I was turned on to this site the mentions a Project Thunderwell that may have sent the first manmade object into space before the Russians.

http://www.geocities.com/CapeCanaveral/Hall/1892/sputnik.html

I bet it would be hard to tell now that it was manmade.

Just aman

I have heard that many think that Yuri Gagarin wasn't actually the first person in space. Some say another Russian was the first to space but that he died on re-entry so the Russians covered it up to avoid embarassment.

Unless they decide to make it all public (which, lets face it, is highly unlikely) then we'll just end up creating loads of silly conspiracy theories, which just annoy everyone.

On 8/27/2003 at 1:45 AM, IMI said:

I have heard that many think that Yuri Gagarin wasn't actually the first person in space. Some say another Russian was the first to space but that he died on re-entry so the Russians covered it up to avoid embarassment.

1) The question is how we define "the space". There is no absolutely evident border between atmosphere and the space.

2) The space race never ends. It just only started. Russians, Chinese, Indians could be the first on Mars, Venus etc. And don't forget the other galaxies.

2 hours ago, Moreno said:

1) The question is how we define "the space". There is no absolutely evident border between atmosphere and the space.

"the Kármán line, an altitude of 100 km (62 mi) above sea level,^[7][8] is conventionally used as the start of outer space in space treaties and for aerospace records keeping."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Outer_space

Did you really need to revive a 16 year old thread to ask that?