Turin Brothers' Soviet Space Signals Remain Unverified

Achille and Giovanni Battista Judica-Cordiglia built Torre Bert near Turin after Sputnik 1 launched in 1957 and used the amateur radio station to track satellites and Soviet spacecraft. Their later claims that they intercepted transmissions from lost cosmonauts remain unsupported by independently verified evidence.

Key details

• The brothers said they intercepted an SOS signal in late 1960 that they thought might have come from a Soviet spacecraft drifting away from Earth.
• They also described receiving breathing and heartbeat sounds in early 1961 and a recording they associated with a female cosmonaut.
• Spaceflight researcher Sven Grahn acknowledged their tracking activity and suggested they may have misinterpreted some signals.
• No independently verified launch records or authenticated communications cited in the material substantiate secret Soviet crewed missions with lost cosmonauts before Yuri Gagarin’s flight.

The brothers established Torre Bert with improvised and surplus equipment after Sputnik 1 launched in 1957.

Why it matters

Amateur radio tracking provided a way to monitor early satellite and spacecraft signals outside official space programs. The brothers’ claims show why reception of a signal and identification of its origin require separate evidence.