What's left of Komarov. Why, why and how cosmonaut Komarov died. (Start). "Working with new technology"

He was among the first astronauts on the planet. Not only older than some cosmonauts in age, but also more experienced. When many just went to study at the Zhukovsky Academy, he already had a higher engineering education and was preparing to defend his dissertation.

First flight - October 12, 1964 on the Voskhod spacecraft. Then, for the first time in the world, a crew of three people flew into orbit at once: Vladimir Komarov, Konstantin Feoktistov and Boris Egorov. With that flight, the Soviet Union once again cemented its priority in space. Moreover, for the first time people flew without spacesuits.

But the space race was in full swing. And in the United States, preparations were already underway for an expedition to the Moon. Chief designer Sergei Korolev, although he dreamed of immediately flying to Mars, decided not to give the lunar palm to the Americans. And in 1962, the Soyuz spacecraft was designed to fly around the Earth's satellite.

Work on the spacecraft continued for five years, but despite three test launches, by 1967 the Soyuz was not yet ready... Nevertheless, Vladimir Komarov flew on Soyuz-1. The flight ended tragically.

This is what Sergei Korolev’s closest associate, Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences Boris Chertok, told RG: “What happened to Komarov was our mistake, the system developers. We launched him too early. We underdeveloped the Soyuz. In particular, the landing system, the shooting and pulling the parachute. We had to do at least one more trouble-free real launch, maybe with a human model and get complete confidence, as Korolev did before the Gagarin launch: two Vostoks flew with the Ivan Ivanovich model. ". Accidents could have happened only later, after Gagarin’s launch. And even after Titov’s launch, we looked at the telemetry in detail and grabbed our heads: “How did we miss it?!” Komarov’s death is on the conscience of the designers.”

So what happened? It is known that difficulties in flight arose from the first minutes. At first one of the panels did not open solar battery, then the command to orient the ship to the Sun did not go through, the short-wave communication failed... When the astronaut was given a strict order to land, the automation “forbidden” issuing a braking impulse. They said that even during the flight, Komarov said goodbye to his family; allegedly, for this purpose they even organized a direct telephone line to the apartment.

Was there such a thing? - the RG correspondent asked the cosmonaut’s daughter Irina Vladimirovna.

This is nonsense,” she replied. - I heard that the Chairman of the Council of Ministers, Alexey Nikolaevich Kosygin, got in touch with dad. He said that those “at the top” are closely monitoring the flight, know that the astronaut has encountered difficulties, and are taking all measures to eliminate them. Allegedly, the last phrase in the conversation was: “What can we do for you?” Dad replied, “Take care of my family.” But I don’t know exactly about this conversation.

By the way, Vera Patsaeva, the wife of cosmonaut Patsaev, who died four years later while returning from orbit along with Volkov and Dobrovolsky, told RG: Vladislav Volkov confessed to her shortly before the flight: “I had a prediction that I would die.”

Did Komarov have any premonitions? “Yes, everyone knew that anything could happen. After all, there were three unmanned launches of Soyuz, and not one without problems,” Irina Komarova told the RG correspondent. “The first ship went into orbit, but maneuvered poorly. During landing began to leave for Chinese territory, and it had to be blown up. The second had an accident during launch - the rocket caught fire and exploded. The third had problems during the descent and landing - the Soyuz sank to the bottom of the Aral Sea.

The program under which Vladimir Komarov flew was unique: for the first time, it provided for the docking of two new ships. Komarov took off on the three-seat Soyuz-1, and the next day Bykovsky, Eliseev and Khrunov were supposed to fly on the Soyuz-2. Soyuz-1 approaches Soyuz-2 and docks with it. Eliseev and Khrunov via open space they move to Komarov’s ship and everyone goes to board. It didn't work out.

Vladimir Komarov knew Soyuz literally “down to the last detail.” To bring the mutinous ship out of a critical situation, he did something that no one had ever taught astronauts. And he did it meticulously! But just when it seemed that the worst was over, the parachute lines twisted. Soyuz-1 crashed into the Earth at a speed of about 60 meters per second and exploded...

“A month before the flight, dad celebrated his 40th birthday,” recalls Irina. “He didn’t believe in omens. I remember there were a huge number of guests. Mom fried tobacco chickens in buckets. It was as if he was saying goodbye to everyone.”

By the way, in the first death certificate that was issued to Komarov’s widow, in the “cause” column it was stated: “Extensive burns of the body.” That's all. As daughter Irina says, her mother showed the document to Yuri Gagarin: “Yurochka, who will believe me that I am the widow of cosmonaut Komarov?” Gagarin turned pale. One can only guess what he said to those who wrote out that document. After some time they brought us another certificate, where it was written in black and white: he died while carrying out...

Vladimir Komarov began preparing for the launch in 1965; the flight was to take place on a new multi-seat Soviet spacecraft of the Soyuz series. The 38-year-old cosmonaut already had experience of flying into low-Earth orbit: in October 1964, on board the Voskhod spacecraft, he, together with Konstantin Feoktistov and Boris Egorov, made a two-day voyage into space. During this time, the ship circled the globe 16 times.

ON THE TOPIC

For the successful completion of the flight, Vladimir Komarov was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union, the Order of Lenin and the Gold Star medal. Soon he was awarded the qualification of “third class cosmonaut”, and in January 1965 he was appointed as an instructor in a group of cosmonauts trained under the programs of the USSR Ministry of Defense.

Komarov's second flight, which began on April 23, 1967, turned out to be fatal: he died the next day during an emergency descent to Earth. During the final maneuver, the main parachute of the descent vehicle did not open, and the reserve lines were twisted due to strong rotation. At a speed of about 100 kilometers per hour, the descent module crashed into the ground in the Orenburg region and caught fire.

Komarov’s colleague, cosmonaut Alexei Leonov, in an interview with TASS, said that initially the flight plan provided for the following: Komarov will launch on Soyuz-1, after successful entry into orbit, Soyuz-2 will follow him with three crew members - Valery Bykovsky, Evgeniy Khrunov and Alexey Eliseev. The last two, after docking the Soyuz spacecraft in low-Earth orbit, had to go into outer space and transfer from aboard the second Soyuz to Komarov’s spacecraft, with which they would return to Earth. Yuri Gagarin, who was eager to go into space, was appointed Komarov's backup.

540 seconds after launch, the spacecraft entered orbit. On the second orbit, communication was established with Komarov, and he was able to report to Earth that one of the solar panels had not opened. The control center decided to abort the flight.

A tragic set of circumstances led to the death of Vladimir Komarov. This is how Alexey Leonov describes what he saw in the Orenburg steppe: “Due to the presence of its own oxygen, the metal burned like wood. When the commission arrived at the site, they saw a depressing picture: the ship settled and looked like a sandy hill about one meter high. And the metal was molten was like a puddle of water."

Subsequently, some media outlets wrote about Komarov’s allegedly terrible screams, which were heard on the radio on Earth, and that before his death he swore strongly at the designers who created the ship. Leonov called the journalists' speculations stupid.

For the heroism, courage and bravery shown during the flight, Vladimir Komarov was posthumously awarded the second Gold Star medal. The International Committee for Aeronautics and Space Flight recognized his feat with the Order of the Wind Rose with diamonds.

The ashes of Vladimir Komarov are buried in the Kremlin wall on Red Square in Moscow. A memorial was erected at the site of the cosmonaut’s death in the steppe near Orsk in the Orenburg region.

Hero cosmonaut, friend of Gagarin; his name is given to a crater on the far side of the Moon and a minor planet. Komarov is a virtuoso of astronautics. He loved life and heroically accepted death.

Pursuit of a dream

Many were just beginning the thorny path of studying at the Academy. Zhukovsky, while Komarov already had higher education By engineering specialty, thoroughly studied the Soyuz, understood the apparatus down to the smallest nuances. Interestingly, he was not in excellent health. The kind with which they become astronauts. Twice he was “rejected” during the selection process, but continued to stubbornly achieve his goal. According to the recollections of his daughter, Irina Vladimirovna Komarova, a month and a half before the flight, Vladimir Mikhailovich did not even drink milk or kefir from the refrigerator, so as not to undermine his immunity.

First flight

Vladimir Komarov spent his first flight as the captain of the ship, spending 24 hours and 17 minutes in orbit together with Konstantin Feoktistov and Boris Egorov. The main purpose of the flight on October 12, 1964 was to show the priority of the Soviet Union in a multiple crew, and the cosmonauts coped with this task. For the first time, three people went into space at the same time on one ship - an engineer, a doctor and a pilot. The first flight without spacesuits and with a newly introduced soft landing system. For this flight, Komarov received the Order of Lenin and the Gold Star medal, and was also awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.

Malfunctioning ship

Komarov was the first to go into orbit, on Soyuz-1, and on April 24 it was planned to launch a second ship, with two people on board. According to the plan, the ships should dock in space, and Vladimir Mikhailovich should move from one to the other, thus visiting two ships at the same time and returning to Earth as part of the newly arrived crew. It was supposed to be a 50th anniversary triumph communist revolution. During an inspection on Soyuz-1, 203 design flaws were identified, but no one reported the defects to Brezhnev. Although Gagarin drew up a report on shortcomings in the work of the ship, it was never passed on to the KGB officers.

Is knowledge power?

According to the memoirs of Veniamin Ivanovich Rusyaev, a former career KGB officer, Vladimir Mikhailovich knew about the upcoming tragedy in advance. A month and a half before the start, Komarov invited Rusyaev and his wife to dinner to meet their family. When the time came to say goodbye, the owner of the apartment volunteered to see the guests off. Right on the landing, Vladimir told his guardian and adviser that he would not return from the flight. Rusyaev tried to object and offered to refuse to participate in the launch, but Komarov was adamant: “No. You know: if I refuse, I’ll be the first to fly. And it must be protected.” The first is Gagarin.

Last minutes

At an altitude of more than 7 kilometers above the Earth, the lid of the parachute container shoots off, extracting the pilot chute. Following it is the brake parachute, then the main canopy. The latter did not open. The Soyuz continued to fall with an endless increase in rotation along the axis, which caused the lines to intertwine, preventing the canopy from opening. If both solar panels had opened on Soyuz-1, and there had been no sensor failure, Soyuz-2 would have launched, designer Boris Chertok later wrote. – After docking, Khrunov and Eliseev would transfer to Komarov’s ship. In this case, the three of them would have died, and a little later Bykovsky could also have died with a high probability.

Friendship with Gagarin

Komarov immediately developed friendly relations with Yuri Alekseevich. Gagarin was a frequent guest in the family, he enjoyed going hunting with his friend, and participated in family events. According to the recollections of Valentina Yakovlevna, Komarov’s wife, they celebrated their birthdays together - both “March”. The fates of the cosmonauts were tragically intertwined: Yuri Alekseevich studied in Orenburg, Vladimir Mikhailovich died near Orenburg; the homeland of Komarov’s ancestors was the Vladimir region, Gagarin died near Kirzhach in the Vladimir region. It was Yuri Alekseevich who petitioned for the release of the real facts of the death of his comrade - initially, Valentina Yakovlevna was given a certificate of the death of her husband in the city of Shchelkovo, from “extensive burns to the body.” The new document stated the truth: “tragically died during the completion of a test flight on the Soyuz-1 spacecraft.”

Truth and speculation

Jamie Doran and Piers Bisoni, authors of the 2011 book Starman: The Truth About the Legend Yuri Gagarin, claim that American intelligence intercepted the last words of Vladimir Komarov, spoken minutes before his death. It is quite difficult to understand the conversation with the Control Center, but Doran and Bisoni offer the reader a translation from the mouth of the US National Security Agency analyst, Perry Fellwock: “The temperature in the capsule is rising rapidly” and “... killed.” The astronaut was angry and zealously tried to convince his interlocutor of something. Also, the employees of the tracking station in Turkey took the liberty of reporting the last minutes of Komarov’s life. According to them, a conversation between the cosmonaut and his wife was intercepted, who asked what she should tell the children, as well as a videophone dialogue with Soviet Prime Minister Alexei Kosygin, in which the latter, with tears in his eyes, calls Vladimir Mikhailovich a hero.

There are only about 20 people who gave their lives for the benefit of world progress in the field of space exploration, and today we will tell you about them.

Their names are immortalized in the ashes of cosmic chronos, burned into the atmospheric memory of the universe forever, many of us would dream of remaining heroes for humanity, however, few would want to accept such a death as our cosmonaut heroes.

The 20th century was a breakthrough in mastering the path to the vastness of the Universe; in the second half of the 20th century, after much preparation, man was finally able to fly into space. However, there was also reverse side such rapid progress - death of astronauts.

People died during pre-flight preparations, during the takeoff of the spacecraft, and during landing. Total during space launches, preparations for flights, including cosmonauts and technical personnel who died in the atmosphere More than 350 people died, about 170 astronauts alone.

Let us list the names of the cosmonauts who died during the operation of spacecraft (the USSR and the whole world, in particular America), and then we will briefly tell the story of their death.

Not a single cosmonaut died directly in Space; most of them all died in the Earth’s atmosphere, during the destruction or fire of the ship (the Apollo 1 astronauts died while preparing for the first manned flight).

Volkov, Vladislav Nikolaevich (“Soyuz-11”)

Dobrovolsky, Georgy Timofeevich (“Soyuz-11”)

Komarov, Vladimir Mikhailovich (“Soyuz-1”)

Patsaev, Viktor Ivanovich (“Soyuz-11”)

Anderson, Michael Phillip ("Columbia")

Brown, David McDowell (Columbia)

Grissom, Virgil Ivan (Apollo 1)

Jarvis, Gregory Bruce (Challenger)

Clark, Laurel Blair Salton ("Columbia")

McCool, William Cameron ("Columbia")

McNair, Ronald Erwin (Challenger)

McAuliffe, Christa ("Challenger")

Onizuka, Allison (Challenger)

Ramon, Ilan ("Columbia")

Resnick, Judith Arlen (Challenger)

Scobie, Francis Richard ("Challenger")

Smith, Michael John ("Challenger")

White, Edward Higgins (Apollo 1)

Husband, Rick Douglas ("Columbia")

Chawla, Kalpana (Columbia)

Chaffee, Roger (Apollo 1)

It is worth considering that we will never know the stories of the death of some astronauts, because this information is secret.

Soyuz-1 disaster

“Soyuz-1 is the first Soviet manned spacecraft (KK) of the Soyuz series. Launched into orbit on April 23, 1967. There was one cosmonaut on board Soyuz-1 - Hero of the Soviet Union, engineer-colonel V. M. Komarov, who died during the landing of the descent module. Komarov’s backup in preparation for this flight was Yu. A. Gagarin.”

Soyuz-1 was supposed to dock with Soyuz-2 to return the crew of the first ship, but due to problems, the launch of Soyuz-2 was canceled.

After entering orbit, problems began with the operation of the solar battery; after unsuccessful attempts to launch it, it was decided to lower the ship to Earth.

But during the descent, 7 km from the ground, the parachute system failed, the ship hit the ground at a speed of 50 km per hour, tanks with hydrogen peroxide exploded, the cosmonaut died instantly, Soyuz-1 almost completely burned out, the remains of the cosmonaut were severely burned so that it was impossible to identify even fragments of the body.

“This disaster was the first time a person died in flight in the history of manned astronautics.”

The causes of the tragedy have never been fully established.

Soyuz-11 disaster

Soyuz 11 is a spacecraft whose crew of three cosmonauts died in 1971. The cause of death was the depressurization of the descent module during the landing of the ship.

Just a couple of years after the death of Yu. A. Gagarin (the famous cosmonaut himself died in a plane crash in 1968), having already followed the seemingly well-trodden path of space exploration, several more cosmonauts passed away.

Soyuz-11 was supposed to deliver the crew to the Salyut-1 orbital station, but the ship was unable to dock due to damage to the docking unit.

Crew composition:

Commander: Lieutenant Colonel Georgy Dobrovolsky

Flight engineer: Vladislav Volkov

Research engineer: Viktor Patsayev

They were between 35 and 43 years old. All of them were posthumously awarded awards, certificates, and orders.

It was never possible to establish what happened, why the spacecraft was depressurized, but most likely this information will not be given to us. But it’s a pity that at that time our cosmonauts were “guinea pigs” who were released into space without much security or security after the dogs. However, probably many of those who dreamed of becoming astronauts understood what a dangerous profession they were choosing.

Docking occurred on June 7, undocking on June 29, 1971. There was an unsuccessful attempt to dock with the Salyut-1 orbital station, the crew was able to board the Salyut-1, even stayed at the orbital station for several days, a TV connection was established, but already during the first approach to the station the cosmonauts stopped filming for some smoke. On the 11th day, a fire started, the crew decided to descend on the ground, but problems emerged that disrupted the undocking process. Spacesuits were not provided for the crew.

On June 29 at 21.25 the ship separated from the station, but a little more than 4 hours later contact with the crew was lost. The main parachute was deployed, the ship landed in a given area, and the soft landing engines fired. But the search team discovered at 02.16 (June 30, 1971) the lifeless bodies of the crew; resuscitation efforts were unsuccessful.

During the investigation, it was found that the cosmonauts tried to eliminate the leak until the last minute, but they mixed up the valves, fought for the wrong one, and meanwhile missed the opportunity for salvation. They died from decompression sickness - air bubbles were found during autopsy even in the heart valves.

The exact reasons for the depressurization of the ship have not been named, or rather, they have not been announced to the general public.

Subsequently, engineers and creators of spacecraft, crew commanders took into account many tragic mistakes of previous unsuccessful flights into space.

Challenger shuttle disaster

“The Challenger disaster occurred on January 28, 1986, when the space shuttle Challenger, at the very beginning of mission STS-51L, was destroyed as a result of an external explosion. fuel tank at the 73rd second of flight, which led to the death of all 7 crew members. The crash occurred at 11:39 EST (16:39 UTC) over the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of central Florida, USA."

In the photo, the ship's crew - from left to right: McAuliffe, Jarvis, Resnik, Scobie, McNair, Smith, Onizuka

All of America was waiting for this launch, millions of eyewitnesses and viewers watched the launch of the ship on TV, it was the culmination of the Western conquest of space. And so, when the grand launch of the ship took place, seconds later, a fire began, later an explosion, the shuttle cabin separated from the destroyed ship and fell at a speed of 330 km per hour on the surface of the water, seven days later the astronauts would be found in the broken cabin at the bottom of the ocean. Until the last moment, before hitting the water, some crew members were alive and tried to supply air to the cabin.

In the video below the article there is an excerpt of a live broadcast of the launch and death of the shuttle.

“The Challenger shuttle crew consisted of seven people. Its composition was as follows:

The crew commander is 46-year-old Francis “Dick” R. Scobee. US military pilot, US Air Force Lieutenant Colonel, NASA astronaut.

The co-pilot is 40-year-old Michael J. Smith. Test pilot, US Navy captain, NASA astronaut.

The scientific specialist is 39-year-old Ellison S. Onizuka. Test pilot, Lieutenant Colonel of the US Air Force, NASA astronaut.

The scientific specialist is 36-year-old Judith A. Resnick. Engineer and NASA astronaut. Spent 6 days 00 hours 56 minutes in space.

The scientific specialist is 35-year-old Ronald E. McNair. Physicist, NASA astronaut.

The payload specialist is 41-year-old Gregory B. Jarvis. Engineer and NASA astronaut.

The payload specialist is 37-year-old Sharon Christa Corrigan McAuliffe. A teacher from Boston who won the competition. This was her first flight into space as the first participant in the Teacher in Space project.”

Last photo of the crew

To establish the causes of the tragedy, various commissions were created, but most of the information was classified; according to assumptions, the reasons for the shipwreck were weak interaction between organizational services and irregularities in work that were not detected in time fuel system(an explosion occurred at launch due to the burnout of the solid fuel accelerator wall) and even... a terrorist attack. Some said that the shuttle explosion was staged to harm America's prospects.

Space Shuttle Columbia disaster

“The Columbia disaster occurred on February 1, 2003, shortly before the end of its 28th flight (mission STS-107). The final flight of the space shuttle Columbia began on January 16, 2003. On the morning of February 1, 2003, after a 16-day flight, the shuttle was returning to Earth.

NASA lost contact with the craft at approximately 14:00 GMT (09:00 EST), 16 minutes before its intended landing on Runway 33 at the John F. Kennedy Space Center in Florida, which was scheduled to take place at 14:16 GMT. Eyewitnesses filmed burning debris from the shuttle flying at an altitude of about 63 kilometers at a speed of 5.6 km/s. All 7 crew members were killed."

Crew pictured - From top to bottom: Chawla, Husband, Anderson, Clark, Ramon, McCool, Brown

The Columbia shuttle was making its next 16-day flight, which was supposed to end with a landing on Earth, however, as the main version of the investigation says, the shuttle was damaged during the launch - a piece of torn off thermal insulating foam (the coating was intended to protect tanks with oxygen and hydrogen) as a result of the impact, damaged the wing coating, as a result of which, during the descent of the apparatus, when the heaviest loads on the body occur, the apparatus began to overheat and, subsequently, destruction.

Even during the shuttle mission, engineers more than once turned to NASA management to assess the damage and visually inspect the shuttle body using orbital satellites, but NASA experts assured that there were no fears or risks and the shuttle would descend safely to Earth.

“The crew of the shuttle Columbia consisted of seven people. Its composition was as follows:

The crew commander is 45-year-old Richard “Rick” D. Husband. US military pilot, US Air Force colonel, NASA astronaut. Spent 25 days 17 hours 33 minutes in space. Before Columbia, he was commander of the shuttle STS-96 Discovery.

The co-pilot is 41-year-old William "Willie" C. McCool. Test pilot, NASA astronaut. Spent 15 days 22 hours 20 minutes in space.

The flight engineer is 40-year-old Kalpana Chawla. Scientist, first female NASA astronaut of Indian origin. Spent 31 days, 14 hours and 54 minutes in space.

The payload specialist is 43-year-old Michael P. Anderson. Scientist, NASA astronaut. Spent 24 days 18 hours 8 minutes in space.

Zoology specialist - 41-year-old Laurel B. S. Clark. US Navy captain, NASA astronaut. Spent 15 days 22 hours 20 minutes in space.

Scientific specialist (doctor) - 46-year-old David McDowell Brown. Test pilot, NASA astronaut. Spent 15 days 22 hours 20 minutes in space.

The scientific specialist is 48-year-old Ilan Ramon (English Ilan Ramon, Hebrew.‏אילן רמון‏‎). NASA's first Israeli astronaut. Spent 15 days 22 hours 20 minutes in space.”

The shuttle's descent took place on February 1, 2003, and within an hour it was supposed to land on Earth.

“On February 1, 2003, at 08:15:30 (EST), the space shuttle Columbia began its descent to Earth. At 08:44 the shuttle began to enter the dense layers of the atmosphere." However, due to damage, the leading edge of the left wing began to overheat. From 08:50, the ship's hull suffered severe thermal loads; at 08:53, debris began to fall off the wing, but the crew was alive and there was still communication.

At 08:59:32 the commander sent the last message, which was interrupted mid-sentence. At 09:00, eyewitnesses had already filmed the explosion of the shuttle, the ship collapsed into many fragments. that is, the fate of the crew was predetermined due to NASA’s inaction, but the destruction and loss of life occurred in a matter of seconds.

It is worth noting that the Columbia shuttle was used many times, at the time of its death the ship was 34 years old (in operation by NASA since 1979, the first manned flight in 1981), it flew into space 28 times, but this flight turned out to be fatal.

No one died in space itself; about 18 people died in the dense layers of the atmosphere and in spaceships.

In addition to the disasters of 4 ships (two Russian - "Soyuz-1" and "Soyuz-11" and American - "Columbia" and "Challenger"), in which 18 people died, there were several more disasters due to an explosion, fire during pre-flight preparation , one of the most famous tragedies is a fire in an atmosphere of pure oxygen during preparation for the Apollo 1 flight, then three American astronauts died, and in a similar situation, a very young USSR cosmonaut, Valentin Bondarenko, died. The astronauts simply burned alive.

Another NASA astronaut, Michael Adams, died while testing the X-15 rocket plane.

Yuri Alekseevich Gagarin died in an unsuccessful flight on an airplane during a routine training session.

Probably, the goal of the people who stepped into space was grandiose, and it is not a fact that even knowing their fate, many would have renounced astronautics, but still we always need to remember at what cost the path to the stars was paved for us...

The photo shows the monument to the dead cosmonauts on the moon