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Good article, not too much anti-russian speech.

Also see the space laser handgun: http://englishrussia.com/2013/10/05/laser-gun-for-a-soviet-c...

For comparison, US medical and survival kits from Mercury to Apollo [1].

[1] http://airandspace.si.edu/exhibitions/apollo-to-the-moon/onl...

> here are the three coolest-looking cosmonauts I found while researching this post ...

> Tereshkova

Yes, the first woman in space. Had a major panic attack during the flight, screamed her lungs out, vomited all over the capsule and prompted Korolev to instigate the "no women in space while I'm alive" rule, which was in fact observed.

> Musa Manarov

Incidentally I worked with a guy who was training as Manarov's double for one of his flights. But then something didn't work out, he left the program and ended up writing (accounting) software for living.

What's the source for the Tereshkova thing? The first that came up for it is longtime space journalist James Oberg writing in 1981 that it's "a malicious rumor," then allowing that it might be true but it's a state secret. And then a bunch of recent articles that mention her vomiting but not the other stuff.
I heard it from my dad, who heard it from his, who in turn was friends with some top brass in the space program and apparently it was an open secret in those circles.
Yes, … observed.

This is a shitty comment and makes HN and the internet at large a worse place. I don't have time to engage in an extended debate about this, but I wanted to note, publicly, that this is inappropriate.

(If you had contact info in your profile, I'd have sent this directly. Feel free to contact me by email, but I can't promise I'll be able to respond.)

Seconded.

Perhaps the parent poster didn't intend to offend, and just wanted to pass along some personal information? It's hard to tell. To be clear, this type of gender-based ban is rediculous.

A brief search on this shows there's a much more balanced information out there. Here are some interesting snips from a CS Monitor article on Tereshkova.

http://www.csmonitor.com/Science/2013/0614/First-woman-in-sp...

She actually solved the first big problem in her flight: On the first day, the ship's autopilot mistakenly steered her away from Earth, leaving her facing the prospect of being lost in space.

After her trip, the Soviet space program canceled any future trips for women, and indeed, Tereshkova remained the only woman to go to space for almost two decades. In 1982, the Soviets launched a second woman, Svetlana Savitskaya, and the next year, America sent up Sally Ride. Since then, 48 other American women have gone to space, but only one other Russian: Yelena V. Kondakova, in 1994.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/24/science/space/sally-ride-t...

> She actually solved the first big problem in her flight: On the first day, the ship's autopilot mistakenly steered her away from Earth, leaving her facing the prospect of being lost in space.

The Cristian Science Monitor is an excellent source of information on the Soviet space program, but the autopilot malfunction was exactly what triggered Tereshkova's meltdown. It took considerable effort for the Control Center to make her calm down and follow the instructions to reset the autopilot. She was by and large unfit for the mission and she ended up in space only because Soviet Union needed to launch a woman into orbit.

Do you have any sources for this other than, literally, "dad's dad's friend who heard a rumor?"
From what I understand my grandafather's friend was a part of the launch crew, so it's not exactly "dad's dad's friend + rumor", but here you go anyways, courtesy of Wikipedia -

http://www.webcitation.org/6Ho9TOB7t

You want this part -

  В космос Терешкова слетала. Это потрясающая, мужественная 
  женщина, но ведь она не выполнила ни единого своего задания!
  Ее тошнило в космосе, она теряла сознание, мне Королев
  рассказывал. Тогда же при мне он сказал: «Пока я жив, ни
  одна женщина в космос больше не полетит». И двадцать лет
  наши женщины не были в космосе.
I trust you can handle the translation.
Your comment is no less shitty. If you're going to come right out and label it a "shitty comment" and claim that it makes the world a worse place, you better be backing it up and not running away with "oh, but I can't be bothered to explain it". You don't have time? Maybe you shouldn't be reading HN and making hit-and-run comments, and go back to your editor of choice if you're that pressed.

What's so inappropriate? Has the story been debunked as not being true? Were women, in fact, not banned by the named authority for a period of time? Or did you take it as some misogynistic comment about how girls shouldn't make space flights?

If you've assumed that the reason for your vitriol should be obvious to all, you'd be wrong. I read the OP comment and only thought, "hmm, didn't know that. Will have to go read up on that later."

Charming. You'd be shocked to know that there are stories out there that are not politically correct. Pray tell, how concealing them is making the internet a better place.

> Feel free to contact me by email, but I can't promise I'll be able to respond.

Wow, thank you. Very gracious of you.

I think yours is the worse comment in that it makes a judgement and provides no thoughts to back it back, making it quite useless. A good practice in commenting I think, is to provide some kind of why. The parent comment at least provided an informational nugget (which may or may not be true).

If you think the information is provided in the comment is falso, say so. If not, what your position devolves into standard censorship.

Shoot, a fella could have a pretty good time in Vegas with all this stuff.
I think the full quote is in order. [1] It's hilarious:

   Major T. J. "King" Kong: Survival kit contents
   check. In them you'll find: one forty-five caliber
   automatic; two boxes of ammunition; four days'
   concentrated emergency rations; one drug issue
   containing antibiotics, morphine, vitamin pills,
   pep pills, sleeping pills, tranquilizer pills;
   one miniature combination Russian phrase book
   and Bible; one hundred dollars in rubles;
   one hundred dollars in gold; nine packs of
   chewing gum; one issue of prophylactics;
   three lipsticks; three pair of nylon stockings.
   Shoot, a fella' could have a pretty good
   weekend in Vegas with all that stuff.
BTW since the movie was released shortly after the JFK assassination, "Dallas" was dubbed to "Vegas" in post-production.[2]

[1] http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0057012/trivia?tab=qt&ref_=tt_tr... [2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dr._Strangelove#Kennedy_assassi...

Not long ago I saw, on a live feed, one of the Russian cosmonauts use a large dagger, during an EVA to install the new cameras facing earth.

I guess it's not all that different from using a diving knife, but it was weird to see that double-edged weapon used in space.

Would you provide more details to trace-back this footage?
It was on 2013-12-27, or at least that was the date in Western Europe. The knife had what looked like a leather sheath. I remember seeing it through the wall of his perspex toolbox after he tidied it up.

Good luck :)

Found it. Third part 2:21:40.

http://www.space-multimedia.nl.eu.org/index.php?option=com_c...

Bravo. I'm surprised you found that in all those hours of video!

I wonder if it's custom made or a regular diving knife. Those Orlan space suit gloves are quite bulky.

Download and fast forward, 10 minutes.
I'm skeptical Makarov's main purpose was scaring off bears. More likely a quick way for the cosmonaut to terminate it's own life?
> NASA spent nearly 20 years developing a form of space ice cream that astronauts found palatable.

When will the internet get over the space pen meme?