Soyuz 2 (, Union 2) was an uncrewed

spacecraft A spacecraft is a vehicle that is designed spaceflight, to fly and operate in outer space. Spacecraft are used for a variety of purposes, including Telecommunications, communications, Earth observation satellite, Earth observation, Weather s ...

(capsule number 7K-OK-P No. 11)Soyuz-2 completes its mission
''www.russianspaceweb.com'', accessed 27 December 2922 in the

Soyuz Soyuz is a transliteration of the Cyrillic text Союз (Russian language, Russian and Ukrainian language, Ukrainian, 'Union'). It can refer to any union, such as a trade union (''profsoyuz'') or the Soviet Union, Union of Soviet Socialist Republi ...

family, intended to be the target of a docking maneuver by the crewed Soyuz 3 spacecraft. It was intended to be the first docking of a crewed spacecraft in the Soviet space program. Although the two craft approached closely, the docking did not take place and the first successful Soviet docking of crewed spacecraft took place in the joint Soyuz 4 and Soyuz 5 mission. It served for the radio search and as a target vehicle for docking by the crewed Soyuz 3. Soyuz 2 soft-landed in a predetermined area of the

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, near the village of Maiburnak, southwest of the city of Karaganda.

Mission parameters

* Mass: * Perigee: * Apogee: * Inclination: 51.65° * Period: 88.50 minutes

"Crew" hoax

Conceptual artist Joan Fontcuberta claimed in 1997 that Soyuz 2 was crewed by Ivan Istochnikov and a dog named Kloka, who disappeared on 26 October 1968, with signs of having been hit by a meteorite. According to Fontcuberta, Soviet officials deleted Istochnikov from official Soviet history to avoid embarrassment; however, the "Sputnik Foundation" discovered Istochnikov's "voice transcriptions, videos, original annotations, some of his personal effects, and photographs taken throughout his lifetime". The exhibition of artifacts (e.g., photographs) related to "Soyuz 2" was shown in many countries, including

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, and the

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.Pérez de Albéniz, Javier
El cosmonauta fantasma
''El Mundo'' magazine, 25 May 1997, Retrieved 1 July 2008 Among other reactions to the exhibition, a Russian ambassador "got extremely angry because ontcubertawas insulting the glorious Russian past and threatened to present a diplomatic complaint". Several lines of evidence available since the first exhibition of "Sputnik" in 1997 in

Madrid Madrid ( ; ) is the capital and List of largest cities in Spain, most populous municipality of Spain. It has almost 3.5 million inhabitants and a Madrid metropolitan area, metropolitan area population of approximately 7 million. It i ...

suggested that the story and artifacts form an elaborate hoax: * The name "Ivan Istochnikov" is a Russian translation of Joan Fontcuberta's name; in specific, "Joan" and "Ivan" both translate to "John" and "Fontcuberta" and "Istochnikov" both mean "hidden fountain". * The photographs of Istochnikov show Fontcuberta's face. * Pages of the official website of the Madrid exhibition contain the words "PURE FICTION" toward the top of each page in light red text on a dark red background or light pink text on a white background. * The front and rear endpapers of the catalog accompanying the Madrid exhibition have the words "it's all fiction" in Russian and Spanish printed on them using glow-in-the-dark ink.Kondakova, Olga, et al., ''Sputnik'', Madrid: Fundación Arte y Tecnologia, 1997 * At the website of Spanish newspaper ''El Mundo'', the third of three pages concerning the Madrid exhibition states that "the report which we published on the previous pages is a product of his ontcuberta'simagination".

References

External links

Brown University News Service
Artists mix fact and fantasy in ''False Witness'' exhibition at Bell Gallery. {{N1-L3 Spacecraft launched in 1968 Soyuz uncrewed test flights 1968 in the Soviet Union Spacecraft which reentered in 1968

Mission parameters

"Crew" hoax

See also

References

Further reading

External links