Science: Death of a Cosmonaut

For months, Moscow had been hinting at new space spectaculars to help celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Bolshevik Revolution. When a brand-new spacecraft called Soyuz 1 was launched into orbit last week carrying veteran Cosmonaut Vladimir Komarov, 40, it seemed certain that the first manned Soviet flight since March 1965 was aimed at overtaking and even surpassing the faltering U.S. Apollo program. Barely 24 hours later, Komarov was dead, killed in a crash landing that may ground the Russian man-in-space program for months.

There was good reason to believe that Komarov’s ill-fated flight had been planned as Phase 1 of a highly ambitious mission. Unofficial reports from Moscow had indicated that Soyuz would be joined in orbit by another spacecraft carrying several men and that the two ships would attempt to rendezvous, dock, exchange crews and set up an orbiting space station. There was speculation that the second ship had a restartable engine that would push the joined ships as far out as 50,000 miles—a first step toward a flight later this year in which a manned Russian ship would circumnavigate the moon.

Unlucky 15. The rumors were given credence by Soyuz’s name (it means “union”) and its initial low and nearly circular orbit, which appeared to be designed to make Soyuz an easier rendezvous target. Also, the orbit’s 51.5° inclination to the equator was close to the 51° parking-orbit inclination previously used by unmanned Russian moon probes.

Having piloted Voshkod 1 in 1964, Cosmonaut Komarov was the first Russian to soar into space twice. According to Western experts who tracked Soyuz and monitored its messages, he spent the early hours of his flight routinely checking out the systems of his 15,000-lb. to 16,000-lb. ship, which was slightly larger than the 12,000-lb. Apollo. But by the cosmonaut’s fifth revolution around the earth, they believe, increasing difficulties with both the attitude-control and communications systems warned ground controllers that the flight of Soyuz might have to be prematurely ended. Plans for a rendezvous were abandoned, and the launch of the second spacecraft was scrubbed.

Although the Russians have so far provided few details, Western experts believe that Komarov ran into real trouble on the 15th orbit, when an attitude thruster misfired, sending Soyuz tumbling wildly. It was the same kind of malfunction that nearly proved disastrous to America’s Gemini 8.

Struggling with his controls, Komarov apparently tried to abort his mission on both the 16th and 17th revolutions, which took him close to his planned landing site in central Russia. But Soyuz was probably still tumbling, and Komarov could not use his retrorockets. Unless an orbiting spacecraft is stabilized and properly oriented when the retrorockets are fired, it can shoot farther into space or re-enter the atmosphere improperly and burn up.

Fatal 18. Finally gaining a semblance of control, Komarov fired his retrorockets on the 18th revolution and plunged toward the atmosphere. As he began reentry, the dangerous tumbling apparently started again. As a result, in the words of the Tass announcement, “when the main cupola of the parachute opened at an altitude of seven kilometers [4.3 miles], the straps of the parachute got twisted and the spaceship descended at a great speed, which resulted in Komarov’s death.”

Stunned Soviet leaders announced that a commission would be formed to investigate the causes of the accident, much like the panel that probed the recent U.S. Apollo disaster. The Russians posthumously awarded Komarov his second Gold Star and the title of Hero of the Soviet Union, gave him a fitting funeral in Red Square, buried his ashes in the Kremlin wall and planned to erect his statue in Moscow.

There have been rumors about other fatalities in the Russian space program. But as the first man known to be killed in space flight, Komarov is destined to be more than a Red icon. As President Johnson put it in a graceful tribute: “The death of Vladimir Komarov was a tragedy in which all nations share. Like the three American astronauts who lost their lives recently, this distinguished space pioneer died in the cause of science and in the eternal spirit of human adventure.”