Lost in Space

As the brothers listened, the cosmonaut experimented with zero gravity. They lost the signal as the cosmonaut prepared for re-entry while whistling a communist hymn. It was only then that President John F Kennedy was awoken at 2am to be given the news that Yuri Gagarin was the first man in space.

Five weeks later, on 19 May 1961, the brothers picked up what is now their most infamous recording, which they claim is of a woman cosmonaut whose ship burned up on re-entry. Then, a few days after this, they picked up a tantalising few seconds of another trans­mission: “Conditions growing worse, why don’t you answer?”

Lost in Space

Views of Jupiter

Views of Jupiter

Satellites

30 Most Incredible Abstract Satellite Images of Earth

4.6 Billion Years of Love

If the Great Filter is ahead of us, we have still to confront it. If it is true that almost all intelligent species go extinct before they master the technology for space colonization, then we must expect that our own species will, too, since we have no reason to think that we will be any luckier than other species. If the Great Filter is ahead of us, we must relinquish all hope of ever colonizing the galaxy, and we must fear that our adventure will end soon--or, at any rate, prematurely. Therefore, we had better hope that the Great Filter is behind us.

Where are they?

Spaceship Junkyard

Space rockets consist mainly of fuel tanks and booster engine stages that never reach orbit, falling back to earth when spent. Due to the land-locked location of Baikonur, Russia's biggest launching complex in Kazakhstan, Russian rockets do not reach the ocean before they come crashing down, often falling into populated areas.

However, despite the potential dangers, one group of people is getting rich from the rockets - the region's scrap metal Mafia, who thrive on the high-grade titanium and aluminum alloys.

Spaceship Junkyard