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Thread: Vladimir Komarov: The Cosmonaut Launched Into Space Knowing He Wouldn't Come Back Alive

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    UK Avalon Member bogeyman's Avatar
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    Default Vladimir Komarov: The Cosmonaut Launched Into Space Knowing He Wouldn't Come Back Alive

    https://www.iflscience.com/space/vla...me-back-alive/

    Baby Receives New Heart And Immune Gland In World First Operation - IFLScience
    The Soviet Union was about to celebrate its 50th anniversary – and to mark the occasion, they decided that balloons and a nice bit of cake weren't quite enough. They were going to have to unnecessarily risk the lives of several cosmonauts.

    The plan was to send two spacecraft into orbit. Soyuz 1, containing Komarov, would launch first, and wait for a day for the arrival of the unimaginatively named Soyuz 2. The ships would then meet, and Komarov would do a spacewalk, crawling out of his own craft and into Soyuz 2. One of the two cosmonauts aboard Soyuz 2 would then enter Soyuz 1 before both ships departed for Earth.

    However, months before the planned launch it became apparent that it would not go well. When the craft was inspected over 200 structural problems were found – problems that they both knew would end in the pilot's death.

    A 10-page memo was reportedly made listing the faults. Nobody, presumably for fear of adding their own name to the future death toll of the mission, would take the memo to leader Leonid Brezhnev.

    For his part, the KGB friend Gagarin gave the note to was reportedly banned from talking to anyone affiliated with the space program.

    Komarov's friends attempted to convince him to refuse to fly the craft, figuring that the consequences of that are less severe than assured death. However, Komarov knew that if he were to pull out, they would send his friend Gagarin. Komarov refused to pull out, even knowing that it likely meant his death.


    A futile death, for political expedite, waste of a life.

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    UK Avalon Founder Bill Ryan's Avatar
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    Default Re: Vladimir Komarov: The Cosmonaut Launched Into Space Knowing He Wouldn't Come Back Alive

    Yes. Here's a rather brutal image, that of Komarov's burned body in a casket. It's a real photo.



    From NPR, in 2011: https://npr.org/sections/krulwich/20...crying-in-rage

    Cosmonaut Crashed Into Earth 'Crying In Rage'

    The opening paragraph of the article:
    The space vehicle is shoddily constructed, running dangerously low on fuel; its parachutes — though no one knows this — won't work and the cosmonaut, Vladimir Komarov, is about to, literally, crash full speed into Earth, his body turning molten on impact. As he heads to his doom, U.S. listening posts in Turkey hear him crying in rage, "cursing the people who had put him inside a botched spaceship."

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