Search for the Missing Cosmonauts
Did a young pair of Italian brothers uncover evidence of Soviet cosmonauts dying in space?
Filed under Conspiracies, General Science, Urban Legends
| Skeptoid #115 August 19, 2008 Podcast transcript | Listen | Subscribe |
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During the late 1950's and early 1960's, the space race between the United States and the Soviet Union was hot. Both sides built and tested rockets as quickly as they could, trying to be the first to launch an artificial satellite into orbit, often with explosive results. Both sides had their successes, and both sides had their failures. People around the world watched and listened. Some, most notably amateur radio operators, listened more closely than others. And of these, a pair of young brothers from Italy, Achille and Giovanni Judica-Cordiglia, reigned supreme. Their library of audio recordings of nearly every flight from the space race is by far the most comprehensive private collection known. But the real reason it's notable is that includes a number of recordings of alleged events that didn't make it into the history books: doomed Soviet cosmonauts captured in their final moments of life, on flights that the Soviets said never happened.
During the cold war, the Soviet Union was a knot of state secrets. More than anything else, the cold war was a war of propaganda, each side trying to show the world that they were the smartest, the fastest, the highest, and the best. In this context, it's not surprising at all that the true progress of their space program would be closely guarded and only the best news released to the world. With their state-controlled media, the Soviets had the ability to accomplish coverups of failures to a degree that would never have been possible in the United States.
Achille and Giovanni were creative and scientific geniuses in the truest sense, both in their twenties. When the Soviets announced the successful launch of Sputnik I on October 4, 1957 and published the radio frequency for everyone to hear, the brothers scavenged what radio equipment they could and tuned it in. Here is the actual recording they made of Sputnik I:
From that one recording, their self-taught education proceeded like a rocket. They learned how to detect the Doppler effect in signals from orbit, and how to calculate an object's speed and altitude from that. They filled logbooks with conversion tables and Soviet frequencies. And so, when the Soviets launched Sputnik 2 only a month after Sputnik 1, they were well prepared. And this time, the brothers discovered something new: a heartbeat.
It was the heartbeat of Laika, a small dog. Sadly for Laika, Sputnik 2 was a one-way trip; there was no provision for re-entry or recovery. Three months later, the United States launched its first satellite, Explorer I, and like the Soviets, published the frequency of the signal. Achille and Giovanni captured it, and then their lives as local media celebrities began. They were the darlings of the local papers and radio stations. They took over a nearby concrete bunker left over from World War II, made improvements to their equipment, and built larger antennas. They called their little radio observatory Torre Bert, and anytime anything launched into space from anywhere, Torre Bert was filled with friends, reporters, local scientists, and anyone who wanted a good time.
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The Torre Bert experiment took a more serious turn on November 28, 1960. A West German observatory announced that it was receiving a strange signal on a Soviet space frequency. The brothers tuned in, and heard hand-keyed Morse code repeating the international distress signal, S-O-S, over and over again. Their Doppler calculations showed almost no relative speed, which they interpreted to mean that the distressed spacecraft was on a course directly away from the Earth. The signal grew weaker and was never heard from again. Apparently, the brothers had just recorded evidence that a manned Soviet spacecraft somehow got off course and left Earth's orbit, permanently.
About two months later in February 1961, variously reported as the 2nd or the 4th of the month, they picked up another transmission from space, which experts interpreted at the time as the dying breaths of an unconscious man:
And another signal from the same flight, interpreted by the brothers' father, a cardiologist, as a failing human heartbeat:
The brothers' story and recordings were played throughout Italy. Two days after this publicity, the Soviets announced the failed re-entry of a large unmanned craft.
In April of 1961, a journalist at the International Press Agency in Moscow tipped off the brothers that something big was about to happen. They turned on their equipment, and the next day, listened in on Yuri Gargarin's voice during the first manned space flight.
But, the most dramatic of the brothers' recordings came about five weeks later in May of 1961, the date variously reported as the 17th, 19th, or 23rd. A woman's voice transmission, translated as "Isn't this dangerous? Talk to me! Our transmission begins now. I feel hot. I can see a flame. Am I going to crash? Yes. I feel hot, I will re-enter...":
When I first heard about the Judica-Cordiglia recordings from Torre Bert, I was definitely intrigued. It simply appears plausible. We know that the Soviets covered up their failures. We know that their launch record in those days was absolutely abysmal, far worse than the United States. If Yuri Gagarin made it into space, it almost seems like a foregone conclusion that at least a couple of other guys must have previously died in the attempt.
Part of the trouble you find when you research this is that the recordings from Torre Bert are only one small square in a quilt the size of Texas. There are many, many stories circulating about missing cosmonauts who died in spaceflights as early as 1957. According to some Western intelligence sources, as many as 11 fatal Soviet accidents occurred, both in flight and on the ground, all before 1967. We know that the Soviets painted certain cosmonauts out of photographs, in fact you can see some great before & after examples of this on the LostCosmonauts.com web site. We know that the death of at least one cosmonaut killed in a training accident, Valentin Bondarenko, was concealed until 1986, and even then was only declassified after western journalists found out about it in 1980. There's also considerable controversy about the case of Vladimir Ilyushin, who claims to have launched five days before Gagarin, but a problem caused him to re-enter early and land inside China, where he was held captive for a whole year. Some of Ilyushin's supporters even assert that Gagarin's flight never took place; rather that he was hastily shuttled to a mocked-up landing site in Ilyushin's backup capsule so the Soviet propaganda machine could attach a healthy, smiling young face to Ilyushin's heroic flight. Ilyushin still lives in Moscow at last report, and still maintains his story.
Much of the criticism of the Judica-Cordiglia brothers comes from space historian and author James Oberg, who wrote a book based on his investigations into all of these stories of lost cosmonauts. His principal conclusions were that there was insufficient evidence available to substantiate any of these stories. But Oberg's research concluded in 1973, when the Iron Curtain was still strong. 35 years later, virtually everything has been long since declassified. It's now possible to read detailed histories of those early days, and the dates and types of all their launches, failures included, is thoroughly documented. I compared the timelines of what the Judica-Cordiglia brothers recorded to the timeline of the Soviet space program. I did find some problems.
The main inconsistency is that during the times of the Morse code and the astronaut's alleged breathing and heartbeat sounds, the Soviets were still launching dogs and mannequins. A few days after the Morse code recording, Sputnik 6 carrying two dogs was deliberately self-destructed upon a failed re-entry, and three weeks after that, two dogs were launched and safely recovered even though the third stage of their Vostok booster failed and the craft did not achieve orbit.
While it's true that the Soviets did have a proven capability to escape the Earth by the time of the fading Morse code (Luna 1 had passed the moon a year earlier), the Vostok 8K72 booster only had the ability to lift 500 kilograms to escape velocity, way too small for a manned capsule. Even for several years afterward, the Soviets had no rocket capable of lifting a manned capsule beyond Earth's gravity.
In the two months following the brothers' recording of the breathing and the alleged heartbeat, the Soviets made two successful low Earth orbit flights, each carrying a small dog and a mannequin. These are the type of test flights made when you're not yet ready to launch a man.
Following the Soviets' success at launching Gagarin in April 1961, the Judica-Cordiglia version of events suggests that their next feat was to launch a woman, thus the May 1961 recording. However, the Soviets' next launch wasn't until August, and it was another man, Gherman Titov, who flew for a full day in orbit. Valentina Tereshkova, credited as the first woman cosmonaut, didn't fly until more than two years after Gagarin, in June of 1963.
Of course these inconsistencies don't prove anything, they just show that if you accept the Judica-Cordiglia assertions as fact, they show an illogical backwards progression by the Soviets that's contradictory with the character of the space race. The Soviets never took backward steps.
A more compelling reason to be skeptical of the Judica-Cordiglia brothers' interpretation of their recordings is the lack of corroborating evidence from the numerous, far more sophisticated radio tracking stations that existed. These were the days of the Distant Early Warning Line and the birth of the North American Air Defense Command, and the Americans, British, Canadians, Germans and French all had equipment that far exceeded the humble capabilities of homebuilt Torre Bert, with things like tracking dishes that Torre Bert lacked; and moreover, the western propaganda machine would have loved nothing better than to publicize Soviet failures. The best explanation for why such announcements were never made is that no such failures were ever observed.
Indeed, the story of the Soviets announcing a failed unmanned flight after hearing that the brothers' recorded their dying cosmonaut doesn't match the history books. It's a great sound bite but I found no such report anywhere. Moreover, current records show a successful test of an R7 booster carrying a dummy missile warhead on February 7, 1961, about the day of the claimed admission.
Am I saying Achille and Giovanni were hoaxers? Far from it. In fact, in researching their story, I gained tremendous respect for their abilities and for what they accomplished. As I said before, their library of recordings is a treasure of inestimable value, and there's a documentary film about them called Space Hackers, which I found on YouTube, and which I highly recommend. Unfortunately their story is too often told without critique or inquiry into the plausibility of their most extraordinary claims. There are simply too many other possible explanations for their recordings to comprise useful evidence of lost cosmonauts. Is there stuff we still don't know about the Soviet space program? Absolutely. Might it include accidents, even deaths? Probably. Might it include unknown spaceflight failures, possibly even lost cosmonauts? Maybe, but now you're into territory that western intelligence too easily could have known about. I maintain an open mind on the subject, and look forward to your comments on the web site.
You should follow me on twitter here.
© 2008 Skeptoid Media, Inc. Copyright information
References & Further Reading
Abrate, G., Abrate, M. "Erased from Memory." The Lost Cosmonauts. The Lost Cosmonauts, 24 Apr. 2004. Web. 1 Aug. 2008. <http://www.lostcosmonauts.com/erased.htm>
Burgess, Colin, Hall, Rex. The first Soviet cosmonaut team: their lives, legacy, and historical impact. Chichester, U.K.: Praxis, 2009. 203-228.
Haimoff, Elliot H. "Letter by Dr. E.H. Haimoff of "Global Science Productions"." Letter by Dr. E.H. Haimoff of "Global Science Productions" to the "My Hero" website where an account of Ilyushin’s space mission by Mr Paul Tsarinsky was recently posted. Global Science Productions, 7 Aug. 1999. Web. 1 Aug. 2008. <http://abrax.isiline.it/servizio/letter.htm>
Oberg, James. Uncovering Soviet Disasters. New York: Random House, Inc., 1988. 156-176.
Zheleznyakov, Alexander. "Gagarin was Still THE First. Part Two." Spaceflight. 1 Nov. 2002, Volume 44, Number 11: 471-475.
Reference this article:
Dunning, Brian.
"Search for the Missing Cosmonauts." Skeptoid Podcast. Skeptoid Media, Inc.,
19 Aug 2008. Web.
6 Sep 2010. <http://skeptoid.com/episodes/4115>
Discuss!
Remember, you should always read with skepticism the comments of anyone too lame to put their real name & city.
Why would a heartbeat be broadcast over radio?
Daniel "Theophage" Clark, Tucson, AZ
August 19, 2008 12:14pm
I listened to this like 1½ hour ago and I'm still scared.
Lasse OErberg, AArhus, Denmark
August 19, 2008 12:16pm
I was thinking after listening to the unknown female cosmonaut (usually identified by "Ludmila") and it got me thinking. I was wondering if, rather than catching an unknown female cosmonaut in May 1961, the Judica-Cordiglia brothers in fact caught a sound wave "rebound" of a emergency communication between Mirya Gromova and her Headquarters in 1959?
Wikipedia has the following entry on her (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet_space_program_conspiracy_accusations)
"""In December 1959, again a "High-ranking Czech communist" leaked information about many of these 'unofficial' launches, including that of Mirya Gromova, a woman who purportedly flew "some sort of 'space aeroplane' into oblivion", never to be seen or heard from again. If the story of Gromova is true, her craft most likely disintegrated upon re-entry from a sub-orbital flight. The 'Space Aeroplane' would likely be a Cosmonaut training vehicle, intended for high-altitude operation."""
I am not a radio amateur, but could it be possible, as far as wave physics are concerned, that subatmospheric sound waves rebound on the atmosphere, allowing soundwave information to continue moving around the Earth and be caught by antennas months, even years after emission?
That would seem a more probable reason than any unknown female cosmonaut as, like Brian states, female cosmonauts wouldn't be launched until 1963.
Nicholas Malouin, Montreal, Canada
August 19, 2008 12:17pm
I don't know what it was exactly, but this episode really creeped me out. (Enough to compel me to read the posts and leave a message.)
Good stuff...eerie and intriguing!
Matt McBride, Evansville, IN
August 19, 2008 8:40pm
This is just my incredulity talking but... don't cosmonauts (and astronauts) have something other than a microphone connected to their chests to record their heart rates for telemetry purposes?
A microphone sensitive enough to pick up a heart beat will pick up breathing, screaming, talking, etc, etc, etc.
I am skeptical...
Brenton, New Zealand
August 19, 2008 10:34pm
Fascinating, as always Brian. Never heard of any of this. Still, theres a lot of things that don't make it across the Plain.
Marius vanderLubbe, Nullabour plain, Australia
August 20, 2008 3:57am
To me the content of those "lost cosmonaut" messages just doesn't sound right. Like the Morse "SOS" signal -- a cosmonaut somehow launched away from Earth would be calling for help? He'd know perfectly well that no help could come.
Similarly the woman's voice transmission sounds like Ed Wood dialogue.
Rather than assuming the Judica-Cordigla brothers were hoaxers, it's also possible they were the victims of one or more hoaxes themselves.
Cambias, Amherst, MA
August 20, 2008 7:04am
this was a great episode, the stories of the "lost cosmonauts" have fascinated me since I first heard of them. the recordings are pretty creepy, but it's good to hear a critical but still respectful view on the stories. I've read some other critical stuff on their recordings, which certainly made several good points, but which kept calling the italian brothers hoaxers and various other negative things.
I guess, as Cambias said, they could have been victims of a hoax, since they were pretty well known and did not have the best recieving station, could someone have sent hoaxed transmissions to them without them discovering it?
I read an article that said that you'd probably not hear "real" heartbeats being transmitted as audio the way you hear in their recordings, but rather as simple binary clicks or something like that, and that the capability of doing so had been in the russians hands for years before the recordings where made..
joel, stockholm, sweden
August 20, 2008 10:02am
Robert Heinlein mentions being told a mission was manned, and then later told "no, unmanned" after the rocket failed, while touring the Soviet Union in 1960. I believe the essay is "Pravda Means Truth," and can be found in Expanded Universe.
Andrew, San Antonio, TX
August 20, 2008 10:06am
Its incredible that with all the risk inherent in manned space missions that no human has died in space. At least officially there are no reported deaths.There was a close call with Alexey Leonov on a space walk when his space-suit ballooned and he could not get back thru the airlock. He opened a valve and bled the pressure out and was finally able to fit back into the airlock.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexey_Leonov
Patrick, Portland, Ore.
August 20, 2008 11:58am
I was thinking about the timeline of the Soviet space program versus the times of the recordings. Why couldn't this audio been recorded from Dogs? Then again the sound is going to be much different so...
Chris, Las Vegas, NV
August 20, 2008 1:07pm
Wow, what a creepout! I personally don't know for a fact what the source of those recordings were-- Face it, it was fifth hand data by the time it hit our earphones.
But let's not forget who the Soviets were. It would be very characteristic of them to erase all records of their manned space flight failures and flush them down one of their many Orwellian memory holes. (Remember Trotsky, anyone?)
Brian, I don't recall you offering an alternative explanation for the voice of the woman who said she was burning up... Or the labored breathing. Any thoughts on them aside from a possible hoax?
I'd be interested in a more in depth follow up on this one. Maybe a qualified hisotian of the Soviet Union to comment? Or maybe analysis of the recordings themselves?-- You pick the expert.
This is important and really needs to be studied to its conclusion. Human space flight is everyone's heritage and it would be unfortunate for all events, not just the glorious successes, to be chronicled no matter how grim they may be.
Jason, Kansas City, MO
August 20, 2008 11:13pm
I agree with Jason. I would really like to hear a follow up. Those recordings were all very creepy and sci-fi like.
Greg, Kamloops, BC, Canada
August 21, 2008 3:11am
Brian - Yes please add more on alternative theories to the woman's voice recording. It's the most hunting thing I've heard in ages, and would very much like to know what the experts suggest it might be, if not a dying woman in space.
Chris, Ann Arbor
August 22, 2008 7:18pm
Great episode. I've studied a lot of things about the space race, but I have to admit I have never heard of these recordings.
The breathing and heartbeat are suspect to me, though. Sputnik 1 & 2 were only transmitting, no need to receive. Manned flights have to transmit and receive. It seems unlikely to me that the spacecraft radio could be in locked in the transmit position.
There is a problem with part of this story that Brian didn't seem to pick up on: The brothers allegedly picked up Yuri Gagarin's first flight, but then there is the claim that it was Vladimir Ilyushin, and Gagarin did not fly at all. Obviously, both of these statements cannot be true. If they were tipped by media in Moscow prior to Gagarin's launch, as they claim, it would seem logical that that same media would have tipped them off to a flight 5 days sooner.
There are some other things with the timeline that are suspect to me, but for space I won't detail them right here.
This is all fascinating to me, and it would not be a shock to me at all to find out there is some validity to it, but there are some parts of this story that just does not seem right.
Ted, Waldorf, MD
August 22, 2008 7:23pm
Wow, what a show!! I am usually amused by the subject matter..but this one was, as someone else commented, very creepy!
I was wondering why you would hear a heart beat during these flights? Could it have been a monkey? I know that the US used primates is some of their tests.
I, too, would like some more info on the woman’s voice. That is something that will stick with me for long while.
Thanks, Brian for another great pod cast!!
John Hall, Vancouver, WA
August 22, 2008 7:37pm
Definitely one of the creepier ones, which I like. Why was it creepy? I'm not sure; there was nothing paranormal or inexplicable or anything like that. All I know is that I was both engrossed and completely freaked out.
Also, I loved the length, scope, and depth. I realize that the whole point of the standard length is to reduce filler, but as you obviously judged, Brian, this episode justified extra time.
Anyway, I'd never really heard about this issue before the podcast, but it is fascinating whether it's true or not. I tend to agree with the notion that these events might have indeed happened (despite the thorough documentation), but the recordings are pretty meaningless by themselves. Perhaps they would be good for a techno sample, at the very least.
Erik, New York City
August 23, 2008 1:51am
At 3 AM this morning my children kept me awake because because of the heat outside and I decided to listen the Skeptoid latest podcast. I must say that the recording of the "breathing cosmonaut" was kind of "spooky" at this time of the day :)
It's a fascinating story even if it's more or less "true".
Thanks Brian
Jean Chicoine, Quebec City, Canada
August 24, 2008 8:53am
IIRC, Robert Heinlein wrote in Tramp Royale about visiting the Soviet Union in the 1950s, and being told about a pre-Gagarin launch. When he left the country, he heard nothing about it, and when he checked back, was told it never happened.
Proves nothing, of course. But still interesting.
And the sounds are spooky.
Dave, Santa Clara, CA
August 26, 2008 11:31pm
This quickly became my favorite episode. Thanks for the fascinating recordings, and for covering a subject that is gripping regardless of any debunkable aspects.
(I <a href="http://betterangels.typepad.com/">plugged you</a> for this one...)
Ronald Hayden, San Francisco
August 27, 2008 4:48pm
I once read about this in a book called, I think, "Strange New World" by one of those Fortean writers (sorry I can't recall the name, I'll try to dig it up if you're interested). The story fascinated me then, and it still does. Even if there's no solid evidence, it's still a gripping story.
Thanks!
Scott, Ontario, Canada
August 28, 2008 4:50pm
My very unscientific guess about the source of those heartbeat/breathing sounds: some kind of echo or background noise from space itself? Like pulsars or quasars or something? We don't really know if these are sounds actually "transmitted" from a radio inside a craft, or if they are simply random radio noise (the effect of pareidolia and the power of suggestion filling in the missing element of breathing/hearbeat).
A google search for "sounds of pulsars" brings up some examples, none of which sound quite like a hearbeat, but I can easily imagine some kind of natural astronomical phenomenon accounting for the weird sounds.
The woman's voice, though? No idea whatsoever. And very creepy (and, if true, very sad).
Lizzie, Los Angeles
August 28, 2008 9:03pm
really compelling episode
some ideas i had, which probably have no merit:
heartbeat: perhaps a chimp sent up much in the way of laika was for study (if they had previously picked up the dogs heartbeat being transmitted as audio) - on flip side, id see no reason why soviets would withhold this type of mission in the 60s, let alone 2008!
SOS: unmanned craft sent out broadcasting SOS on soviet frequency to test radio equipment? SOS being recognizable over natural "space noise"? SOS dossnt necessarily indicate human cargo
female voice: probably fake i guess (lack of ground response odd), still damn haunting! (if Gromova was existed as a test pilot a fire in the La-250 bura could be an explanation, though having female test pilot is odd for the peroid)
biggest damming feature is the time lines all whack favoring soviet tech (consistent for the time, eg: west views on bomber gap)
Raymond Biggs, Wellington, NZ
August 31, 2008 9:54am
Hi I have been listening to the skeptoid for long time. Great show.
I must confess that i can only understand a pair of phrases from the women voice recording
above. Those phrases are: "one, two, three, four, five", and "I feel hot". The intonation
seems strange and unnatural. We (russians) usually don't emphasie vowels so much. Using "one,
two, three.." seems unnatural as well, because these words are usually used to test sound
equipment. If it was a real transmission I would expect the presence of special coding words
identifying both sides of communication.
But, of course, it is my subjective opinion that proves nothing.
Thanks for the interesting episode.
Andrei, Russia
September 01, 2008 2:41am
Nothing more terrifying than the idea of being irretrieveably lost into space beyond all help and eventually having the ground lose contact. Reminds me of something I read about Apollo 13; namely, that ground control had quietly agreed on contingency plans if they felt unable to bring the astronauts back alive. One situation, that the craft did not properly slingshot around the moon, would result in an uncontrollable trip away from Earth, and NASA would turn off comms. I'm struggling, however, to find the source for this... in any case, I think the fear of such a cold end is what makes this story and its implications so compelling.
ep thorn, washington, dc
September 08, 2008 11:46pm
Gripping and chilling stuff!
For some of the sounds, such as the woman's voice and SOS signal, I wonder if regular ground-based sounds could have been picked up? A crippled ship at sea, perhaps, unable to move but their signal fading due to interference or simply dying power supply?
Is there any particular quality about these records that proves they are capturing a sound originating in outer space?
EK, Seattle area, Washington
October 07, 2008 1:55pm
All these audio files came from somewhere. I found the site they came from about a week ago, and it wasn't easy. Now I'm looking high and low to find that site again.
Whats great about that site was that it provided all these audio files (this site needs to cite its sources) but provided instantaneous translations.
If you find the original site, please post the link. It has a series of buttons on the left side with a snip of information and the audio player in the top right.
Once again, it would be nice if someone posts an audio file TO CITE WHERE IT CAME FROM. ahem..author of this article.. ahem.
Michael, Houston
November 12, 2008 5:13pm
Hmmm... the link is in the article, Michael. Look again.
Eric Schulman, Corona, CA
November 12, 2008 6:00pm
I feel strange that the first thought that came to my head about the recordings was "How can I use these in a sample for music."
They are very creepy, and quite curious. As another poster said, this episode made me read the comments which I almost never do. Thanks again Brian, this is my new favorite.
Christopher Hall, Toronto, Ontario
December 21, 2008 11:29pm
If you look at soviet submarine development during the Cold War, particularly nuclear powered, you'll see that failures and accidents were extremely commonplace. And that the state didn't have any qualms about risking their people's lives in order to prove Soviet techno know-how. Some of the claimed recordings are said to have occurred AFTER John Kennedy's speech in which he declared American intentions to undertake space exploration. It seems more than plausible, even probable that shortcuts were taken in order to beat the Americans. Probable, when you consider what they did to their people aboard submarines.
Sean M., Montreal, Quebec
July 04, 2009 6:14pm
Some important themes here.Always Russian assumed to be inferior because of secrecy. americans not so public also - many of their cosmonauts must have died in training and never told to public in america.
Why not have woman in space? American too backwared socially to admit woman superior in many ways. Russian admit superior woman and from war can see they kill, fly plane, make doctor, and guards of prison better than man.
dest, anan
October 11, 2009 4:17am
Very interesting page, id like to think the brothers recorded real manned space flights... but like you said the timeline doesent fit. Either way its interesting to listen to the recordings... and the one with the dieing breath really creeps me out.
Robert Vides, Ottawa, Ontario
December 01, 2009 5:01am
Very interesting and yes, very creepy!
I just wanted to add this info: there have been deaths in space.
The difference is these were not secret and the cosmonauts are not missing.
It was on June 30, 1971, during the well publicized mission of Soyuz 11, which had just completed a successful docking with the Salyut space station. The cosmonauts – Georgi Dobrovolski, Vladislav Volkov and Viktor Patsayev were ready to reenter. But so sadly, a fresh air valve opened prematurely causing rapid decompression within the capsule. The men were not wearing space suits. They lived for several seconds and tried to manually close the valve, but there was not enough time to do so before they became unconscious and died. The capsule landed normally and nobody knew there was a problem until they opened the capsule and found their bodies.
Lorie T., Spokane, WA
December 12, 2009 11:11pm
Don't forget Komarov who died on re-entry.
Andrew Lagowski, London, U.K.
December 13, 2009 11:18am
This is an interesting link to add to this article:
http://www.svengrahn.pp.se/trackind/Torre/TorreB.html
Andariel Halo, Miami, Florida
January 25, 2010 9:02am
Maybe you should do a follow-up on this podcast and your talk on the CCC conference:
3710 The Lost Cosmonauts
http://events.ccc.de/congress/2009/wiki/Conference_Recordings
"Knowing" now what you told there, I'd think the Ludmilla recording is an athmospheric flight test where the Russians explored G-forces or depressurization symptoms - that's when you would have the test subject count or read numbers or perform other mental tasks, to assess how well they hold up under the physical pressures they might encounter on a space or low orbital flight. I guess that theory depends on available tracking data, but for me it's the most likely explanation.
AL, Augsburg, Germany
January 25, 2010 3:05pm
thanks for this wonderful information. i would wonder why they would be lost or be dead for a matter. if those dogs could survive for those couple weeks then the men should of been able to do so.
allen, washington
March 30, 2010 10:50pm
In response to Allen from Washington's comment, I can assure you those dogs were not alive for weeks. New evidence suggests Laika would be lucky to survive for even six hours, and likely died of heat and panic. It was always supposed to be a one-way trip. There were barely any resources to keep the dog alive more than a day, it was more a test to see if the dog could make it to space at all.
There's fairly good sources now available to read on these truths, but it's pretty obvious claims by the Soviets that dogs survived up there for weeks is bogus anyway.
J.Branch, N.Walsham, UK
June 23, 2010 10:59am
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The sound bites of the breathing and the heartbeats really spooked me...but great podcast overall! I'll have to check out that YouTube documentary.
I can't help but think of both David Bowie's "Space Oddity" and an independent film that came out a few years ago called "Interkosmos," which is actually about fictional lost cosmonauts. It's in German and it's not particularly good, but it might be worth checking out while we're on the topic (I think it's supposed to be a comedy, but it's hard to tell from watching it).
Spencer B, Los Angeles
August 19, 2008 11:39am