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Registered: Jun 2017

posted 07-19-2017 02:54 PM            

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I know Yuri Gagarin was grounded following Soyuz 1, but I also know that he had started flying jets with an instructor just before he died.

The appendix of "The First Soviet Cosmonaut Team" (great book) states that Gagarin was assigned to Soyuz 3, and "In the Shadow of the Moon" (another great book) states that he and Georgi Beregovi were actively competing against each other for Soyuz 3. So does anyone think Gagarin could have been considered for Soyuz 3 or any other future flight?

Posts: 2176
From: West Jordan, Utah USA
Registered: Dec 1999

Posts: 358
From: Studio City CA USA
Registered: Mar 2005

posted 07-19-2017 11:10 PM               

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quote:

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Originally posted by mrspacehead:
So does anyone think Gagarin could have been considered for Soyuz 3 or any other future flight?

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Not as long as certain members of the Central Committee, notably Suslov, had anything to say about it. Several high-ranking Soviet officials got quite annoyed in the spring of 1967 when they learned that Gen. Kamanin, the officer in charge of cosmonaut training and crew selection, had assigned Gagarin as Komarov's backup.

As deputy director of the training center in 1968, Gagarin felt he had an obligation to be at least an active pilot, and would have loved another flight, it seems. But Kamanin had his orders by then.

The whole Beregovoy/Gagarin scenario was, I believe, a projection baselined 1967... that is, what might have happened had Komarov's flight not failed.