war in space, a corpse turned to coal …

On April 23, 1967, the Soyuz-1 spacecraft took off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome of the USSR. But the next day, on April 24, the flight was suspended due to technical problems. On the way back, an accident occurred and Vladimir Komarov, the only astronaut on board, was killed.

***

The first aircraft used in pilot flights in the USSR was called Vostok. Dozens of six flights were operated from April 1961 to June 1963. After that, the development of a ship that could perform more complex maneuvers, as well as allow several people to fly (Vostok was a one-man show) became relevant.

We had to wait a year and a half for the new ship, the Voskhod. In October 1964, for the first time in the world, more than one crew (Vladimir Komarov, Konstantin Feoktistov) and Boris Yegorov) was sent. In addition, the new ship allowed astronauts to fly without a spacesuit.

In March 1965, the ship “Voskhod-2” with two people (Pavel Belyayev and Alexei Leonov) ascended into space and This flight was remembered for the first time when a man (Leonov) went into space.

However, as the ship did not meet certain technical requirements, the Voskhod program ended with these two pilots. It was decided to wait for the launch of the more promising Soyuz. It took more than two years.

At that time, the Americans were part of the Gemini program 10 carried out a pilot flight and until then, they had broken a number of records held by Soviet cosmonauts. By the end of 1966, the number of US astronauts was twice that of Soviet cosmonauts.

The longest flight of the Soviets (Vostok-5, Valery Bykovsky) 4 per day It took 22 hours and 56 minutes. Americans first do this for 7 days 22 hours 55 minutes (Gemini-5, Gordon Cooper and Charles Conrad), and then 13 days 18 hours 35 minutes (“Gemini-7” Frank Borman, James Lovell).

While Leonov was in space for only 12 minutes, Yucin Sernan (Gemini-9A, with Thomas Stafford) was 2 hours and 8 minutes.

One achievement of the Americans was particularly significant: on March 16, 1966, two spacecraft – the manned Gemini-8 (crew: Neil Armstrong) and David Scott) and unified unmanned Agena-VIII spacecraft. Only four months later, “Gemini-10”(John Young and Michael Collins) repeated this achievement.

The Soviet leadership was not happy with this situation and required the resumption of pilot flights. During this period, both the USSR and the United States held a “moon race”, each of which wanted to be the first state to bring a man to the moon.

That’s it according to Moscow was also rushing its specialists. However, three unmanned test flights of Soyuz shipsflour none were completely successful. But leadership protest did not want to hear. The post-death leadership of Sergei Korolyov, who led the first spaceflights, was not influential enough to wrestle with the Kremlin. As a result, on April 23, 1967, it was decided to launch the first flight with the Soyuz.

Flight program according to One day after Soyuz-1, three people on board the Soyuz-2 (Valery Bykovsky, Alexei Yeliseyev and Yevgeny Khrunov) would fly into space and For the first time in the world, a merger of two pilot ships would be carried out. After that, Yeliseyev and Khrunov will leave his ships and move to Soyuz-1 via open space and they would return to Earth with him.

But Soyuz-1 has been in trouble since the flight began. One of the two solar panels did not open and The device experienced a power shortage. If Vladimir Komarov’s attempts to open the panel do not work, stop the flight early and It was decided not to send Soyuz-2.

During the landing, a tragedy occurred. Although the traction parachute was opened, for unknown reasons the main parachute was not opened, the spare parachute was opened, but the rotation of the device according to the ropes twisted together and weather not filled with. As a result, the landing gear crashed to the ground at high speed and Komarov was killed. The spillage of hydrogen peroxide resulted in a fire and the astronaut’s body turned to coal.

***

The cause of the accident has not been determined. The main possibility was that that, The instructions were not followed when the landing gear was painted, and as a result, the parachute cover was painted. Heat during landing according to color yapThe main parachute did not move as it returned to light. But I think the main reason is the Kremlin political motivational intervention and there was an insistence on a pilot flight with a ship that did not have a normal test flight.

Vladimir Komarov was the first astronaut to fly into space for the second time at the start, and the first astronaut to die during the landing.

In 1967, a tragedy occurred in the US space program. JanuaryAt the end of the year, three astronauts – Gas Grissom, Ed White and Roger Chaffi was killed. As a result, US pilot flights were suspended for up to two years.

If the Soyuz-1 had been successful, it would have been two years since the USSR left compensation would have the opportunity to do. However, due to the accident, Soviet pilots’ flights were postponed for another year and a half. This played a key role in the Americans’ victory in the Moon race.