On April 23,
1967, the first manned
spacecraft from the Soyuz series was launched. On board was Vladimir Komarov, an astronaut who single-handedly piloted the ship. This flight was the first in history that killed a person. The true reasons that led to the terrible tragedy are now not reliably known. Along with this, there are many assumptions. Some experts believe that the reasons boil down to excessive haste dictated by the rivalry between the USSR and the USA in space, while others insist that a fateful set of circumstances led to this.
The idea of creating a completely new spacecraft Soyuz belonged to Sergey Korolev and arose only a few months after Yuri Gagarin first visited space. In parallel, American scientists actively worked on their lunar program, which intended to ensure the implementation of astronauts' landing on the moon. The government of the Soviet Union was planning at all costs to get ahead of overseas opponents. This can explain his secret decree dated 1963, according to which the Soviet cosmonaut was the first to fly around the earth's satellite. Mosquitoes ideally suited this role. Tests of the Soyuz spacecraft intended for this flight were scheduled for 1964, and launch in 1965, a maximum of 1966. On the same ship was assigned a mission related to the moon overflights in 1967 and the landing on it in 1968.
Vladimir Komarov is an astronaut who died to a large extent due to the fact that the preparation of the ship was carried out in a hurry. According to unofficial data, engineers repeatedly warned of the identification of a large number of defects in the structure before the flight. There is information that there were about a hundred such malfunctions. Despite
this, the government of the USSR insisted on the scheduled dates. In his opinion, it was necessary to get ahead of the Americans at all costs. Unfortunately, at the time of launch, the chief designer Sergey Korolev had already died, and only he could answer with a refusal. Since he did not miss even the little things, Vladimir Komarov could survive. The astronaut simply would not have flown on that fateful day.
The first unmanned launches of Soyuz ships were made in 1966-1967. There were three of them. However, none of them was successful. Yuri Gagarin, who did not approve of the excessive risk to human life, was very worried about such plans. However, even these facts did not force the government to change the decision: Komarov was the astronaut who was the first to fly on the Soyuz-1 manned spacecraft. Unfortunately, he was not saved by the highest qualifications and extensive experience. Already in the first minutes of the flight, a malfunction of the spacecraft became apparent. And then
When it entered orbit, it turned out that the orientation system and one of the two
solar panels did not work. Despite this, almost blindly the astronaut was able to set everything up. Everything went to a successful return. But at a distance of seven kilometers from the Earth, the main parachute did not open, and the spare one got entangled with the brake lines. As it turned out, a very soft material was used to produce its container, which clamped the parachute.
The next manned launch of the Soyuz took place only a year and a half later. The device has been significantly modified and successfully used even now. The only thing that upsets in this case is that the cosmonaut Komarov, whose death occurred in 1967, gave his own life for the first test of a spacecraft.