# Who was the first astronaut **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [September 9, 2008, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-the-first-astronaut/462832 "2008-09-09T19:59:20Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![bribarb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/51bf81/32.png) [@bribarb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bribarb)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2008, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-the-first-astronaut/462832/1 "2008-09-09T19:59:20Z")
All the records show Gagarin was the first man in space, There was a challange to that when some people said that Antonov was the first but ended up in china on re entry. Anyone know?? ---
**Author:** ![Whack-a-Mole](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whack-a-mole/32/141_2.png) [@Whack-a-Mole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whack-a-Mole)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2008, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-the-first-astronaut/462832/2 "2008-09-09T20:12:27Z")
Depends how you define it. There is not a well recognized “edge” of space. Our atmosphere just sort of fades away with no sharply delineated line. Technically the United States says anyone is an astronaut if they fly above 80km. International agreement seems to have it at 100km and two X15 flights broke that mark although I am not sure if those beat Gagarin. By that reckoning some X-15 pilots broke that mark (80km) before Yuri Gagarin (and while not recognized at the time were retroactively given their astronaut wings by the US). However, I think Gagarin was the first to orbit the earth. Some say Joseph Kittenger may have been “first” when he did a skydive from something above 75,000 feet. At that altitude he needed essentially a spacesuit to survive but that is still well short of 80km. ---
**Author:** ![DrFidelius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drfidelius/32/3447_2.png) [@DrFidelius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrFidelius)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2008, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-the-first-astronaut/462832/3 "2008-09-09T20:12:51Z")
The first person to be shot into space and survive was Gagarin. Who’s Antonov? ---
**Author:** ![Chez\_Guevara](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/aeb1de/32.png) [@Chez\_Guevara](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chez_Guevara)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2008, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-the-first-astronaut/462832/4 "2008-09-09T20:45:39Z")
> [@bribarb](#): > > All the records show Gagarin was the first man in space, There was a challange to that when some people said that Antonov was the first but ended up in china on re entry. > Anyone know?? There’s a link [here](http://everything2.com/e2node/What%2520everyone%2520should%2520know%2520about%2520the%2520first%2520man%2520in%2520space) about a Russian, name of Alexei Lenovsky, who claims he visited space sometime during 1959, landed in China after re-entry, and spent forty two years in prison for his trouble. I don’t like the story, but that’s just me. ---
**Author:** ![bribarb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/51bf81/32.png) [@bribarb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bribarb)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2008, 8:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-the-first-astronaut/462832/5 "2008-09-09T20:59:20Z")
> [@DrFidelius](#): > > The first person to be shot into space and survive was Gagarin. Who’s Antonov? Sorry I remembered that it was the same as a russian aircraft maker, should have been Ilyushin. for more information. > **[Sergei Vladimir Ilyushin, Jr.](https://myhero.com/Ilyushin)** > > "...I interned for Eliot Haimoff..., a professional researcher/reporter who produced many shows for PBS and other networks. During my internship, my job was to translate articles from Russian to English. Thus, I learned about the story of Ilyushin.... [http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,897737,00.html](http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,897737,00.html) Not sure what to think but I vagely remember a documentary about it. ---
**Author:** ![pravnik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8edcca/32.png) [@pravnik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pravnik)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2008, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-the-first-astronaut/462832/6 "2008-09-09T21:10:18Z")
The first astronaut was Alan Shepard. The first _cosmonaut_ was Yuri Gagarin. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2008, 9:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-the-first-astronaut/462832/7 "2008-09-09T21:39:53Z")
There are also rumors of a Russian who preceded Gagarin, but didn’t survive the trip. Apparently, Pravda carried the story one day of the first man in space, and then the next day, carried a story of an unmanned craft carrying a test dummy failing on re-entry. ---
**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2008, 1:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-the-first-astronaut/462832/8 "2008-09-10T01:00:12Z")
[www.astronautix.com](http://www.astronautix.com) includes among its huge archive a series of investigative articles written after the fall of the USSR and the opening up of records (no longer a frontpage headline item, one has to dig through the archives). All that info seems to point to that the first \*“succesful manned space launch” _indeed WAS Gagarin’s, and that there_ were \*failures and accidents before, including at least one pilot killed in spacecraft ground tests and a booster explosion that wiped out half the launch command staff, but that claims that there was one flight where a man succesfully made it to orbit and back but was not succesfully recovered (landed in China, died, went mad, etc.) before Major Yuri have no evidence to support them. If they could cover up but NOT completely obliterate all records of those other mishaps, so they surfaced 30 years after the fact, one has to wonder how could they so totally expunge one. Even the rewrites done by Stalin in his prime left a trail of evidence (and Pravda would NOT have reported a succesful manned spaceflight w/o knowing it had been so. They would have merely first reported a launch test of a new booster/satellite model, then _afterwards_ once the outcome was known, elaborated to make it look like whatever happened was what was wanted all along; it was their standard practice). ---
**Author:** ![Darth\_Nader](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ad7895/32.png) [@Darth\_Nader](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darth_Nader)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2008, 8:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-the-first-astronaut/462832/9 "2008-09-10T08:01:08Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > There are also rumors of a Russian who preceded Gagarin, but didn’t survive the trip. Apparently, Pravda carried the story one day of the first man in space, and then the next day, carried a story of an unmanned craft carrying a test dummy failing on re-entry. Have you read R.A. Heinlein’s articles he wrote after his trip to the Soviet Union? His report matches your rumors… ---
**Author:** ![Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tapioca_Dextrin)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2008, 9:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-the-first-astronaut/462832/10 "2008-09-10T09:16:33Z")
[The Master speaks](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/2433/are-there-really-lost-cosmonauts-stranded-in-space) ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2008, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-the-first-astronaut/462832/11 "2008-09-10T22:16:46Z")
> [@](#): > > Who was the first astronaut [Laika](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laika) ---
**Author:** ![cerberus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/71e660/32.png) [@cerberus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cerberus)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2008, 11:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-the-first-astronaut/462832/12 "2008-09-10T23:50:56Z")
Laika was the first Caninaut. There were also a number of Primanauts on the US side before Shepard. Kittinger did it the hard way - without a ship, but then again, he was low enough to avoid re-entry issues. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2008, 12:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-the-first-astronaut/462832/13 "2008-09-11T00:04:56Z")
> [@](#): > > Have you read R.A. Heinlein’s articles he wrote after his trip to the Soviet Union? His report matches your rumors… Not really corroboration, since that’s where I heard the rumors from in the first place. ---
**Author:** ![Magiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4491bb/32.png) [@Magiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Magiver)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2008, 1:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-the-first-astronaut/462832/14 "2008-09-11T01:10:33Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > There are also rumors of a Russian who preceded Gagarin, but didn’t survive the trip. Apparently, Pravda carried the story one day of the first man in space, and then the next day, carried a story of an unmanned craft carrying a test dummy failing on re-entry. The Italian brothers who monitored the space flights as they passed over recorded the dying moments of these Cosmonauts. You can find the recording [on this site](http://www.lostcosmonauts.com/default.htm). Don’t know if their names were ever released. ---
**Author:** ![sailor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a587f6/32.png) [@sailor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sailor)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2008, 2:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-the-first-astronaut/462832/15 "2008-09-11T02:21:34Z")
> [@Magiver](#): > > The Italian brothers who monitored the space flights as they passed over recorded the dying moments of these Cosmonauts. You can find the recording [on this site](http://www.lostcosmonauts.com/default.htm). Don’t know if their names were ever released. That site offers me no credibility and > [@](#): > > [Cecil’s article](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/2433/are-there-really-lost-cosmonauts-stranded-in-space) says: > > No question, there’s a lot the Russians didn’t tell us during the space race. In a chapter of his 1988 book Uncovering Soviet Disasters: Exploring the Limits of Glasnost entitled “Dead Cosmonauts,” space engineer and historian James Oberg relates several episodes > […] > Did the Soviets conceal the deaths of cosmonauts besides Bondarenko? By 1973 Oberg had investigated a dozen rumors of cosmonaut deaths dating back to 1957, including two incidents that seem to correspond with reports from the Italian brothers. All proved baseless.