of cosmonauts, the physical exertion that the future conquerors of space experienced, but organizational and everyday difficulties remained behind the scenes. This work aims to identify the main problems faced by the CPC leadership and the first cosmonauts, and to place new emphasis on the problems of space exploration in the 1960s. The lack of a unified management of the space exploration process led to the fact that, on the one hand, the realities of the Cold War and the space race with the United States were pressing, and on the other hand, for more than ten years, cosmonauts-in-training had to put up with field training in centrifuges and for about twenty years in swimming pools, without the necessary equipment on the territory of the Center. The lack of balanced nutrition, the violation of rest and sleep, and failures in training due to the lack of instructors and equipment only added to this picture. The complexity of all the above-mentioned difficulties further illustrates the will of military pilots admitted to space flights to achieve the ultimate goal in any way. It is also important that the CPC leadership, being at the forefront of historical events, sought the status of a scientific institution for its organization, which allowed it to attract qualified personnel and develop the scientific potential of its employees. This problem, as well as the construction of the centrifuge, was solved only by the end of the 1960s.