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Author
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Topic: First cosmonauts: flown vs. unflown
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Lou Chinal
Member Posts: 1367
From: Staten Island, NY
Registered: Jun 2007
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posted 08-05-2008 06:56 PM
   
Of the 20 orignal cosmonauts picked in 1960 how many flew? |
Mike Dixon
Member Posts: 1527
From: Kew, Victoria, Australia
Registered: May 2003
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posted 08-05-2008 07:31 PM
12... at least according to a site I researched:Belyayev, Bykovsky, Gagarin, Gorbatko, Khrunov, Komarov, Leonov, Nikolayev, Popovich, Shonin, Titov, Volynov. |
Robonaut
Member Posts: 259
From: Solihull, West Mids, England
Registered: Mar 2002
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posted 08-05-2008 08:22 PM
Mike is correct, there were 12 who made spaceflights. The eight who did not fly were:Anikeyev, Bondarenko (who died in a training accident in 1961), Filatyev, Kartashov, Nelyubov, Rafikov, Varlamov and Zaikin. |
Tom
Member Posts: 1626
From: New York
Registered: Nov 2000
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posted 08-05-2008 08:51 PM
Wasn't Tereshkova one of the original Soviet cosmonauts? |
RichieB16
Member Posts: 615
From: Oregon
Registered: Feb 2003
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posted 08-05-2008 09:24 PM
No, she was selected in 1962 in an all women group. A total of 5 were selected but she was the only one who flew. |
ColinBurgess
Member Posts: 2083
From: Sydney, Australia
Registered: Sep 2003
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posted 08-05-2008 10:17 PM
Of those 20, only six are still with us today. From the eight who never flew only Zaikin survives, and from the twelve who flew only Bykovsky, Gorbatko, Volynov, Popovich and Leonov remain. |
dom
Member Posts: 913
From:
Registered: Aug 2001
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posted 08-08-2008 12:46 PM
Colin, I hear your up-coming book on the first cosmonauts will be the "final word" on the subject. Did you manage to get any new info on the still relatively mysterious Bondarenko and Nelyubov? |
ColinBurgess
Member Posts: 2083
From: Sydney, Australia
Registered: Sep 2003
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posted 08-08-2008 04:37 PM
Rex Hall and I have worked hard on this story and we have managed to gather together a lot of previously-unpublished information and photographs of both Bondarenko and Nelyubov for our book "The First Soviet Cosmonaut Team: Their Lives, Legacy and Historical Impact", as well as dispelling some rumours surrounding them. I can guarantee a lot of surprises for those who want to learn more about this group of twenty pilots, who all had a shot at being the first man in space.The manuscript will be going to the copyeditor in the next few days and I'll announce in the Publications section when it will become available. |
Lou Chinal
Member Posts: 1367
From: Staten Island, NY
Registered: Jun 2007
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posted 08-15-2008 08:55 PM
According to Craig Ryan's "Magnificent Failure," Col. Peter Ivanovich Dolgov was "a member of the Soviet cosmonaut program" (pg 135). He was supposed to have been killed Nov. 1, 1962 making a parachute jump. Other reports cite his dismise testing the Vostok ejection seat. Anyone know anything about this? |
Robert Pearlman
Editor Posts: 45894
From: Houston, TX
Registered: Nov 1999
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posted 08-15-2008 09:04 PM
Per Encyclopedia Astronautica: Colonel Pyotr Dolgov was a real person and the only phantom cosmonaut actually associated with a space project. On his 1,409th parachute jump, on 1 November 1962, Dolgov leaped from a Volga capsule carried by a balloon to an altitude of 28,650 m. Dolgov was wearing the full-pressure suit used for the Vostok space project. As he exited the balloon his helmet visor hit an attachment and cracked. During the descent his suit depressurised through the cracked visor and Dolgov was found to be dead on landing. According to Kamanin, Dolgov was not a cosmonaut but worked for the Institute of Aviation and Space Medicine.It sounds like Dolgov was the Russian counterpart to Project Manhigh/Excelsior parachutist Joe Kittinger; neither space explorers but both were involved in space research. |
ColinBurgess
Member Posts: 2083
From: Sydney, Australia
Registered: Sep 2003
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posted 08-16-2008 01:18 AM
Spot on, Robert. Dolgov was indeed a test engineer working on parachute ejection systems for Vostok spacecraft when he died in the circumstances you describe. When he died his obituary said that he had given his life in the heroic quest for manned spaceflight (or something to that effect) and this was seized upon by theorists as "proof" that he had died during an actual space flight. But Pyotr Dolgov was definitely not a cosmonaut. |
Lou Chinal
Member Posts: 1367
From: Staten Island, NY
Registered: Jun 2007
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posted 08-16-2008 04:00 PM
Thanks Colin and Robert. It seems being a member of the "Soviet cosmonaut program" and a member of the "Soviet cosmonaut team" are two different things. |
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