This Week in Space Exploration - Vladimir Komarov's Death

This Week's Historical Theme: Space Exploration

 

24 April 1967

A significant event throughout the history of space exploration that occurred in April was the death of Soviet cosmonaut, test pilot and aerospace engineer, Colonel Vladimir Komarov. Komarov was testing the spacecraft Soyuz 1 during the space race between the United States and the Soviet Union. After 24 hours and 16 orbits of the earth, Komarov was scheduled to re-enter the atmosphere, but ran into difficulty handling the vessel. It took 2 more orbits around the earth before he could manage re-entry. When Soyuz 1 reached an altitude of 23,000 feet, a parachute was supposed to deploy and bring Komarov safely to earth. However, the lines of the chute had gotten tangled during the re-entry difficulties and there was no back up chute. Komarov plunged to the ground at 144km/h and was killed on impact. This was the first fatality of a space flight.

There was a vast public morning of Vladimir Komarov in Moscow and his ashes were buried in the walls of the Kremlin. Komarov's wife, Valentina, had not been told about the launch of Soyuz 1 until after Komarov was already in orbit and thus didn't get a chance to say goodbye to her husband. Earlier in 1967, the US experienced its own space related tragedy where 3 NASA astronauts in the Apollo program (Gus Grissom, Edward White and Roger Chafee) were killed in a fire during tests on the ground. Despite the dangers, the US and the Soviet Union continued their space exploration program and 2 years later in 1969 the US landed the first man on the moon.

Want to find out more about Soyuz 1? Click here for more information, or here for more about the space race.