A few weeks ago, a Russian spacecraft failed to land on the moon. Now one of the rocket scientists involved is dead.
World-renowned Russian rocket scientist Vitaly Melnikov has died at the age of 77. The exact circumstances of his death are still unclear, but initial reports say he succumbed to “mushroom poisoning” just weeks after the failed Russian attempt to land on the moon. This was reported by the Moscow tabloid “Moskovsky Komsomolets” on Thursday.
A “preliminary” investigation is said to indicate that non-edible mushrooms were the source of the poisoning. Despite intensive medical treatment, the doctors could not save Melnikov. He is said to have been hospitalized on August 11th. The exact date of death is not yet known.
Death of Menikov follows failed lunar landing mission
Rocket scientist Melnikov was the head of the rocket and space systems department at RSC Energia, one of the leading space companies in Moscow. He was also the chief researcher in a department of the Russian space agency Roskosmos. With a total of 291 scientific articles, he enjoyed a high reputation worldwide and worked closely with foreign colleagues. Among them are said to have been experts from NASA, reports the British “Daily Mail”.
His death now follows the failure of Russia’s recent lunar landing mission, which was personally orchestrated by Putin. The first Moscow lunar mission in half a century, dubbed Luna-25, ended in disaster: the probe crashed on the moon’s surface on August 19.
There were already doubts about the mission in advance. Roskosmos boss Yuri Borissow described the project as “risky” from the start. He told Putin in June that the probability of the project succeeding was “around 70 percent.”
