You have to wonder how many Russian Cosmonauts were sent flying off into the depths of the Solar System to never be seen nor heard from again, crashed into the Moon, or just left to float around in orbit. We could only guess.....
"You have to wonder how many Russian Cosmonauts were sent flying off into the depths of the Solar System to never be seen nor heard from again, crashed into the Moon, or just left to float around in orbit. We could only guess..."Actually, both sides watched each other very closely during the Cold War. Radar tracking the launches, monitoring communication, HUMINT sources. It would be impossible to hide stuff like that. Any major bluff would become known to the other side. For example, we through intelligence gathering, knew about their N1 moon rocket failures (they finally gave up.)