Lost Cosmonauts

[Voyager275]

Officially Yuri Gagarin was the first person in space, or was he? Due to the secrecy of the Soviet Union, some believe that cosmonauts were launched into space and didn't survive. Many sources seem too back this up and then some others don't. From recordings to missing cosmonaut files, did they send cosmonauts too their doom?

[Brotoro]

Seems unlikely to me.

[_Augustus_]

Nonsense.

[Voyager275]

One recording supposedly records a female cosmonaut burning up upon reentry, 3 days later the USSR says a large satellite burned up upon reentry on the same day. I'm torn on this one

[Kryten]

It's a bunch of nonsense. It made a bit of sense while there was still the iron curtain up, but all the soviet archives from that era are now public. There weren't even any female cosmonauts until Tereshkova's group were selected in April 1962.

[Drunken Hobo]

Even with early 60s technology, surely the USA would have been able to tell what the Soviets were up to? You can hardly launch a massive rocket without someone noticing, unless it just went boom on the launchpad. And even then, you'd probably notice the smoking crater. It's the same with the Moon landings - someone would have noticed if there was something fishy.

[Cydonian Monk]

Even were it true, there is a high likelihood we will never know. So I give Yuri his due rights as "First dude in space" and call it that.

[Gaarst]

Even with early 60s technology, surely the USA would have been able to tell what the Soviets were up to? You can hardly launch a massive rocket without someone noticing, unless it just went boom on the launchpad. And even then, you'd probably notice the smoking crater. It's the same with the Moon landings - someone would have noticed if there was something fishy.

You know the N-1 rocket ? The Soviet lunar rocket, with a size similar to Saturn V, that blew up 4 times on 4 launches ? Well guess what, we westeners learnt about it only with the Glasnost, over 20 years later ! So, maybe the USA didn't know everything about what was happening in the USSR

Though I agree that launching secret manned space missions is highly unlikely, especially now, 25 years after the fall of the USSR, that most secret files of the time are declassified.

[_Augustus_]

You know the N-1 rocket ? The Soviet lunar rocket, with a size similar to Saturn V, that blew up 4 times on 4 launches ? Well guess what, we westeners learnt about it only with the Glasnost, over 20 years later ! So, maybe the USA didn't know everything about what was happening in the USSR

Though I agree that launching secret manned space missions is highly unlikely, especially now, 25 years after the fall of the USSR, that most secret files of the time are declassified.

Actually, the US spy sats got pics of the N1:

[J.Random]

This theory exists because some radio operators picked up voice transmissions from early soviet spacecrafts. In fact, those were recordings played on test unmanned crafts, intended to check the comms quality. When curators of the soviet space program heard about these theories, they seriously considered using opera/orchestra/choir recordings in the future - read it in some (Kamanin's?) memoirs.

[Gaarst]

Actually, the US spy sats got pics of the N1:

snip...

Ok, maybe the US intel did know about the N-1 (highly probable actually, seeing your pic ^^), but the point of my example was that, even if the US knew about the N-1, it was still secret, as I suppose that this picture was not on first page of every newspaper of the 20 September 1968, but it has been declassified with time, so there is no reason why those manned missions would stay classified. Furthermore, other deathes in the soviet space program were not kept secret (Soyuz 1 and 11 mostly).

[GoSlash27]

I thought this had been dispelled a long time ago as a hoax?

Best,

-Slashy

[K^2]

Though I agree that launching secret manned space missions is highly unlikely, especially now, 25 years after the fall of the USSR, that most secret files of the time are declassified.

Well, they were all secret at some point. There have been accidents that USSR did not report. Most notably, death of Valentin Bondarenko. But these are not secrets anymore. They have not been for a long time.

[Kryten]

I thought this had been dispelled a long time ago as a hoax?

This is the internet age, no hoax ever really goes away anymore.

[GDJ]

If there was a cosmonaut ahead of Yuri Gagarin, it would have been Vladimir Ilyushin. He died in 2010 and never confirmed or denied that he was the first in space.

[Kryten]

If there was a cosmonaut ahead of Yuri Gagarin, it would have been Vladimir Ilyushin. He died in 2010 and never confirmed or denied that he was the first in space.

That stuff started up because he was a noted test pilot, and had been hospitalised, while rumours were flying about about the first piloted flight. He wasn't involved in the space program in any way.

[Camacha]

Actually, the US spy sats got pics of the N1:

Did they also know what they were dealing with? That is quite relevant. The text on the image looks much more modern than the picture itself.

[xenomorph555]

All I can say is that Lost Cosmonauts theorys are a bunch of cr*p that needs to burn, same goes for moon theorys, alien ufo's and lololBushdid9/11 theorys.

They have no place on this scientific and logical forum.

[Voyager275]

All I can say is that Lost Cosmonauts theorys are a bunch of cr*p that needs to burn, same goes for moon theorys, alien ufo's and lololBushdid9/11 theorys.

They have no place on this scientific and logical forum.

Technically anything involving space travel is scientific

[Sampa]

It's a bunch of nonsense. It made a bit of sense while there was still the iron curtain up, but all the soviet archives from that era are now public. There weren't even any female cosmonauts until Tereshkova's group were selected in April 1962.

Technically, only most of the files were released. I do not think that it is very far from the truth that the soviet union might destroy some records to keep the stuff in the dark.

[Voyager275]

Technically, only most of the files were released. I do not think that it is very far from the truth that the soviet union might destroy some records to keep the stuff in the dark.

The CIA destroyed some of the MK Ultra files, that's why we still don't know everything from the project which happened in the 1960's or 70's

[magnemoe]

Actually, the US spy sats got pics of the N1:

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/09/KH-8_N1.jpg

Yes, lots of cold war stuff was known by the other side but kept secret by the other side as making it public would show your capabilities or even expose agents.

You also don't want to show your cards.

And yes the archives are public now and its no reason to keep them secret.

[fredinno]

Technically anything involving space travel is scientific

Except, you know, science fiction.

[UmbralRaptor]

Going with the standard expert on these things (James Oberg), some cosmonauts (and even some deaths) were covered up. Mind, you this is things like being expelled from the program for bad behavior, or dieing in a fire during a ground test. There is no reason to believe that the standard accounts are inaccurate.

http://www.jamesoberg.com/phantoms.html

http://www.jamesoberg.com/usd10.html

[vger]

So, OP, did this just come up on your feed recently? I just saw it in the past couple of weeks and then all of a sudden this discussion appears here.

And yeah, if those radio communications were just ground tests, I'd like to know what the heck it was they were really talking about that just somehow got misconstrued as, "frak, why didn't we put heat shields on this thing?"

Edited August 29, 2015 by vger