[Virginia Ridgerunner]

I say BS! During reentry, a capsule is surrounded by ultra-hot, ionized gasses that make radio transmissions impossible. There is no way they could have heard such a thing, and moreover, once in orbit (essentially falling around the earth due to gravity), without some means of additional propulsion, it is impossible for a spacecraft to simply veer off course and fly off into space.

[Boundless]

> I say BS!

I suspect Oberg agrees. I don’t recall any of this from
his book “Red Star in Orbit”.

> During reentry, a capsule is surrounded by ultra-hot,
> ionized gasses that make radio transmissions impossible.

Only in front and aside of the shock cone. Directly aft,
radio still works, but it requires a commsat astern.
NASA TDRS sats allow continuous comm with the shuttle this
way. Prior to TDRS, yep, blackout.

> ... once in orbit (essentially falling around the earth
> due to gravity), without some means of additional
> propulsion, it is impossible for a spacecraft to simply
> veer off course and fly off into space.

No, there are some scenarios, but all of them require
escape delta-V, making it a bit of a stretch, failed
trans-lunar orbits and the like.

None of which is to say that there aren’t cosmonauts
unaccounted for.

[sinanju]

That got me too. Jim Oberg must have known these guys well. His “Soviet Space Disasters” makes it clear that there is simply no hard evidence for any of these lurid, unproven stories.

I don’t see how a Soyuz booster rocket could (even if it had the extra fuel and burned out of control) achieve escape velocity from the sun’s gravitational well.

[bajabaja]

VR, the article didn’t claim that they picked up re-entry transmissions, but the opposite. They picked up signals while in orbit and found a simple and cheap way to calculate radio frequency by looking at the obvious that every one else missed.

[Pete from Shawnee Mission]

“it is impossible for a spacecraft to simply veer off course and fly off into space.”

Not veer, but move off into space, absolutely possible. You have to reenter at a certain angle or you skip off the atmosphere and into space. If you don’t have any more fuel, say goodbye to the earth.

[SlightOfTongue]

I say BS! During reentry, a capsule is surrounded by ultra-hot, ionized gasses that make radio transmissions impossible. There is no way they could have heard such a thing, and moreover, once in orbit (essentially falling around the earth due to gravity), without some means of additional propulsion, it is impossible for a spacecraft to simply veer off course and fly off into space.

And YOU know all this because....

...you're a certified astronaut, right?

I'd say..space cadet, but astronaut? NOT!