Alan Shepard only spent about 15 minutes in space before coming down.
Yuri Gagarin spent more time than that. About 1968, Science and Mechanics magazine claimed the Russian space flight was a hoax.
I used to read that magazine along with Space World.
Some said several Soviet cosmonauts had died and the incidents covered up until the successes could be reported.
And it stands to reason that the dog Laika shown in space (by a returnable film cannister capsule) was destined to die because there was no re-entry plan or vehicle. That wasn’t directly mentioned often in the press.
Summary:
The dog Laika died during the Sputnik 2 mission. She died due to overheating and stress, not from the intended plan of being euthanized after seven days. Initially, the Soviet Union reported that she died when her oxygen ran out, but the truth, that she perished within hours of launch, was revealed later.
“...with one meal and only a seven-day oxygen supply.”
“Overheated, cramped, frightened, and probably hungry, the space dog gave her life for her country, involuntarily fulfilling a canine suicide mission.”
Smithsonian Magazine article.
This was not stunning and brave. It was a cunning publicity stunt involving a glorified 6 Flags ride. Completely ignorable by serious people, other than as a target of derision.
Here's a graphic you will not see from our fake media. Is there a name there notable by its absence? If you said Blue Origin, you win!
Alan Shepard only spent about 15 minutes in space before coming down.
Yuri Gagarin spent more time than that. About 1968, Science and Mechanics magazine claimed the Russian space flight was a hoax.
No, Yuri Gagarin did orbit, but his flight was very, very short. And very dangerously close to failure even when it was cut short.
Technically, neither he, nor the Soviet female cosmonaut, nor any of the earliest Soviet cosmonauts actually “landed: in their capsule.
Instead, after re-entry they set their main parachutes, popped the capsule door, and hit their ejection seat rocket. They ALL parachuted down - but that “inconvenient truth” was very deliberately hidden from the flight books and record books. She was a female parachute champion, NOT a test pilot as her selection criteria. (Well, obviously, also a female pilot, but her comparative parachute experience was most important.
Depending on their flight year, several different Soviet cosmonauts did die in re-entry. ALL of their early animals died.
Later in his career as a true astronaut, Shepard walked on the moon. Didn’t he hit a golf ball while on the lunar surface?
Shepard’s flight was in 1961 with technology that was in the stone age compared to what is available today.
