Putin’s mission to send the first Russian spacecraft to the moon after 50 years failed. Did that have consequences for a rocket scientist?
MOSCOW – Just a few weeks after Russia’s failed attempt to send a space probe to the moon, a scientist from the team involved has died. The cause of death is said to be according to the Russian newspaper MKRU be a “mushroom poisoning”. But the circumstances surrounding the death of 77-year-old Vitaly Melnikov raise questions.
How MKRU reported on Thursday, Melnikov died in a Moscow hospital on Wednesday morning after being admitted with severe poisoning on August 11. Doctors are said to have tried to save the scientist’s life for weeks. But without success. The 77-year-old suffered from kidney failure and eventually died as a result.
Mysterious “mushroom poisoning”: Putin’s rocket researcher dies after failed moon landing
Shortly thereafter, more details about his death became known. According to new information from the newspaper, Melnikov should MKRU ate self-gathered mushrooms that he had picked in a forest near Moscow. According to his family, he was actually an expert in the field. “According to his relatives, he used to gather mushrooms every summer and had never been poisoned by forest food before. He always went mushroom hunting alone and enjoyed being at one with nature.
When the scientist later prepared the mushrooms, he was alone. His family was in Moscow at the time. The 77-year-old then returned to the capital after the first signs of poisoning had appeared.
Vitaly Melnikov worked at RSC Energia, the largest space company in Russia, where he headed the rocket and space systems department and took part in many scientific experiments. Among other things, he was instrumental in Russia’s lunar program. Part of it was the mission with the Luna-25 spacecraft. About a week after its launch, the probe hit the moon’s surface after an incident on August 20 and crashed there.
It was Russia’s first lunar mission in almost 50 years. Actually, “Luna” should have been on the road for a long time. The first scheduled launch date for a lunar probe was 2012. Last year another launch was planned for May, but this was delayed again due to technical problems.
With the “Luna-25” moon mission, Russia wanted to show that it is capable of scientific excellence despite the war in Ukraine and despite the pressure of Western sanctions. After the successful launch of the probe from the Vostochny cosmodrome in the Amur region, Russian politicians emphasized that the country would not be defeated.
Russian rocket researcher dies of “mushroom poisoning” – doubts about circumstances
The background and information about Melnikov’s death cannot be independently verified. According to official information, the scientist was already hospitalized before the probe crashed, so apparently both events happened independently. However, the fact that the 77-year-old was a mushroom picker for many years and died on Wednesday shortly after the mission failed raises at least doubts.
It would not be the first time in Russia that critics or confidants of Russian President Vladimir Putin who disappoint him have mysteriously died. Most recently, a plane carrying Putin critic Yevgeny Prigozhin crashed. Many experts suspect that Putin wanted to demonstrate his power after Prigozhin’s attempted uprising against the Kremlin. In June, a senior Russian lawyer fell from a window near his home in Moscow.(nz with dpa material)
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