Beregovoi Georgiy Timofeevich: biography, family, photo

Coastal Georgy Timofeevich - cosmonaut, Lieutenant-General of Aviation, twice Hero of the Soviet Union. He became the only person who received one Star of the Hero for combat services, and the other for the exploration of outer space.

Childhood and youth

April 15, 1921 in the small village of Fedorovka (Poltava region, Ukraine) was born Beregovoi Georgiy Timofeevich. The family soon after his birth moved to Yenakiyevo (Donetsk region).

Studying in high school, the boy already showed a serious desire for heaven. At first he was an instructor, and after that he took the position of the head of the aircraft modeling section, which was located in Yenakiyevskaya Children's Station of young technicians. Also took part in the work of the local flying club.

After graduating from high school, Beregovoi began working at a local metallurgical plant, and from there he was drafted into the army.

Combat way

In 1941, Georgy Beregovoi became a graduate of the Voroshilovgrad Military Pilots School. I took an active part in the fighting, starting in the summer of 1942 until victory. He was a simple pilot, then commander of the line, and later a squadron commander.

For the war years, 186 times lifted the aircraft for combat missions. Three times he was shot down by the enemy, as many times his plane was on fire, but Beregovoi returned fearlessly to the sky every time.

For the courage shown in the fights in 1944, he was awarded the highest award - the Gold Star of the Hero of the Soviet Union.

Test Pilot

After the war, the future cosmonaut did not leave the sky. In 1948, after graduating from senior officer courses, Georgy Timofeevich Beregovoi began to test the latest developments of jet aircraft. He was the second pilot at the first flight and tests of model P-2. Among the aircrafts tested by Beregov, such as MiG-19, Su-9, Tu-128, Yak-27K and many others - more than 60 models. Also Georgiy Timofeevich was the leading test pilot of the Yak-25 jet aircraft.

One of the flights on the Su-9 nearly cost the Coastal life. Subsequently, partial jamming of the control system, the aircraft could not gain altitude. As a rule, in such cases, the pilot must immediately catapult. But the pilot refused to do this, and after several unsuccessful attempts he managed to take the aircraft under his control. For such courage and rescue of the combat vehicle, the general aircraft designer Sukhoi presented the Coastal camera.

In 1956, without stopping from flying, the test pilot became a graduate of the Air Force Academy. Subsequently, he was taken on by the deputy chief of the First Test Department of the GKNDI Air Force, and in 1961 became Honored Test Pilot.

Preparing for a flight into space

1964 was a turning point for a famous pilot: he was taken into a detachment, preparing to fly into space. Despite the fact that the 43-year-old Beregovoi was no longer fit for age (the maximum age allowed was then 35 years), he was admitted to the preparatory program.

Four years later, the future cosmonauts visited the Mission Control Center in Yevpatoria, where they were asked to attract them not only to flights on ready-made vehicles, but also to their development. According to Beregovoi, due to extra precautions of the state commission and designers, manned launches of space vehicles were delayed for too long. After five training unmanned ships successfully returned to Earth, it was decided to conduct an experiment - docking two vehicles in open space.

October 25 was successfully launched unmanned ship 7K-OK N10 "Soyuz-2", serving as a target. It was assumed that the two ships will first converge using the search system "Needle", and at a distance of 150 meters the pilot will begin to bring the devices together manually. Since the docking was to take place on the dark side of the orbit, signal lights were on the Soyuz-2. Some designers were against such an experiment, but the launch still took place.

Space experience

On October 26, with the help of a launch vehicle, Soyuz-3 launched with Beregov on board. The experiment went according to plan, and soon the astronaut heard "Range-40". This meant that the distance between the huge ships was equal to 40 meters. At the same time, the apparatus left the radio visibility zone of ground observation posts. When the connection resumed, it became clear that the experiment failed: due to incorrect calculations, the Coastal failed to make a "blind" docking. When he was asked about his health, in response they heard an irritating phrase: "The state of health is normal, and the mood is lousy."

In this flight, Beregovoi Georgii Timofeevich in many respects acted as a pioneer, because he transferred it was not taken into account when training an astronaut and when carrying out technical calculations. After returning to Earth, the pilot made a lot of valuable comments to designers and technicians. Thanks to them, the training of future cosmonauts was greatly improved, and spacecraft began to be designed more carefully. For this flight, Beregovoi was awarded the Hero's Star for the second time.

In the period from 1972 to 1987 - the head of the Cosmonaut Training Center. Gagarin. At the end of this period (in 1987), being at that time a lieutenant general of aviation, he preferred to resign by age.

Scientific and political activity

In addition to flying and training activities, Georgy Timofeevich Beregovoi wrote scientific papers on cosmonautics and engineering psychology. Also this great man is a co-author of several discoveries in the field of atmospheric physics. Also, Beregovoi was chairman of the Society of Polish-Soviet Friendship and the Inter-Republican Union of Veterans. He wrote Georgy Timofeevich and works of art.

Coastal Georgy Timofeevich, whose photo you see in the article, was elected three times as a deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR.

List of awards

Among the many awards received by Beregov, it should be noted:

• Two Golden Stars of the Hero;
• Two Orders of Lenin;
• Two Orders of the Red Banner;
• Two Orders of the Red Star ;
• Two Orders of the Patriotic War of the 1st degree.

Also Georgy Beregovoi, whose biography is presented to your attention in the article, was an honorary citizen of Kaluga and other cities.

Georgiy Timofeevich did not become June 30, 1995. He was buried with all military honors at the Novodevichye Cemetery (Moscow).

Possessing a huge number of all kinds of rewards and titles, Coastal always spoke of himself very modestly: "Such guys like me are thousands, maybe hundreds of thousands." But in the history of Soviet aviation and cosmonautics, he was forever the only astronaut who passed the war.

Coastal Georgy Timofeevich, whose biography can serve as an example for many generations, has lived a long and interesting life. Nobody known guy became a hero whose name he knew and knows almost the whole world.