Among the Crimean hills, not far from the Jabanak gully, there is the former military town of Shkolny. Until the 90s of the last century, highly qualified specialists of long-distance space communications lived and worked there. The settlement was founded in 1957. Along with the construction of a complex of buildings and structures for space communications, residential buildings, a kindergarten, a store, a school, and a boiler room were built. The garrison belonged to the military space forces of the USSR and several military units were located on its territory. The settlement was considered an elite secret object and had the code name "Simferopol-28". On October 4, 1957, it was from here that the first communication session with the first artificial Earth satellite was made. Since then, October 4 is considered the day of the Shkolnoye village.
The Soviet Union had 15 such settlements, which were part of the command and measurement complex for the country's long-range space communications. The center manager of the complex was located in the Moscow region of Golitsyno. The main function of the measuring complex was to receive information and control the operation of spacecraft launched into orbit with the help of transceiving devices. The Soviet space group, which includes 180 objects, slightly, but still exceeded the American one (120 objects). Each of the ground-based space communication stations had its own goals and objectives, but the main ones were radio reconnaissance and photographing.
During the Soviet era, 98% of the satellites were for military purposes. Ground measuring station No. 10 (NIP-10) in the Shkolny settlement was quite busy with work. From here, the flight control of all Soviet spacecraft was carried out. It was in NIP-10 that interferometric devices were located, intercepting signals from American military satellites and tracking their orbits. The role of the Shkolny village garrison in the implementation of the Luna and Lunokhod programs should be especially noted. The NIP-10 specialists received the first image of the lunar surface transmitted by the Luna-9 spacecraft. On the territory of the village, a lunarod was equipped, on which the chassis of the "Lunokhod" were tested and their crews were trained.
The complexity of the training was that the role of operators of the lunar rovers required specialists who did not have any skills in driving vehicles. This requirement was due to the fact that an accidental operator error associated with previously acquired control reflexes could result in a catastrophe for the Lunokhod. A model of the lunar rover was delivered to the lunar rover. Operators practiced on it the skills of controlling the apparatus when driving over rough terrain. The Lunokhod control center was also located in Shkolny.
NIP-10 specialists controlled the flights of the Mars and Venus series spacecraft. Operators of the Shkolny space communications ground station received the first images of the surface of Venus, sent from the Venera-13 spacecraft.
It was in this village, among the Crimean hills, that the Flight Control Center for manned stations and spacecraft, including Soyuz-Apolon, was located.
The successful and effective work of the specialists of the Shkolny garrison was marked with an award - the Red Banner of the USSR Missile Forces.
Ground measuring station No. 10 was visited by many leaders of the Government of the Soviet Union, outstanding scientists, designers and industrialists, as well as cosmonauts. So, on August 11, 1962, the Flight Control Center was visited by the Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the country - N. S. Khrushchev, where a radiotelephone session was held with cosmonauts P. Popovich and A. Nikolaev, who were on board the Vostok-4 and Vostok-3 spacecraft.
The garrison servicemen took part in the implementation of the Buran space shuttle program.
Unfortunately, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, independent Ukraine did not need ground measuring station No. 10. Most of the military, who refused to take the Ukrainian oath, left for Russia.
And although in 1991 the station carried out 50 daily communication sessions with spacecraft, the collapse of the military units was already predetermined. In 1991, part of the equipment was first dismantled. Then, under the guise of conservation, the remaining equipment was destroyed or scrapped. After there was no gas, no electricity, no heat, no telephone communication in the village, a mass exodus of residents from Shkolnoye began. The cost of housing fell to $ 2 thousand. Those of the retirees who did not manage to get an apartment in Simferopol after leaving the army, remained in the village. As a result, today 70% of the population of the village are people not connected with the service at NIP-10, and who bought housing here for little money. The school was no longer needed by anyone - neither the military nor the government. The former prosperous town fell into poverty. Now only the huge dish of the TNA-400 receiving-transmitting antenna reminds of the glorious past. The fate of this remaining property of the long-range space communications station is not enviable - it will either be handed over for scrap or sold to some company.
It must be said that the Russian space complex quickly recovered the loss of NIP-10. Moreover, in recent years, new and modern equipment has been put into operation, which makes it possible to carry out the assigned tasks with the help of a small number of specialists. For example, in the space unit stationed in Kolpashevo, 5 people do all the work, whereas, as before, 70 servicemen served here.
Now life in the village is gradually being restored. The housing stock and infrastructure facilities require major repairs, but neither the citizens nor the local authorities have money for this. But people hope for a better future. The village council plans to build a sports and recreation complex. But the biggest problem for the residents of Shkolny was unemployment. Most of the working-age population is forced to commute to work in Simferopol every day.
The Shkolny garrison is one of the pages in the history of the great country. Veterans of the military space forces believe that it would be fair to preserve the memory of NIP-10 for posterity - to create a museum in the School, telling about the history of space exploration and the feat of Soviet people who participated in space programs. On their own, the veterans began to design the museum, where unique historical facts of space exploration and the development of space technology will be exhibited.
