I was very taken with a story in a recent Fortean Times 'Lost in Space' about Russia's 'missing' Cosmonauts. I have some thought on this as well as some questions.

The website www.lostcosmonauts.com tells the story of these Cosmonauts in an entirely non-skeptical way, accepting the story as true, based on the recordings of the Judica-Cordiglia brothers. What interests me is whether any third party has ever examined these recordings to verify their content. For example, there is an interview with Gian Battista Judica Cordiglia on the website where they discuss the 'famous' recording of a woman, purported to be a female cosmonaut in a Vostok space ship, burning up on re-entry. In the interview he also mentions that they recorded two men at around the same time. Now this is extra-ordinary stuff, not one mystery cosmonaut but three at the same time. If they actually do have these recordings it would be essential from the point of view of scholarship and correcting the historical record that these recordings be properly examined by experts who could authenticate them. This would include such things as looking at the quality and nature of the recordings, what is being said and how it is being said. Also, magnetic tape from 1961 would most likely be showing signs of deterioration by now, these recordings should be transferred to some more permanent medium to avoid their being lost.

My suspicion regarding the recording was raised when it was revealed that the JC brothers had a sister who spoke Russian - could she have hoaxed the recording? they have not released any recordings of male voices.

On hunting round the web I find a lot of possible information relating to this particular recording, in some places the cosmonaut is identified as Ludmilla Serakovna in others she is Ludmila Tokovy in tandem with her husband Anatoley or Nikolay. Also the date is generally given as May 1961 but in some sources it is dated to 1963. Where is all this information coming from? no sources are given.

This story is currently of great fascination to me. If true it is huge, if not, two Italian brothers have a lot of explaining to do.
Ian Batterham
Australia