On this episode of the Sofa King Podcast, we look at the conspiracy theory of the Lost Cosmonauts. (Finally, a conspiracy about space that isn’t the moon landing hoax or lizard people!) Our official history says that on April 12, 1961, Yuri Gagarin was the first human being to ever leave the planet earth and orbit the earth. However, there are theories that this was not the truth—Gagarin was not the first person in space. In fact, the argument goes, there were several others who made it to space first, but they didn’t succeed in making it back!

So, no, the theory is not that the Lost Cosmonauts are actually lost. Indeed, they are all dead or living lies to cover up Soviet failures early in the space program. Remember that the Cold War hinged upon the Space Race, and losses in the form of cosmonaut deaths would equal defeat in this war. America lost astronauts in the Apollo 1 explosion, so why couldn’t the Soviets as well?

In fact, many people think they did lose people, and plenty of them.

There is the case of Vladimir Ilyushin, the golden boy of the Soviet Union and the best test pilot alive at the time. Allegedly, he launched a week before Gagarin did, but he had difficulty landing and ended up being held by the Chinese for over a year, and his failure was covered up.

There are also the creepy and fascinating recordings of the Judica-Cordiglia brothers in Italy. They allegedly started to hear the broadcasts of various Soviet craft in space, and then they started recording them. The records start small, build with some SOS calls from space, and end with a desperate woman who seems to burn to death re-entering the atmosphere. Is there something to this, or are the brothers just pulling a prank? Some of the Lost Cosmonauts turn out to be an art project, and lots of others seemed to have died in training but covered up.

Who was Ivan Ivanovich, and why was his craft met with anger in the small Soviet Village where it crashed? Did the USSR try to launch a last minute moon shot to beat the US to the punch? Who was Valentin Bonderinko, and why did his horrible death by fire get covered up by the soviets? How many Lost Cosmonauts are there? Listen, laugh, learn.

 

Audio of the supposed Lost Cosmonauts: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Sgc1I9sjfc