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Belokonyov, Alexis

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Cosmonaut Autopsy

Died: 1962-05-15.

Reported lost in an orbital flight of May 15, 1962.

The October 1959 edition of Ogonyok carried an article 'Flights to High Altitudes' illustrating three men testing life support equipment. Among them was a comrade Belokonyov. An Associated Press journalist concluded that these men were likely cosmonauts in training. In March 1965 the newspaper Corriere della Sera published the results of sensational radio intercepts of the Judica-Cordiglia brothers at Torre Bert, Italy. Among these were those from an alleged November 1962 flight which they associated with Belokonyov. They claimed to have heard the words of two men and a woman in desperate conversation: 'Conditions growing worse why don't you answer? ... we are going slower... the world will never know about us . . ' The story was picked up by Readers Digest in 1965.

The story provided the basis for the 1969 novel Autopsy for a Cosmonaut in which pathologist Dr Sam Stonebreaker is trained as an astronaut and launched aboard Gemini 12-A to obtain tissue samples from the dead crew (possibly due to an on-board nuclear reactor).

• Death of Alexis Belokonyov. Reported killed in an orbital flight on May 15, 1962. - . Nation: Russia. Related Persons: Belokonyov. Russian phantom cosmonaut, reported died in orbit 1962.05.15. Judica-Cordiglia reported radio trasnmission 1962.11. Named in 1959.10 Ogonyok article on high altitude equipment test. Basis for 1969 novel Autopsy for a Cosmonaut..