Vocabulary:

1. booster rocket - ракетный ускоритель, стартовый ракетный двигатель

2. to ascend – подниматься, восходить

3. boost – поддержка, польза

4. stranded – забытый, оставленный

5. attempt – попытка

6. initial - начальный, исходный

7. batch - группа (людей)

8. by all accounts – по общим отзывам

9. overwhelming – несметный, огромный

10. poll - голосование, баллотировка

11. ejection seat – катапультирование

12. to intend – намереваться, планировать

13. infrared sensor - датчик инфракрасного излучения, ИК-датчик

14. nozzle – сопло, форсунка

15. specimen – образец, экземпляр

16. to vomit – страдать рвотой, тошнить

17. swarm – рой

18. pomace (fruit) fly - дрозофила, плодовая мушка

19. to malfunction - не срабатывать, работать неисправно

20. tissue – ткань, материя

I. Answer the following questions:

1. Why did Gagarin enter the ranks of the immortals?

2. What candidates did train intensively for the first manned flight?

3. How did the first Vostok spacecraft equipped? What was its mission?

4. What live specimens were flown into space and returned to Earth during the second flight of Vostok?

5. How many times was Vostok launched into space? Were these launches helpful to our science and cosmonautics or not?

II. Find the English equivalents of the following phrases:

• выходить на орбиту

• огромная польза для науки

• первая попытка

• сенсационные истории о космонавтах

• трудоёмкий (требующий много времени)

• предложенные кандидатуры

• удача и провал

• вернуться в целости и сохранности

• огромное количество кандидатов

III. Make up your own sentences using the phrases listed above.

IV. Give the definitions to the following words:

• candidate

• mission

• cosmonaut

• mechanism

• to survive

• choice

V. Read the following statements and discuss them with a partner:

1. The first ever manned space mission in the eyes of the world ensured that Gagarin entered the ranks of the immortals.

2. The Vostok spacecraft made several flights before the first manned launch, with a mixture of success and failure.

3. The small group was chosen after the Vostok simulator had been built on the understanding that it would be too time-consuming to train all the candidates in the group.

4. The first Vostok spacecrafts were not equipped properly, that’s why there were many failures during the flight.

Giving your opinion you may find the following expressions helpful:

By the way as for me I’d like to know

I see I’m afraid I wonder

It seems to me that I don’t know exactly If I’m not mistaken Text 3. Manned Flights

In the last years a new line has emerged in cosmonautics. This line is manned flights in long-life orbital scientific stations. The first vehicle of this kind was the Salyut orbital station. The flights of the Salyut orbital station lasted nearly six months and consisted of several stages. The first stage was marked by the joint flight of the station with the Soyuz-10 spaceship. The crew executed the rendezvous and docking of the Soyuz-10 spaceship to the Salyut station. They checked the functioning of the onboard systems ensuring the delivery of the expeditions aboard the station. After the station had been a month and a half in orbit the Soyuz-11 transport spaceship delivered another crew to the station, which fulfilled a vast research program. The cosmonauts conducted a number of investigations and experiments in the interests of the national economy, they executed observations and took photographs of geological and geographical objects of the Earth’s surface, of atmospheric formations, of the snow and ice cover of the planet.

During this flight the crew carried out a considerable program of medical and biological experiments, measurements and tests to determine the optimal conditions for the life and work of cosmonauts and to establish the possibilities for the fulfillment of different jobs in space. After three and a half month manned flight the Salyut station functioned automatically.

Manned flights of our crews in circumterrestrial space cover a wide range of problems and tasks associated with space research and exploration. Among these the main are:

• improvement of manned spacecraft, development of methods of navigation and control of spacecraft;

• investigation of the physical characteristics of near space, of phenomena and processes occurring in it;

• astrophysical research and observation of the Sun, Moon, stars and planets;

• observation and survey of geological and geographical objects on the Earth’s surface to utilize the data thus obtained for the benefit of the national economy;

• observation and photography of atmospheric formations, the snow and ice cover of the Earth to use the data obtained in short and long-term weather forecasting;

• medical and biological research to study the effect of space flight factors on the human organism.

These tasks were being accomplished both with the help of orbital manned and automatic stations of the Soyuz spaceships. The space crew conducted a thorough comprehensive check and trial of the improved ship’s systems.

On the whole it was a test flight which confirmed the reliability of improved design, on-board systems and units.

The next purpose of the next flight was to conduct astrophysical observations of stars in the ultraviolet band.