Yuri Gagarin: How the first man in space sparked a conspiracy theory

[Admin]

Gagarin became the first of humankind to blast off into space on April 12, 1961, but rumors continue to circulate that another cosmonaut had beaten him to the punch days before.

Yuri Gagarin: How the first man in space sparked a conspiracy theory : Read more

 

[Catastrophe]

"Trouble is, this mission had — according to the press sources — not gone quite as well as planned. That is why, it has long since been claimed, Ilyushin's feat was cast aside in favor of Gagarin's successful launch and landing."

I don't think many of us would be surprised if, in those days, missions were kept secret until succesfully accomplished. Maybe different factions had different ideas about which favourite of which faction should have their success chosen for agrandisement? Especially when timing was close?

Cat

 

[sam85geo]

I admire and salute the courage of all of those first remarkable pioneers into space, and who were, if History bears out, the first to venture a tentative step into mankind's possible future.

 

[JohnBD]

In addition to the other comments, I believe it would be harder for even the present-day Russian government to go backwards and acknowledge that the other flights happened.
In fact, it is logical to assume other flights did happen. In-flight testing has long been a feature of achievement in all aspects of science. Plus, the then Soviet government would have been looking to have an edge on NASA by being able to say, "look, we have already put a man in space." But, they would have needed to be in control and that means the landing would have needed to be precise. The reason, I think, that Gagarin's flight was admitted to in mid-flight may have been because the US had picked it up on their scans.
NASA took the more cautious approach by thoroughly testing everything on the ground before sending a manned flight into space.