Ivan Nikolayevich Anikeyev (russian: Иван Николаевич Аникеев; 12 February 1933 8 August 1992) was a 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 ...
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 ...
for disciplinary reasons.
Senior Lieutenant Anikeyev, age 27, 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. Tr ...
.
On 27 March 1963 Anikeyev,
Grigory Nelyubov
Grigory Grigoryevich Nelyubov (russian: Григо́рий Григо́рьевич Нелю́бов; 31 March 1934 – 18 February 1966) was one of the original 20 Soviet cosmonauts, who was dismissed from the Soviet space program in 1963 for ...
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 militsia at
Chkalovsky station. According to reports, the officers of the security patrol that arrested them were willing to ignore the whole incident if the cosmonauts apologized; Anikeyev and Filatyev agreed but Nelyubov refused, and the matter was reported to the authorities. Because there had been previous incidents, all three were dismissed from the cosmonaut corps on 17 April 1963, though officially not until 4 May 1963. Anikeyev never completed a space mission.
To protect the image of the space program, efforts were made to cover up the reason for Anikeyev's dismissal. His image was
airbrushed out of cosmonaut photos. This airbrushing led to speculation about "
lost cosmonauts
The Lost Cosmonauts or Phantom Cosmonauts are subjects of a conspiracy theory alleging that some Soviet cosmonauts went to outer space, but their existence has never been publicly acknowledged by either the Soviet or Russian space authorities. ...
" even though the actual reasons were often mundane.
Alexei Leonov
Alexei Arkhipovich Leonov. (30 May 1934 – 11 October 2019) was a Soviet and Russian cosmonaut, Air Force major general, writer, and artist. On 18 March 1965, he became the first person to conduct a spacewalk, exiting the capsule during th ...
recounts that years later, while Anikeyev was at a party one night, someone stole his keys from his pocket and stole his car. The thief hit and killed a pedestrian, and to avoid responsibility, returned the keys to Anikeyev's pocket. The latter was sent to prison for a year before authorities realized he was innocent and released him, but he was never given the chance to fly again.
[ Two Sides of the Moon: Our Story of the Cold War Space Race by David Scott and Alexei Leonov, 2004, p. 87]
References
External links
Details of the Soviet training program and launch#4 Research topic
{{DEFAULTSORT:Anikeyev, Ivan Nikolayevich
1933 births
1992 deaths
Soviet cosmonauts
Place of birth missing