I watched part of Modern Marvels on the History Channel today. It was about space shuttle development. Except that the opening segment was about the space race. In one of the between commercial tidbits they said something like, "Many people thought that the first Russian spacewalk in 1965 was faked. They were right. There actually was a Russian spacewalk, however parts of the video were made in a studio to enhance the drama, and visual qualities."

I just thought it was kind of neat. However I fear I have just given the HB's some more material. OOF! [img]/phpBB/images/smiles/icon_lol.gif[/img]

I remember reading about the possibility of a Russian hoax in the sixties, in Reader's Digest I think.

Mark Wade implies dodgy dealings on his site.

It could actually help the cause. Conspiracists argue that the Americans couldn't beat the Soviet development so they faked it. However, what this demonstrates is that Russian space development is the one under greater suspicion. Therefore, the claim that the Russians were indeed superior to the Americans is shown to be wrong, and hence the need to fake Apollo.

The selective vision of conspiracists is a marvel. They make blind speculations regarding NASA conspiracies while failing to think about more legitimate problems with Rosaviakosmos. Take Valentin Bondarenko from TsPK-1. He died in a very similar fire to that of Apollo 1. Conspiracists eagerly point out Apollo 1 and use to make implications about NASA but they completely ignore the Russian incident, which might hold greater suspicion. It did happen before Voskhod 2.

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Glom on 2002-11-17 12:51 ]</font>

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Glom on 2002-11-17 12:53 ]</font>

I don't get what Wade is trying to imply. Accidents happen every time you're exploring a new field. Why is Bondarenko's death somehow significant to Leonov's spacewalk?

Wade didn't say anything about Bondarenko.

I suppose I should have put in a smiley. I was merely trying to point out that conspiracists latch on to seperate NASA events and try to contruct a line of reasoning that links them to a conspiracy, when they ignore similar opportunities in the Russian quarter.

The reason in that they are trying to imply something dodgy about Apollo. The reason for the dodginess is because they wanted to appear to beat the Russians. If something is also dodgy with the Russians, it weakens the case that something special was dodgy with the Americans. Selective vision that sees useful facts but not contradictory ones.

Bah, I just avoid that crowd all together.

Lloyd Mallan's articles in 'Science & Mechanics' argued that the moon pix were faked, the cosmonauts were faked, the spacewalk was faked, even the death of Komarov was faked. Mallan was one head-sick puppy.

Some video of the EVA shown on Moscow TV was training video, not clearly identified at first. No images offered subsequently by the Soviets, as part of the actual record of the actual EVA, have been shown to have been counterfeit.

Alexei Leonov did something deeply historic on March 18, 1965. He almost died on the flight when his inflated spacesuit was too stiff to fit through the airlock; he only got back in after bleeding off some of the air! (It takes guts to open your air valve in space....) He went on to fly with the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project, the first step towards today's ISS and a symbolic move towards the end of the Cold War. It saddens me that his accomplishment has also been labelled a hoax by some.

As a side note, Leonov was assigned to be the first commander of a Soviet circumlunar mission.