Levset Darchev - Burnt by shuttle

There was silence at the table. – You say: just arrived? Asked Magomed.

“It turned out like an anecdote,” Yura joked and, looking at Victor, asked. – Vitya, you heard an anecdote about long-range aviation pilots?

– No.

– So they are given special tablets to give them twenty hours not want to sleep, neither eat nor drink. And later all that overtakes simultaneously.

Victor chuckled.

“I hope you’ve already got it all over,” said Magomed.

“Of course,” said Yura. – True, I have not got home yet.

– It does not work for you, as in another anecdote about the pilot?

– asked Magomed, wishing to continue with that to stay

on a wave of humor.

Victor still had a smile after Yura’s first joke.

– Tell me! Victor cheered.

– The pilot’s wife decided to get rid of a nasty cat, -began Magomed, – put her in a bag and let her go far from home. She did not have time to come home, and the cat was right there. On the next day he took her to work. In the evening the cat returned back. Then she asked her husband-pilot to take her away of the city and descend from the sky. The next day the wife, killed by anxious expectations, complains to the neighbor: “I worry about my husband – the cat returned home, and my husband still no”.

Three men in the far corner of the cafe laughed so much that they paid attention to themselves. Schaeffer just pretended that laughed, but inside everything shrank from the inevitable expectation of another catastrophe.

– For me and “yesterday” as “today” – time is so fast flies” Yuri said. – I have a feeling, as if we only yesterday buried the best guys from the detachment who already is nicknamed “The Wolf Pack”: Victor Bukreev, Oleg Kononenko. Do you remember, Magomed, how Igor Wolf at the funeral feast of Oleg said: “I’m sorry, guys: I did not know that I was calling you on death”. – Yura looked at the waiter and made a sign with fingers, which meant – just a little bit of vodka. – “Inevitably Losses”? Yura muttered. – What the heck. Today they are, and tomorrow I am. It is necessary to do something, but I do not know what. Here I have stated my understanding of the matter – I did not sleep all night, drank coffee, smoked cigarettes and wrote. Victor, edit, correct and when you can. Valuable information. When you get the fee a box of cognac from you. Good?

“Very well,” agreed Victor.

Scheffer concentrated, strained his eyes and began to read:

– “The program” Energy – Buran “began with a provocativeAmerican actions on “space racing”. At mid-seventies exploration of the Soviet Union sniffed out some details of the American super-space-based weapons “Space Shuttle”. In the technical description of the shuttle was written that it would have a great opportunity for maneuvering, which will allow him to make a dive from space in Moscow and throw off on it nuclear bomb. This was not a joke, and time proved the correctness of such a version: nineteen hundred and eighty sixth year in the course of the usual, at first glance, flight of the American “Space Shuttle”, having left the orbit, made an accurate maneuver: deployed at an altitude of eighty kilometers, dived into the atmosphere of the planet just above Moscow. The officer of Soviet air defense, who observed the flight of the shuttle, fell in a stupor…

– Really? -Ustinov asked in surprise when he was told about the capabilities of the American shuttle.

“Yes,” his assistant confirmed without emotion.

“That’s how it can throw off on our heads a nuclear bomb”, the minister suggested.

“Maybe Dmitry Fedorovich,” the assistant confirmed.

– Maybe. And not one of our interceptor aircraft can not do anything to prevent him. In addition, the shuttle has a long manipulator with which it directly in orbit can disassemble any desired satellite in pieces and, without asking permission from anybody, take away the the equipment with a total weight of up to 14.5 tons home in America.

Ustinov turned white, his glasses slid down his nose.

“Call Maximov to me.” How can I report this to Brezhnev, I do not know.

Then occurred the categorical reaction of Leonid Breznev, who did not have the habit of standing on ceremony, if speech was about the security of the country: to prevent Americans from superiority, although they have recently become more compliant in negotiations to reduce the degree of international tension. Words in words, but in practice you cannot give the Americans such superiority. For sub keeping the peace always were needed strong arguments. Аfter meetings in the Politburo, consultations with military strategists and industry, in February 1976, the government issued a decree on the creation of the national reusable space system Energia-Buran” Aftera reusable space system – “Energy – Buran”. All leading space organizations were attracted to this work: more than a thousand scientific research institutes, design bureaus, enterprises of industry and about 1.5 million people. According to press, the Soviet people singled out the program “Buran” more than $ 17 billion. But what happened futher? Someone, knowing that nothing to do with the program, found a weak place in this program – to remove people from list of the detachment, which was soon to take off in space. They were the most persistent and experienced Soviet pilots full of confidence and patriotism – eight people, for the professional and spiritual qualities of five hundred candidates for the seat. In the first eight secret-special detachment included Oleg Kononen, Anatoly Levchenko, Rimantas Stankevičius, Alexander Shukin, Nikolay Sadovnikov, Victor Bukreev and Alexander Lysenko and, of course, Igor Volk himself, who was elected a commander, because he was the best.

Soon began inexplicable things: the list of the detachment for somebody became available and hunting began on them: one after another began to crash, and began to melt detachment of Wolf. The commission did not find out anything, recognizing that it was human factor, and attributed this to inevitable losses. The State Security Committee also also spread their hands-a strange coincidence of events.” – Yura did the pauseand raised his head: first he looked at Magomed, then on Victor. – Correctly written?

Yura missed another glass, purely in Russian, sniffed a piece of bread and, looking around in oder not overhear a secret monolog, returned to the conversation:

“The first victim was a young test pilot Victor Bukreev, full of vitality and energy. He was born in April 5, 1949 in the city of Kamensk-Uralsky Sverdlov-of the RSFSR. Before serving in the Soviet Army worked as an electrician at the factory. In 1972 he graduated from Higher Military Aviation School of. In 1976 he graduated from the School of test pilots of the Flight Research Institute in the Ministry of Aviation Industry. Since June 1976 – on flight test work in the LII named after M.M. Gromov. On may 17, 1977, on a sunny spring day, when everything is so beautiful and so want to enjoy life, he performed at the airfield in Zhukovsky training on the MiG-25PU. Not yet taking off, right on the runway the airplane has a nose landing gear. As a result, of friction of iron on concrete a fire broke out. Bukreev, who was in the first cabin, received severel burns and died on the way to the hospital, and, strangely enough, commander E. Lebedinsky remained and unharmed.”

Yura raised his head.

“How are you?” – It’s strange, – Victor answered, put the pen on the table and crossed his arms over his chest.

“Next,” Yura read out. – Alexander Lysenko.-“Literally a month later, death overtook him, an experienced and desperate test pilot. Together with his partner Genenadiy Mamontov he on the MiG-23UB conducted a test of a new flying device. They broke into a tailspin in a nonright moment and an unnecessary place – under them was the city, but he can not jump. After a while, when the plane lowered its nose and, accelerating with a largle angle of dive, fell to the ground outside the outskirts of the old Yegoryevsk family. The plane fell on a wasteland near the brick plant on the edge of the quarry, from where the plant extracted clay. Not far from than place grew russian birches, which he loved and sang as Esenin A partner who did not have any wearing to ‘Buran’, survived. Another mystical countries-ness”. – Yuri paused, looking at Magomed, who again became tense.