Did Anyone Actually Fly Into Space Before Yuri Gagarin?

[@TodayIFoundOut]

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[@bennutt5050]

Yes a guy made wings out of wax tbh idk the full story if they melted before or after space

[@zafferung4440]

*football

[@grego15]

I honestly had a hard time understanding what you were saying. You need to slow down and speak more carefully. You may be doing too much voice work because your speaking quality is slipping.

[@bozcoustics5448]

Christ man, you really need to slow down with your delivery. I used to love all your videos from your different channels but you've become unbearable now. You sound like I've doubled the speed on KZbin and although I used to like your content years ago, it's insufferable now and I can't listen to anything you do nowadays

[@bozcoustics5448]

Sounds like you're on coke

[@alexandershugayev]

As a native speaker I can attest that Russian woman cosmonaut who's voice is heard on that 'I'm hot' recording sounds like somebody who's been studying Russian (perhaps) but not fluent at all - wrong choice of words and limited vocabulary give the hoax away almost immediately.

[@sandgrownun66]

In this video, they didn't even use a female voice to say the words in English.

[@MarcoTedaldi]

While I assume, that those recordings were fake: were all Cosmonauts in the Sovjet Union native russian speakers? So would this be a giveaway?

[@mukathompson7490]

@@MarcoTedaldi not all would be native Russian speakers but all would be fluent as if native speakers, you could not achieve the rank high enough in the air force/military to become a cosmonaut without being fluent in Russian to the point it was native with maybe a slight accent a la Stalin's famous Georgian accent.

[@sandgrownun66]

@@MarcoTedaldi Of course they were all native Russian speakers. Why would any not have been?

[@MarcoTedaldi]

@@mukathompson7490 ok. That makes sense. Thank you for that clarification.

[@kjamison5951]

The KGB was responsible for covering up a great many mistakes of the Soviet Union so that the general population were never aware of accidents involving nuclear material. One such example was the RBMK Nuclear Reactor at Leningrad which suffered a particular failure while executing a special test to check if it could sustain enough electrical power to run the cooling pumps. In 1976, the test failed and there was a partial meltdown of one of the reactors. There was an investigation, lessons were learned and the reports were archived by the KGB. No one else ever got to see the reports. Ten years later a similar accident occurred at Chernobyl and, as there was no record of what happened at Leningrad for nuclear safety inspectors to read, the situation quickly deteriorated.

[@nikolabucabuca]

AN WHAT BIG POWER DONT PUSH FAILURES UNDER THE RAG........what is new in this england old imperia ,german rich,ussr ,usa or today china .......did cia finaly after 60 years give to usa people an world what they did with kenedy asesination.....ofc they didnt cose cia is one who did it....

[@GaryBowen00]

Yep this happened. It was the old-fashioned salt reactors that were known to have defects in the reactor and the cooling systems. In the United States there were issues and these reactors were taken offline. In the USSR they pretended like there were no issues and it was business as usual since the reactors had a less than 10% chance of melting down. The gamma radiation readings though are a dead giveaway that there were meltdowns on both sides. They try to act like the radiation in the atmosphere is from all the nuclear tests but that doesn't explain certain forms of radiation that shouldn't have existed in the atmosphere before Chernobyl. Bombs don't make the same kind of patterns as they explode and use different technology than sustained reactors, even melting down reactors don't produce the same effects and definitely not the same radiation levels. Chernobyl didn't have to happen. Leningrad didn't have to happen. These reactors were known to be faulty and should have been shut down.

[@fadlya.rahman4113]

The Russian. They would've ended the human race just so they can save face.

[@simonkevnorris]

Also Katyn Forrest where 20K Polish officers and others were killed by the Soviets during WW2. They blamed it on the Germans. It was only after the break up of the Soviet Union that the truth was revealed.

[@trainknut]

This is the fundamental difference between the east and west, we would far rather suffer the immediate consequences of looking a bit silly for fucking up, than cover up the issue so nobody can make fun of us, compounding the issue and kicking it further down the road for our descendants to deal with. There are some areas you can say we've "kicked a problem down the road" - leaded gasoline and aerosols come to mind, but even in these worst case scenarios we still don't commit more resources to hiding information about these problems or incidents from the public than we would commit to actually solving the problem. Then again, we live in a fundamentally individualist society, whereas they live in collectivist societies, it probably boils down to the people in charge believing losing control of the public narrative(and therefore public conscience) is a bigger threat than... actual nuclear reactor meltdowns. Yeah I can steel man and play devil's advocate all I want, this call was pretty fucking dumb all around, and honestly the fact they didn't see the inevitable results coming just makes them look even more stupid. The fuck did you think was gonna happen when you hid all the research on failures? no more knowledge of failures = no more failures??

[@JacobWat]

WHY DOES HE HAVE SO MANY CHANNELS I CANT ESCAPE HIM

[@brianwhorton5619]

Don't resist it, let the Whistler wash over you and take you on a quest to the land where the facts run free

[@brianwhorton5619]

Let Simon take the helm on a quest to the realm where the facts run free. Let Simon reignite your mind, dear listener/viewer 🎉

[@theflash9613]

Dead Internet Theory - but in reality it's not AI bots, it's all Simon

[@NobleOmnicide]

LoL! Right?! But I'll gladly take Simon over that weirdo on all those "Dark" channels.... Dark Skies, Dark Seas, Dark Docs. That narrator is so effing cringe to listen to. I had to block all his channels. The topics look so interesting but I can't stand the narrator.

[@evanbourlotos1951]

I asked chatgpt 1 channel 1 15 min video With reasonable numbers Total Estimated Earnings: For 200,000 views on a channel with 100,000 subscribers, the estimated earnings would be around $616. Per video 😮

[@RRaquello]

One of the sad aspects of the cover-up of the fatal accident to Bondarenko was that he wasn't included on the "Fallen Astronaut" tribute plaque that was left on the moon during Apollo 15. All other astronauts & cosmonauts who had lost their lives up to that time were included on the plaque except for Bondarenko. That includes Edward Givens, who was killed in a car accident, and Pavel Belyayev, who died of natural causes, not in training or in flight, like the others. It wouldn't have done anything for Bondarenko, who was long dead, but at least his sacrifice could have been acknowledged and honored.

[@stevenmtaylor21]

With nations and private corporations looking to the moon again, it would be nice to get a plaque up there for him too.

[@wingerding]

Im sure he didn't mind

[@HappyBeezerStudios]

@@stevenmtaylor21 Time to add an addendum through a second plaque

[@4Deadserious]

They did name a large crater on the Moon after him at least.

[@JeffLareau]

The Phantom Cosmonauts would be a great band name, ngl

[@grindcoreninja6527]

Good name for a Doom or Stoner Metal band.

[@chrisschmidt355]

Ooh I'm down with that. I'll bet they'd kick ass!

[@grindcoreninja6527]

@@chrisschmidt355 I feel like they'd sound similar to "Sleep", especially their "Dopesmoker" album.

[@williammatthews693]

I like "Johnny at the Fair".

[@christopherquattromusic]

i think i saw them open for Man or Astroman in the 90's

[@Polavianus]

Yes, it was The Boss also known as The Joy, she was the first person in space

[@juliobrian4757]

We have confirmed this. We have the tapes...

[@glenngriffon8032]

You beat me to it

[@simmat6419]

I wouldn't say that if i were you. The Laleelulalo will shut you down

[@Ს̈̉]

​@simmat6419 it's fine, it's fine. They haven't mandated nanomachines' implants on the Earth's population ..... Yet.

[@ForkingU42]

That just means it was a US spy who was first in space. Go Freedom 😎 🦅

[@desperadox7565]

I remember rumors decades ago that Gagarin's flight was a scam because he wouldn't have been able to open the capsule from the inside after the landing and he was found/met in some distance to it. When he landed separately, this discrepancy is explained.

[@magnemoe1]

Now Gagarin was technically not the first to orbit the Earth as he landed couple of 100 km from doing one orbit. Also the organisation handling records in plane flight disqualifying anybody who bail out or eject from plane rater than landing it. Both so nit picky the US did not bring up as they would look bad doing so.

[@X85283]

Gagarin wasn’t inside the capsule after landing. He was ejected from the capsule at like 25,000ft. From that point on he and the capsule parachuted down separately.

[@sandgrownun66]

@@X85283 It said so in the video. So what's the need in repeating it. BTW, is "like" 25,000ft, actually that altitude, or not?

[@desperadox7565]

@@X85283 That's what I said.

[@slopedarmor]

Who says you need to make a full orbit to be in orbit?? Nobody ​@@magnemoe1

[@JAEUFM]

Considering the 'secretive' nature of the former U.S.S.R., and their constant propaganda games, the idea of cosmonauts that made failed attempts before Gagarin's flight is not something totally dismiss.

[@Grouuumpf]

That "secretive nature" is why many things were not known until the union collapsed, but considering all the hidden stuff we learnt in the after the soviet archives were open , there is little reason to think this one slipped through the net

[@sandgrownun66]

Well you should, because they were lucky/skilful enough, to actually do it without anybody being lost. The actual losses came later.

[@tehgerbil]

Yeah, we know, poor Laika.

[@RussetPotato]

@@sandgrownun66 hilarious

[@sandgrownun66]

@@RussetPotato "hilarious". Why?

[@kitko33]

It's a wel know fact that those alleged Italian recordings were made by the brothers' sister. She was learning Russian ... and the Russian is not very good.

[@garyfrancis6193]

Well known

[@Brasswatchman]

As they do state in the video, to their credit.

[@sleepinginoffice]

That's exactly what a Soviet would say!

[@david672orford]

I disagree. The Russian is well-inflected and idiomatic. But nothing the woman says has any connection to spaceflight whatsoever. Just silly radio chatter.

[@HipixOFFICIAL]

If it's well known then why didn't I know

[@EricDaMAJ]

My favorite part of the Space Race was reading child’s textbooks as a child celebrating Soviet dogs launched into space. Without those books _ever mentioning what happened to the dogs._

[@Plaprad]

There were a few that did. I was MASSIVELY into space stuff as a kid and did all kinds of reports and such on it. We had to do a book report and I did one on early space flight that mentioned the dogs. Someone asked what happened to them and the teacher immediately said they were given good homes. I stated, no, they burned up on reentry. Lost a few points off my grade for that one.

[@mikelamb4528]

They went to live with a space-farm family.

[@iankerr6526]

so messed up

[@X85283]

@@PlapradNot sure what you’re talking about. Laika, the famous first dog to orbit earth (first animal at all actually), died of overheating on the 4th orbit. The capsule didn’t reenter for like 5 months. The plan was to actually to euthanize her with poisoned food but she didn’t make it that long. The reality is the actually most of the Soviet space dogs DID survive. In fact I don’t think ANY burned up on reentry. Four of the orbital dogs were killed when their rockets (two rockets they were launching pairs of dogs) had to be self destructed due to malfunctions. I think two or maybe 4 of the many suborbital dogs (there were MANY suborbital flights) were killed because of parachute issues or rocket malfunctions. One of these dogs actually flew FIVE missions and survived. Laika was the only dog that they didn’t plan to return to earth, alive, as far as I know- Sputnik didn’t have a way to deorbit.

[@X85283]

They mostly survived…. Only the first animal to orbit the Earth, Laika, was launched with no plan to return her safely. She was to be euthanized in the capsule because that vessel (Sputnik 2) had no way to deorbit. Ended up overheating before that (we think), as the systems were not great on the capsule. Many dogs were launched suborbital before her and orbital after her and the majority of them survived and ALL of them were intended to survive. Sometimes they died because the rockets blew up or whatever - 50s-early 60s rocketry was especially sketchy. Hell, one dog flew FIVE suborbital flights and survived all of them.

[@iamcomcy]

I have been living in Moscow teaching English for 25 years. I breached this subject with one of my students. She LIVED at the Cosmodrome as a child and knew every one of the early Cosmonauts and she confirmed that Yuri was indeed the first to fly, not just the first to survive.

[@retsaMinnavoiG]

Sure she did hahaha Do you know how incredibly unlikely and unbelievable that is?

[@RRaquello]

@@retsaMinnavoiG Well, it's plausible that he talked to some girl and she said that, but that doesn't mean she didn't make it up.

[@WarPigstheHun]

Oh I believe it. Something like that is very difficult cover up. The coverups would likely happen after his death when the hype of space was dying down. But really, who knows.

[@brs2379]

Cool story bro

[@irishguy200007]

They covered up the existence of the N1 moon rocket so the first victim has always been the truth. Based on the law of averages I imagine there were a few previous flights.

[@jasonmansfieldsr8645]

I worked with a guy who emigrated from the Soviet Union in 1989. He didn’t know then all we westerners knew about Chernobyl. After living through the media control of the Union, he’s absolutely convinced that Gagarin was not the first man in space but the first one to return alive…

[@nyw100]

Well that`s bs. People, fleeing USSR back in 1989 would have a certain mindset and usually would be full of BS.

[@retsaMinnavoiG]

@@nyw100 both your comments are hard to read... FYI the OP said that even though his friend was from the USSR, that friend knew less about Chernobyl when he immigrated. He obviously realised how completely the USSR controlled the media and had personal experience with the society so realised that they certainly lied about their space failures.

[@harrietharlow9929]

@@retsaMinnavoiG It certainly wouldn't surprise me if Gagarin was the first man in space...to return alive. The Kremlin wouldn't have been likely to announce failures, now would it?

[@nyw100]

​@@retsaMinnavoiG Well you will have to suffer a bit more. You see, pal, I was 6 once Chernobyl exploded. My father was drafted as ex military personnel on midnight of April 30th and by 6 AM May 1st his unit entered 20 mile contamination zone. By May 3rd everyone knew what happened there, and that only personnel with kids has been drafted due to risk of possible mutations and health issues. Even more, despite of May 1st being one of the biggest holidays in USSR, I do recall almost all gatherings being shortened or even suspended, that made me upset(to be honest, there was only one part of USSR, that would act as nothing happened and even send small children to march on May 1st - UkrainianSSR). Hell, I would cut photos of Chernobyl and military personnel there from newspapers in order to make an album for my father and send it to him with the letters in mid June. So OP friend is kinda bullsh**ing him. You had to live under the rock or be a village idiot in order not to know about Chernobyl back in 1986 in USSR. Same goes with the Gagarin. He was a hero for people in USSR. Person, who achieved impossible. After his death, everything related to his case would instantly leak to public(information would be circulating inside the military, and since USSR would be heavily militarized country, once army would know something, everyone in USSR would more or less know it). My mother was a big fan of Gagarin and she was keeping newspaper articles about his life and one of them even had possible last flight diagram and drawings. Yeah, and we also knew about Challenger shuttle disaster and even watched video of it on TV. As for space flights. You just don`t understand the amount of resources and effort USSR had to invest into building a rocket back in 1960th for first flights. There simply were no extra rockets and modules to fly failed missions. First Vostok-3 with orbital module for human flight went into space for a test flight on March 9th 1961, second on March 25th 1961, and on April 12th 1961 Gagarin went into space. He went on a mission despite his space capsule having s fatal flow. Air regeneration system wasn`t working properly, that would led to both temperature and humidity starting to grow inside capsule killing Gagarin after several hours of flight. Therefore flight was limited to 2 hours. Same time capsule had only 1 decelerating engine, and if it would fail, Gagarin would be stuck on orbit for 10 days before gravity would force capsule to enter atmosphere. So engine failure would mean dying from being practically boiled inside your ship. Why would Soviets still send Gagarin? Because they had no spare capsule, and fixing air regeneration system took 4 month. Why wouldn`t Soviets just wait? They had calculations that US would be ready to send their first man into space by the end of April 1961(indeed Alan Shepard went on a mission on May 6th 1961). Hope you will have enough patience to read it till the end.

[@kristian2353]

​@@nyw100Thank you for this great post, always a pleasure to get a glimpse of the world from a different perspective.

[@TimOGhoul]

An Event Horizon-style story of the lost Cosmonauts returning after decades would be epic.

[@LuKaZz420]

Love that film

[@thalastianjorus]

It IS amazing how few times this gets covered. Especially the "recordings" of them talking to the Soviet ground control. That said - just to play Devil's Advocate - the minor grammatical errors that one of the recordings had... Would have easily been made by someone from one of the other dozen nations under the blanket of the USSR. Also, just as a side note, _"According to Soviet Records"_ could be the title to a great fiction novel. The actual records likely have as much fact in them as the average fiction novel, too.

[@stephenkolostyak4087]

what makes you think it isn't already a novel?

[@thalastianjorus]

@@stephenkolostyak4087 Had to look. Thankfully it isn't, lol.

[@douglasbillington8521]

And modern Russian government is just as full of it as the Soviet leadership was.

[@rdspam]

As it’s clearly made-up garbage, I’m not surprised it’s not widely covered. About as often as the US “secret” Apollo 18 and 19 launches. Or the “fake” moon landings.

[@david672orford]

The recording with the woman's voice is just babble from a bored girl. The reason people think it contains "errors" is that it is almost unintelligible and people are trying to hear a message about space flight which is not actually in the recording.

[@aronyak1]

As an introvert, that isolation chamber sounds lovely.

[@jonaspete]

Echo chamber

[@SciFlyGal]

The N-1 wasn’t the only Soviet rocket capable of circumlunar flight. The Proton rocket had enough delta v to send a Soyuz craft on a free return trajectory around the moon (like what happened in Apollo 13). The soviets did multiple unmanned flights of this system, they were the Zond probes. The Apollo 8 mission was put together to try to preempt a Soviet manned lunar flyby.

[@vicroc4]

The UR-500 Proton could've maybe put a manned vehicle on a circumlunar trajectory but it was never considered for manned use primarily because it didn't have enough delta-v to send a landing mission to the Moon, whereas the N-1 did. A planned UR-700 could have sent a manned landing mission, but it was never built - primarily due to politics and Korolev's personal dislike of its designer.

[@alanstevens1296]

The "Karman line" is generally considered to be the dividing line between atmospheric flight and spaceflight. The technical definition is that it's the point where atmospheric flight requires traveling at speeds beyond orbital speed. By convention it is generally considered to be 100 km altitude, though that's just a nice round figure for convenience. The US considers, or has considered, "space" to begin at 50 miles altitude (80.5 km or 260k+ feet), which is also a reasonable figure given the "Karman line" definition. In any event, the first X-15 flights above 80 km didn't happen until mid 1962, which was not only after the Soviets had flown Gagarin but also after they'd flown Titov on Vostok 2 and after the US had flown John Glenn on Friendship 7 (as well as Shepard and Grissom on suborbital Mercury flights). By any reasonable measure Yuri Gagarin was the first human in space, the highest X-15 flight before Gagarin's launch was below 52 km altitude (32 miles), which is not generally considered space.

[@sandgrownun66]

Why are you even referring to the X-15? It was never intended to get anywhere near true outer space.

[@alanstevens1296]

@@sandgrownun66 Eight X-15 pilots flew a combined 13 flights which met the Air Force spaceflight criterion by exceeding the altitude of 50 miles (80 km), thus qualifying these pilots as being astronauts. Before 1958, United States Air Force (USAF) and NACA officials discussed an orbital X-15 spaceplane, the X-15B that would launch into outer space from atop an SM-64 Navaho missile. This was canceled when the NACA became NASA and adopted Project Mercury instead.

[@sandgrownun66]

@@alanstevens1296 OK. Einstein Was the X-15, an orbital spacecraft, or a high altitude research aircraft?

[@alanstevens1296]

@@sandgrownun66 There was a serious proposal to use the X-15 as an orbital spacecraft, like I wrote above.

[@sandgrownun66]

@@alanstevens1296 "Proposal" Is that the same as something which actually performed a certain role? Don’t confuse in space to in orbit. You can be in space, but not in orbit. Our definition of space is based on altitude above the Earth. Relatively speaking, it doesn’t take much energy to reach the altitude of space above the Earth. On the other hand, it takes a lot of energy to reach that altitude AND establish enough velocity to stay in orbit. When the former falls back from space, there is not much energy to bleed off, and therefore much less heat. When something in orbit re-enters…yeah…lots speed…lots of energy…lots of heat. In conclusion, the X-15 was not capable of orbiting the earth in outer space. It didn't have the design features needed to do so.

[@LordFloofen]

As a Wisconsin resident, listening to Simon spectacularly fail to say Manitowoc was pretty amusing. Also I know where I'm going next weekend.

[@beenaplumber8379]

I lived in eastern WI (Bonduel, pronounced Bon-du-WELL) for a couple years. I learned from a local news reporter. I remember thinking, "Ah, that's how it's pronounced!" For some reason it's not intuitive. Peshtigo was another one I had to learn. There are a lot of Menominee and Anishinabe place names in WI.

[@JeffBilkins]

There was that Chinese guy on his rocket chair.

[@volcommermaid12]

What?? Reality!

[@Nick-xt2dx]

​@@volcommermaid12Look up Wan Hu. Chinese story of a man who sat on a chair strapped to rockets and supposedly went to space.

[@fredblonder7850]

@@volcommermaid12 en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wan_Hu

[@mariawhite7337]

​@volcommermaid12 basic premise is the guy was like "I want to see the heavens" and what gets there. Fireworks. So he strapped a ton of them to his chair and.... saw the heavens.

[@Balrog-tf3bg]

@@mariawhite7337when was this?

[@tjroelsma]

Well, as Henry Kissinger once put it: "even paranoids have enemies". The Russians obsession with secrecy and denial of failures created an excellent atmosphere for rumours and fiction.

[@JokubasVas]

I have watched a few videos about this topic before, but none of those mentioned the dummies and those launches as well as the ones who were testing. Kudos for the in-depth research

[@maranathaschraag5757]

The poor puppies! Valliant Cosmodogs did not deserve to die like that :(

[@Sector14b]

Agreed, I couldn't care less about how many people get wasted, but dogs... Na.

[@Snipe4261]

The soviet "no-countdown" approach to launch is weird. Sure, the last ten seconds of a US space launch is kind of theatrical but the countdown doesn't last ten seconds and it isn't done for the benefit of casual observers. It lasts from the moment a launch window is selected up until launch which could be a period of weeks or months before launch, and that last ten seconds involves many people monitoring many complex systems in concert, any one of which could cancel the launch at the last second if there's a problem. There's an operational schedule built around the launch window which requires many things to happen in a clearly defined order both before and after launch, and sticking to carefully planned operational schedules is a recipe for success.

[@topquark22]

Fascinating stories. Thank you for your research.

[@wit-wielder]

I don't know how this wasn't a decoding the unknown!

[@SeauxNOLALady]

Wait, wait, homeboy DISLOCATED HIS SPINE!?!? I have a genetic disorder that makes me incredibly flexible, but it also means my joints are so flexible that they dislocate easily. My shoulder, hip, knee, and wrist are constantly coming out of socket, so Ive learned to put them back in place myself. The pain is extraordinary, but once it’s back in the socket, the pain is dramatically decreased. However, the actual act of relocating it is so painful that I often feel like I’m going to faint, but it’s only for a quick moment before the relief washes over me and it’s almost euphoric. Anywho, I don’t think I’ve ever heard of someone dislocating their SPINE! I can’t imagine that kind of pain..

[@TAKEYOURCREATINE]

Wow, I'm sorry to hear about your condition, I can't imagine what that must be like.

[@grey-god]

Hope youre doing alright. Massive props for being able to live with that and learn from it too. Keep kickin!

[@adrienneward2173]

Yes I have a condition similar to yours but not as severe. I also have (mostly) unrelated problems with my spine which at its worst, greatly affected my day to day life. Rationally, it makes sense that dislocation of the spine would be possible, it had never occurred to me that it was something that actually happened in real life.

[@SeauxNOLALady]

@@TAKEYOURCREATINE aww. Thanks. It’s one of those things that you just learn to live with. What choice do you have?

[@SeauxNOLALady]

@@grey-god I’m chugging along. I am grateful to not have it any worse. Some people have other problems that this condition causes. My mom has had open heart surgery for FOUR aortic aneurisms.. since it affects connective tissue, the tissue of your vascular system is affected too. Other people have serious digestive issues and have to have IV nutrition and can’t eat ever again. Food is life for me, I’ll take the dislocation over anything that comes between me and my food

[@Kroggnagch]

I realize Ivan Ivanovic is akin to our John Doe in its usage, but, grammatically, its definitely closer to John Johnson. At least, it seems that way to me, who speaks no Russian, it sure does seem like it'd be right on par with John Johnson... speaking of names, i wonder if somewere there a William Fitzpatrick who is friends with a Patrick Fitzwilliam. They would fit so perfectly a hue hue hue... also, if a man was named Steinberg Bergstein, hed have to know a Bernstein Steinberg. Lawyers. Partner attorneys. Probably.

[@StrongDreamsWaitHere]

If you haven’t actually seen a fire in a high oxygen environment, you can’t understand how hot and fast seemingly ordinary materials can burn.

[@allsystemsgootechaf9885]

Basically anything and everything becomes fuel in a pure oxygen environment

[@vicroc4]

As the Apollo 1 astronauts found out.

[@Echo4Sierra4160]

First object in space was a manhole cover that got launched during Operation Plumbob in 1957. That was before Sputnik, it happened during a nuclear test. They buried a nuke and detonated it with a manhole cover welded over it. The manhole cover was in 1 frame on the high speed camera so they used that to calculate how fast it was moving, they came up with a minimum speed of 150,000 mph (Mach 195). Space is 62 miles up so it took it less than a second to get into space.

[@RipOffProductionsLLC]

Didn't the Germans fire a V2 straight up to see hiw high it would go, and it turned out to hit what was considered the boundry between atmosphere and space at the time? There's a reason the operation paperclip wanted Von Braun, the man knew his rocketry.

[@paulm749]

Urban legend. At 150k mph that manhole cover would have burned up within a few miles of launch. Consider that meteors typically are moving at 35k to 50k mph as they burn up in Earth's much thinner upper atmosphere.

[@RipOffProductionsLLC]

@paulm749 counter argument: 1) Meteors aren't made of solid industrial grade steel. 2) being thrown straight up out of the atmosphere is different from falling down into it at an angle. 3) the insane minimum speed of 150k MPH might mean it didn't have time to fully bake up prior to exiting the atmosphere.

[@paulm749]

@@RipOffProductionsLLC Tell me you don't understand physics w/o saying it in so few words. I'm constantly amazed at how tightly people cling to comforting illusions.

[@kylematlock7499]

​@@paulm749 There have been studies that showed it actually could have made it due to phenomenon similar to the Leidenfrost Effect, so perhaps it is you who doesn't understand physics as well as you think. Although it still would not have been the first man made object in space since as mentioned by RipOff the V-2 made it past the Karman line.

[@Brasswatchman]

One of those cases where the Soviet tendency towards secrecy perhaps caused them more trouble than it was worth.

[@soulwithwings123]

This is a great story, I should've made popcorn.

[@StarskyUA]

Here's a fun fact: soviets launched their first toilet paper factory only 8 years after Gagarin's legendary flight to the outer space.😊

[@MARGATEorcMAULER]

Good one Operator Starsky!

[@ЯнСуходольский-с4т]

Старые анекдоты, которые уже всех заебали на родине, уходят на вторичное использование для англоговорящих "товарищей")

[@kohanrains776]

Yeah they used toilet paper despite the lead ink... they printed on those newspapers that it was better to buy toilet paper and it worked but it caused mass purchasing leading to over demand and not enough production

[@tysonk-t2130]

I used to play bass for The Phantom Cosmonauts!

[@ricksaint2000]

Thank you Simon

[@milowadlin]

My father worked for RCA on the space program, and he told me they were aware of rocket launches that never had any associated announcements from the USSR. He didn't have any more information than that, though he may have had a general time period in which this occurred. Whether it was pre Gregarine or after, I don't know, but I seem to feel it was both.

[@zephyr8072]

Consider: Men are called cosmonauts but women are not called wandanauts. Why is this? What was the USSR hiding?

[@joejoemyo]

I just have to say, the idea of a spacecraft missing orbit and going to interplanetary space is absolutely insane. It would take significantly more fuel than any rocket of the time could carry, and there's no chance a malfunction could do this, *especially before the crew were able to intervene in some way.* Edit: in this era, Soviet crews had little to no control of the vehicle. This doesn't make it more possible to accidentally go interplanetary, but the crew wouldn't have been able to do much if an engine somehow relit

[@autohmae]

What makes you think the crew was able to intervene in these aircrafts ? I think you can strike that part of the list.

[@Matthew_Lawless]

USSR cosmonauts had very little control of the craft itself. It was a big boast for NASA that astronauts actually controlled their vehicles.

[@Matthew_Lawless]

Also, in terms of leaving orbit, it is possible to bounce objects off the atmosphere. A failed return burn could bump a vehicle in the other direction.

[@joejoemyo]

@Matthew_Lawless I think you're talking about a craft lowering its altitude to maximize the oberth effect to get to higher altitudes or interplanetary space. While that is a thing, it's a very complex maneuver that couldn't be replicated by a malfunction. It requires propulsion at the low point of the orbit specifically, just lowering part of the orbit would not be enough to throw the craft out of earth's influence

[@sammorgan31]

No. No it could not. That's not how "bouncing off" works. Bouncing off means apoapsis was not lowered into the atmosphere before the vehicle leaves the atmosphere. It does not add energy in any way.

[@zemlidrakona2915]

By now if there was any real proof of cosmonauts before Gagarin we would have it. Gagarin was the first man in space. Armstrong was the first man on the moon.

[@sandgrownun66]

Don't you know that many Americans think that the moon-landings were faked?

[@retsaMinnavoiG]

'Existing proof'... That's the key here.

[@RRaquello]

But we can actually say that Gagarin wasn't the first to orbit the earth, since he re-entered before completing that first orbit.

[@sandgrownun66]

@@RRaquello No. We can't. He was in an orbital trajectory. He just re-entered early. "Orbital" means that you are at the right altitude and have the correct velocity to remain in orbit. It doesn't mean you physically have to sit there in orbit long enough to circumnavigate the Earth at least once. The place you end up landing isn't particularly relevant, either. The Earth rotated underneath the orbiting spacecraft during the 108 minute flight. A better parameter to look at is latitude. He launched to the northeast and landed 5.35 degrees north of the launch site. He passed the latitude of the launch site and then kept going for a bit. From launch to landing, his flight covered more than one orbit.

[@zemlidrakona2915]

@@RRaquello He did. Look at his launch and landing points and remember the earth is spinning at the same time he's flying.

[@nagjrcjasonbower]

Nice video. Happy someone catches history and reports it. ❤🖖

[@robertphillips6296]

I remember reading an article speculating that Yuri Gagarin did not die in a Flying Accident. That the USSR killed him off because he had become too Popular and Recognizable a Person and that the Government Feared him leading a Revolution Deposing them.

[@robinseibel7540]

People love conspiracy theories and aren't troubled by the lack of supporting facts.

[@sandgrownun66]

He did die in a flying accident. Fellow Cosmonaut, Alexei Leonov identified his body from a mole on his neck. He recounted this in a documentary about the subject.

[@Brasswatchman]

​@@robinseibel7540 Especially Russians.

[@gate7clamp]

30:21 I think it was this accident that made the Soviets use a oxygen nitrogen mix for their atmosphere had they told the west about this accident maybe the Apollo spacecraft would have had a different design to prevent the Apollo 1 fire

[@Brownyman]

Sounds like a DTU episode.

[@metalmadsen]

Tintin was the first one on the moon 🌝

[@desperadox7565]

That was my first thought too.(Ignoring Jules Verne, Bergerac, Kepler, etc.)

[@duncancurtis5108]

Our first Tintin book. The Thompsons vs Haddock and his space drunkeness. And space suicide.

[@jimtaylor294]

Wallace and Gromit went there too, in the 1950's 😂 (though it's implied that they weren't the first in their alternate timeline)

[@garyfrancis6193]

Correct. And his dog Snowy was the first dog on the moon. BTW I have about a dozen new T shirts with colour illustrations of the covers of Tin Tin books. I don’t know what to do with them.

[@Zaluskowsky]

Seeetwater-Pirat!

[@liftbread]

this one was really interesting. thanks

[@EmmanuelBrito]

1:16 …underrated romance 🥰

[@EggsOverSleazy]

Right!! Are we expected to ignore that steamy scene?

[@LouCBae]

Nice episode Gilles!

[@michaelpettersson4919]

This may be a myth but it is a belivable myth. If someone had been sent up prior to Gagarin and perished Soviet Union would indeed keep that secret.

[@carldaniels6250]

I always listen to Simon at 2x speed. Makes me relax.

[@mizstories9646]

Doesn't lying about cosmonauts dying just sound like a super Soviet thing to do, though?

[@logangonzalez-patton3121]

America woulld do the same

[@pazsion]

more american, but thats why ussr began lieing too... but putin believed the people had a right to know... until the us discouraged this,

[@DavidMotherland]

Seems about us unlikely as the US starting a war by claiming an unprovoked attack in the Gulf of Tonkin during a secret military operation

[@DavidMotherland]

About as unlikely as that Kennedy's response to the blow to his prestige caused by gagarin's first space flight would be to invade Cuba

[@Matthew_Lawless]

Why did they make the dummy so realistic? That just seems like an effort to have plausible denilbility

[@irishguy200007]

Who said they were dummies? Are we meant to believe that the Soviets first attempt to launch a cosmonaut into space was a roaring success? That he was from a working class background and was a communist? Seriously?

[@unbeatenlake790]

What if someone managed to make it to space thousands of years ago and we just don’t know it.

[@kingjames3949]

Short Answer: Probably

[@littlehorn0063]

Short answer: no, with extremely low chance of yes

[@robinseibel7540]

"Probably", eh? I guess that makes sense if you base that on nothing but guesses and bad assumptions.

[@magnemoe1]

9:00 Well dispersing into space is impossible with an Soyuz rocket as it does not have enough fuel to take the capsule much farther than low earth orbit. Assuming the early ones was less capable than modern ones too even if the capsules was lighter than the Soyuz spacecraft. Now its possible to be stranded in space if all your thrusters stop working but this is very unlikely but going out and pushing only work in Kerbal Space Program.

[@kiowa9934]

Yes, it was Lady Mercury ;)

[@loraweems8712]

Was there no way to verify when Soviet rockets were launched? My dad said that he saw 'proof' of launches, based on seismographic evidence. I was born in '62, so I grew up on space launches. (The only reason we got a color TV was that daddy found out that StarTrek was in color...)

[@rouxmain64]

This is "constellation" tv shows original material. Super interesting.

[@darkavenger5655]

Hey, who turned out the lights?

[@tommyrotton9468]

doesn't matter, dead or alive, they were all heroes and brave men/women

[@ADHDanielz]

As long as those Astronauts don’t crash in my backyard we’re fine

[@DryUrEyesM8]

38:30 when the bumpski hits

[@karthiksatheesh6708]

Jeez, how many channels do you have?

[@sniffinglue7236]

Glad there was a community note on this. I almost believed the Russian government would lie.

[@MintyLime703]

I wouldn't be surprised if they add that for every conspiracy theory regardless of how likely they may or may not be because it makes some theories more plausible in people's minds if some are proven true. And when it comes to how blatantly left leaning KZbin and its peers are it's no surprise they'd step in to "clarify" if anyone talks about socialists doing awful shit, as authoritarians often do.

[@MintyLime703]

I wouldn't be surprised if they add that for every conspiracy theory regardless of how likely they may or may not be because it makes some theories more plausible in people's minds when others are proven true. And when it comes to how blatantly left KZbin and its peers are it's no surprise they'd step in to "clarify" if anyone talks about the left doing awful shit, as authoritarians often do. 2nd time posting this as the bots don't like it when I use mundane political words and will delete my comments so i'm forced to self censor and reword shit. It's all so tiresome.

[@MintyLime703]

I wouldn't be surprised if they add that for every conspiracy theory regardless of how likely they may or may not be because it makes some theories more plausible in people's minds when others are proven true. And when it comes to how blatantly left KZbin and its peers are it's no surprise they'd step in to "clarify" if anyone talks about the left doing awful shit, as they often do. 3rd time posting this as the bots don't like it when I use mundane political words and will delete my comments so i'm forced to self censor and reword shit. It's all so tiresome.

[@MintyLime703]

I wouldn't be surprised if they add that for every theory regardless of how likely they may or may not be because it makes some theories more plausible in people's minds when others are proven true. And when it comes to how blatantly to the left KZbin and its peers are it's no surprise they'd step in to "clarify" if anyone talks about the left doing awful shit, as they often do. 4th time posting this as the bots don't like it when I use mundane political words and will delete my comments so i'm forced reword shit. It's all so tiresome.

[@MintyLime703]

I wouldn't be surprised if they add that for every cons-pi--racy theory regardless of how likely they may or may not be because it makes some theories more plausible in people's minds when others are proven true. And when it comes to how blatantly le-ft-ist KZbin and its peers are it's no surprise they'd step in to "clarify" if anyone talks about the le-ft doing awful shit, as they often do. 5th time posting this as the bots don't like it when I use mundane everyday words and will delete my comments so i'm forced to reword and add dashes to shit. It's all so tiresome. I'll keep editing this as many times as it takes out of raw spite.

[@marcmicochero5803]

Love Simon's videos, all 17 million of them lol, especially his smart ass antics, and the way he mispronounces stuff is hilarious,, especially with the whole French thing,!!😆

[@Matthew_Lawless]

You mean all 17 million of his channels, right?

[@marcmicochero5803]

@@Matthew_Lawless exactly, I love all his stuff though, he's had me laughing so hard I literally thought I was going to puke!!🤣

[@RRaquello]

Yeah, he was all over the place with Nelyubov. I'm not Russian, but that isn't even a hard name to pronounce for non-Russian speakers, compared to other Russian names.

[@9mil168]

How many channels does this man have?

[@Lawdachris]

I've done some calculations: At least 3 channels.

[@oldfrittenfett1276]

@@Lawdachris You might want to slightly adjust your calculations, or have I been missing a joke?

[@IcECreAm-sv2qv]

@@oldfrittenfett1276he said at least so it’s somewhere between 3 and 69420

[@akhilaryappatt]

Is this where lady from Constellation came from?

[@bwtv147]

A wise Russian proverb says “There is no Pravda in Izvestia. There is no Izvestia in Pravda.”

[@cdr2691]

Is that the equivalent of there is no ATLA live action movie in Ba-Sing-Se?

[@mizoik9893]

​@@cdr2691LOL

[@bwtv147]

@@cdr2691 Pravda means truth. It is also name of the Soviet party’s publication. Izvestia means news it is also the Soviet government’s publication.

[@cdr2691]

@bwtv147 ah, so no news in the truth, and no truth in the news. Makes sense, I think American news is like that nowadays

[@joejoemyo]

No news in truth and no truth in news, but both are names of news stations. Why can't English have sayings this cool?

[@mikeharrington5593]

Amazing amount of detail from the Soviet archives, but strangely no mention of Laika the cosmo-dog launched in Sputnik 2.

[@johncloptop1585]

First man in space, Joseph Kittinger.

[@Antnee659]

Ive been scanning comments and i have yet to finish the video but i was looking for his mention. I knew he went to the "border of space" in a balloon of all things, but having forgotten the details ive been trying to find how far he actually went and all anyone talks about is his jump. I dont know if he went higher, decended, and then jumped, but the highest account i can find is about 19miles. Thats unheard of at the time and out of a balloon is insane. 19 miles isnt quite space as we think of it today though. So idk

[@maxwirt921]

There was a Warographics video about an Ukrainian Oligarch (I don’t remember his name)from a couple of days ago that I had saved to my watch later that just disappeared. Was it taken down? Will it be reuploaded?

[@Jayjay-qe6um]

I won't be surprised if there are actually lost cosmomauts out there.

[@andriesoliviier9529]

As a rugby fanatic, I want ro know more about soviet rugby... Simon, you know the drill

[@Hth242]

At 11:22 you mean two years later, not two days later, right?

[@Jadiaz-ev9hm]

Is the audio all wacky for anyone else in the first few minutes?

[@billpugh58]

The first was Captain Sergeant of the Appalachian Space Force Bubba Cletus MacCannonsbroke. 😊

[@danr1920]

How about a follow up "Was Yuri Gagarin murdered?"

[@ItsHyomoto]

I know Simon has overlapping content, but I swear I've seen *this* episode before ... was there a DTU on this topic?

[@rickrudd]

08:22 He meant "1961" not "1965"

[@garyfrancis6193]

He said 1960 five months before….not 1965.

[@hanspetrov4343]

Just imagine, when were finally exploring the solar sistem, traveling to planets and asteroids. We find cosmonut corpses, frozen, preserved for hundteds of years. In a time, people might already forgotten that the russians abd americans had their space race

[@RRaquello]

If they had spaceships that missed the moon or just left earth orbit with Cosmonauts in them, those would have gone into solar orbit like Snoopy from Apollo 9 or several of the S-IVB stages from the early Apollo flights, and they return to the vicinity of earth every 30 years or so. So any pre-Gagarin Vostoks that didn't blow up or burn up have been back a couple of times since they first disappeared with their phantom Cosmonauts still strapped in their seats. Not exactly back to the earth, but possibly close enough that they would have passed between the earth and the moon. Spooky stuff, eh?

[@areed2000]

Russian command believing countdowns are too much theater is hilariously ironic. Hiding achievements as well as deaths just to appear to be following the rules.

[@LordBathtub]

"Comrade Tom" alright Simon no need to call me out like that

[@liammeech3702]

They also denied a human lunar program...but after Gladnost we found out about the N1... what else did they get up to I wonder...

[@adamc1966]

Reminds me of Tony Carey's 1983 music video "Why Me?"

[@simplyramona8678]

I believe Ivan Ivanovich translates to John Johnson, not John Doe.

[@theoffbeatarchive9225]

It was suggested that it is their equivalent name used for an unknown/unidentified male. Not a direct translation.

[@GEODUCK9]

dont stop believin

[@stancil83]

lol. I'm sorry. The beginning of this video. I think I watched it like 20 times. Until I put on the closed caption I had no idea what you were saying. I think it's a level thing with the master volume or something. idk. but. lol. 🤷‍♂

[@SeriousApache]

Whenever space is involved, there always be conspiracy.

[@HDSME]

Yes they did they are still up there!

[@karoltakisobie6638]

Soviet Air force pilots knew of that rumor back in late 60s.

[@lukeallen4398]

You know they sent a heap of people up there that didn't come back

[@bassguy1965]

Manitowoc, Wisconsin Man uh toe wok

[@nylarnameless1759]

Doggers....the real space pioneers 😢 USSR cabbage soup recipe : Cabbage, Water, Tears of the Bourgeoisie, Love of the Motherland

[@RealJonNewton]

23:20 you could show a movie on that dude's head 😂😂

[@aspie-anarchist9854]

Also you didn't say how long they stayed in the silent room

[@haytorrock3312]

Wasnt it Yuri Gageller? The first man to go into space in a bendy rocket?

[@vadim2080]

"I understood that reference"

[@frankie8648]

Nothing would surprise me regarding any nation’s obsession with secrecy, some logical and some not. That said, Yuri Gagarin was an incredibly brave and special man who deserves to be a household name, especially in the least educated population on the world, 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸

[@Orgruk]

Not just a Yes or No, but a history of spaceflight disasters and successes.

[@noth606]

The on screen text in white has several spelling errors and incorrect words, I would suggest simply watching the text while playing the audio - or at minimum proof reading just the text could fix such issues. Not a big deal but it subtracts from the otherwise very good production of the video.

[@ladyajninja23]

Poor pups 😞💔

[@voornaam3191]

That silent chamber reminds me of a wind tunnel laboratory where they had coated the walls and ceiling of a large room, with sound absorbing material, some foam it was. They measured sound levels, and it needed to be void of any echo or reverb. I guess. This was a long time ago. But I do remember, it feels very very strange, because there is always some sound, and then suddenly even your own voice does not resonate at all. What you say is gone before you know. And the other thing is, it never is totally silent, we are used to just a tiny bit of background noises, and if that is not there, we do miss that, it feels like your ears have a problem, you get worried and you tell yourself, calm down, it is okay, it is this strange room. Yes, silent rooms are a big deal.

[@LuKaZz420]

I’m studying Russian, the way that woman speaks is B1+ maybe B2 level, to be generous. Imagine someone speaking basic English being selected for Gemini or Apollo.

[@LuKaZz420]

Btw I’m from the hills around Turin, those radio operators were fakers. My uncle lives where they were from, near Turin, even the family says all their stories were made up. Their sister was a fellow Russian language student hence the mistakes no native would make.

[@Masud_S_Hoghughi]

Jenius is the appliance of science