Author Topic: Soviet Space Conspiracy Theories  (Read 22807 times)

Offline DonPMitchell

  • The Right Stuff
  • Moonwalker
  • ****
  • Posts: 1200
  • Gender: Male
    • Mental Landscape
Soviet Space Conspiracy Theories
« on: March 01, 2006, 12:07:37 AM »
And just to show that cranks don't only pick on the American space program, I ran across this bizarre article claiming that the Soviets faked Leonov's spacewalk:

http://www.vho.org/tr/2004/3/Kausch250-253.html

Of course there are countless sites claiming that the Russians killed cosmonauts they won't tell us about.  Sputnik-7, the failed first attempt to launch Venera-1, has been claimed by some to have been a failed manned mission.

And the photos from Luna-3 were claimed to be fake when first published, according to the American Anti-Communist League.  Of course, eventually we took our own pictures, and there was crater Tsiolkovsky, right where Luna-3 said it was.  Pretty hard to fake that, but maybe Bart Sibrel could come up with a theory.  Or that nut who talks about the face on Mars all the time.

Never send a human to do a machine's job.
  - Agent Smith

Offline LunarOrbit

  • Administrator
  • Moonwalker
  • *****
  • Posts: 3357
  • Gender: Male
    • TheSpaceRace.com
Re: Soviet Space Conspiracy Theories
« Reply #1 on: March 01, 2006, 02:12:38 AM »
Sibrel can't even decide if the Russians were in on the Apollo hoax or not. One minute he's saying the purpose of the alleged hoax was to fool the Russians, the next minute he's saying they were in on it too (they were bribed with wheat, apparently).  :roll:
" We choose to go to the moon. We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard..."
 - John F. Kennedy

Offline Satanic Mechanic

  • The Right Stuff
  • Moonwalker
  • ****
  • Posts: 1834
Re: Soviet Space Conspiracy Theories
« Reply #2 on: March 01, 2006, 11:36:59 AM »
I also heard about phantom cosmonaut conspiracies.  I have heard of three previous cosmonauts who have died or became injured in space launches before Yuri Gagarin.  I am sure all of you have had heard of the Italian recordings.

SM

Offline DonPMitchell

  • The Right Stuff
  • Moonwalker
  • ****
  • Posts: 1200
  • Gender: Male
    • Mental Landscape
Re: Soviet Space Conspiracy Theories
« Reply #3 on: March 01, 2006, 05:44:22 PM »
The Italian Recordings were made from Sputnik-7 (if we're thinking of the same ones that Chertok mentions in his autobiography).  But of course, that was the failed first attempt to launch their first Venus probe.

The Westerners got a little crazy about Sputnik-7 because it weighed 7 tons, the biggest object ever put in orbit then.  They didn't realize they were seeing the fourth stage of the Molniya rocket, which was designed to launch a spacecraft from orbit -- also something that had not been done by anyone yet.

There have even been claims that the Lunokhod rovers were operated by communist dwarves, who volunteered (or not) for a suicide mission.  That's my personal favorite of the phantom cosmonaut myths.
Never send a human to do a machine's job.
  - Agent Smith

Offline DonPMitchell

  • The Right Stuff
  • Moonwalker
  • ****
  • Posts: 1200
  • Gender: Male
    • Mental Landscape
Re: Soviet Space Conspiracy Theories
« Reply #4 on: March 01, 2006, 05:47:10 PM »
Oh, speaking of Lunokhod, I was reading a Russian book recently that explained that the Soviets were planning to land rovers on the Moon for the cosmonauts to drive around.  After the manned Moon effort was cancelled, the manned rover was modified to form the automatied Lunokhods.

...or maybe they weren't modified...(muhahahaha!)
Never send a human to do a machine's job.
  - Agent Smith