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There are rumors that the Soviet space program actually sent several humans to space before Yuri Gagarin became the first man to be sent into space and make it
by jdavis703 10y ago
There are rumors that the Soviet space program actually sent several humans to space before Yuri Gagarin became the first man to be sent into space and make it back alive (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lost_Cosmonauts https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lost_Cosmonauts). The USSR was known to send cosmonauts on known doomed missions, for instance Gagarin tried to volunteer for one mission knowing the government wouldn't risk killing a national -- and world -- hero and hoped they would cancel the mission: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soyuz_1 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soyuz_1.
- vkou 10y agoAs per the article, these rumours are unsubstantiated. There are also rumours that America never landed on the moon. The USSR was not making a habit of mindlessly sending cosmonauts on certain-to-be-doomed missions. They did have immense political pressure to make a launch on time, and hope for the best. Note that of the many design defects Soyuz-1 had, only one of them killed Komarov. Almost everything else worked out 'fine'. They wouldn't have sent him if he had no chance of returning alive. Soyuz-1 was a wake-up call that this culture wasn't good enough.