Valentin Filatyev

Valentin Ignatyevich Filatyev (; 21 January 1930 – 15 September 1990) was a Soviet cosmonaut who was dismissed from the Soviet space program for disciplinary reasons. He attended the Stalingrad HAF pilots School, graduating in 1955, and served as a fighter pilot in the Air Defense Force.

Early life He was one of five children, raised amidst the World War II, which claimed the lives of his father, Ignatius and two brothers. Filatyev attended the Shablyninsky secondary school in his hometown of Malinovka, Tyumen Region, Russia, in 1938. According to reports, the officers of the patrol were willing to dismiss the incident if the cosmonauts apologized; Filatyev and Anikeyev agreed but Nelyubov refused, and the matter was reported to the authorities. Because there had been previous incidents, all three were dismissed from the cosmonaut corps on 17 April 1963, though officially not until 4 May 1963. Filatyev never went on a space mission and following his dismissal, he eventually became a teacher.

To protect the image of the space program, efforts were made to cover up the reason for Filatyev's dismissal. His image was airbrushed out of cosmonaut photos and consequently this airbrushing led to speculation about "lost cosmonauts".