Vladimir Komarov - the first Soviet cosmonaut who twice visited space
The manned launch of the Soyuz 1, the first of the Soyuz series, took place on 23 on April 1967. On board the three-seater ship was a single cosmonaut, Vladimir Mikhailovich Komarov. The long-awaited flight brought a catastrophe and the death of the astronaut. It remains a mystery to the present day what caused the terrible tragedy - a fatal accident or excessive haste in preparing a flight.
The idea of creating a new ship "Soyuz", which was supposed to replace its predecessor, the ship "Vostok", originated from Sergei Pavlovich Korolev in 1961 year. It happened just a few months after the successful flight of Yuri Gagarin.
Note that the United States began to implement its lunar program almost immediately after the success of the Soviet Union. The Americans planned to land astronauts on Earth’s satellite. In the USSR they could not fail to respond, and the next, which is also decisive, the stage of the conquest of the moon began.
In 1963, the government of the Soviet Union issued a decree classified as “top secret”. According to this decree, Soviet cosmonauts were to fly around the moon in the coming years. The spacecraft "Soyuz" was designed specifically for this. Tests of the ship were scheduled for 1964 year, and launch - for 1965-1966 years. The same ship, but already manned, was supposed to fly around the moon in 1967 year, and the landing on the satellite was planned for 1968 year.
Unfortunately, the "Soyuz-1" was constructed in great haste. There is information that just before the flight, the engineers recorded about a hundred structural defects. Despite this, the government insisted on deadlines - the Soviet Union should become the first state whose cosmonauts will land on the moon.
It is a pity that the chief designer S. Korolev did not live to see the time when the launch of the Soyuz took place. He was not in the shops during the preparation, did not delve into any detail, did not use his unique ability to anticipate problems and excellent knowledge of the case. The late instructor was replaced by Vasily Mishin, who had much less weight and authority. Many contemporaries of the Queen said that it was in his power to resist even the government and prevent the launch of an unreliable ship.
In the 1966-1967, the first three unmanned launches of the Soyuz were conducted. None of them was successful. But despite this, the decision to send two such manned spacecraft into orbit remained unchanged. The first was to fly Vladimir Komarov. The day after Komarov, three more astronauts were to fly on the Soyuz-2 spacecraft - Khrunov, Bykovsky and Yeliseyev. Under the plan, "Soyuz-1" with Vladimir Komarov on board will approach the "Union-2" and dock with it. Khrunov and Eliseev will go into outer space and go to the ship Komarov. After that, both ships will go to land. (This program was fully implemented only in January of 1969, only Shatalov flew instead of Komarov, and Volynov flew instead of Bykovsky).
Komarov's understudy was Yuri Gagarin, who was very concerned about the plans of the government and believed that the life of astronauts could not be endangered until serious technical improvements were realized.
But, in spite of everything, Komarov flew all the same. His first flight took place in the 1964 year on the ship "Sunrise". It was the first manned multi-seat spacecraft, on board which, in addition to the pilot, was still a doctor and engineer. Astronauts for the first time history made a flight without spacesuits.
Alas, the second flight of Komarov was fatal. He was not helped by any qualifications or experience. The malfunction of the ship became apparent at the very beginning of the flight. After going into orbit, one of the two solar panels did not open up on it, and the most important sensor of the orientation system did not work either. Exceptionally thanks to professionalism, Vladimir Komarov was able to produce the orientation of Soyuz-1 almost blindly. Everything seemed to be fine.
However, when landing at an altitude of 7 kilometers, the parachute system failed. The first to open the exhaust parachute, and after him - the brake. After reducing the speed, the main parachute was supposed to open, but this did not happen. After the release of the emergency parachute, its lines were messed up with the brake parachute lines. The device hit the ground at a speed of 40 meters per second and caught fire.
Later it turned out that, due to incorrect calculations, the container with a parachute was made of too soft material. Under pressure, which arose during the descent, the container shrank and clamped the parachute. In addition, before the flight, the heat treatment of the container was done with a number of irregularities, and as a result, the inner surface of the chamber was covered with a sticky layer. In such conditions, the release of the parachute became simply impossible.
Also recorded the last negotiations with Vladimir Komarov. Yuri Gagarin was in touch with him all the time during the flight. When it was decided to urgently go to the landing, he recommended Komarov to breathe deeper. He also said that the astronaut is waiting on the landing. Komarov thanked and wanted to warn about some incident, but the connection at the entrance to the dense layers of the atmosphere was broken. Komarov died still in the air from terrible overloads.
For the next manned launch, the Soyuz was being prepared for almost a year and a half. After a lengthy redesign, the ship actually became airworthy. "Unions" are exploited in our days, and without major improvements. But for the first test of this ship he paid with his life one of the best Soviet cosmonauts.
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