September 18, 1832
Nikolai Rukavishnikov was born in Tomsk. He was an engineer and physicist who traveled to space three times and was the first person in history to perform a manual emergency landing.
He received his higher education at the Moscow Engineering Physics Institute (MEPhI). From his first year, he demonstrated a penchant for abstract thinking and delved into the details of any experiment. Among his classmates, he was nicknamed "Old Man Hottabych ibn the Electronic Calculating Flying Saucer."
After graduating from the institute, I worked under the guidance of Sergei Korolev — developed automatic control for spaceships.
He became the first test engineer to orbit the Earth. He chose the call sign "Granit."
In total, he spent almost 10 days in space. Of the three flights, two were accompanied by emergency incidents.
The most serious incident occurred in 1979, when, during docking with the Salyut 6 orbital station, the ship under Rukavishnikov's control spontaneously shut down. This occurred three seconds ahead of schedule, leaving the Soyuz hovering 16 kilometers from the station. Such a malfunction could have stranded the crew in Earth orbit for several years.
The ship's air supply was limited. If the Soyuz had remained in orbit for long, we would have faced agonizing death from suffocation within a few days... I knew where the pressure relief valve was on the ship's hull and how it worked. Opening it in space was no problem for me. This would have guaranteed us almost instant death.
Developing the rescue plan took over 20 hours. Ultimately, Nikolai Rukavishnikov, who had perfect knowledge of the Soyuz spacecraft, was able to manually rotate the spacecraft and calculate a new landing trajectory. The engineer and physicist accomplished all this using the backup engine.
Relying on his experience and intuition, he silenced it at 213 seconds—25 seconds later than the instructions indicated. His calculations proved correct.
Rukavishnikov later told reporters that he slept only two hours that day. He dreamed of the carved facades of wooden houses in central Tomsk.