Grigory Grigoryevich Nelyubov (russian: Григо́рий Григо́рьевич Нелю́бов; 31 March 1934 – 18 February 1966) was one of the original 20 Soviet
cosmonaut
An astronaut (from the Ancient Greek (), meaning 'star', and (), meaning 'sailor') is a person trained, equipped, and deployed by a human spaceflight program to serve as a commander or crew member aboard a spacecraft. Although generally r ...
s, who was dismissed from the
Soviet space program
The Soviet space program (russian: Космическая программа СССР, Kosmicheskaya programma SSSR) was the national space program of the former Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), active from 1955 until the dissoluti ...
in 1963 for drunk and disorderly conduct. His existence in the program was kept secret until the advent of Soviet
glasnost in the late 1980s. He killed himself on 18 February 1966.
Born in
Porfiryevka,
Crimea
Crimea, crh, Къырым, Qırım, grc, Κιμμερία / Ταυρική, translit=Kimmería / Taurikḗ ( ) is a peninsula in Ukraine, on the northern coast of the Black Sea, that has been occupied by Russia since 2014. It has a pop ...
in
USSR
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nationa ...
, Nelyubov was a captain and pilot in the
Soviet Air Force
The Soviet Air Forces ( rus, Военно-воздушные силы, r=Voyenno-vozdushnyye sily, VVS; literally "Military Air Forces") were one of the air forces of the Soviet Union. The other was the Soviet Air Defence Forces. The Air Forces ...
. He was selected as one of the original 20 cosmonauts on 7 March 1960 along with
Yuri Gagarin
Yuri Alekseyevich Gagarin; Gagarin's first name is sometimes transliterated as ''Yuriy'', ''Youri'', or ''Yury''. (9 March 1934 – 27 March 1968) was a Soviet pilot and cosmonaut who became the first human to journey into outer space. T ...
. The following year, six of the original twenty were evaluated for assignment on Vostok flight crews between January 17 and 18; Gagarin,
Titov, and Nelyubov were considered the top three candidates. For
Vostok 1
Vostok 1 (russian: link=no, Восток, ''East'' or ''Orient'' 1) was the first spaceflight of the Vostok programme and the first human orbital spaceflight in history. The Vostok 3KA space capsule was launched from Baikonur Cosmodrome on Apr ...
Nelyubov was chosen as second backup for Gagarin and presumably first backup for
Vostok 2
Vostok 2 (russian: Восток-2, ''Orient 2'' or ''East 2'') was a Soviet space mission which carried cosmonaut Gherman Titov into orbit for a full day on August 6, 1961, to study the effects of a more prolonged period of weightlessness on th ...
for Titov in April and August 1961 respectively. For the dual launches of
Vostok 3
Vostok 3 (russian: Восток-3, lit=Orient 3' or 'East 3) and Vostok 4 (, 'Orient 4' or 'East 4') were Soviet space program flights in August 1962, intended to determine the ability of the human body to function in conditions of weightlessne ...
and
Vostok 4
Vostok 3 (russian: Восток-3, lit= Orient 3' or 'East 3) and Vostok 4 (, ' Orient 4' or 'East 4') were Soviet space program flights in August 1962, intended to determine the ability of the human body to function in conditions of weightless ...
, Nelyubov was again chosen as a backup for
Andrian Nikolayev
Andriyan Grigoryevich Nikolayev ( Chuvash and russian: Андриян Григорьевич
Николаев; 5 September 1929 – 3 July 2004) was a Soviet cosmonaut. In 1962, aboard Vostok 3, he became the third Soviet cosmonaut to fly into s ...
and
Pavel Popovich
Pavel Romanovich Popovich (russian: Па́вел Рома́нович Попо́вич, uk, Павло Романович Попович, Pavlo Romanovych Popovych) (5 October 1930 – 29 September 2009) was a Soviet cosmonaut.
Popovich was the ...
.
On 27 March 1963, Nelyubov,
Ivan Anikeyev
Ivan Nikolayevich Anikeyev (russian: Иван Николаевич Аникеев; 12 February 1933 8 August 1992) was a Soviet cosmonaut who was dismissed from the Soviet space program for disciplinary reasons.
Senior Lieutenant Anikeyev, ag ...
and
Valentin Filatyev
Valentin Ignatyevich Filatyev (russian: Валентин Игнатьевич Филатьев; 21 January 1930 – 15 September 1990) was a Soviet cosmonaut who was dismissed from the Soviet space program for disciplinary reasons.
Senior ...
were arrested for drunk and disorderly conduct by the military security patrol (комендатура) at Chkalovskaya station. According to reports, the duty officer agreed to ignore the whole incident and not send the report if Nelyubov apologized, but he refused, and the matter was reported to the authorities. Because there were previous incidents, all three were dismissed from the cosmonaut corps on 17 April 1963, though officially not until 4 May 1963.
Pavel Popovich
Pavel Romanovich Popovich (russian: Па́вел Рома́нович Попо́вич, uk, Павло Романович Попович, Pavlo Romanovych Popovych) (5 October 1930 – 29 September 2009) was a Soviet cosmonaut.
Popovich was the ...
, secretary of the party organization, tried to resolve the situation by calling a party meeting where Nelyubov was once again invited to apologize to the patrol chief and to the other cosmonauts, but he again refused. He was dismissed, never having completed a space mission.
Following dismissal he went back to flying
interceptor
Interceptor may refer to:
Vehicles
* Interceptor aircraft (or simply "interceptor"), a type of point defense fighter aircraft designed specifically to intercept and destroy enemy aircraft
* Ford Crown Victoria Police Interceptor, a police car
* ...
s in the
Far East
The ''Far East'' was a European term to refer to the geographical regions that includes East and Southeast Asia as well as the Russian Far East to a lesser extent. South Asia is sometimes also included for economic and cultural reasons.
The ter ...
but fell to drinking and
depression. He died on February 18, 1966. While drunk, he stepped in front of a train near the
Ippolitovka station, northwest of
Vladivostok
Vladivostok ( rus, Владивосто́к, a=Владивосток.ogg, p=vɫədʲɪvɐˈstok) is the largest city and the administrative center of Primorsky Krai, Russia. The city is located around the Golden Horn Bay on the Sea of Japan, c ...
.
It was officially ruled a suicide. To protect the image of the space program, efforts were made to cover up the reason for Nelyubov's dismissal and his following suicide. His image was
airbrushed out of the "Sochi Six" photo which showed the top members of the original class of Soviet cosmonauts. This airbrushing led to speculation about "
lost cosmonauts".
Literature
"Rockets and people"–
B. E. Chertok, M: "mechanical engineering", 1999. ;
*
A.I. Ostashev. ''Testing of rocket and space technology - the business of my life''. Events and facts,
Korolyov, 2001
* A. C. Boltenko (ed.). ''Bank of the Universe''.
Kyiv
Kyiv, also spelled Kiev, is the capital and most populous city of Ukraine. It is in north-central Ukraine along the Dnieper River. As of 1 January 2021, its population was 2,962,180, making Kyiv the seventh-most populous city in Europe.
Kyi ...
, Phoenix, 2014.
References
External links
Details of the Soviet training program and launch#4 Research topic
{{DEFAULTSORT:Nelyubov, Grigori Grigoyevich
1934 births
1966 deaths
People from Saky Raion
Soviet cosmonauts
Soviet Air Force officers
Suicides in the Soviet Union
1966 suicides