Soyuz 2

Infobox Space mission
mission_name = Soyuz 2
sign =
crew_members = 0
launch = October 25, 1968 09:00 UTC
Gagarin's Start
landing = October 28, 1968 07:51 UTC
duration = 2d/22:51
orbits = 48
previous =
next =
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Soyuz 2 was an unpiloted spacecraft in the Soyuz family intended to perform a docking maneuver with Soyuz 3. Although the two craft approached closely, the docking did not take place.

Other uses of name

The name "Soyuz 2" also appears in other contexts, a) the second Soyuz flight to dock with the International Space Station b) as a proposed successor to the Soyuz launch vehicle, later renamed as Soyuz/ST.

Fontcuberta hoax

This mission was the subject of an artistic "reconstruction" by photographer Joan Fontcuberta. In 1997 he created an exhibition called "Sputnik" for which he fabricated press cuttings, photographs, videos and other paraphanelia showing how the spacecraft was piloted by one "Ivan Istochnikov", killed in the mission and subsequently erased from history by the Soviets to avoid the bad publicity. The story has no basis in fact: photographs of the suited cosmonaut are of the face of the photographer and the name of the cosmonaut was based on a translation of the artist's own name.

The story has been presented as true on various occasions: for example, by the Mexican magazine "Luna Cornea" in 1998, and in an article on Spanish TV program "Cuarto milenio" in 2006.

A website dedicated to Fontcuberta's creation moreover subtly disclaims the fallacy, in red letters on red background at the bottom of the page.

References

*"Luna Cornea", Number 14, January/April 1998, p. 58,
*"The Fabricated Cosmonaut and the Nonexistent Prophecy", Luis Alfonso Gamez. Skeptical Enquirer Volume 30, number 5 (September/October 2006) p12.

External links

* [http://www.brown.edu/Administration/News_Bureau/2000-01/00-070.html Brown University News Service] Artists mix fact and fantasy in False Witness exhibition at Bell Gallery.