Lost in Space (What really happened to Russia's missing cosmonauts?)

Fortean Times ^ | 7/2008 | Kris Hollington

[bajabaja]

VR, the article didn’t claim that they picked up re-entry transmissions, but the opposite. They picked up signals while in orbit and found a simple and cheap way to calculate radio frequency by looking at the obvious that every one else missed.

[bajabaja]

A cool, fun science read.

[Jeff Chandler]

Or Hollywood could remake "The Day the Earth Stood Still" with Keanu Reeves

As Gort?

[Virginia Ridgerunner]

“Transmission begins now. Forty-one. Yes, I feel hot. I feel hot, it’s all… it’s all hot. I can see a flame! I can see a flame! I can see a flame! Thirty-two… thirty-two. Am I going to crash? Yes, yes I feel hot… I am listening, I feel hot, I will re-enter. I’m hot!”

Sounds like a re-entry scenario to me... (shrugging)

[Pete from Shawnee Mission]

“it is impossible for a spacecraft to simply veer off course and fly off into space.”

Not veer, but move off into space, absolutely possible. You have to reenter at a certain angle or you skip off the atmosphere and into space. If you don’t have any more fuel, say goodbye to the earth.

[Dog]

A fun read...

[zot]

Thanks for the ping. I heard at the time that the Soviets lost several spacecraft in the early 1960’s. Some of our long-range air-defense radars were capable of watching them.

[Kimmers]

Thank you for posting such an interesting read.

[willgolfforfood]

I call BS on the cosmonaut lost in space, and I'll tell you why.

A rocket needs to achieve about 18,000 to 19,000 MPH to get an object into a low orbit. If the speed is less than that, the object doesn't complete one orbit, but falls back to earth.

It takes about 35,000 MPH (from memory) to completly break free of the gravity of earth. That's how fast the lunar landing craft had to go to get to the point in space where the pull of the moon's gravity is stronger than the pull of the earth's gavity.

If the lunar craft had NOT achieved that speed, it would have fallen back to earth without ever reaching the moon.

If you design rockets, fuel tanks, etc. and supply enough launch fuel on the pad to only achieve 18,000 MPH, there is NO WAY IN HELL that you can somehow, even with pilot error, get that craft to essentially double in speed, and therefore be capable of escpaping earth's gravity, and just "sail off" into the solar system, and points beyond. Just CAN'T be done.

[BenLurkin]

space pine

[cyclotic]

Ping for my son, the space nut to read. What a great story.

[Hoplite]

You are forgetting that the Soviets used Flubber as a heat shield, so their capsules picked up velocity if they bounced off the atmosphere.

[motor_racer]

Thanks for this post on the anniversary of Americans first setting foot on the moon.

[grey_whiskers]

I second the motion.

Sunken -- like, *PING*, dude.

Cheers!

[mrmargaritaville]

Did they have a robot with them that kept saying:
“Danger Will Robinson”

[CaptRon]

For several long minutes, static streamed into Torre Bert, when suddenly Achille hissed “SSSSSSHH!” And then it came through: the voice of the first American in space:

Interesting story up to here. If you can't get the simplest facts straight...

[Titan Magroyne]

bfl

[Born Conservative]

bttt

[Clay Moore]

bttt

[Shadowstrike]

If the Aliens didn’t find the vessel first ;)