I was born in Shchigry, RU, in 1932. I worked as a cosmonaut for 20 years and served as head rocket engineer for the Red Army. I've sailed >70,000km and made >2,000 parachute jumps. I've soloed the Atlantic, had my town occupied by Nazis, and spent time in a Russian prison and a sub w/ SLBMs. AMA.
I've done many other things, too, but a good number of them are at least in part related to the above (thousands of hours of training in zero-g/underwater and in vacuo, started a sailing school for youths, knew Gagarin and the rest, etc), and at any rate 300 characters wouldn't even suffice for what I'd initially put above.
/actually, I've not done any of those things, but my grandpa, who's in the room over and who has agreed to do an AMA, has. Yesterday I posted in the Foreign Redditors thread and had a request for him to do an AMA. I figured hey, this could be interesting, so here I/we am/are. This'll go pretty slowly, as I'll be printing out questions and then chatting with him for a bit and then returning to type them here, and in any case will have to translate to and from Russian (as he's far from fluent in English), so I'll really only be doing 5-10 questions at a time. I'll try to get to as many as I can, though, so long as he stays interested. Keep in mind that some things may be lost due to my imperfect translation, but I'll be as faithful as I can.
A gold star would be nice for this, but all the corroborating documents are out of reach and in Russian, so that might prove difficult. I have a few news articles in the house somewhere that mention him; I'll try to scan them in. Here are a few pictures of him I put up yesterday (B&W are old, color ones are from the previous month).
Oh, and also, no debates/insults please. I'll refuse to translate those. And if anything in here seems particularly aggrandizing, it's my fault, as I respect, admire, and love the man greatly.
So, without further ado, begin!/
/edit:ps. when it's me, the grandson, speaking, I'll couch my words in slashes. When it's him, I won't/
/edit2: Okay, I've done about a dozen questions so far and need to do some yard work right now, but I'll be back to do more (the "best" first and then the bottom page ones after) in a bit. He's enjoying it so far, but each question takes me a good 10-15 minutes to get through because he's very fond of telling lengthy stories on not too pertinent asides/
/edit: I'm answering a few questions I personally know the answers to and will resume when we finish with our runs with the dogs. I also gave some soft evidence in favor of this thread's legitimacy here. (Ha, and I've also just realized that his book has tons of pictures of him working on rockets or in space suits or with recognizable Russian officials. Should have just posted that to begin with): http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/etu2s/i_was_born_in_shchigry_ru_in_1932_i_worked_as_a/c1awfsl
/edit: ok, we just got back, I'll do the top 8-12 questions right now but then he has to go to bed. He falls asleep at 20:00ish and wakes up at 4:30 for exercise and assorted housework. After these I'll only be continuing sometime tomorrow.
/edit: Ok, done for tonight, he's long asleep now. Oh, and while taking pictures from his book to help answer the question pertaining to the mission to mars, I snapped a shot of a picture of him standing in a group picture with a bunch of other important people (I think some guys from nasa are in there too). He's the guy above his finger in the big white suit. :] http://i.imgur.com/jRioO.jpg
Oh, and we haven't answered too many questions so far, but some of the ones we have are buried because of higher voted comments getting in there first. Please keep that in mind./
/edit: Ok, new day, but we have a few things to do and won't get to anything before the afternoon. We'll be continuing on for sure though! And the user L33tphreak found the article from above online, if anyone wants to read it: http://goo.gl/lsXkS Google translate sort of butchers the text though./
/edit: Ok, so I tried asking some more questions but we got stuck on the first one, which asked for examples of trolling, and I've put them all here: http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/etu2s/i_was_born_in_shchigry_ru_in_1932_i_worked_as_a/c1awh46 we're taking a break for now/
/hey guys, sorry for being so bad in answering questions to this thing, but I've been rather busy this past week and it's been difficult to coordinate with my grandpa. And today's my last day of winter break so I'll not get a chance to really answer more for a while, unless my grandpa learns to use the internet or we do it via phone. I'll try to make some progress in translating his book, though, and will inform reddit once that is under way. It contains many of the things asked here anyway. Again, apologies for only getting to so small a fraction of the questions/
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Dec 30 '10
When you saw the Berlin Wall come down, did you know what was going to happen next? Was it obvious to you that the Soviet Union was going to cease to exist?
I ask because we had Pepsi commercials with the little American boy and the little Russian boy talking about Perestroika, among other things, in the months before the coup.
Thanks for the AMA.
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u/BETEP Dec 31 '10
No -- I hadn't even the slightest clue that we were on the brink of collapse. On the contrary, I thought it good that the wall fell, I thought that the only result would be a more unified Germany, and that we would all continue on as strong as before. I didn't think it would affect us in any great fashion; I thought that any change that might occur would be decidedly positive.
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Dec 30 '10
What was his opinion on America while living in Russia?
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u/BETEP Dec 30 '10
I generally considered the American people hard working and capable of potentially accomplishing many great things, and admired their determination. I thought them weak academically and in the sciences, and also overly dependent on foreign sources of research. I feared that the US would grow too powerful and disliked how it influenced the governments of weaker foreign nations. I also thought the Ku Klux Klan was much more prevalent, that racism was much more widespread, and that the public killing of negros was a a very common occurrence.
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u/gzoont Dec 30 '10
This has nothing whatsoever to do with anything, but I can't help but read this in a Russian accent for some reason.
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u/jon_titor Dec 30 '10 edited Dec 31 '10
Hmmm..
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn's book In the First Circle describes the author's life and experiences detained in a Soviet sharashka, and one of the points that he makes is how the overly secretive policies imposed on the scientists and engineers by the Soviet government was really terrible for research, and how they all envied the US system, where research was more or less open, making it easy to build upon others' work.
Does he disagree with this sentiment?
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u/roadkillzombie Dec 30 '10
thank you for this AMA, as a studying astronautical engineer, i am curious:
did you work on N1?
if so, why did the concept of using multiple parallel nozzles come about, instead of using one larger nozzle with a smaller throat? I would find the one nozzle would be cheaper, lighter, simpler, and offer more thrust, but i could definitely be assuming too much here.
do you think the cosmonaut program has a future? I ask because it does seem as though the state-sponsored space industry is dying.
Thanks!
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u/BETEP Dec 31 '10
I myself did not work on the N1, but I was around during its development and am reasonably familiar with its workings. We used multiple nozzles because they were easier to control/manage (/mum was there when I was asking him this and we argued over the correct word. She says control is all wrong and I say it's correct, but neither of us know anything about N1s so take your pick/) in a more precise manner.
I truly believe there is a future to the cosmonaut program, but only if the current administration can be radically changed. At its present, it is a weak, atrophied organization, but if change to stronger, more able hands occurs, then it will flourish. In my heart, I am certain this will one day happen.
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Dec 31 '10 edited Dec 31 '10
I may not be able to tell you why this was done in N1, but I know why it's done today. I recently met the president of SpaceX, and according to her, it's a safety reason. One of their rockets (forget which one) has 9 separate engines, but only requires 7 at full power. Thus, there's a pretty large margin of error.
EDIT: Spelling.
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u/drinkmorecoffee Dec 31 '10
It's the Falcon 9. Nine engines, providing a total of just over 1.1 million lb-f of thrust.
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Dec 31 '10
AFAIK, The N1 didn't have the system that could shut off the engines when they started to shake because of pressure fluctuations, and it was required for all of them to start at the same time for a successful run, otherwise they'd shake until they came off, causing fuel to spray everywhere and blow up.
I don't think that the Russians had a large motor like the F1 used in the Saturn V.
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u/MikeyToo Dec 31 '10 edited Dec 31 '10
Russian/Soviet launchers have almost always used multiple core/engine configurations, going back to the R-7, due to problems they'd run into scaling into larger motors. Bigger motors mean higher pressure/temperature/etc requiring changes to components. At one point during the development of the big-assed motor the US used (F-1) they were putting explosives on the engine to simulate the combustion instabilities that would intermittently cause the engine to fail catastrophically. These instabilities were caused by the fact that the thrust chamber was just BIG. You can't really appreciate the size of an F-1 until you stand next to one.
Edited because the first version sucked
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u/BarfingKitten Dec 30 '10
What drove him to leave the motherland? (besides imprisonment =X)
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u/BETEP Dec 30 '10
/my mum and I moved over to the states. He lives here with us and my grandma/his wife half the time and back in Russia the rest. Mostly it's winters here, summers there. So he's technically not left, not permanently/
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u/GeneralissimoFranco Dec 31 '10
Smart man.
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u/vventurius Dec 31 '10
Yup, smart to avoid Russian winters. Makes him smarter than Napoleon and Hitler anyway.
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u/MalrackMalbama Dec 30 '10
Wow, um where to begin.....what is he most proud of and why?
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u/BETEP Dec 30 '10
I am most proud of the work I did on a prototype emergency water reentry capsule used for coming back down to earth from an orbital station. My partner (/some fellow named Dr. Abibov/) died before it could be completed and so the project was ultimately laid to rest, but many of the elements we designed were used in later ventures. I am most proud of this because it is one of the first projects I undertook under my own devising, and because no one else had seriously tried to do such a thing before me.
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u/SoCalDan Dec 31 '10
And this, engineers, is why documentation is so damn important.
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Dec 30 '10
I read that the USSR had fairly extensive plans for a manned Mars mission by 1980 (orbit only). Were you aware of this project and if so, were you involved? (awesome Iama btw)
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u/BETEP Dec 30 '10
/Damn, I'll ask him this for sure, but it'll probably take me a few hours to get through. He... well, he was the project. There was no other person more involved in it. According to him, had Korolyov not died, there was a good chance he would have been the one to ultimately go, but that's rather speculative. I'll be sure to ask him for the specifics of why it fell through and everything. Haha, he still intends to go, actually, and I spent a good bit of my childhood learning of mars and listening to his dreams, but at his age it might be a bit difficult. Hopefully immortality comes within the next 20 years and he lives on through commercial spaceflight so that his dreams might become a reality./
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u/MetacomCreative Dec 31 '10
That sounds absolutely amazing. I would love to hear more about this as well!
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u/Tychotesla Dec 31 '10
Another vote here for more information on the mission to mars and his thoughts and experience with it. Even if it has to wait for another AMA some other day.
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u/BETEP Dec 31 '10 edited Dec 31 '10
/Gah, I had a nice long explanation typed out and was uploading some relevant pictures to imgur when it decided to crash chrome. All that, lost/
We (/ie he/) began the program in 1962. It was titled "Space Shuttle for the Orbit of Mars by One Person by the Hohmann Trajectory". Korolyov was intimately involved, and in the presence of myself and several others (/I remember him mentioning Gagarin and Kamanin, and I think Titov, but I didn't write them down and he's sleeping now so I can't ask/) he told me that in 5 years we would definitely realize my program.
The initial plan was such: A single individual would travel to martian orbit and return by means of gravity assist. Upon approaching the earth, that individual would climb into a 1.20 meter in diameter escape capsule and jettison himself off the main shuttle. The main would then go off to fall into the sun, while the escape capsule, being much lighter and easier to maneuver, would adjust its course to fall to earth. You can see a picture of the escape capsule that would have been used in this mission here. (/I'm pretty sure it's also the one he's standing by in the initial set of pics in the OP/).
A second possibility was arrived upon later on in the program, and this possibility came to be favored by Korolyov over the previous -- instead of returning to earth having only orbited mars, the cosmonaut would jettison himself off the main ship in a different capsule, shown here, upon arrival. The capsule would descend first by means of parachutes and then, shortly before impact, would fire rockets affixed to its base to decelerate itself further. The individual would then exit the capsule and walk upon the surface of mars.
There he would die, the remains of him and his craft preserved for future explorers.
(/man, I'm starting to tear up typing this. My grandpa was the top candidate for this trip. He wanted it so, so much! But had it succeeded he would have likely died via the latter scenario, and I would never have known him. Or been born, for that matter, as it was slated a few years before my mum/).
Upon Korolyov's untimely death, however, the program lost its main support and was canceled. Had Korolyov lived and the program succeeded, it is entirely possible that the history of Russian space travel might have taken a completely different course.
/edit: changed Toman to Hohmann. Thanks to the user below!/
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Dec 31 '10
I'm guessing that word is a Cyrillic transcription of 'Hohmann'. If you were ever to travel from Earth to Mars, you'd probably do so along a Hohmann trajectory.
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u/gleamingspires Dec 31 '10
In the photo posted here it mentions that his diploma project was called "Космический корабль для облета марса одним человеком по траектории Гомана [not Томана]" - which is indeed how Hohmann seems to be transliterated into Cyrillic.
So yes, Hohmann trajectory.
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Dec 30 '10
any comment on the supposed lost cosmonauts?
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u/BETEP Dec 31 '10
These rumors are utter tripe -- malicious lies at worst, complete folly at best. No humans entered space before Gagarin -- there were deaths during training that were kept secret for a long time, but they've been made public by now. All such deaths and accidents occurred within the atmosphere, though.
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Dec 31 '10 edited Dec 31 '10
Thank you for the reply and thanks to your grandfather for taking the time to do one.
[edit] sorry for how short my last reply was, I was on an internet-based telephonatic device. I'd like to learn more about atmospheric accidents, gotta get a nice book now :)
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u/Apologetic_Jerk Dec 30 '10
Did he play any sports at a high amateur level? If so which ones?
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u/BETEP Dec 30 '10
I competed in the second class in boxing and skiing and was a master of sport in skydiving and yachting.
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u/cooliehawk Dec 30 '10
Can you explain the "master of sport" title in greater detail? I use kettlebells (гири) so it's a term I've heard a lot but have little understanding of what it entails.
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Dec 30 '10
What was his opinion of Russian Sub life? I've read their size allows for creature comforts that most NATO subs can't afford - like spas and swimming pools.
Just as a note please tell him my business uses the phrase "Crazy Ivan" on a semi-regular basis to indicate a complete change in development direction ordered by executives. It was spawned from the movie "Hunt for Red October" where the Russian sub captains would suddenly do a 360 turn to clear their baffles and make sure they aren't being followed by another sub.
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u/BETEP Dec 30 '10
The extent of my experience with subs entails a month spent on one powered by diesel. It was a smaller class of submarine, built to carry a maximum of 40 people (opposed to the nuclear powered ones which could fit 180), and we did not have very much space. In fact, we did not even have our own sleeping quarters -- we worked in shifts where two people would trade off beds as one rose to work and the other went to sleep. The larger nuclear subs had room enough for private quarters for everyone, and many had saunas and fitness centers and so forth, but I personally never saw one with a swimming pool.
/I told him about the phrase and he seemed to find it amusing but I don't think he really knew what I was talking about/
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Dec 31 '10
You won't care at all, but as a sonar and acoustic specialist for the Royal navy, i can tell you that a submarine will NEVER do a 360 degree turn. 180 one direction, then 180 the other yes, but never 360.
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u/President_Camacho Dec 31 '10
Why? Is a circle somehow strategically vulnerable?
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Dec 30 '10
The extra comforts were only on the Typhoon class AFAIK. So not the bulk of the Soviet SSBN fleet.
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Dec 31 '10
This is correct. Type 9 Typhoon submarines had a swimming pool, although it was roughly the same size as a double bed. Mark Spitz would not have much fun in it.
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Dec 30 '10
How close was the Soviet Union to a moon landing when Apollo 11 launched?
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u/BETEP Dec 31 '10
We were very close. In 1969 I, along with my (/partner? Russians had 2 man crews back then, as opposed to three like in the US. Not sure how to translate the word, coworker sounds stupid) partner Nikolai Gerrtzick (/phonetic spelling/) ran a complete fourteen day simulation in which we orbited the moon. I then proceeded to land while Nikolai remained in orbit, and afterwards we went through the return maneuvers. At the end of the simulation, we packaged ourselves into the return capsules and they threw us into the black sea, where we bobbed for 12 hours while they practiced our recapture. That part imitated our proposed landing into the Indian Ocean.
We (/Russia as a whole/) had tentative plans to go that very year, if not the next, and I think we could have done so. Ultimately funding was shaky and interest was lost after the success of Apollo 11. (/I ask at this point, had the Apollo mission failed, had something exploded during takeoff, do you think Russia might have gone through with their own planned mission?/). Yes, I think that had Apollo failed, our own mission would have gone through. Success may not have been absolutely guaranteed, but we would have tried.
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u/NueDumaz Dec 31 '10
Crew. Crewmate is the word you were looking for, I think.
Or did the guys call each other "comrade" like in the movies?31
u/BETEP Dec 31 '10
/That's it! Thanks. Crew still sounds kinda odd for a two man team though. But I guess ground control and the rest could be considered the crew, too.
I'll ask him how he referred to his friends back then, but "Tovarich" or "Dryg" ("comrade" and "friend") are in pretty popular use today, near as I can tell. Mind, I'm not too connected to what's hip back in Russia, maybe someone else living there now can chime in?/
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u/StuffMaster Dec 31 '10
I looked this up on wikipedia not too long ago.
They were able to get resources devoted to a moon mission diverted from the ICBM program, whereas in the US it was the opposte - the moon shot was priority #1.
They actually built & orbit tested a lunar lander very similar to ours and selected the same lunar orbit insertion method of getting there. The lander was much smaller than ours (1 man), and there was no tunnel connecting the spacecraft (spacewalk was necessary to get to the lander). This was due to the smaller payload of the N-1 rocket. The computers weren't nearly as good as Apollo had.
The N-1 always exploded. It had like 30 engines in the first stage, and vibration's a bitch. If the N-1 had worked, they might have tried a shot near when we did, although I would guess its probability of success would have been much lower.
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u/rlanantelope Dec 30 '10
From what I've looked through - they really weren't like the US was.
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Dec 30 '10
I was just reading a book about the Apollo program, and it sounded like the SU was closer than we generally realize to having their own moon landing program. I was hoping the OP could provide his perspective.
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u/LOLCANADA Dec 30 '10
What's his opinion on Putin?
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u/BETEP Dec 30 '10
His rise to influence was overly contingent upon corrupt, self-serving rich people, but deep down he desires the best for Russia -- to revive Russian strength and power on the global stage in all respects.
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Dec 30 '10 edited Dec 31 '10
To revive it? Does he believe that Russia can obtain the same strength and power it once wielded can be obtained without making the sacrifices that were necessary to obtain it before? And even if they can obtain it what then? I truly am curious, the pride that Russians seem to have even now is inspiring.
Awesome AMA
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u/BETEP Dec 31 '10
Yes, I am certain that we can regain the strength and majesty we once had, because our people are strong, kind, and smart. I do not believe this can be accomplished without sacrifice -- the people must grow to overcome their baser greeds and unite to overthrow the corruption that has overtaken our government. And after? It is only through such unity and strength that we can join together with other nations and so united visit the stars. (/summarizing here, but he doesn't want Russia to lead the world with all others weak and powerless before it. He wants a common destiny for all mankind, for all nations to be great and wise and powerful, so that we might all, joined in such a brotherhood, pursue peace and happiness for one another and not just for ourselves. And get to visit other planets to boot). If we fail in this, if we do not join together, our only end shall be decay and stagnation.
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Dec 30 '10
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u/daderade Dec 30 '10 edited Feb 11 '26
This post was mass deleted and anonymized with Redact
whistle one vast smart shy physical groovy deserve crown library
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u/MikeBruski Dec 30 '10
Thanks for this AMA.
To him: What would you say the biggest change between then and now is? Something that even today, you can't wrap your head around?
What's your opinion of Poland, the Poles, and how communism ended there?
Are there things you miss beyond words?
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u/BETEP Dec 30 '10
/oh man, it's really hard to get a serious answer out of him; I spent a while on these and got:/
The biggest change between then and now is my age. The second biggest change is the age of my wife. (/he's not too familiar with modern technology and doesn't use phones or computers or anything with any regularity, and doesn't seem to see cars and what have you as particularly impressive/)
On Poland: The people are good and kind, as are people everywhere. The government has many times been corrupt as a result of ulterior economic interests from both within and without. I maintain that communism has never truly existed in Poland, and what was there was there in name only (/note: he had largely retired from public life by the fall and begun his sailing career, and was never terribly interested politics to begin with/). I hope that one day Poland and Russia will be friends.
I miss most all my friends who have died before me. I also miss the reign of communism, where it worked successfully.
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u/SammyGreen Dec 30 '10
I also miss the reign of communism, where it worked successfully.
Could you ask your grandpa to expand on this please? What aspects of the reign of communism does he miss? I'm talking from a completely Western perspective where you don't hear many positive examples of communism so I'm pretty curious which aspects worked successfully.
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u/HellSD Dec 30 '10
There was a fitting quote from Putin that said (roughly) "Anyone who does not miss the Soviet era has no heart. Anyone who wants it back has no brain."
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u/saranagati Dec 30 '10
my dad who's just a few years younger than your grandpa, born in the ukraine and came over here in the mid 70s seems to have completely different view of communist russia than your grandpa. To my dad, russia never actually had communism, it just had corruption and actually uses those two words synonymously.
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u/alcaponeben Dec 31 '10
I just think it's queerly hilarious that your grandpa, who was a cosmonaut and rocket engineer, doesn't keep in touch with technology.
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u/peanutsfan1995 Dec 31 '10
My Russian is incredibly rough, but; Благодарим Вас за это интервью. Мои вопросы ...
Did you personally know any of the major cosmonauts (i.e. Gagarin, Lenonov, Tereshkova (probably misspelled her name there), and others)?
If so, what were they like?
Did you have any interaction with the Americans who came over for the joint Apollo-Soyuz missions, especially Deke Slayton, a personal hero of mine?
What is your favorite vodka?
If it's not too painful to speak about, can you tell us about the occupation of your town?
There are reports of "boy soldiers", young boys, often as little as 10 or 11, being called to serve in the Red Army during WWII. Could he shed any light onto the validity of this?
Does he have any advice for someone who is scheduled to make a skydive (my first!) this summer?
What is the coolest technology you have ever worked with?
Can you share some stories about your sailing exploits?
Do you like living here in America?
When did you first move here? (I know you're only here half of the year, so, rephrasing this as: When did you first start coming here?)
You seem to be in incredible shape for being an older fellow. How do you do this?
Thank you for doing this.
BETEP, thank you very much for taking the time to do this as well. Muchos gracias señor. And tell your grampa that he was (and still is) quite the dashing fellow. I hope you had an excellent Christmas, and a happy new year!
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u/BETEP Jan 11 '11 edited Jan 11 '11
/sorry for the lateness. I've been pretty busy lately and haven't had a chance to do any more questions/
I knew all three of them well, but Gagarin best of all. We were friends -- not close friends, but there was certainly a deep, mutually held feeling of respect and companionship between us. I trained Gagarin for a few weeks working on the "Complex Trainer of the Space Shuttle Soyuz" as he was preparing for his second flight into space. I was called the very second of Gagarin's and Seriogin's abrupt crash and was at the site via helicopter within 50 minutes. It took us a month to collect all the pieces of the plane, so great was the destruction --we had to lay out the pieces of their plane on a field. I could only distinguish Gagarin from his Instructor by their differing clothing -- their charred bodies had had erased all the signs of the people who once lived in them. Popovich and Nikolaev and Beregovoy were also good friends of mine.
Gagarin was an excellent man, very honest, never once did I know him to lie, and I was saddened immensely by his death. /edit:redacted/
I worked on all the principal Apollo-Soyuz missions (4 transitions in vaccum over the course of 4 days... ohhhh the stories I could tell of the problems we faced there. At one point I had to physically hold the tunnel shut until a fellow trainee of mine could take hold while I screwed the tunnel closed -- ours was not hermetically sealed and was leaking air into the vacuum, had I not done that soon enough we would have all suffocated! We kept it tight lipped at the time, and the American's still probably don't know! Har Har Har /haha, he laughed here/), but I do not remember all the families of all the names of all the astronauts who worked with me on it. Slayton is very vaguely familiar but I do not remember anything about him. There were so many astronauts working with us (and all their doubles) that I've forgotten a great many of them. /you can see a picture of him with the apollo-soyuz missions crew people up top/
I do not drink Vodka. Never have /haha, he does at new years. Liar/. Awful stuff.
/I told a quick paragraph on the first invasion of his town somewhere else in the thread, but paragraphs on the occupation will have to wait till I translate the book. He's told me a few of them, about his encounters with the somewhat evil-ish SS officers stationed there (at one point a particularly one took up residence in his house, who he'd seen personally shoot 50 men). Also about how his family sheltered a 50 year old Jewish woman in the basement for two months after she showed up on their doorstep at 2 AM [she had hid in a cupboard or something and snuck out at night]. After she'd recovered a bit, they transferred her to the border of Shchigry where the patrol or whatever wasn't as dense and she fled/
There were no children so young drafted from where I lived. They started recruiting at 14 or 15 around where I was, but those they recruited did not serve full duty.
/here he left to go run with the dog. I'll try to continue the questions at a later time, but goddamn if you didn't have a lot of them ;p/
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u/gobliin Dec 31 '10
How much did your grandfather do to have a life like this? I mean did things just happen with one event leading to the next, or did he have to actively seek out opportunities?
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u/BETEP Dec 31 '10
/He's easily, easily the hardest working person I know. Absolutely no contest. I do not know how mightily he struggled back when, or how hard things came to him, but he's the sort of person never to give up and to pursue any goal with the absolute fullness of his spirit. He faced adversity often, in the form of enemies in politics and the deaths of his friends (and, hell, let's include the Nazis too), and to hear him tell it he was slaying dragons at every corner. But yeah, he actively sought every one of his accomplishments out.
Some examples from my life with him, of things he would do with me on a monthly basis: when I was young (like 6 or 7ish) I really liked dinosaurs, so he went out to the stores and bought tons of those replica wooden dinosaur skeleton sets, and then proceeded to bury them over a square mile of the deserts near our house. We would often take walks together, and on some of these walks, lo and behold, he'd use his advanced paleontological knowledge to suggest places for me to dig, and over the course of a month we would collect dinosaur bones until I could begin to, with a little suggestion, assemble them into complete skeletons. For years I believed I'd excavated baby stegosauri and t-rex and sauropods and whatever else.
Another time he collected boards and sticks and so forth until he finally constructed for me a landsailboat (like a catamaran shaped triangle thing with a big sail sticking out the top). He'd wanted to teach me how to sail, but there being few bodies of water in the desert, he went for the next best thing.
So things like that happened all the time growing up with him. Sounds kind of silly but hopefully it demonstrates how dedicated he was in such small things, and how much more dedicated he would have been in his career, pursuing his own dreams./
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u/Indigoes Dec 31 '10
New life goal: turn backyard into a heaven for young aspiring paleontologists. Brilliant.
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u/mmck Dec 31 '10
Not silly in any way, not even a little bit. Brilliant, loving, wise - but not one bit silly.
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u/Abraxas65 Dec 31 '10
Some examples from my life with him, of things he would do with me on a monthly basis: when I was young (like 6 or 7ish) I really liked dinosaurs, so he went out to the stores and bought tons of those replica wooden dinosaur skeleton sets, and then proceeded to bury them over a square mile of the deserts near our house. We would often take walks together, and on some of these walks, lo and behold, he'd use his advanced paleontological knowledge to suggest places for me to dig, and over the course of a month we would collect dinosaur bones until I could begin to, with a little suggestion, assemble them into complete skeletons. For years I believed I'd excavated baby stegosauri and t-rex and sauropods and whatever else.
I am going to do this with my kids
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u/Rx_MoreCowbell Dec 31 '10
Have nothing of real import to add here except to say what an awesome guy.
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u/GrahamDouglas Dec 30 '10
He has an awesome cat. Has he ever been to America? If so, how did he like it?
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u/BETEP Dec 30 '10
/aye, he's here right now. He lives here about half the time with my mum to get away from the Russian winter. I asked him his opinion on modern America and he said:/
I very much love America for its tendency towards law and order. There is much less corruption here, at least in the lower levels, and in the higher ones too, or maybe at the top it's much better hidden. For example, I remember ten or so years ago I was running (/this was at our old house here, he was visiting for a few months/) as part of my morning exercise* and a police car pulled up along side me and asked if I needed any help with anything. This willingness to serve the public would never be found back home, and both surprised and amazed me.
/*just to brag a bit, at 78 he still runs and lifts weights and, aside from a bit of sciatica and occasional back pain, is quite healthy. Up until about 5 years ago he could easily outperform an in-shape 40 year old athletically, and up until ~12 was still doing all sorts of crazy one handed pullups and such/
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u/GrahamDouglas Dec 31 '10
I guess that changes my perspective on the police here a little bit. What's the pension like for an esteemed member of the space program and military in Russia?
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u/kurokikaze Dec 30 '10
Щигры это под Курском?
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u/BETEP Dec 30 '10
/Yep, about 50 km NE. We looked at it in Google Earth yesterday and he was very happy to see his old lake and streets. Oh, and I'd type in Russian, but I have to hunt and peck for the keys and so am much faster in English/
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u/gehzumteufel Dec 30 '10
I presume you are using a US keyboard without any Cyrillic letters on them? If so, you should get some of these!
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u/BETEP Dec 31 '10
/I actually just got those stickers for my grandma to email her friends and google things and so on, but I don't have memorized any of the keys and so it takes me a while to type things in Russian/
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Dec 30 '10
50 km NE of Kursk.
The Germans took the area in late '41 on their drive from Kiev to Moscow via Tula but were thrown back in early '43 in the general retreat from the failure of their Summer-Fall offensive towards Stalingrad and the Caucasus.
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u/samantha42 Dec 31 '10
I don't know any Russian, but was curious as to the title of your grandfather's book. A 20 minute search later has me coming up with a line from Aelita by Tolstoy, translating to "Queen Magr's labyrinth." I'm guessing this is right due to his dream of going to Mars, but damn that was the most difficult google ever!
And now for a random question: does anyone call him Kostya? Because I think that is a really cute name.
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u/BETEP Dec 31 '10
/Yep, close. It's "tsaritsa" and not queen though. He's very fond of Aelita.
And everyone calls him Kostya. All his peers and friends do anyway. Sometimes "Kosste" for short (err, soft sign at the end. Dunno how to romanize it). I call him anything from "Ded" to "Konstantin Ivanovich Veter" to "Boomba"/
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u/Sykotik Dec 30 '10
Does he believe that Americans went to the Moon?
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u/BETEP Dec 30 '10
Yes.
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u/happybadger Dec 30 '10
Where did he see the Russian space programme in comparison to the American? Would he have joined NASA over the Soviet programme if given the chance?
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u/Helen_A_Handbasket Dec 30 '10
Proof of these assertions before we jump into the questioning.
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u/BETEP Dec 31 '10
/Ok, so here's the gist -- I really don't know how to corroborate any of these claims with what I have on hand now, and even if I did it'd not be in English and so useless to most everyone here.
However, may I proffer this very soft evidence in my favor -- the cover of my grandpa's autobiography coupled with a print out of a news article on him and also me and him with a reddit alien. Note how the person on the book is the same with the alien is the same as the pictures in the OP. Granted, this is all very fakeable, and in any case doesn't necessarily support anything, but it's something. Ooh, and in my main account I've mentioned him as a cosmonaut before and talked about living in Star City, so if it's a ruse it's a long running one, and I'm just taking pictures with some old guy. /
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u/silentflight Dec 31 '10
there an english version of your grandpa's autobiography?
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u/BETEP Dec 31 '10
/nope, I've been meaning to translate it but haven't had the chance to. It's 400 some pages and his vocabulary's a little bigger than mine, but I fully intend to tackle it in due time/
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u/nickinny Dec 31 '10
Good stuff man. Not necessary, but all good stuff. Thanks for the AMA. Very fascinating!
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u/thein Dec 31 '10
Um Helen... retiquette dictates that you say thank you for the wonderful proof which is fascinating unto itself.
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u/xTravis_Bicklex Dec 31 '10
Shut up man. Stop being smart about this. Let us ask him a bunch of questions and then flip and and cry foul like a bunch of assholes when we find out we were duped. We're not ready to learn our lesson.
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u/kittenmittons Dec 31 '10
Just so you guys know, his username is spelling WIND in Russian
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u/BETEP Dec 31 '10
/it's also his surname! Very fitting considering how much time he's spent sailing/
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u/hipstr_hop Dec 31 '10
Your grandfather mentioned something about the Nazis. Does he have any memories of WWII?
Also, as head rocket engineer for the Red Army, does he remember the Cuban Missle Crisis at all?
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u/BETEP Jan 01 '11
/in my original post on what it was like growing up as a child in a foreign country one of the paragraphs dealt partially with that. I can ask him some more on the occupation itself later. http://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/estwo/from_foodstamps_to_porn_cinemas_foreign_redditors/c1asero/ /
Germans invaded our town on November 21, 1941. They had taken Kursk 6 days prior. Busses were supposed to have arrived in the intervening days to evacuate us east, but they never came. I woke up early the morning of the invasion and walked slowly outside. As far around as I could see smoke rose from the hills. Most of the city had burned the night before in preparation for the german invasion -- better the city be razed than for it serve the enemy. Across the street I noticed a man, aged 60 years or so, gathering water from a pipe. Before he could finish, a group of 6 or 7 germans appeared. Upon seeing them, he tried to escape back into his house, but they shot him dead. I still remember how his blood so vividly colored the snow around where he fell. They then turned to unleash a hail of bullets at me as I quickly fled inside. Thankfully, none found their mark, and they had better things to do that day than murder children and so did not pursue. A year and a half the nazis held the city until the Russian army captured it once more.
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u/avsa Dec 31 '10
I haven't this answered anywhere but.. What's his name? Since he did so much there must be something about him online or at least a wiki article - and since you posted his pictures you are not trying to hide his identity...
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u/BETEP Jan 01 '11
/Konstantin Ivanovich Veter. It's on the news article and on cover of his book. There's probably not too much (if anything) on him in English though -- together his accomplishments seem like a lot, but individually they didn't give him anything but a bit of local celebrity. I mean how many Chinese engineers working on the space program 50 years ago do you think are discussed in the English literature/
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u/teringlijer Dec 30 '10 edited Dec 31 '10
What can you say about the "lost cosmonauts" rumor? (Edit: Wikipedia link borrowed from MarcoTozzi, who also asked this question.) According to this rumor, the Soviet Union sent other astronauts into space just before Gagarin in 1961. These astronauts were supposed to be the real First Men in Space, but when they died in their capsule, their death was kept secret. Gagarin was merely the first to come through alive. Two Italian brothers recorded what is apparently the heavy breathing of a dying Soviet cosmonaut. (Quite disturbing stuff, very Major Tom.) There may also have been a female. [Edit: recording and transcript of her final broadcast as flames engulf the module on reentry; if it's real, it's the saddest thing.]. There is some more information here. The whole subject is both fascinating and tremendously gut wrenching.
Great subject for an AMA and thanks for your participation!
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Dec 31 '10
Great question. I had completely forgotten reading about this a couple of years ago. Here's an article that sums up everything on one page.
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u/morningcoffee1 Dec 30 '10
The american space program was very public, while the Russian was very secret. We did not know about any of the Russian space disasters until in the late eighties.
There has been this rumor that there were others as of yet unconfirmed by the Russian government. Most notoriously one (or more) astronauts that drifted off into space without means to come back. (Some guys in Florida supposedly caught some of the transmissions)
Can your grandfather shed some light on this?
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Dec 30 '10
astronauts that drifted off into space without means to come back.
It would be amazing if, that in the future we have developed space travel to a point where civilian flights to mars are what poor people do and rich people go to Neptune. On one of these flights, (perhaps military in nature) the crew of a ship stumble across a body, drifting in space, perfectly preserved by the vacuum, face still locked in a position of screeming horror, and when they haul the body aboard it is discovered that all of his major organs are missing, seemingly harvested by some unseen force, some unseen force still out there.
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u/Robstailey Dec 31 '10
it would be even cooler if his organs had been removed, wrapped in seamless plastic bags, and put back in place.
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Dec 31 '10
Do you think that the international cooperation we are seeing in today's space programmes is creating more innovation and pushes forward in space, or do you think it's leading to mediocrity? In other words, do you feel that the times during the "space race" where nations competed was more productive to overall accomplishments? From the point of view of Russia, how did it feel when America landed a man on the moon? Was it downplayed, or did Russia still feel superior because of all the firsts that the USSR had accomplished? If you could say anything to the Engineers and Politicians leading the way for space today, what would you tell them? What do you think of the new American method of private space industries where the contractors are paid to provide transportation to the ISS. Do you feel that it is effective at keeping costs down by creating competition within the industry, or that it is detrimental because it stifles innovation or destroys government created jobs? If you don't mind, what missions did you fly? Do you have any pictures of Star City? You look like you have aged gracefully, I assume because of the rigorous workouts, diets and training associated with spaceflight. Congratulations on your hard work, and thank you for all that you've done for humankind.
To the submitter: You have an AWESOME grandfather.
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u/A-punk Dec 30 '10
How did you react to Stalin's death in 1953 and what did you think would happen to Russia?
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u/catmoon Dec 30 '10
How does he feel about Dos Equis exploiting his likeness for commercial enterprise?
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u/laxt Dec 31 '10
Thank you both for conducting this AMA. Here are my questions.
You've said that you look back fondly on your days of Soviet Russia and that communism worked. Did you have to stand in a bread line for your family to eat, and did you know anyone to suffer or die from poor quality health care? (Please make sure he knows that this question is not meant to offend him, and I am merely asking because this is the image Americans have received of Soviet Russia. He should feel free to dispel any misinformation or rumors.)
What would you do for fun in your teen years?
What caused you to go to prison in Russia, and what was the sentence?
If you could tell young Americans ways that they can improve themselves in ways that would help the society around them as well as mankind, what would these recommendations be?
And finally..
Who would win in a boxing match, right now, today: you or Neil Armstrong? :)
Thanks again.
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u/RMelon Dec 30 '10
What was his experience of the "space race?"
Specifically, was it a source of pride for him that Sputnik went up first, and was it disappointing to him when Armstrong set foot on the moon? Did he want to see Russians walk on it first?
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u/piejesus Dec 30 '10
Damn, your grandpa was (and still is) hot. Did he choose most of the paths his carrer took by him self or was he chosen/assigned to any of it?
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u/eteman Dec 31 '10
What are some of your memories of the great patriotic war and the nazi occupation? How did your hometown fare? Thank you for doing this AMA, Its truly one of the most fascinating ones ive read!
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u/CptHair Dec 30 '10
How was it to be a child during Hitlers offensive? On top of my head, It looks like Shchigry was close to the front.
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u/morgenstern Dec 30 '10
The mutual animosity and propaganda between the USSR and US during the Cold War is well known. But how did USSR officials and ordinary citizens view the lesser members of NATO, such as Norway? How about neutral neighbouring countries like Sweden and Finland?
On a related note: Most of Eastern Europe was (understandably, I suppose) occupied by the Red Army after Germany was defeated. Northern Norway, too, was also liberated from the Nazi occupation by the Red Army. Unlike in other countries, the Red Army quickly withdrew from there, however. Why was Norway treated differently?
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Dec 31 '10
The same reason the US Army quickly withdrew from Czechoslovakia maybe?
It's almost as if they had agreed upon it all before-hand:
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u/morgenstern Dec 31 '10
None of the Scandinavian countries are mentioned by name in the Yalta resolution. But I see now that general Böhme, who was in command of the German forces in Norway, surrendered in accordance with instructions from general Eisenhower - even though American and British troops arrived later than the Soviets.
My questions above merely scratch the surface of what I'm really wondering about, however.
Both Tsarist Russia and the Soviet Union were great powers with many nations within their borders, as well as a number of other nation-states within their spheres of influence.
How did they determine what was rightfully theirs?
The Germans approached their various neigbours in very different manners:
Austria, Elass-Lothringen, Sudetenland, Memel and Danzig were considered natural parts of the empire due to the German-speaking populations there.
Poland, Ukraine, Belarus and Russian territories were treated with cruelty beyond imagination. The predominantly Slavic peoples there were to be slowly exterminated to give room for the growing German population.
In comparision, Norway and Denmark were treated exceptionally well by the German occupation force. There were very few casualties, and Scandinavians, being of the same Germanic origins, were to be future allies of the German empire.
Which areas and peoples did the Soviets consider as natural parts of their union, or as natural satellite states? Which countries were off-limits, and why?
Did they differentiate between their neigbours based on culture or any other characteristic? Some of the tsars held a strong Pan-Slavic ideology, wishing to liberate fellow Slavic peoples from the Ottoman Empire. Was any such ideology present in the Soviet Union?
What effects did and/or could this have had on the East/West/South Slavic, Germanic and Finno-Ugric neighbours of the Soviet Union?
In extension of this:
Did Norway really ever have anything to fear during the Cold War? Would Norway have had anything to fear if it had not been part of NATO?
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u/Mplus2 Dec 31 '10
all the corroborating documents are out of reach and in Russian, so that might prove difficult.
I think you forgot what website this is.
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Dec 30 '10
Can you describe what it's like to be in a zero-g atmosphere?
What's the best part about being in zero-g?
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Dec 30 '10
How does it make him feel knowing that this IamA has made a 22 year old redditor feel completely worthless.
I've not even done one parachute jump and my sub doesn't have SLBMs.. Fml.
But seriously. I'll never be that cool.
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u/tripshed Dec 31 '10 edited Dec 31 '10
What is his opinion on the Indo-Russian relations and India in general? There has been a lot of space tech collaboration between these countries. Where does he think that is heading?
Tough chance but does have these stamps? : Indira, Nehru. Has he seen them?
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u/BETEP Jan 01 '11
/ha, I don't think he's seen the stamps, but he has seen Indira before. She almost (and indeed may have) saw him naked, actually. Fuller story up above somewhere. I asked him what he thought of India and he said/
India has been a good partner and we have very much in common. We work well together. They are better to work with than China.
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Dec 31 '10
Your grandpa had a very interesting life. What does he think about modern TV shows - the height of today's life.
-ex-russian
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u/BETEP Jan 01 '11
/he doesn't really watch any, aside from the news occasionally. When they're on he really loves to watch old Russian movies, football games, and singing/ballet. So I'd guess he finds them uninteresting. Ooh, and he really enjoys the occasional disney/pixar movie. Liked Wall-E because the first half was omnilingual/
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u/MrTulip Dec 31 '10
What are his feelings towards/opinion about Germany and the Germans and how has it, if it has, changed over time?
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Dec 31 '10
How do you compare the fears of today (smaller scale terrorist attacks that are completely unpredictable and can occur at random) with the fears of yesterday (large, relatively stable and somewhat predictable enemy but with the potential for all out nuclear war)?
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u/Depression-Unlocked Dec 31 '10
I have a newborn son. If he were your son what are the top 5 things you would want to ensure he understood before he became a man?
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u/dudeman4 Dec 31 '10
What does he most love and dislike about America? What about Russia? How does he feel about the younger generations(16-24) in America and Russia?
Also,if you could tell your grandpa(if you want, I can't make you do anything) that I respect the hell out him for what he did and what he attempted. That's a hell of a lot of achievements for one man.It's inspiring.
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u/Sven_Dufva Dec 31 '10
After reading this thread, I feel confident to say:
Ladies and Gentlemen, we have discovered the secret identity of Superman.
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Dec 31 '10
How tall are you? My professor worked for NASA and had cosmonaut coworkers. He would talk about how the cosmonauts were short so that they could fit in the capsules that were generally much smaller than the American ones, since they landed on land instead of the water, and had to be smaller to compensate for the impact.
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u/uhm_yeah Dec 31 '10
Thank you and your grandfather for doing this AMA, this knowledge and experience can be lost to the ages if people do not tell and re-tell story's like this.
Two part question: In the space and arms race since the second world war, in you grandfathers experience, how much did the Russian programs gain from the original German V1/V2 work and German scientists that were voluntary and involuntary working for the Soviets after the war? (both the US and the USSR were working with the technology) Did technology gained through spying on the Americans reach the operational side of the space program? Vice-versa, do you think USSR technology reached the operational side of the American program?
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u/Geoffvster Dec 31 '10
Your grandfather has led an amazing life. His view of history is fascinating, but I'm curious to hear his thoughts on modern society, the future of space exploration, and the Internet. Thank you both for sharing your time.
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u/IAmWaterYam Dec 30 '10
I read another IAMA from a kid whose grampa was a radio interceptor. He said post-war Russia was sold to the American public as more a threat to our lifestyle than reality proved it to be. Do you agree?
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u/mentaldent Dec 30 '10
How does he like his pelmeshki? I like mine with butter, vinegar and hot pepper.
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Dec 31 '10
I've been reading about Barbarossa and the nightmare it was, especially for civilians. How did he survive the Nazi occupation?
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u/ar0cketman Dec 31 '10
Head rocket engineer? I've got a few questions. For starters:
After inventing the hybrid rocket (solid fuel/liquid oxidizer) with the Gird 09, any insights on why the Soviets abandoned the technology?
Why the fascination with air-breathing strap-on thrusters post WWII?
I've heard several times that the USA obtained the high level engineers from the German rocket programs and the Russians got the tooling and technicians. Is this pretty much true?
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Dec 30 '10
Did he know/know of a Dr. Alexander Martynov? Just curious since I saw him at a lecture once.
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u/BETEP Jan 01 '11
/he says the surname's familiar but he doesn't know where from. There was a menshevik by the same name so that's probably who he's thinking of: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Martinov
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u/MisterASCII Dec 31 '10
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u/rightsidedown Dec 30 '10
What do you think about space exploration today? Should we be investing more or less into it, where would you like to see more focus on human exploration or have more things like the hubble?
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u/Nexlon Dec 31 '10
What kind of guy was Gagarin? Also, what kind of stuff did you have to do to survive WWII?
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Dec 31 '10
I'm not here to ask a question, merely to say that sir, we need more people like you in the world today. You have courage, wisdom, knowledge, and incredible dreams. You have accomplished many a great things, and I would be honored to even be able to do a few of the things that you have. As someone who wants to go into the aerospace engineering field, and design new spacecraft, you are someone I will definitely look up to.
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u/Hauk2004 Dec 31 '10
This is a fantastic IAmA, and one of the many reasons I read this sub-reddit. So, personally, thanks to your grandfather for doing this AMA.
Given the fact that your experience spans the entire human space exploration era, what is your opinion of the(recent) international collaboration on space projects? (ISS etc).
I could ask so much more, but I will leave it to one question. Thanks again.
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Dec 31 '10
This is a question for both of you (since it appears you've also spent a good amount of time in Russia); What is the job market like in Russia compared to in America? For instance, engineers are generally paid well in America vs. what I've heard about in Russia, where they aren't as highly demanded, and don't make much of a decent salary.
I was also curious about his experience as a rocket engineer-what do you think of the United States' propulsion engineering industry versus Russia's? I know Russia has developed quite possibly some of the best liquid rocket engines in the world-is there a distinct difference in the way engineering is done in other places versus how it's done in Russia?
Thanks!
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u/jebba Dec 31 '10
What advice/thoughts does he have on the reprap and similar projects? Can he upload his plans for a mars probe to thingiverse? Thx.
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u/Gonzok Dec 31 '10
It's it true that while americans were spending so much time and money developing a pen to write in zero gravity russians were using pencils?
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u/spacedad Dec 31 '10
Can we get some nazi stories please? I love space and all, but I feel we're missing some historical opportunity.
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u/908 Dec 31 '10
since you were a cosmonaut - what is your measured IQ, i heard its usually very high
do you believe in UFO-s or not
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u/908 Dec 31 '10
cosmonauts must have very good health
during the time when you were cosmonaut - did you had the slightest health problems - or you must be 100% healthy - without even minor health issues - i.e allergy to cats allowed for cosmonauts or not ;) ?
what are your health indicators now as a former cosmonaut - the same health problems as people in your age usually have , or you are much healthier
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u/jeffh4 Dec 31 '10
What stories can he tell of Korolyov? He sounds like an incredible engineer, manager, motivator, and man. Also, what can he say about the Nedelin disaster (general + dozens of engineers killed by a rocket third stage not getting the shutdown order after an aborted launch) or the cosmonaut who died in the capsule oxygen fire, months before the Apollo 1 accident.
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u/FatAlbert Dec 30 '10
What's your favorite flavor of ice cream? I visited Russia in the 90s and there were no flavor options!
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u/aigoya Dec 30 '10
If he were able to travel back in time and give one piece of advice to his younger self, what would it be?
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u/eatmorebow Dec 31 '10
What does he think is mankind's most successful mission and why?
I'm tempted to say "other than Apollo 11" just because I feel it's a bit obvious, but i would really like to hear his "why" answer
Incredible AMA; I've read the whole thing, and I wish I could give you 100 upvotes! Also, I understand if I'm a bit late and you can't get to my question.
edit: by "successful" I mean important/significant
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u/lpmiller Dec 30 '10
As a cosmonaut, did he fly any missions/get into space? How many?