Pitskhelauri, Lado Vladimirovich
Person · Russia
Original archive entry. The text, images and links below are kept as they were written.
Russian engineer cosmonaut candidate, 1965. Was married to cosmonaut Tatyana Kuznetsova. Engineer, Soviet Air Force. Selected as a cosmonaut in August 1965, but on 23 October 1965 the selection was nullified by a government commission.
More at: Pitskhelauri.
Related
Chronology
1 event
1965 January 15
- Cosmonaut examinations - .
Nation: Russia.
Related Persons: Belyayev,
Demin,
Dobrovolsky,
Gorbatko,
Gubarev,
Khrunov,
Leonov,
Pitskhelauri,
Shatalov,
Zaikin.
Program: Voskhod.
Flight: Voskhod 2.
Spacecraft: Vostok.
The 15 candidate-astronauts take their first phase examinations. 13 are rated outstanding, with Shatalov, Gubarev, and Demin doing the best. Two are rated only 'good' - Dobrovolskiy and Pitskherlauri. Dobrovolskiy was the worst, getting some answers completely wrong. For example, he said that the maximum thickness of Vostok's heat shield was 440 mm, when the correct answer was 140 mm; and identified Krug as a homing beacon on the search aircraft, rather than aboard the spacecraft. However overall everything went well, and all were considered to have passed. On this day Belyayev and Leonov complete their centrifuge training. Belyayev is 40 years old, and had little trouble with the centrifuge. Kamanin resolves to name Khrunov as a spacecraft commander in Belyayev's place, with a final crew being Khrunov-Leonov in case Belyayev cannot fly for some reason. Khrunov is available since Zaikin since the decision has been made to train Zaikin as Leonov's backup instead of Gorbatko.