My odd journey into astronaut deaths.

Greetings fellow conspiracy theorists, seekers of knowledge, and deniers of ignorance of ATS.

What I am about to present to you, is maybe not quite a conspiracy theory, so much as that it is a collection of information that I have been researching over the past few months. So please get comfortable, grab a glass of whiskey, and come with me on this journey.

I think the best place to start is the beginning. Way back, a long time ago in June I was reading an issue of Popular Science Magazine when when I came across this page with this little statistic in the corner.


This stuck with me for a few days. I just couldn't get it out of my head. The first thing that bothered me, was that if 528 people had been to space. How could 608 have been cremated? Beats me, but I couldn't find a correction of the numbers. So I started some digging and here we are. This thread initially was a search to see if all people who had been to space were cremated. I quickly found that this was just not the case. But my curiosity was not sated. So I continued.
Now, it's hard to nail down the numbers, maybe impossible if you think about secret military operations. But anyway this is what I have come up with. As of June 31st of this year 528 people have been to space. I have been unable to find exact statistics on how many were cremated as opposed to being buried. The Russians particularly are hard to find information on concerning the disposition of remains.

This is the list of people who have been to space that I used throughout this thread.
Humans in space

I started looking at the funeral arrangements for the deceased. I discovered 48 people who have been to space that were not cremated, this includes those who died in the Apollo 1, Challenger, Columbia, and Soyuz disasters.
During the course of this investigation I have come across some interesting facts. None of this is new, but as far as I am aware. This is the first time this has been put together in one place.

According to the National safety Counsel, there is a 1 in 7,178 chance of dying in an incident involving aircraft. But if you are an astronaut you have a 371% better chance of being killed in an aircraft accident. I thought that was pretty interesting.NSC

This is a page I thought was a little helpful.
Whosaliveandwhosdead

Here is some information on the various space exploration disasters and some threads covering them.
Apollo 1, Columbia & Challenger - 17 dead.
Soyuz - 4 dead.
Apollo1
**3 Astronauts Die in (Apollo 1) Launchpad Fire-Jan. 27, 1967: Sad Day in History
Columbia
NASA Releases Report About Columbia Disaster
Challenger
5 Myths of Challenger Shuttle Disaster Debunked
Soyuz1
Cosmonaut Crashed Into Earth 'Crying In Rage'
Soyuz11
And just for posterity- Today -- 50th Anniv Worst-Ever Space Disaster

I have found one astronaut that commited suicide, and here is a thread discussing it.
Charles E Brady Jr. Astronaut Brady Commits Suicide?

5 astronauts have died in plane or jet crashes.
Reinhard Furrer - Plane crash
Yuri Gagarin - Jet crash
Sonny carter - Plane crash
S. David Griggs - Plane crash
Joseph A. Walker - Jet crash

Then there is Pavel Ivanovich Belyayev. I found this information in a review on Amazon, so the validity is highly questionable. But I thought the information was interesting none the less, so make of it what you will.
Link

A strange tale, that of Pavel Ivanovich Belyayev. According to Wikipedia, Belyayev was selected for the space programm in 1960 after nearly fifteen years' experience in the Soviet air force and navy. He was originally to fly the Vostok 8 mission into Earth's Van Allen radiation belt, but this was cancelled. He died in 1970 from peritonitis that resulted from an operation on a stomach ulcer and is buried in the Novodevichy convent in Moscow.

How strange it is then, when one looks at the grave of Pavel Ivanovich Belyayev, that this man who apparently did nothing at all out of the ordinary has the most splendid grave out of ALL of the cosmonauts in Moscow's most prestigious cemetery, with a magnificent statue evocative of someone who has done something truly special. Also strange is the fact that, contrary to custom he was not cremated but was buried with full honours. And for what exactly was Pavel Belyayev awarded the Hero of the Soviet Union, Order of Lenin, Order of the Red Star, numerous medals and foreign honors for? He also bore the title of the Hero of Socialist Labor of Bulgaria, Hero of Vietnam, and Hero of Mongolia, and had a minor planet, 2030 Belyaev discovered in 1969 by Soviet astronomer Lyudmila Chernykh, named after him.

Pete Conrad can be found in a few interviews on Youtube, blasting NASA, the Govt.? I'm not sure what to think.


And in this one, is he describing a UFO?


Karl Gordon Henize Died climbing Mount Everest, and was buried there.Link

Continued...

And here are the remaining who were not cremated, or I could not confirm whether or not they had been cremated, but I think are still interesting due to a lack of information, or on the little info that is available.

Anatoli Levchenko - Odd, No info on remains. Link

Vasily Lazarev - Alcohol Poisoning. No info on remains.

Oleg Grigoryevich Makarov - No info on remains. Blood poisoning

David M. Walker - Not cremated. Died suddenly after brief undisclosed illness at 56yrs.

Boris Yegorov - No info saying he was cremated. heart attack age 56

Lev Dyomin - No info saying he was cremated.

Konstantin Feoktistov - No info saying he was cremated.

James Irwin - No info on remains.

Yevgeny Khrunov - No info on remains.

George David Low - No info on cremation.

Yury Vasilyevich Malyshev - Not cremated.

Andriyan Nikolayev - Not cremated.

Ronald A. Parise - No info on remains.

Alan G. Poindexter - No info on remains.

Pavel Popovich - No info saying he was cremated.

Stuart Roosa - Not cremated.

I hope you have enjoyed this little trip with me.
Of course any opinions and input will be welcomed.

reply to post by watchitburn


Fascinating thread.



S&F for you.

Never heard of this before...

The table is simple really....

522 people at the time had ventured into space as living humans.

The remains of 608 humans, which have been cremated, have been launched into space.

reply to post by DaTroof


Ahh, I'll buy that.

I think they should have been more specific though.
But then, it wouldn't have bothered me. And I never would have spent so much time digging around in this.

what is the point you are trying to make
ive read the thread twice and still dont get what you are trying to say
could you clear this up for me please
because im kind of interested in what this is all about

reply to post by watchitburn


Very cool thread. Thanks!

I wasn't sure if you had heard about this one.. This would classify under classified military space programs if it is true.

Some believe that the Soviets tried to send a manned mission to the moon only to have it fail - prior to Apollo 11.

This is a link with some interesting info about the Russians (this is an article from 1975 but still good)
From: "Space World Magazine" January 1975 issue

I recently watched an episode of a show called "Dark Matters - Twisted but true" that you would probably find really interesting. (Segment 15:30 - 31:40)



In short, two Italian HAM radio operators believed they were recieving radio chatter in Russian from space - this would have occurred prior to Apollo 11. This one is still a big mystery but it is suspected to be related to classified Soviet space programs.

Perhaps the soviets, fearing they would be beaten by the Americans, sent men to the moon but did not tell the world - fearing that the mission could be premature and possibly doomed to failure. They wouldn't have wanted the world to know that they had failed. It's one theory anyway.

-ChriS

reply to post by itsnotme


Does there need to be a point?
What's the point of anything anyway?
We live on a speck of dust floating through space. Nothing we do matters.

Regardless, it started out being a search about whether or not all astronauts were cremated. That ended up not being the case. But after spending so much time collecting all that information, I decided it would be selfish of me not to share it with the rest of ATS.

Take from it what you want.

interesting....i wonder why so many are cremated? i know some would say some type of ritual because the space program is either an outright fake or there are 2 different programs..the public and the 'secret' shhhh maybe to hide the effects of radiation poisoning? and they dont seem to have lived to an old age...and lots of accidents.....

im just throwin' speculation around

reply to post by BlasteR


Yes, I have seen that information.

I don't think I came across it while researching this thread or I would have added that to it. I think I saw it here.


Good catch

nvm

reply to post by clearmind


Yeah. There is no end of speculation one can do with all this information.

There seem to be many who have died from various types of cancer, but then lots of people die from cancer.
It would take a lot more digging to see what kind of ratio you would get out of that.

reply to post by itsnotme


Oh come on now,

Share your thoughts. And welcome to ATS

reply to post by watchitburn

I too find the story of Belyayev fascinating,and the ages at which a great majority of the early Soviet cosmonauts died.There are Soviet era files produced by leading astrophysicists of the time that concluded the Van Allen belt was impenetrable,(I will try to dig it out and post it) quite possibly Belyayev did fly on Soyuz 8 but was critically irradiated during his flight thru the Van Allen belt,with the Soviets covering up the true reason for his death,but that is pure speculation on my part,still a fascinating post and worthy of further investigation.

reply to post by nake13


Absolutely,

I was kicking myself when I realized I hadn't touched on Sputnik, the lost cosmonauts, or any of that stuff.
And what about China? They are so tight fisted with everything over there, who knows what kind of stuff they have gotten up to.

Originally posted by DaTroof
The table is simple really....

522 people at the time had ventured into space as living humans.

The remains of 608 humans, which have been cremated, have been launched into space.

I have never heard this. You speak of this as if it were common knowledge. Got Links?

I found this from Wikipedia but it wouldn't cover the over 3/4's of the 528 people cremated in the list above.There is only one astronaut on this list, Leroy Gordon "Gordo" Cooper, Jr.

en.wikipedia.org... Space Burial

I believe it's possible being in space changes your DNA to certain extents or changes you either chemically or physically in some way and the powers that be don't want this information to be examined.

reply to post by DaTroof


According to this list 651 human remains have been launched into space.

List of space burials
- April 21, 1997: 24 remains samples launched into Earth orbit on a modified Pegasus rocket
- January 7, 1998: Sample of the remains of Eugene Shoemaker as secondary payload on a three-stage Athena rocket to the Moon
- February 10, 1998: 30 remains samples as a secondary payload launched into Earth orbit on a Taurus rocket
- December 20, 1999: 36 remains samples as a secondary payload launched into Earth orbit on a Taurus rocket
- September 21, 2001: 43 remains samples as a secondary payload failed to be launched into Earth orbit on a Taurus rocket
- January 19, 2006: Sample of the remains of Clyde Tombaugh on the New Horizons spacecraft launched by a Atlas V rocket to Pluto
- August 3, 2008: 208 remains samples flown as a secondary payload, lost in the failure of a Falcon 1 rocket[4]
- May 22, 2012: 308 remains samples successfully launched as a secondary payload along with SpaceX's Dragon spacecraft on a Falcon 9 rocket[5

reply to post by JohnPhoenix


Thanks for pointing that out.

The list you are using only counts those astronauts who have gone beyond the Karman line (62 miles up).

Whereas in the military in the 1960's and 70's, to earn an Astronaut badge, you only had to go higher than 50 miles.

The list also does not include space tourists.

reply to post by allenidaho


You make a valid point.

But I think that would also be a very difficult if not impossible list to compile. I will have to look into that.

Thanks for bringing it to my attention.

You missed several astronauts killed in jet crashes in the '60s:

Ted Freeman died in a crash of a T-38 trainer after a bird strike on the windshield (October 31, 1964).

Elliott See & Charlie Bassett died together when their T-38 crashed while trying to land in fog (February 28, 1966).

C.C. Williams was killed in another T-38 crash (October 5, 1967).

All of these deaths were front-page news when they happened.

If you haven't found it yet, Encyclopedia Astronautica is an amazing resource.