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Soyuz 1


GordonD

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On this day in 1967 the first flight of the Soviet Union's new spacecraft ended in disaster when the parachute failed to open and the Descent Module crashed to Earth, killing the pilot, Vladimir Komarov, instantly.

 

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It took many years for the full story to emerge: it seemed that the mission had encountered problems almost from the very start of the mission: some sources said that one of the solar panels had failed to deploy and attempts to free it by rotating the spacecraft had been fruitless. This led to the cancellation of Soyuz 2, which was to have docked with Soyuz 1 in a spectacular display of the new craft's capabilities. This turned out to be a blessing as when examined the second craft had the same parachute problem and had things gone as planned four cosmonauts would have died instead of just one.

 

Coming just three months after the Apollo pad fire, it meant that the space programmes of both nations had come to an abrupt halt. They would get going again at almost the same time, October the following year.

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