The Story of Okha 2

The Soviet space mission Okha 2 is without a doubt one of the most futile ever conducted. Launched on November 19, 1965, the meaning of this mission was to investigate the upper atmosphere and to investigate life for longer periods in space.

The scheduled flight would be two weeks, and it was all in the name of the celebration of the 50th birthday of The Communist Book — the manual of communism — written by Lenin himself. The whole mission was shrouded in secrecy. They would release the news to the West when it was the actual birthday of the book. November 23 was the date, four days later.

The two pilots who would fly the spaceship were selected from the finest: Vasiliy Romanov and Yuri Valvelkiy. Both the pilots were sure for their share to communism and took a copy of the book with them. The launch vehicle of the Okha's were nothing more than updated versions of the Vostok and Voschod rockets, only more powerful than back in the day.

After the launch, the crew befell trouble. The last stage of the rocket, where the spaceship hung on to, didn't fall off, so they were stuck there. After a while, it fell off itself, but now they were too high in orbit and kept on climbing. Soviet Mission Control then decided to abandon the mission and leave them to their fate. The last communication they heard was from the moon. They were heading to the Andromeda Galaxy and were never heard from again.