In Memoriam, 24 April 1967

[ehbowen]

Vladimir Komarov


Tuesday is the 51st anniversary of the tragic death of Vladimir Komarov, the first human to die in space. The mission was Soyuz 1, the initial flight of the Soviet designed spacecraft which is still in use today. He was well aware that this first spacecraft had major, critical flaws but chose to make the flight in order to protect the life of his colleague Yuri Gagarin, who otherwise would have been ordered to make the flight. He made his funeral arrangements in advance. There were numerous malfunctions throughout the nearly 2-day flight which Komarov managed to overcome, but he was killed as a result of parachute failure during his re-entry.

"The conquest of space is worth the risk of life"--American astronaut Gus Grissom.

[Hariti]

Vladimir Komarov


Tuesday is the 51st anniversary of the tragic death of Vladimir Komarov, the first human to die in space. The mission was Soyuz 1, the initial flight of the Soviet designed spacecraft which is still in use today. He was well aware that this first spacecraft had major, critical flaws but chose to make the flight in order to protect the life of his colleague Yuri Gagarin, who otherwise would have been ordered to make the flight. He made his funeral arrangements in advance. There were numerous malfunctions throughout the nearly 2-day flight which Komarov managed to overcome, but he was killed as a result of parachute failure during his re-entry.

"The conquest of space is worth the risk of life"--American astronaut Gus Grissom.

A sacrifice worth remembering, although most sacrifices are.

[RandallS]

"The conquest of space is worth the risk of life"--American astronaut Gus Grissom.

This flight, however, was not worth the risk of life. The Soviet leadership knew the Soyuz spacecraft had major problems but pushed ahead because the Soviet leadership wanted the fight (and that of Soyuz 2, which fortunately did not launch because of bad weather -- there was to have been a crew exchange between the two in orbit) to mark Lenin's birthday. Heck, all three unmanned test flights of the Soyuz prior to this launch had been failures. However, the later versions of the Soyuz have been very reliable.