Grigori Nelyubov
Grigori Grigoryevich Neljubow (Russian Григорий Григорьевич Нелюбов; born March 31, 1934 in Porfirjewka, Crimea, Ukraine, † February 18, 1966 near Vladivostok ) was a Russian military pilot and cosmonaut. He would have been the third or fourth person in the universe, if it had not come to his dismissal from the Soviet space program. Neljubow was a captain and pilot in the Air Force.
He was selected on 7 March 1960 as one of 20 pilot for the first cosmonaut group of the Soviet Union. As In May 1960, six candidates were nominated for the first flights of the Vostok program, Neljubow was not among them, but moved after in July for Anatoli Kartashov, who resigned for health reasons. Yuri Gagarin, German Titov and Neljubow were the first three candidates.
For the missions Vostok 1 Neljubow was at Vostok 2 is selected as the second replacement for Gagarin and probably the first substitute for Titov. For the dual launch of Vostok 3 and Vostok 4 Neljubow was again selected as a replacement for Andrian Nikolayev and Pavel Popovich.
On March 27, 1963 Neljubow, Anikejew and Filatjew were drunk arrested for disorderly conduct on the military airfield Chkalovsky. According to reports, the patrolling security forces were willing to overlook the incident, when the cosmonauts apologized, but Neljubow refused. The incident was reported to the authorities. Since there was already previous incidents, all three cosmonauts were ( officially only on 4 May 1963) released on 17 April 1963. Neljubow was thus never in space.
After his release, he went back to the flight interceptors to Siberia, but he drank a lot and fell into depression. He died on February 18, 1966 north-west of Vladivostok, as drunk he took a train. Officially his death was classified as suicide.
In order to protect the reputation of the space program, efforts have been made, the reason for the dismissal Neljubows and his death to cover up. So its image from the photos of the six was removed from Sochi, on the some Soviet astronaut candidates were mapped.