It was not customary to talk about failures in space flights under the Soviet regime, many facts were even hidden. How Vladimir Komarov, a real Hero, died Soviet Union, astronaut, the country did not immediately recognize. Space at the initial stage of development was almost incomprehensible, and the ships had many flaws and omissions on the part of the designers.

The names of many heroes-cosmonauts are known to everyone, but how many people remain unknown to this day, whose profession became space and whose life was cut short in the sky.

The death of cosmonaut Komarov became one of the incommensurable sacrifices for the sake of probing infinite space. He, like many other outstanding masters devoted to their transcendent cause, devoted himself entirely to research and the search for answers to questions that mankind has long asked.

First fatal cases

Like Vladimir Komarov, whose biography deserves special attention, Valentin Bondarenko died tragically. His death was the first in the course of space exploration: in 1961, the hero fell victim to a fire in a sound chamber at a scientific institute during a training session. Valentin was just preparing to become an astronaut, passing his studies. When unhooking medical sensors from the body, he wiped his body with a cotton swab dipped in alcohol, which flared up, hitting a nearby heater. The chamber, saturated with oxygen, caught fire, the fire quickly spread in a confined space. The flame spread to the clothes, which immediately flared up: the astronaut received severe burns. As soon as the sound chamber was opened, Valentin was urgently sent to the hospital. After a desperate eight-hour struggle for life, Bondarenko died, the cause of death was burn shock.

This case was the first and was not publicly announced by the government of the Soviet Union. But it became a lesson for the authorities and the reason for the refusal to design spacecraft in rooms saturated with oxygen.

Later, in a similar way and under similar circumstances, three more astronauts from America died, and if it were not for the secrecy of the first tragic incident in the history of astronautics, this disaster could have been avoided.

About the astronaut who burned alive during landing

The Soyuz-1 spacecraft, returning to Earth on April 23, crashed due to the failure of the parachute system. The death of cosmonaut Komarov during the test of this ship was another blow for the entire Soviet country. Of course, the first launches were not fully thought out and studied. The unmanned mode presented a danger, which is why the failure occurred. A year before this incident, on November 28, 1966, the first automatic Soyuz-1, or Cosmos-133, as it was reported in TASS, made an emergency landing from orbit. A little later, in December of the same year, he crashed due to the destruction of the Soyuz-2 launch pad.

A small prehistory of the tragedy with Komarov

But the Soviet government wanted new achievements in cosmonautics, and in a hurry it was decided to prepare the rocket for launch by May 1, although it had enough problems. Having learned about the number of malfunctions, the astronaut, called to fly into space, fell ill, his blood pressure increased, and he fell ill. Another tester was appointed, Vladimir Mikhailovich Komarov, a fairly experienced and trained pilot, who was already in orbit as an understudy with Yuri Gagarin in April 1966.

How did it really happen?

After the ship entered orbit due to malfunctions, Komarov decided to urgently land, but the catastrophe could not be avoided. This fact was hidden again. The encyclopedia says that the flight was successful and the program was completed. There were actually several versions.

One of them is the negligence of the installer, who, having drilled a hole in the screen, as he could not get to the desired unit, ended up hammering it with a steel blank. The blank melted, hitting the dense atmospheric layer during the descent of the ship, and air entered the atmospheric compartment. The resulting pressure led to the squeezing of the container with the parachute, which failed to exit and open. A new tragedy has occurred.

The last minutes before the death of the hero-cosmonaut

The death of cosmonaut Komarov was practically inevitable. He managed to release his reserve parachute, but it was immediately canceled first as a result of hitting the lines. There were practically no chances to survive, and all due to the negligence of the installer, who was careless about his work.

During the descent, the device hit the ground, and the pilot Komarov died.

Always remember: who is to blame for what happened?

The responsibility for the parachute system in the Soviet Union lay with the Minaviaprom. The version of what happened was voiced by him completely different: supposedly the lid of the glass with parachutes inside fired, hitting the rarefied atmosphere during the descent of the ship. Due to a sharp pressure drop, the glass was deformed, and since it was built into the sphere of the apparatus, it pinched the main parachute. When descending at high speed, the device began to balance and crashed on contact with the ground.

The place where the disaster occurred is called the Adamovsky district of the Orenburg region. Since then, a memorial memorial complex has been installed in the village of Karabutak, which is visited annually on April 23 to honor the memory of dead hero. In the steppe near Orsk, the first obelisk first appeared on June 11, 1967. Its installation was organized by colleagues

History teaches nothing, or how not to repeat mistakes

A little later, in June 1971, another tragedy occurred in astronautics - the death of three heroes at once: Viktor Patsaev, Vladislav Volkov and Georgy Dobrovolsky, when they descended to earth from orbital station Soyuz-1. Then the Soyuz-1 spacecraft crashed. The cosmonauts were doubles who flew instead of the main crew, consisting of Valery Kubasov, Pyotr Kolodin and the cause of death is again the ambitions of our Soviet politicians.

Taking an example from the Americans who flew to the moon on a 3-seater ship, the authorities decided that it was three of our people who should fly. If two had flown in spacesuits, then the tragedy would not have happened. 3 spacesuits simply did not fit with all the conditions in flight, they did not fit in terms of the dimensions and dimensions of the cabin. The astronauts flew in sports suits, which was absolutely impossible to do.

Following the example of Gagarin, again in the composition of three people, in 1964 Boris Yegorov, Konstantin Feoktistov and Vladimir Komarov flew on Voskhod. The cabin designed for one person, of course, for three was incredibly cramped, and the astronauts preferred to fly not in spacesuits, but in sports suits, and also removed the only ejection seat in order to somehow increase the space. A complete violation of all conditions in flight.

They were simply putting their lives in danger from the start. By great chance, this flight ended successfully. But because of the violation of the rules and because of such a negligent attitude to the conditions before the tragedy, it was a stone's throw away.

Korolev, feeling his guilt in advance, asked for forgiveness just in case, seeing off the astronauts on their flight. This incident was, of course, also hidden by the authorities of that time.

Causes of the death of cosmonaut Komarov

During the descent crashed "Soyuz-1". Vladimir Komarov could not immediately notice complications in the operation of the apparatus. At first, up to an altitude of 150 km from the Earth, everything was fine, but when entering the atmosphere, it was necessary to divide the ship into three parts, that is, to separate the cabin from the household appliance and compartments. It was at the moment of separation that the ventilation valve worked prematurely, although its opening should have occurred later, near the Earth itself.

The reason for this unexpected opening of the valve has not yet been established. Experts believe that when the ship was divided into compartments, the pyrobolts ruptured from shock loads, the window could open from the explosion of the respiratory ventilation valve and the movement of the locking rod. During the descent, the pressure in the apparatus dropped significantly, and the astronaut simply did not have time to unfasten the belts in order to close the hole (window) that had formed, as a result, he lost consciousness.

When the deceased was found, doctors ascertained the presence of nitrogen in the blood, hemorrhage in the brain, blood in the lungs. After this incident, manned flights were interrupted for 2 years. Soviet space technology urgently needed improvements. This incident affected the authorities. Cosmonauts began to be issued special suits, other clothes in flight were unacceptable. Measures for the safety of people were taken urgently.

Brief biography of the great astronaut

All your life path dedicated to the flights of the deceased Vladimir Komarov. The biography of the hero confirms this. The astronaut was born in 1927. At the age of 16, after completing a seven-year school curriculum, entered the Air Force specialized school in Moscow with only one goal: to become on a par with the legendary military Soviet pilots, however, he received the appropriate diploma only at the end of hostilities.

The following year after graduation, Komarov was transferred to Bataysk. After graduating from the Serov Military Aviation School in the city in 1949, he entered the service of a military fighter pilot in the North Caucasian District. Soon in Grozny, he met Valentina. The school teacher married Vladimir Mikhailovich.

From military fighter to space tester

In 1952, Komarov was again transferred to the service. This time, his new place of residence was in the western Ukrainian town of Mukachevo. As a senior pilot for about seven years, Komarov continued to develop, learn and grow as a professional. Astronaut in 1959 received higher education, graduating from the Academy named after N. E. Zhukovsky. Further, his career continued at the State Red Banner Research Institute of the Air Force.

The institution differed from previous research institutes in its profile focus - tests latest models aircraft engineering. The transition here became, in a sense, fatal for Komarov - it was here that he was offered a job testing spacecraft, which was forbidden to spread. Since 1961, he began to prepare for flights on Vostok and Voskhod.

The last minutes of Komarov's life

Vladimir Komarov negotiated with Yuri Gagarin and the original recording is still preserved. It was about the fact that Komarov could not open the left battery. Already before landing, Gagarin instructed to prepare for the final operations, to carefully and calmly treat the automatic descent, focusing on the moon. Komarov said that everything was in order, allegedly he was in a chair and fastened with seat belts. Gagarin wished to breathe deeper upon landing, and after Komarov's answer: "Thank you, tell everyone ..." - the connection with him was instantly cut off. This is all that Vladimir Komarov managed to say at that moment. Astronaut, last words which the dispatchers managed to hear, remained forever in the memory of the people who knew him.

The device began to descend after entering the atmosphere. It was visible to search aircraft, and the pilots saw the launch of a pilot chute. Further, they reported that the ship was actually on fire. The last phrases were fatal. The ship caught fire, and at that moment Komarov Vladimir Mikhailovich knew that he would die. No one knows what he felt in those moments of life. Everything burned down: both the logbook and

According to legend, pilots from search planes allegedly heard the astronaut scolding, but this is a myth. It was possible to hear the voice only through the antenna located on the lines of the main parachute, but it was not destined to open up.

On the night of April 25, the remains of Vladimir Komarov were taken to the Burdenko hospital. Commander-in-Chief Vershinin, an air marshal, arrived to solemnly say goodbye to the deceased, but when he saw what was left of him, he ordered an urgent cremation.

What did the investigation show?

A specially appointed commission began to investigate the death and the catastrophe in general that occurred on the Soyuz. In those years, Ustinov was involved in space exploration. By official version The tragedy happened by chance, they referred to a combination of circumstances.

In fact, the reason is technical. In terms of power, the pilot chute was much weaker than the main one and could not pull it out due to jamming from compression of pressure in the walls of the container, which, in turn, did not have enough rigidity. The charge was brought against the designers, participants in the development of this parachute compartment on the ship, as well as the creators of such a parachute system. The chief designer Tkachev and his deputy Mishin were removed from their posts.

Since 1971 - no accidents

1.5 years after the misfortune happened - the death of cosmonaut Komarov on the Soyuz, the next to fly was cosmonaut Georgy Beregovoy in early 1969, as well as separately - Khrunov and Eliseev. The two ships in orbit nevertheless docked, already in open space the cosmonauts were able to move from one Soyuz to another. The second flight was also tragic, but the heroes did the almost impossible. The Soyuz was recognized as the most reliable among all the spacecraft of those times, and there have been no more tragedies since 1971.

The courage and courage of the hero did not go unnoticed by the state. Komarov was posthumously awarded the second time with the Gold Star medal of honor. In addition, the order of the cosmonaut under the amazing name "Wind Rose", granted by the International Committee for Aeronautics and Space Flight, confirms the significance of the feat accomplished by Vladimir Mikhailovich.

Today his ashes rest in the Kremlin wall on main square Moscow. The name of the hero has repeatedly sounded from the TV screens. The documentary events are based on the film under the symbolic title “Cosmos. First blood". Its creators did a lot of work to find out the causes of the tragedy and important nuances, which Soviet time didn't mention. In Germany, ten years ago, the Berlin Symphony Orchestra performed many works written by outstanding composers from all over the world especially for the program of the Ad astra project. Among them was a creation dedicated to Vladimir Komarov.

If not for the tragedy with Komarov, the Soyuz should have been in flight until 2014. Half a century has passed, and it is unlikely that another ship will appear that can last so many years. But his life (in exchange for his own) was given by the same hero - Vladimir Mikhailovich Komarov. Well, isn't that heroism? Unfortunately, few people know about him, undeservedly ... But now, knowing the sad and selfless story of the Russian cosmonaut Komarov, whose name should be on a par with other great testers, it is necessary to honor his memory.

Incredible Facts

Photographs allow us to better understand life and often capture moments that may be forgotten.

3. Terra Nova expedition to the South Pole

Robert Falcon Scott (middle) led the ill-fated Terra Nova expedition starting in 1910 in hopes of becoming the first to conquer the geographic South Pole.

They managed to get to the pole on January 17, 1912, but 34 days before they got there, the Norwegian team. Their return home was difficult and stubborn, and the team's condition began to deteriorate inexorably, with many suffering from frostbite and other injuries.

Some of their bodies, diaries and photographs were found by a search party 8 months later.

The last entry in Scott's diary was dated March 29, 1912, the estimated date of his death.

4. Vulture and girl

In 1993, in Sudan, near the city of Ayod, the parents of this girl left her for a short time, running for food from the plane. The emaciated child also tried to get to the food, but was tired. Grif landed beside her and watched her as she rested.

Kevin Carter, the South African photojournalist who took the photo, committed suicide a year later. He was heavily criticized for taking the photograph. Carter tried to chase the bird away, but often regretted not doing more to help the child.

Rare historical photographs

5. Remains of cosmonaut Vladimir Komarov

On the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the October Revolution, the government decided to celebrate this with a space flight. Vladimir Komarov was chosen as the commander of the Soyuz-1 spacecraft, and Yuri Gagarin was chosen as his understudy. Both cosmonauts knew the capsule was not safe to fly, but neither dared to delay or cancel the mission by telling Brezhnev.

Komarov decided not to cancel the mission, he did not want Gagarin to be sent instead of him, and he would die instead of him.

Gagarin appeared during the launch and demanded that he also be put in a spacesuit, but he was refused.

The photo shows Komarov's funeral with an open coffin, where his charred remains were put on display. They say that Komarov himself demanded this before the flight in order to show the authorities who were responsible for his death.

6. Death selfie of mother and son

Gary Slok (Gary Slok) - 15-year-old teenager was on his way to rest with his mother Petra Langeveld (Petra Langeveld) in Kuala Lumpur. As they took their seats on the ill-fated MH17, they decided to take a selfie together.

Three hours after the photo was taken, their plane was shot down and crashed on the Ukrainian-Russian border.

7The Monk Who Sacrifices Himself

In 1963, the Buddhist majority in South Vietnam reached a breaking point in the growing tensions under the repressive regime of President Ngo Dinh Diem. In May of that year, Buddhists gathered in the city of Hue to defend their rights.

The government aggressively dispersed the crowd and nine Buddhists died. In protest against the regime, two elderly monks committed ritual suicide at a busy intersection in Saigon, Vietnam on June 11, 1963.

8. Eternal love

Skeletons in this picture about 2800 years old. Scientists from the University of Pennsylvania determined that both died around 800 BC. They were discovered at the archaeological site known as Hasanlu in Iran in 1972.

Both skeletons belong to men and they may be related. The city where they were was burned down during a military operation. Perhaps they were hiding from the soldiers, but quickly suffocated because of the fire. At the last moment, they clung to each other before dying.

9. Concussion shock

This photograph was taken during the Battle of Courcelet in France in September 1916.

A man sits crouched in a trench, showing shell shock, which was described as the empty, unfocused gaze of a battle-weary soldier. Gazing is a dissociation from trauma and occurs in post-traumatic stress disorder. In addition, it is worth noting that at that time people were not smiling in photographs.

10. A girl from a concentration camp draws a house

A girl who grew up in a concentration camp was asked to paint a picture of "at home" when she was in an institution for mentally disturbed children. It's hard to say what the lines mean to her, perhaps chaos or barbed wire.

There is little information regarding the girl, it is known that her name is Terezka. Her eyes are no longer the eyes of a naive child, but of someone who experienced all the horrors at such a young age.

Everyone knows about luck. About failures, almost no one. Heroes whose names are little known.

The very first victim of the Soviet space flights, apparently, it is necessary to consider a member of the first detachment of cosmonauts Valentin Bondarenko. He died on March 23, 1961 while training in a sound chamber. scientific institute. The future cosmonaut was only 24 years old. When he unhooked the medical sensors from himself, he wiped his body with a cotton swab dipped in alcohol and threw it away. The cotton wool accidentally hit the electric heater, and the oxygen-saturated chamber flared up. Clothes caught fire. The cell door could not be opened for several minutes. Bondarenko died from shock and burns. After this incident, it was decided to abandon the design of spacecraft with an oxygen-enriched atmosphere. But the incident itself was covered up by the Soviet government. If not for this secrecy, then perhaps the death of three American astronauts under similar circumstances could have been avoided.

On April 23, 1967, while returning to Earth, the parachute system of the Soyuz-1 spacecraft failed, resulting in the death of cosmonaut Vladimir Komarov. It was a test flight of the Soyuz. The ship, by all accounts, was still very "raw", launches in unmanned mode ended in failure. On November 28, 1966, the launch of the "first" automatic Soyuz-1 (which was later renamed Kosmos-133 in a TASS report) ended in an emergency deorbit. On December 14, 1966, the Soyuz-2 launch also ended in an accident, and even with the destruction of the launch pad ( open information about this "Soyuz-2" was not). Despite all this, the Soviet political leadership insisted on the urgent organization of a new space achievement by May 1st. The rocket was hastily prepared for launch, the first checks revealed more than a hundred problems. The cosmonaut, who was supposed to go on the Soyuz, after reports of so many malfunctions, his blood pressure rose, and the doctors forbade him to fly. Instead, Komarov was persuaded to fly, as he was more prepared (according to another version, the decision that Soyuz-1 would be piloted by Vladimir Komarov was made on August 5, 1966, Yuri Gagarin was appointed his understudy).
The ship went into orbit, but there were so many malfunctions that it had to be urgently landed (in Soviet-era encyclopedias it is written that the flight program was completed successfully). According to one version, the cause of the disaster was the technological negligence of a certain installer. To get to one of the units, a worker drilled a hole in the heat shield, and then hammered a steel blank into it. When the descent vehicle entered the dense layers of the atmosphere, the blank melted, a jet of air penetrated into the parachute compartment and squeezed the container with the parachute, which could not come out completely. Komarov released his reserve parachute. He came out normally, but the capsule began to tumble, the first parachute swept the lines of the second and extinguished it. Komarov lost any chance of salvation. He realized that he was doomed, and cursed our rulers for the whole Universe. The Americans recorded his heartbreaking conversations with his wife and friends, complaints about the rise in temperature, death groans and screams. Vladimir Komarov died when the descent vehicle hit the ground.
Minaviaprom, responsible for the parachute system, offered its own version of its failure. During the descent at an off-design altitude in a rarefied atmosphere, the lid of the glass, in which the parachutes were packed, was shot off. There was a pressure difference in the glass, built into the sphere of the descent vehicle, as a result - the deformation of this glass, which pinched the main parachute (a smaller exhaust chute opened), which led to a ballistic descent of the vehicle and high speed when it met the ground.

Cosmonauts Georgy Dobrovolsky, Vladislav Volkov and Viktor Patsaev died on June 30, 1971, while returning from the first Salyut-1 orbital station, also during descent, due to depressurization of the descent module of the Soyuz-11 spacecraft. At the cosmodrome, before the launch, the main crew (Alexey Leonov, Valery Kubasov and Pyotr Kolodin) was replaced by a backup crew (Dobrovolsky, Volkov, Patsaev). The tragedy could not have happened if not for political ambitions. Since the Americans had already flown to the Moon on three-seat Apollo spacecraft, it was required that we also have at least three cosmonauts flying. If the crew consisted of two people, they could be in spacesuits. But three space suits did not pass either in weight or in size. And then it was decided to fly in some sports suits.
On October 12, 1964, Vladimir Komarov, Konstantin Feoktistov and Boris Yegorov also set off on a Voskhod flight in a cramped cockpit, originally designed for one person (this is exactly what Gagarin flew in). In order to save space, the only ejection seat was removed from it, and the astronauts themselves flew not in protective suits, but lightly - in tracksuits. Seeing them off, Korolev hugged everyone and said: "Forgive me if something happens. I am a forced man." Then it passed.

The descent of the Soyuz-11 proceeded normally up to an altitude of 150 km and the moment when the spacecraft had to be divided into three parts before entering the atmosphere (at the same time, the utility and instrument compartments depart from the cabin descent module). At the moment of separation, when the ship was in space, the respiratory ventilation valve unexpectedly opened, connecting the cabin with the outside environment, which should have worked much later, near the ground itself. Why opened? According to experts, this has not been precisely established so far. Most likely - due to shock loads during the rupture of the pyrobolts during the separation of the ship's compartments (two pyrobolts were not far from the respiratory ventilation valve, the microexplosion could set the locking rod in motion, which opened the "window"). The pressure in the descent vehicle dropped so rapidly that the astronauts lost consciousness before they could unfasten their belts and manually close a hole the size of a five-kopeck coin (however, there is evidence that Dobrovolsky managed to free himself from the "harness", but nothing more). The victims were found to have traces of cerebral hemorrhage, blood in the lungs, damage to the eardrums, and release of nitrogen from the blood. The tragedy called into question the reliability of the Soviet space technology and interrupted the manned flight program for two years. After the death of Dobrovolsky, Volkov and Patsaev, the astronauts began to fly only in special suits. Cardinal measures were urgently taken to guarantee the safety of people in the event of a depressurization of the descent vehicle.

On April 5, 1975, the third stage of the Soyuz-18/1 launch vehicle crashed. Fortunately, the rescue system worked flawlessly. With an overload of 22 g, she tore the spacecraft away from the rocket and threw it along a ballistic trajectory. The descent vehicle with astronauts made a suborbital space flight. The landing took place in hard-to-reach areas of Altai on the edge of a cliff, and only by chance ended successfully. Cosmonauts Vasily Lazarev and Oleg Makarov survived.

On September 26, 1983, during the launch of the Soyuz-T10 spacecraft, the launch vehicle caught fire. The automatic rescue system did not work. Twelve seconds after the appearance of the flame, the launch personnel pressed the ejection button (this process can only be started if two people each press their button: the first is responsible for the rocket, the second is for the ship. These two saved the crew by simultaneously pressing the system start buttons salvation). The capsule with cosmonauts Vladimir Titov and Gennady Strekalov was fired from a rocket with an overload of 15-18 g and safely landed away from the launch complex, at a distance of 4 km from the rocket, which exploded 2 seconds (more precisely, 1.8 s) after separation capsules. The Cosmonaut Emergency Rescue System (SASC), developed under the guidance of Academician Zhukov, saved the lives of the astronauts. For that September launch, the pilot-cosmonauts did not receive any awards or regular titles. The official Soviet press ignored this episode.

January 27, 1967 During ground preparations for the upcoming launch to the Moon on the American Apollo spacecraft, a fire broke out from an accidental electrical spark. Neither astronauts V. Grissom, E. White and R. Chaffee, nor ground services managed to do anything. This is the first officially announced loss.

January 28, 1986 major tragedy: The Challenger exploded after 75 seconds of flight. Millions of people who watched this launch on TV saw a fireball erupt at an altitude of about 16 km above the Earth. Seven astronauts were killed, including teacher Christa McAuliffe.

July 23, 1999 Five seconds after the launch of the American spacecraft Columbia, due to a short circuit, the electronic control units of two of the ship's three main engines failed at once. The crew was saved from the accident by the composure of the first female shuttle commander, Aylen Collins, and the multiple redundancy of all the main systems of the spacecraft.

Vladimir Komarov faced an almost impossible task - to manually land an uncontrollable ship on Earth. All negotiations with a comrade in orbit were conducted by Yuri Gagarin - he was the last one who communicated with Komarov. We reproduce the original recording of their negotiations: "Rubin, I'm Zarya, how do you hear me, welcome." Komarov: “I'm Rubin, I can hear you perfectly. I can’t open the left half of the battery, only the right battery has opened, reception.” This is the first report of the astronaut. And the conversation before boarding: Gagarin: "Everything is fine, I'm Zarya." Komarov: "Understood you." Gagarin: “Get ready for the final operations, be more attentive, calmer, now there will be an automatic descent with a lunar orientation, normal, real.” Komarov: "Understood you." Gagarin: "I'm Zarya, how are you feeling, how are you, welcome." Komarov: "It's all right, I'm Rubin, welcome." Gagarin: "Understood you." Komarov: “I am in the middle seat, tied with belts” Gagarin: “Here, comrades recommend breathing deeper. Waiting for landing." Komarov: "Thank you, tell everyone ...".
At this point, the connection was cut off - the ship entered the Earth's atmosphere. The descent vehicle was landing. The ship was spotted from search aircraft, and the pilots reported: “We see the device, it is landing, the pilot chute has opened.” Then a painful silence before the fateful one: "It burns on the Earth." What were the last minutes of the life of Vladimir Komarov, no one will ever know - the on-board tape recorder melted, the logbook burned down. The most common legend that the pilots of search aircraft heard the swearing of the astronaut does not hold water: communication was possible only through the antennas on the lines of the main parachute, which never opened...

When on the night of April 25, the remains of Komarov were brought to the hospital. Burdenko, Air Marshal K. Vershinin also came there to see for himself whether a solemn farewell to the deceased was possible or not. Seeing what was left of the astronaut, the marshal ordered the remains to be cremated immediately...
The causes of the Soyuz catastrophe were investigated by a commission headed by D. Ustinov, who at that time was in charge of space exploration issues. The official version was: "The confluence of a number of factors of a random nature." The cosmonauts of the first detachment were told about the reasons for the death of their comrade at a special meeting with the showing of documentary footage of the tragedy. They had to be ready for any situation ... And the reason for the tragedy was purely technical: the pilot chute was not able (simply not enough power) to pull out the main one, which stuck, because the container walls were compressed by pressure, which were not rigid enough. The designers who developed the ship's parachute compartment and the creators of the parachute system itself were found guilty. The chief designer and head of the Institute of Parachute Systems F. Tkachev was removed from his posts, one of V. Mishin's deputies was punished.
A year and a half after the death of Vladimir Komarov, the Soyuz again flew into space with Georgy Beregov on board. And six months later, in January 1969, two ships managed to dock in orbit, and two cosmonauts, E. Khrunov and A. Eliseev, crossed over outer space from one union to another. They did what they had to do on that tragic flight. Since 1971, the Soyuz has never failed, the Americans recognized this ship as the oldest, but the most reliable spacecraft, unlike their Shuttle.
According to the plans, the Soyuz should still fly, at least until 2014. In the history of world cosmonautics, there was not, and is unlikely to ever be a spacecraft that would have a half-century of life, which Vladimir Komarov gave him in exchange for his ...

Exactly 50 years ago - on April 24, 1967 - Vladimir Komarov, one of the first Soviet cosmonauts. On that day, his descent vehicle was landing, but the main parachute did not come out at all, and the lines of the reserve were twisted ...

Vladimir Komarov was born in Moscow on March 16, 1927. Already in his youth, he was drawn to the sky - after graduating from a seven-year school in 1943, he entered the First Moscow Air Force School. When he completed his studies, the Great Patriotic War already ended. After school, Komarov became a cadet of the Sasovo aviation school, and then ended up in the Borisoglebsk military aviation school for pilots.

In July 1946, Komarov was transferred to Batayskoe military school named after A.K. Serov, graduating from which in 1949 he entered the service of a military fighter pilot in the aviation regiment of the fighter aviation division of the Air Force of the North Caucasian Military District.

Soviet pilot-cosmonaut Vladimir Komarov in an airplane before a training parachute jump, 1964

Over the next 10 years, Komarov managed to rise to the position of senior pilot and study at the 1st faculty of the N.E. Zhukovsky. After training, he began testing new models of aviation equipment at the State Red Army Research Institute of the Air Force. There he received an offer to do test work in the cosmonaut corps.

In April 1961, Komarov completed his training.

The first flight took place on October 12, 1964. Together with two other cosmonauts, Konstantin Feoktistov and Boris Yegorov, he spent a day in space aboard the Voskhod spacecraft.

Vladimir Mikhailovich Komarov, USSR pilot-cosmonaut, colonel engineer, 1964

For a successful flight, Komarov received the title of Hero of the Soviet Union, the Order of Lenin and the Gold Star medal. And at the beginning of 1965, he qualified as a cosmonaut of the third class and was appointed as an instructor-cosmonaut in a group of cosmonauts trained under the programs of the Ministry of Defense.

The development of the new Soyuz spacecraft began in 1962. It was conducted under the leadership of Sergei Korolev. The first three launches were unmanned and revealed serious flaws in the design of the ship: the first of them, Kosmos-133, which was supposed to dock with another ship launched later, used up all the fuel after separation from the launch vehicle, which made docking impossible.

It was also not possible to land the ship - during assembly, the phasing of the commands to the control steering nozzles was mixed up.

As a result, the ship was destroyed with the help of an automatic detonation system - it could not be allowed to land outside the USSR.

The second Soyuz did not even have time to rise from the Earth - a rocket exploded on the launch pad. The third ship, Kosmos-140, had problems with the automatic attitude control system, because of this, he spent too much fuel and did not complete his assigned tasks. During landing, it turned out that the thermal protection was broken during the installation of a technological plug, which caused the bottom of the ship to burn out. As a result, instead of the planned landing site, he ended up over the Aral Sea, broke through the ice and sank.

But the space race continued. Despite the setbacks, the fourth launch was already manned.

As the cosmonaut's daughter, Major Irina Komarova, said in an interview, on the occasion of the 50th anniversary October revolution Soviet authority wanted to achieve in space. Although some of the designers spoke about the “dampness” of the ship, Vasily Mishin, who took the place of the Queen who died in 1966, insisted on launching.

Cosmonaut Vladimir Komarov works out weightlessness in a laboratory aircraft in preparation for a space flight, 1963

“Before the flight, my father went to the hospital to see a familiar test pilot who was diagnosed with cancer. His wife later told her mother about the conversation that had taken place between them. The father confessed to the patient in the ward: “Ninety percent of the flight will be unsuccessful,” Irina said.

Understudy Komarov was appointed Yuri Gagarin. If Komarov fell ill, he would go on a flight instead of him. They were brought to the launch pad together. Gagarin was the last person to see Komarov alive.

After 540 seconds, the ship separated and went into orbit artificial satellite Earth. Problems began immediately - one of the solar panels could not be dealt with. It prevented the duplicating antenna of the telemetry system and the visor protecting the solar-star sensor from engine exhaust from opening. Neither solar nor stellar orientation proved impossible.

Vladimir Komarov during medical control at the Cosmonaut Training Center in Star City, 1964

Until ten in the morning, the State Commission was determined with further actions. In the end, it was decided to land the ship. By this time, Komarov was making only the fifth orbit, but it was planned to land on the seventeenth. But the landing failed - the ship near the equator went off in pitch from the oriented direction.

“We are feverishly coordinating with the State Commission the option of landing on the 18th orbit. We feel that we do not have time, - later recalled in the book "Rockets and People" designer Boris Chertok, one of Korolev's associates. - There, on the other end of the ZAS line, there are disputes again.

The communication session on the 17th orbit ended, and we did not have time to transmit any new instructions to Komarov.

Finally developed apparently uniquely possible variant. He was in the reserve, but now he becomes the main one. We offer manual orientation to bright side“like an airplane”, then, before entering the shadow, transfer control to the KI-38 gyroscopes. This product of Viktor Kuznetsov's company has never let us down. After leaving the shadow, check and, if necessary, correct the orientation manually and issue all the required commands at the estimated times for landing on the 19th revolution.

The landing went well at first. According to ballistics calculations, the descent vehicle was supposed to land at 06:24, 65 km east of Orsk.

Chertok wrote: “We did not wait for a report from the landing site from anyone. Now we are not needed by the State Commission. Even Gagarin could not figure out complex system air force communications, how was the landing. Only a few hours later Gagarin received an urgent call for communication. He was informed that the landing was not normal, and he was told to urgently fly to Orsk.

Arriving at the landing site of the descent vehicle, the search team saw a monstrous picture. The flattened apparatus that entered the ground half a meter into the ground was engulfed in flames, and fussed around locals trying to pelt the fire with earth. Only fire extinguishers managed to bring down the flames.

The cause of the crash was an unopened parachute. The main one could not get out and open up to the end, and the spare got tangled in his lines.

According to the official version of the commission investigating the causes of the crash, this happened due to sudden pressure drops: the glass with the parachute deformed and pinched the main parachute.

As Chertok noted, the simultaneous operation of the main and reserve parachutes had not previously been studied. The commission's version seemed dubious. “Regardless of all the subcommittees, the team of specialists from our plant, which remained at the test site, decided to conduct their own experiment,” Chertok wrote. They had reason to doubt. They opened the OSB hatch, pulled out the drag parachute, hooked its lines to the crane through a dynamometer and began to rise to measure the force at which the main parachute package would begin to emerge.

What a surprise it was when it turned out that the CA mass of 2800 kilograms was not enough. But at the same time, the container was not subjected to any pressure drop and, consequently, deformation compressing the parachute stowage. They did not report this experiment to the commission.”

The next day after Komarov's flight, Soyuz-2 was scheduled to launch with three cosmonauts on board. It was assumed that two of them would move through outer space to Komarov's ship, and then both ships would land.

If it were not for the problems with opening the battery, the second launch would have taken place and four cosmonauts would have died, and not one: the design of both ships was identical and the same design errors were made.

Another reason for the problems with the parachute exit was also expressed. The technology for the production of spacecraft meant placing the descent vehicle after coating with a heat-shielding coating in an autoclave, where, at high temperature, polymerization of synthetic resins, which are integral part thermal protection. But during the manufacture of the Soyuz, the covers of the parachute containers fell behind in time, so the descent vehicles were placed in an autoclave without them. And it is likely that the volatile fractions of the coating settled on the inner surface of the containers, making it sticky and rough, which prevented the parachute from coming out.

The reliability commission's recommendations included polishing the containers, increasing their volume, and increasing rigidity. The most important outcome of the commission's activities was the decision to pre-test all of its recommendations during unmanned launches.

“The shake-up that our entire space industry received had a decisive influence on improving the reliability of all systems and the further Soyuz development program,” Chertok wrote. “All those who flew safely, those who fly and those who will fly into space on the Soyuz should remember that they owe a reliable and safe return to Earth not only to the creators of spaceships, but also to Vladimir Komarov.”

Already in the 2000s, Chertok told reporters: “What happened to Komarov is our mistake, the system developers. We let him in too early. The Soyuz was not completed ... The death of Komarov is on the conscience of the designers.

Now the Soyuz has become a key component of the Soviet and Russian manned space exploration programs, and after 2011 - the only means of delivering crews to the International Space Station.

Komarov was buried the very next day, April 25. His remains were cremated, and the urn with the ashes was placed in a niche in the Kremlin wall. Zhenya was issued a death certificate, in which in the chapter "cause" it was indicated: "extensive burns of the body", and the city of Shchelkovo was listed as the place of death.

She showed this evidence to Gagarin: “Yurochka, and who will believe me that I am the widow of cosmonaut Komarov?” Gagarin turned pale, went “upstairs” to sort it out ... Soon, another document was brought to my mother, which already indicated: “tragically died at the end of a test flight on spaceship Soyuz-1, - the daughter recalled. The cosmonaut's family received an apartment in Moscow as compensation and received monthly payments until the collapse of the USSR. Komarov himself was posthumously awarded the second "Gold Star".

Cosmonaut-hero, Gagarin's friend; 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 starting the thorny path from studying at the Academy. Zhukovsky, while Komarov already had a higher education in engineering, thoroughly studied the Soyuz, understood the apparatus down to the smallest nuances. Interestingly, he was not in excellent health. The one with which they become astronauts. Twice he was "rejected" during the selection, 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 and kefir from the refrigerator, so as not to undermine his immunity.

The first flight

Vladimir Komarov spent his first flight as the ship's captain, having spent 24 hours and 17 minutes in orbit together with Konstantin Feoktistov and Boris Yegorov. The main purpose of the flight on October 12, 1964 was to show the priority of the Soviet Union in the plurality of the crew, and the cosmonauts coped with this task. For the first time, three people went into space at the same time on the same ship - an engineer, a doctor and a pilot. First flight without space suits and with the 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.

Defective ship

Komarov was the first to go into orbit, on Soyuz-1, and on April 24 it was planned to launch a second ship, on board of which there would already be two. As planned, the ships should dock in space, and Vladimir Mikhailovich should move from one to the other, thus having been on two ships at the same time and returning to Earth already as part of a newly arrived crew. It was supposed to be a triumph dedicated to the 50th anniversary of the communist revolution. When checking on Soyuz-1, 203 design flaws were revealed, but no one began to report Brezhnev about malfunctions. Although Gagarin compiled a report on the shortcomings in the work of the ship, it was never passed on to the KGB officers.

Knowledge is 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 the family. When it was time to say goodbye, the landlord 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, offered to refuse to participate in the launch, but Komarov was adamant: “No. You know: if I refuse, the first one will 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, removing the pilot chute. Following him is a brake parachute, then the main dome. The last one didn't open. The Soyuz continued to fall with an infinite increase in axial rotation, which caused the lines to intertwine, preventing the dome from opening. If both solar panels were opened on Soyuz-1, and there was no sensor failure, Soyuz-2 would have been launched, ”designer Boris Chertok later wrote. - After docking, Khrunov and Eliseev would have transferred to Komarov's ship. In this case, the three of them would have died, and a little later, with a high probability, Bykovsky could have died.

Friendship with Gagarin

With Yuri Alekseevich, Komarov immediately developed friendly relations. Gagarin was a frequent guest in the family, went hunting with a friend with pleasure, and participated in family events. According to the memoirs of Valentina Yakovlevna, Komarov's wife, they celebrated their birthdays together - both are "March". The fates of the cosmonauts were tragically intertwined: Yuri Alekseevich studied in Orenburg, Vladimir Mikhailovich died near Orenburg; the birthplace of Komarov's ancestors was the Vladimir region, Gagarin died near Kirzhach in the Vladimir region. It was Yuri Alekseevich who petitioned for the extradition real facts the death of a comrade - initially, Valentina Yakovlevna was brought a certificate of the death of her husband in the city of Shchelkovo, from "extensive burns of the body." The new document indicated the truth: “he tragically died at the end of a test flight on the Soyuz-1 spacecraft.

Truth and speculation

Jamie Doran and Piers Bisoni, authors of Starman: The Truth About the Yuri Gagarin Legend, published in 2011, claim that U.S. intelligence intercepted Vladimir Komarov's last words, spoken minutes before his death. Parsing the conversation with the Control Center is quite difficult, but Doran and Bizoni offer the reader a translation from the mouth of the Agency analyst national security USA, Perry Fellwock: "Temperature rises rapidly in the capsule" and "... killed." The astronaut was angry and zealously tried to convince his interlocutor of something. Also, employees of the tracking station in Turkey took the liberty of informing about the last minutes of Komarov's life. According to them, the cosmonaut's conversation with his wife, who asked what to tell the children, was intercepted, as well as a videophone conversation with Soviet Prime Minister Alexei Kosygin, in which the latter, with tears in his eyes, calls Vladimir Mikhailovich a hero.