space trackers: judica cordiglia bros.

A memorial weekend italiano extraterrestre stravaganza provided for your pleasure! Let's go Space Truckin'. First, the amazing Judica Cordiglia brothers who tracked radio transmissions of early space missions. In the late fifties, Achille and Giovanni set up an amateur tracking station just outside Turin, Italy in a former convalescent home at a place they called Torre Bert. Soviet secrecy inspired the two to seek out their communications. Turin, in Northern Italy, made Soviets the program of choice, since launches in the Caucasus flew over them. The brothers soon realized the need for additional help to make their station work. Maria Theresa, a sister, learned Russian to become their interpreter. Giovanni's fiancee, Laura Furbatto, became organizer of a worldwide network of amateur tracking stations: the Zeus Network.

The Cordiglia brothers became local space experts that led to a invitation on The Fair of Dreams (Fiera dei Sogni), a quiz show. The brothers won and the winnings afforded a personal visit in 1964 to NASA, a dream fulfilled. The amateur space trackers successfully intercepted beeps of Sputnik 1, Explorer 1, heard the dog Laika's heartbeat during Sputnik 2 and John Glenn's Mercury Friendship 7 flight. The amateur space trackers' career culminated with the Apollo 11 moon landing on June,20, 1969. The brothers soon realized though, television had taken away the mystery and with it their hobby was "finito", ended.

Notoriety follows the Cordiglia brothers with allegations their purported recordings of lost cosmonauts are fake. A prior post on the topic is also available, "lost cosmonauts: airbrushed from memory." The recordings include an "SOS to the World" in Morse Code from a soviet spacecraft as it fades into outer space on November, 28, 1960. The labored breathing and heartbeat of an unconscious cosmonaut near death recorded February 2, 1961. A heartrending plea of a woman cosmonaut as she burns up on re-entry May 23, 1961. A good list of dead cosmonauts can be found here, which includes several early suborbital fatalities. The wikipedia entry for Lost Cosmonauts is a valuable resource.

"Space Hackers The Judica Brothers" is a recent documentary of the Cordiglia brothers and the Torre Bert enclave and a wonderful story! Soviets irritated by the brothers' monitoring, once threw an aspersion the two were "space gangsters". Don't miss it! While others are enjoying la dolce vita this weekend, you can get a really sweet story!

50th anniversary: first man in space

50th anniversary of first manned space flight
Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin blasted off aboard Vostok 1, on April 12, 1961, to become first man in space. The event proved a second political coup for the Soviet Union. The Communists had put Sputnik the first satellite in orbit. You can view a condensed version of Gagarin's story in just 39 seconds on YouTube.


related: vladimir ilyushin - the real first man in space?

vladimir ilyushin: first man in space

On the brink of a 50th anniversary, Yuri Gagarin is celebrated as first man in space. Gagarin, a handsome test pilot, remains the face of a Russian and Soviet first over cold war rival, the United States. The five foot two inch cosmonaut received Hero of the Soviet Union award, its highest honor. A sympathetic character, Gagarin came from humble origins, Klushinko, a country village. Just outside Moscow, a training facility was named after Gagarin following his death in a 1968 plane crash. Was Yuri Gagarin the first man in space aboard Vostok 1 on April 12, 1961? The sad truth is a far more fitting candidate, Valdimir Ilyushin, son of a Russian aircraft designer and a famous test pilot, was in reality five days earlier--the first. Ilyushin's flight went badly, however, and came down in China. The "real first man in space" spent the next year in a Chinese hospital before his return. A You Tube video, The Cosmonaut Cover-Up, provides Vladimir Ilyushin's story. The truth always makes a far more interesting story and this is one!

related update: 50th anniversary of 'first man in space'