On April 24, 1967, Soviet cosmonaut Vladimir Komarov died during the landing of the spacecraft “Soyuz 1“, after his capsule crashed.
The main cause of the tragedy was the failure of the parachute system of the descent vehicle, which led to a high-speed impact with the ground.
Komarov, who flew the day before, became the first person to die during a mission in space.
He was the first Soviet cosmonaut to fly in space twice (the first time with “Voskhod 1“).
This mission was part of the ambitious Soviet space program program, but was accompanied by numerous technical problems that led to the disaster.
This is one of the most tragic moments in the history of space exploration. Vladimir Komarov knew that the ship had hundreds of structural defects, but nevertheless accepted the mission to protect his backup — his close friend Yuri Gagarin.
Immediately after the launch into orbit, the left solar panel did not deploy. This led to a shortage of electricity and blocked the operation of important orientation sensors.
Due to the damaged panel and defects in the sensors, the ship began to rotate uncontrollably. Komarov made heroic attempts to stabilize the capsule manually.
A second spacecraft (Soyuz 2) was originally planned to be launched to dock with Komarov, but due to bad weather and damage to Soyuz 1, the second mission was canceled.
Despite the difficult conditions, Komarov managed to steer the spacecraft into the atmosphere on a ballistic trajectory. Tragedy struck in the final phase:
The brake parachute opened successfully, but failed to pull the main parachute out of its container. The investigation later determined that the container had been deformed by the pressure difference, which had "stuck" the parachute.
Komarov activated the reserve parachute manually. However, he became entangled in the brake parachute, which was still attached to the capsule, and failed to deploy.
The capsule fell freely and hit the ground near the city of Orsk at a speed of between 140 and 500 km/h. Upon impact, the soft landing engines were activated, causing a fire that almost completely destroyed the wreckage.
There are recordings from American listening stations in Turkey, according to which in his last moments Komarov expressed anger and cursed the engineers and mission leaders. However, Russian sources often dispute this, claiming that radio contact was lost much earlier due to the high temperature of reentry.