Soyuz 1

[GordonD]

Today is the 51st anniversary of the Soyuz 1 accident, when Vladimir Komarov was killed after his parachute failed to open properly.

 

The mission had problems from the beginning, as one of the solar panels failed to open, and attempts by Komarov to shake it free were unsuccessful. The planned launch of Soyuz 2 was cancelled: the flight plan had called for a docking and transfer of two of its cosmonauts to join Komarov (later achieved on Soyuz 4/5). Komarov re-entered but the main parachute did not open and when the reserve chute was deployed it became entangled. The capsule hit the ground at high speed and exploded.

 

Later analysis of the parachute problem revealed that the same fault was present on Soyuz 2, so had the solar panel opened as it should and the second spacecraft been launched, it is possible that it would have crashed too.

[Eric Mc]

They were rushing things. It never pays to rush.

[GordonD]

28 minutes ago, Eric Mc said:

They were rushing things. It never pays to rush.

Particularly when the Apollo program had come to a halt after the pad fire.

[Eric Mc]

Both nations are in panic mode - both hoping to beat each other with at least a manned flight around the moon before the end of 1968. Apollo recovered more quickly than Soyuz and Apollo 8 made it first. After that, The Soviets pretended they'd never planned to send anybody around the moon - although they hadn't completely given up on the idea.