Kosmonauta, a short film about a female soviet Lost Cosmonaut.

[OrbitalSolutionsLtd]

Description of the video : "Kosmonauta is a visualization of an actual sound clip from a female cosmonaut in distress. The signal was picked up on a soviet space frequency in 1962 and gave rise to the theory of the (lost) first female cosmonaut.
This project was made by Mirjam Veske (Production Designer) and Nils Eilif Bremdal (Cinematographer). After finishing their exam films at the Norwegian Film School they teamed up for this final project before graduating from the film school. They worked as a Production Designer and Cinematographer, but made all directorial decisions together all through the production process. Accompanied by Thomas Grotmol (Editor) and Vegard Soldal (Sound Designer) and fellow students and friends, the film has been a great collaborative experience.
If you want to see stills from behind the scenes, go to flickr.com/photos/52410795@N07/14184763815
Music by Ólafur Arnalds - "Out To Sea""

[lajoswinkler]

Very cool video, but based on a hoax.

[GoSlash27]

The description is misleading at best and false at worst.

It is an actual sound clip of a female, but the "cosmonaut in distress" part is an allegation. It was *not* picked up on a Soviet space frequency, but rather an ameteur satellite frequency.

Neat film and compelling story, but they oversold the basis for it.

(edit) Ninja'd by Lajoswinkler!

I'm not going to go out on a limb and declare it a hoax or truthful. I'm just saying that the description contains some statements of "fact" that are unsupported.

Best,

-Slashy

Edited September 27, 2014 by GoSlash27

[OrbitalSolutionsLtd]

You are undoubtedly right. I read the translation of the transmission, and the fact that the woman is talking about flames entering the craft during reentry makes me skeptical, since there shouldn't be any transmission during reentry.

And something more bothers me : shouldn't we hear the mission control as well, since it should be on the same frequency ?

[Kryten]

The main issue is that we have access to many of the documents and most of the people behind the soviet program; something like this would have been impossible to have kept secret for so long. We know who all of the 60s era female cosmonauts were, and they're all still alive.

[GoSlash27]

You are undoubtedly right. I read the translation of the transmission, and the fact that the woman is talking about flames entering the craft during reentry makes me skeptical, since there shouldn't be any transmission during reentry.

And something more bothers me : shouldn't we hear the mission control as well, since it should be on the same frequency ?

You wouldn't necessarily hear mission control, since it was common practice at the time to run full duplex comms. One freq to talk up and another to talk down. But since the frequency they allegedly intercepted this on wasn't in that band, it wouldn't have been a standard comm channel anyway.

What I find especially fishy is this: The protocol for the comms is all wrong for Soviet space transmissions of the day. Make/ break tones are all wrong and the lingo doesn't fit the standard practices of the day.

What makes me *really* skeptical is some of the other "intercepts" they claimed, such as a cosmonaut skipping off the atmosphere when his retro rockets fired the wrong way, sending him into an escape trajectory. We have all played enough KSP to know that "accidentally" reaching escape velocity isn't in the realm of possibility.

But this all doesn't mean it didn't happen. Just that it's questionable at best. It's bad form to state as a matter of fact that it did happen without some sort of proof.

Best,

-Slashy

[Nibb31]

We know all about the Soviet space program, including its numerous failures. We have detailed blueprints of the vehicles. We have corroborated first hand accounts of the people who were there. Archives about the N1 program, the Nedelin disaster, or Soyuz 1 have all been published, despite those events being denied by the Soviets at the time. In fact, we know more about the Soviet space program than we do about some of the USAF cold war projects that are still classified. I don't see why the "lost astronauts" would be kept secret when much more embarrassing things have gone public.

Edited September 28, 2014 by Nibb31

[Javster]

We know all about the Soviet space program, including its numerous failures. We have detailed blueprints of the vehicles. We have corroborated first hand accounts of the people who were there. Archives about the N1 program, the Nedelin disaster, or Soyuz 1 have all been published, despite those events being denied by the Soviets at the time. In fact, we know more about the Soviet space program than we do about some of the USAF cold war projects that are still classified. I don't see why the "lost astronauts" would be kept secret when much more embarrassing things have gone public.

Indeed: a massive failure of a Moon program is more embarrassing than a single failed spaceflight.

[Kryten]

We know all about the Soviet space program, including its numerous failures. We have detailed blueprints of the vehicles. We have corroborated first hand accounts of the people who were there. Archives about the N1 program, the Nedelin disaster, or Soyuz 1 have all been published, despite those events being denied by the Soviets at the time. In fact, we know more about the Soviet space program than we do about some of the USAF cold war projects that are still classified. I don't see why the "lost astronauts" would be kept secret when much more embarrassing things have gone public.

Soyuz 1 wasn't denied at the time, even if all of the details weren't available. Komarov got a state funeral and was put into the Kremlin wall; same with the Soyuz 11 crew.