Soyuz 2

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Soyuz 2
Mission statistics
Mission name: Soyuz 2
Number of crew members: 0
Launch: October 25, 1968 09:00 UTC
Baikonur LC1
Landing: October 28, 1968 07:51 UTC
Duration: 3 days
Number of Orbits: 48
Navigation
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Soyuz 1 Soyuz 3

Soyuz 2 was an unpiloted spacecraft in the Soyuz family intended to perform a docking manoeuvre with Soyuz 3. Although the two craft approached closely, the docking did not take place.

This mission was the subject of an artistic "reconstruction" by photographer Joan Fontcuberta. In 1997 he created an exhibition called Sputnik for which he fabricated press cuttings, photographs, videos and other paraphanelia showing how the spacecraft was piloted by one Ivan Istochnikov, killed in the mission and subsequently erased from history by the Soviets to avoid the bad publicity. The story has no basis in fact: photographs of the suited cosmonaut are of the face of the photographer and the name of the cosmonaut was based on a translation of the artist's own name.

The story has been presented as true on various occsions. For example by the Mexican magazine Luna Cornea in 1998, and in an article on Spanish TV program Cuarto milenio in 2006.

A website dedicated to Fontcuberta's creation moreover subtly disclaims the fallacy, in red letters on red background at the bottom of the page.

The name "Soyuz 2" also appears in other contexts, a) the second Soyuz flight to dock with the International Space Station b) as a proposed successor to the Soyuz launch vehicle, later renamed as Soyuz/ST.

[edit] References

  • Luna Cornea, Number 14, January/April 1998, p. 58,
  • The Fabricated Cosmonaut and the Nonexistent Prophecy, Luis Alfonso Gamez. Skeptical Enquirer Volume 30, number 5 (September/October 2006) p12.

[edit] External links


Preceded by:
Soyuz 1		 Soyuz programme Succeeded by:
Soyuz 3
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