Well-known Russian rocket scientist dies after eating poisonous mushrooms | War Ukraine and Russia

Melnikov headed the missile and space systems division at RSC Energia, a Russian company that manufactures and launches rockets, spacecraft and modules for space stations. He was also a principal investigator at TsNIIMASH, a Russian government science center that develops missiles and spacecraft, and authored nearly 300 scientific papers.

According to the Russian daily ‘Moskovskij Komsomolets’, the man went mushroom picking in the forest near his country house near Moscow on August 9. The next day he would have prepared and eaten them. He was all alone, his family was still in the Russian capital.

When he began to feel unwell, he returned to Moscow. He had all the symptoms of food poisoning and was taken to hospital by ambulance when his condition continued to deteriorate. He was admitted to the toxicology department of the Institut Sklifosovskogo.

For twenty days they tried to save his life, but his kidneys failed and on Wednesday his family was told he had not made it. The man’s family says he used to pick mushrooms in the woods every summer and never got sick before.

Three weeks ago, Russia launched its first lander to the moon in nearly fifty years. Luna-25 was successfully placed in lunar orbit, but crashed a few days later while trying to land near the South Pole. It would have been the very first time a lunar lander landed there. India, meanwhile, succeeded in carrying out the mission successfully.

LOOK. Russian space agency boss may explain on state TV why Luna-25 crashed on the moon