Zavadovski, V

Russian phantom cosmonaut. Phantom cosmonaut. 1959 Moscow newspaper showed a Zavadovski testing high altitude equipment. Later presumed to have died on Korabl Sputnik 1 in May 1960.

In late 1959 the Moscow evening newspaper showed a photograph of a comrade Zavadovski testing high altitude equipment. An Associated Press journalist concluded that the man was likely a cosmonaut in training. Zavadovski appeared on later lists of 'dead cosmonauts' without being associated with a specific date. However on 23 February 1962 Reuters carried a story datelined Fort Worth, Texas. It claimed that a Colonel Barney Oldfield of the "US Air Force Command" had revealed to a group of journalists that a space cabin, which failed to separate from the booster rocket, had orbited earth since May 1960 and was possibly manned. It is now known that the spacecraft referred to, Korabl Sputnik 1, was the first unmanned test of the prototype version of the later Vostok and Zenit satellites. The spacecraft was commanded to retrofire, but the guidance system had oriented the spacecraft incorrectly and the TDU engine instead put the spacecraft into a higher orbit. The re-entry capsule, which was not even equipped with a heat shield, separated from the remainder of the spacecraft.