50 years of the first cosmonauts

In 1959 the first crewed ship of the history chief was taking form in the office of design OKB-1 of the "engineer" Serguéi Korolyov. With the name of 3KA, the ship would be a crewed version of the project known as "Object K", which target was to put in orbit a satellite it spies. This satellite known later like Zenit, was characterized for possessing a curious spherical capsule - sharik-. Thus Korolyov might make real finally his sleep of the stars reach simultaneously that it kept on developing spatial systems for the military men.
There had come the hour of deciding who would be chosen to pilot it 3KA, for which the Academy of Sciences of the USSR met in the spring 1959 in order to clarify what type of professionals had to be the future pilots of the Soviet spaceships. Nevertheless, although there was hefted the possibility of using pilots of race cars or sailors, the Air Force pressed so that the candidates for future cosmonauts were selected exclusively of between his pilots, decision that, on the other hand, was logical most logical. A matter that today still has not been solved is what role played in this position the decision of the NASA of that his first astronauts were military pilots. In April, 1959 Mercury Seven it would know the world to: did it influence this fact to another side of the iron curtain?
Colonel general Filip To. Agaltsov would be the manager of the process of selection of the cosmonauts. The Air Force had to agree with the Korolyov engineers to need his specifications at the time of choosing the candidates. The engineers of the OKB-1 wanted young "specimens" and of low height that they were fitting without problems in the spherical capsule 3KA. The candidates had to be between 25 and 30 years old and his height did not have to exceed 1,75 meters - if possible, with less than 1,70 meters-. While the astronauts of the NASA were experienced pilots, the future cosmonauts scarcely had begun his military careers.
In June, 1959 the final specifications for the selection processes were approved by the high Soviet institutions, the Academy of Sciences of the included USSR. The Institute of Medicine of the Aviation, directed by the lieutenant general Vladimir Yazdovski, would be the manager of carrying out the medical tests. The same August there were inspected the records of approximately 3000 pilots who were fitting with the general criteria. On October 3, 1959 one had already limited the number of candidates to approximately two hundred, which were sent to Moscow in groups of twenty for the final examinations, which were including rigorous medical tests. At the end of 1959, the number of candidates was already only twenty.
On January 11, 1960 the commander in chief of the Air Force, the Marshall Konstantín Vershinin, accepted to create a center dedicated exclusive to training the future cosmonauts under the control of the lieutenant general Nikolay Kamanin, not without certain resistance of Korlyov, which wanted to supervise closely the whole process. The center would be named a TsPK (Center of Cosmonauts' Training) and in 1968 it would get the name for which is famous in the whole world: City of the Stars.
On having inaugurated his new charge, Kamanin approved on twentieth of February, 1960 the list of twenty candidates for cosmonaut:
1 - Iván Nikoláyevich Anikeyev (1933-1992).
2 - Pavel Ivánovich Belyayev (1925-1970): Cosmonaut 16 - 1 mission.
3 - Valentín Vasilyevich Bondarenko (1937-1961).
4 - Valeri Fyódorovich Bykovsky (1934-): Cosmonaut 11 - 3 missions.
5 - Valentín Ignatievich Filatyev (1930-1990).
6 - Yuri Alekséievich Gagarin (1934-1968): Cosmonaut 1 - 1 mission.
7 - Viktor Vasiliévich Gorbatko (1934-): Cosmonaut 44 - 3 missions.
8 - Anatoli Yakóvlevich Kartashov (1932-2005).
9 - Yevgueni Vasiliévich Khrúnov (1933-2000): Cosmonaut 38 - 1 mission.
10 - Vladimir Mijáilovich Komárov (1927-1967): Cosmonaut 13 - 2 missions.
11 - Alekséi Arjipovich Leónov (1934-): Cosmonaut 17 - 2 missions.
12 - Grigori Grigorievich Nelyubov (1934-1966).
13 - Andrián Grigorievich Nikolayev (1929-2004): Cosmonaut 7 - 2 missions.
14 - Pavel Romanovich Popóvich (1930-2009): Cosmonaut 8 - 2 missions.
15 - Mars Zakirovich Rafikov (1933-2000).
16 - Gueorgui Stepanovich Shonin (1935-1997): Cosmonaut 40 - 1 mission.
17 - Guerman Stepanovich Títov (1935-2000): Cosmonaut 4 - 1 mission.
18 - Valentín Stepánovich Varlámov (1934-1980).
19 - Boris Valentínovich Volynov (1934-): Cosmonaut 36 - 2 missions.
20 - Dmitri Alekséievich Zaikin (1934-).
Some, like Belyayev and Komárov, they were not fulfilling the requisites of age imposed by the OKB-1, but they were chosen by his exceptional piloting talent. At the end of February, 1960, twelve of twenty candidates were accepted permanently in the TsPK. Pável Popóvich and his wife - curiously, also I pilot - would be the first ones in living in the TsPK. Between March 9 and June 17, 1960, eight remaining candidates would be accepted progressively. The training would begin officially on March 14.
Only one year later, young Yuri To. Gagarin would turn into the first human being in the space on board of 3KA, by that time baptized like Vostok.

The first group of cosmonauts in May, 1961 in Sochi together with Serguéi Korolyov.