Back on the ground, mission control was struggling to adjust the plan so that they could continue the mission. There was little that Komarov could do now except drift through space. After a few orbits, the systems that stabilized the ship had failed. Even worse, the exhaust from the reaction control system on the craft interfered with the sensors Komarov needed to maneuver. One of the solar panels that provided power to the Soyuz failed to deploy. Immediately, the problems with the craft were obvious. Komarov had a brief opportunity to take in the gentle curve of the Earth. But as the rockets fired, the Soyuz lifted off the launch pad, slipping through the atmosphere and into space. Even the slightest malfunction had the potential to turn the rocket into a massive bomb. Strapped in above thousands of gallons of rocket fuel, there was little he could do in the event of a disaster. Wikimedia Commons.Īs Komarov prepared for the rockets to fire, the previous failures of the test flights must have weighed heavily on his mind. But whatever else happened on the launch pad, we do know that Komarov eventually boarded the craft and prepared to take off into space.Ī modern Soyuz rocket being transported to the launch pad. Like many of the details that people often cite surrounding the case, this incident should be taken with a grain of salt. However, some historians have pointed out that this incident was unlikely and that Russayev, in particular, isn’t a reliable source. It’s believable given that the two were known to be close. According to Russayev, Komarov and Gagarin were friends, and Komarov had already insisted that Gagarin wasn’t to take his place on the flight. His motivation, according to former KGB agent Venyamin Russayev who claimed to know Gagarin personally, was to get the flight scrapped and save Komarov’s life. According to a Pravda journalist who claimed to be on the scene, Gagarin tried to muscle his way on to the flight at the last minute. There was no way that any of his superiors would risk his life in a questionable launch. He was a symbol of the success of the communist system. Komarov was tapped to man the craft, while Gagarin was slated to be the backup pilot. The launch was scheduled for April 23, 1967. The Soyuz mission was vital to the Soviet plan to beat them there. Reacting to the Soviet success, the Americans had vowed to put a man on the moon by the end of the decade. Yuri Gagarin, a Russian cosmonaut, had been the first man to ever leave the Earth in 1961. The Space Race had come to embody the entirety of the Cold War, as both sides competed to see which system was more capable of dominating space. And what better way to celebrate than for the communist state he left behind to send a man into space? More importantly, the Soviets were in a race with the Americans to reach the moon. Wikimedia Commons.Īfter all, Lenin’s birthday was coming up. Soviet cosmonauts (Komarov and Yuri Gagarin are standing next to each other on the bottom left of the photo). But the higher-ups ignored these potential problems and demanded that the launch go forward. It was clear to everyone involved in the launches that the craft wasn’t ready for any sort of mission. Had the test been manned, any cosmonaut on board would have died instantly. A malfunction with the ship’s escape system had triggered a massive explosion on the launch pad, obliterating the craft. The most recent test flight of the craft had been a miserable disaster. There were already rumors that the Soyuz was in bad shape. And the Soyuz 1 was hardly the best craft to do it in. Even in the best circumstances, it would test the limits of the craft and the cosmonauts. The Soyuz mission would be complex, requiring the craft to rendezvous with another craft in orbit to transfer crew by spacewalk before returning to Earth. But Komarov knew that the Soyuz 1 was likely doomed. Ordinarily, it was an opportunity a cosmonaut would be willing to kill for. He was about to be launched into space aboard the Soyuz 1 rocket. It was April 1967, and Soviet cosmonaut Vladimir Komarov was in a tough position.
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