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An Additional Wrinkle - Cosmonauts in Attendance of the Launch

Since the original reportage in the Quest article serialization back in 2004 where it had been revealed that cosmonaut Khrunov had admitted to viewing the July 1969 launch failure on site,[101] further information has come to light about additional cosmonauts that were at Tyuratam to view the 5L launching.  In the 2002 book We Have Capture, the authors report that Leonov revealed to Apollo astronaut Stafford that Leonov himself, as well as Makarov and Rukavishnikov, were in attendance for the N-1 launching in the wee hours of July 3,1969.[102] 

Additionally,  in a special symposium sponsored by Autographica in London during the autumn of 2004, cosmonauts Bykovskiy and Valentina Tereshkova were the special guests, and held forth about their spaceflight training and experiences.  Bykovskiy revealed that he did witness the July 1969 launch failure, and further provided the surprise material that he had attended all four N-1 launchings.[103]  This unprecedented revelation opens the door to the probability that a significant cross-section of all cosmonauts, flown, unflown, and in training at that time-attended the July 1969 N-1 launching, and perhaps the other launch attempts in the series as well.

Questions our Russia-based colleagues could answer via interviewing the surviving members of the cosmonaut cadre from that time frame are:  Why were the cosmonauts attending the July 1969 N-1 launch?  What was their role?  Was it merely to observe?  Or was there something more to it?  What were the specific roles for Leonov, Bykovskiy, Gorbatko, Makarov, Klimuk, and the others?  Did any of the cosmonauts have a direct role in the preparations of the N-1's payload?  If so, what did these preparatory roles encompass?

In closing, I would like to leave readers with the following information.  Back in February 2002, a TV documentary produced by Heinz-Eyermann was broadcast on German television.  In a filmed interview, cosmonaut Leonov discussed the lunar program. He mentioned that during the flight of Apollo 8 around the Moon, "the mood spread on to the highest leadership level to cancel this program [of manned circumlunar flight].  We were very well prepared.  The first and the second crews were very well trained and waited for action."  But Leonov said that the circumlunar project was stopped by the government after Apollo 8's return.  "But at the same time," he added, "the training for the manned lunar landing continued.  It was all very strange."[63]

Very strange indeed.

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