Quote:
Originally Posted by nikimcbee
|
The old rumor I always heard was that the first cosmonaut was the son of a Russian jet designer, Vladimir Ilyushin. Stories were that he died, was critically injured or spent the rest of his life in an asylum.
Ah, heres a page on him:
http://www.lostcosmonauts.com/ilyushin.htm
Of course in those days, EVERYTHING in the USSR was a state secret. And if anything happened to you, they just airbrushed you out of the old photos and pretended that you never existed. So even guys who were hurt in standard flying accidents or training were "excised" from history. However, color me skeptical on the lost cosmonauts stories. No real evidence has ever been found. The Soviets launched Sputnik 1 and 2 in 1957. Sputnik 2 pretty well maxed out the R-7 booster. I doubt it had the capacity to carry a human. Sure, if they left off the upper stage, they might have the lifting capacity to carry a human on a suborbital flight but it's unlikely they had a vehicle ready.