that?”

of men in space.

| Yellowish-white colors seem to flutter In
our cabin. | jumped to my feet. “Look, what's

. “It’s the polar lights,” Feoktistov explained.
He was glued to the porthole.

This is the first time in all human history
that these words could have been written, not
as science fiction, but as the real experiences

The three men who flew in the Soviet spaceship Voskhod, From
mir Komarov, Konstantin Feoktistov, Boris Yegorov. :

Extraordinary sights
from a Soviet spaceship

By VLADIMIR KOMAROV

Pilot-cosmonaut
of the USSR

E FLEW over our planet in a

comfortable, multi-seater craft,

both a passenger spaceship
and laboratory. It travelled a much
higher orbit and was equipped with
ample space for three cosmonauts,
two retro-engines instead of one, a
new orientation system, a soft land-
ing system, new television equip-
ment, portholes with extremely wide
observation sectors,

I am a pilot-cosmonaut — the com-
mander. My duties are defined clear-
ly — to steer the spaceship, to com-
municate with Earth, to coordinate
the work of the crew, to carry out
observations,

On the evening before our flight
we spent about two hours working.
We went over the program again and
made some entries in the log. We
had hardly put away the papers when
our cosmonaut friends, headed by
Yuri Gagarin, appeared in our bunk-
house.

There was a lot of fun and laugh-
ter. We even: forgot, momentarily,
that we would take off tomorrow.
Yuri Gagarin reminded us. We rea-
lized that our comrades were more
worried than we were. They tried to
hide their anxiety, but we could feel
it. It was in their eyes. :

Before retiring the three of us

went for a walk in the garden. It was ©

a quiet, warm night. It is always like
this before a space flight. Somebody
quipped. “Meteorology works for us
cosmonauts.” :

We looked at the stars. There was
Orion, the Great Bear, Pegasus. We
had an argument about some star —
what was the quickest and best way
to locate it. That was the first time
our team differed in opinion. We
joked about it, then retired.

We must have slept soundly. In
the morning, the doctor showed us
a tape — a recording device that had
been working all night. Each of us
had turned once or twice in his sleep,
making the curves on the tape shoot
up.
Awe enjoyed a shower and break-

fast and went outdoors. It was a
cool morning. We turned up the’ col-
lars of our summer jackets.

“I forgot the badges,” Boris sud-
denly exclaimed. He raced back into
the bunkhouse,

“A bad omen,” one of the doctors
remarked,

We smiled. It would be funny if
cosmonauts believed in omens. Boris
joined us, holding the Young Com-
munist League badges sent to us
from Moscow. They were to make
the trip into space with us.

We were expected at the bunk-
house where the cosmonauts get
dressed for flight. This was the sec-
ond time I dressed here. It is a
tedious job. You have to put on a
space suit, helmet and heavy boots.

But this time it took only eight to
10 minutes. We put on light woolen
sports suits and sky-blue jackets. We
wore the same shoes we had come
in. Dressed, we looked at the clock.
About 40 minutes to go.

In the bus somebody suggested
“Let’s sing!” We made a_ hopeless
gesture. None of us could sing. We
were sorry not to have Pavel Popo-
vich with us — he would have given
a lead. We could do nothing but joke
about it. At that moment the bus
stopped at the launching site.

The first to take his seat was
Yegorov. Then Feoktistov. I stood
outside, high up on the platform and

envied my comrades a little. It was

warmer inside the ship. -

Like the others, I took off my
shoes and put on flight boots. Then
I took off the blue jacket. The en-
gineer in charge of the flight helped
me enter the ship. I took my seat
and strapped myself in, I felt as if
I had merged with the chair.

It was extremely comfortable,
made .to my stature and figure. There
was even a depression for my head.

Boris Yegorov checked Feoktistov’s
pulse, then mine, then his own. He
turned up his thumb: “Okay!” We
are very calm. It is surprising even
to us. We are about to take off, but
show no signs of excitement.

HOSE who have come to see us off
wish us a good trip and soft land-
ing. Then the hatch is closed and

Konstantin smiles: ‘No one will turn
us out now. We’re off!”

We checked the equipment, made
the first entries in the log and re-
ported all we were doing to the com-
mand post. We hear all the com-
mands from the post. They are fa-
miliar: “Key for start;” then, “igni-
tion;” and finally, “start!”

I could not help ‘saying: “Calm
now, friends, here we go!” -

We were expecting extraordinary
sensations. The rocket shivered a bit;
there was a slight noise. Are we off?
We had all seen take-offs from the
ground. You could hear the roar for
kilometers around. And here we are,
sitting in the cabin, and we can
barely hear it. It sounds like distant
thunder. We can feel a slight vibra-
tion. setts

We expected to be pressed against
our chairs but. there didn’t seem to
be too much weight now. It was
much easier than on the - centrifuge
during training.’

On Oct. 12, 1964, the Soviet Union made new space
history by launching a spaceship with three men on board. The
seven-ton craft orbited Earth for 24 hours before landing. On
board were Vladimir Komarov, pilot-cosmonaut; Boris Yegorov,
doctor; and Konstantin Feoktistov, scientist. Here is the
gripping, start-to-finish acount of the flight, written by
Komarov and published in the Soviet newspaper Red Star. The

article printed here is an abridgement of the original.

March 5, 1965—PACIFIC TRIBUNE—Page >

aac 4

left to right: Viadi

Setting us in orbit actually
very little time. One of us
“Where is the Earth now?” As’
order, it grew light in the cabil\
streamliner which covered the}
separated at a great altitude. 1)
the Earth, What was it like? 428
pieces peeped through the fill
clouds. There was nothing but 5?
and forest below. #

jac

The ship shook slightly. We "i,
the first stage had come off. /
corded in the log what kind
pact it made and I noticed tha
noise was growing fainter and !
loads were diminishing. I ree
this too. Then I radioed to the ¥
“Have reached orbit; all is nor.

My friends who had already ™
out in space often said: “We #0
diately felt we were weightle®
wish I could say the same, but’;
not feel it at once. All of us ™
the long-awaited instant. We §
too busy working. q

u
{

Boris Yegorov was getting ol
medical instruments, Konstantin”
tistov was carried away by hi
servations. He saw the moon 48
the black ‘background. It se
amazingly bright and did n0j,
semble the moon we had seen /
Earth. No wonder he could no}
his eyes away! |

I was busy talking to Earth. 4
were asking: “How do you.
weightlessness?” I couldn’t helf?
laying the answer because I Wo
feeling anything yet. Suddenly ©
remembered about weightle
We noticed that our bodies §
to be without weight. All kin®
objects were floating in the ©
It was clear that we were in 4
of non-gravity. :

Boris Yegorov has already §
@ press conference that we hé!
unpleasant sensations. He als
ported that both he and Feo
discovered an unusual factor: 1
they closed their eyes they haé
illusion their bodies were
down. I did not have this ill”
What was the reason?

Maybe it is a purely indi
sensation? We performed 4
simple experiment. All of us !
our heads against the cabin wé
sat there with our eyes close
one felt upside down. We dec!
all depended on what positi0’
body was in. If the lower part ;
body is in the chair and the |
rests against the cabin wall th
no illusion of being upside do

We were so delighted by the od
of what we saw that we violat®;
routine. It was breakfast ve
got out the food and placed it ¥
reach; but we forgot about it in
diately. We watched the ly
colors flame and play and thé