The film is dedicated to cosmonaut Grigory's Nelyubov fate. He was the second backup of Yuri Gagarin, but never went to space. A purposeful, ambitious, strong man with a great power of will. Grigory Nelyubov was admired by Keldysh and Raushenbakh, Yuri Gagarin and Pavel Popovich called him their friend. Sergey Pavlovich Korolyov thought highly of the cosmonaut. Naval air forces pilot, Captain Grigory Nelyubov was meant to become world famous. However, since 1963 all the shots that had once filmed the cosmonaut vanished from newsreel and documentary archives. His depiction was retouched on photos, whilst the very name of Nelyubov was crossed out of the cosmonauts’ detachment list. Why did it happen?
Premier released on the 11th of July 2007 on channel ROSSIYA
In December 2007 the documentary film He Could Have Been the First One. Cosmonaut’s Nelyubov Drama won in the international contest and obtained a national award “Lavr” (“Laurel”) in the field of documentary cinematograph and television in the nomination for the “best popular-science film”.
