Judica-Cordiglia brothers
Italian brothers who recorded alleged lost Soviet cosmonauts.
The Judica-Cordiglia brothers were Italian amateur radio enthusiasts whose audio recordings are cited by those who believe the Soviet Union secretly lost cosmonauts during the 1960s space race. The brothers claimed they intercepted communications from multiple failed, classified Soviet missions, and their work has intrigued the public for over half a century.
Achille (1933–2015) and Giovanni Battista (1939–2024) built a makeshift listening station in a former German bunker near Turin in the late 1950s. Using scavenged and improvised gear, they said they successfully monitored transmissions from the Soviet Sputnik program (both Sputnik 1 and 2) and the American satellite Explorer 1 in 1958, capturing telemetry, voice recordings, and visual data.
During the 1960s, they released recordings they claimed came from secret Soviet space missions, including what they described as the dying sounds of a suffocating cosmonaut. According to a compilation by the British magazine *Fortean Times*, which focuses on anomalous phenomena, these alleged incidents include: an unnamed cosmonaut lost in May 1960 when his capsule veered off course; a faint SOS in Morse code from a spacecraft on an escape trajectory on November 28, 1960; heavy breathing and a rapid heartbeat from a suffocating cosmonaut in February 1961; a capsule that circled Earth three times before re-entering the atmosphere in April 1961, just before Yuri Gagarin’s flight; weak calls for help from an orbiting capsule in May 1961; a spacecraft that veered off course and vanished into deep space in October 1961; a capsule that bounced off the atmosphere during re-entry and disappeared in November 1962; an unnamed female cosmonaut who perished on re-entry in May 1963; and a cosmonaut lost when his capsule burned up on re-entry in April 1964.
The most famous recording, dated May 23, 1963, features a female voice frantically reporting her spacecraft burning up: “I CAN SEE A FLAME!… I CAN SEE A FLAME!… I FEEL HOT… I FEEL HOT… THIRTYTWO… THIRTYTWO… FORTYONE… FORTYONE AM I GOING TO CRASH?… YES…YES… I FEEL HOT!… I FEEL HOT!… I WILL REENTER!… I WILL REENTER… I AM LISTENING!… I FEEL HOT!…” Notably, the speaker does not follow standard communication protocols, which has raised doubts about the recording’s authenticity.
Skeptics point to several inconsistencies.
- Brothers
- Achille (1933–2015) and Giovanni Battista (1939–2024)
- Location
- Torre Bert, near Turin, Italy
- First claimed success
- 1958, monitoring Sputnik 1 & 2 and Explorer 1
- Most well-known recording
- May 23, 1963, of a female cosmonaut
- Publication coverage
- Fortean Times, March 2008
- Tv feature
- Science Channel's Dark Matters: Twisted But True, 2011
- Podcast feature
- Vice Extremes podcast, March 2020
Lore & Background
Achille and Giovanni Battista Judica-Cordiglia set up their experimental listening station in the late 1950s just outside Turin, using a disused German bunker at a site named Torre Bert. Working with scavenged and improvised equipment, they claimed to have successfully monitored transmissions from the Soviet Sputnik program and Explorer 1, the first American satellite, in 1958, recording flight information such as telemetry, voice recordings and visual data.
In the 1960s, the brothers released recordings alleged to be radio communications from secret Soviet space missions, including the purported dying sounds of a suffocating lost cosmonaut. As compiled by Kris Hollington of the Fortean Times, the quoted list includes incidents from May 1960 through April 1964, such as an unnamed cosmonaut lost when his capsule veered off course, a faint SOS message in Morse code from a troubled spacecraft on an escape trajectory, and the heavy breathing and rapid heartbeat of a suffocating cosmonaut in February 1961.
The most well-known recording, taken on May 23, 1963, features a female cosmonaut frantically communicating her distress as her spacecraft burns up in the atmosphere. Notably, the cosmonaut does not use formal communication protocols, casting doubt on the authenticity of the recording. Audio transcripts reveal that none of the cosmonauts followed standard communication protocols, such as identifying themselves or using correct technical terminology, and some recordings contain disjointed sentences, grammatical errors, and an accent that does not sound Russian.
Reader's Guide
The recordings of the Judica-Cordiglia brothers have been a subject of public interest for more than 50 years, largely due to their role in the conspiracy theory that the Soviet space program covered up cosmonaut deaths in the 1960s. Given the secrecy surrounding the Soviet space program at the time, the US intelligence community considered the claims plausible, but subsequent mass declassification of Soviet documents provided no evidence for the existence of the lost cosmonauts. The brothers' story has been featured in various media: Fortean Times published an article in March 2008, the Science Channel TV show Dark Matters: Twisted But True covered it in 2011, and Vice interviewed Giovanni Battista for its Extremes podcast in March 2020. In 2024, the Apple TV+ series Constellation included recordings of a lost female cosmonaut as a major plot point and recreated the brothers' alleged 1961 recording. The legacy of the Judica-Cordiglia brothers remains tied to the enduring fascination with the lost cosmonaut theory, despite the lack of supporting evidence from declassified Soviet documents.
Did You Know?
- The brothers set up their listening station in a disused German bunker at Torre Bert near Turin.
- They claimed to have monitored Sputnik 1 & 2 and Explorer 1 in 1958 using scavenged and improvised equipment.
- The most famous recording, from May 23, 1963, features a female cosmonaut saying 'I CAN SEE A FLAME!'
- None of the cosmonauts in the recordings followed standard Soviet communication protocols.
More in Amateur Radio People, Part 3 1-24
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