The deaths of Vladimir Kamarov- and of the Soviet moon program
A while back, I did a post about Pravda's concession that Soviet cosmonauts died before the USSR succeeded in putting Yuri Gagarin into orbit and returning him safely to earth.
Now further information has emerged about Soviet space failures- and all I can say is "Wow."
At the time, the official story is that cosmonaut Vladimir Komarov died when the parachute on his Soyuz I capsule somehow became wrapped around the capsule instead of deploying and slowing his descent. But a new book claims out that Soyuz I had several design flaws that Komarov and others knew about before the flight even began- flaws so serious that Komarov did not expect to return alive! Apparently he agreed to go through with the mission only because his backup pilot was his best friend, the first human being in space, Yuri Gagarin. Had Komarov refused the mission, he believed that Gagarin would have died in his place.
Komarov, it is said, died cursing those whose negligence had sent him into space in a faulty vehicle. Others dispute this account of Komarov's last transmission, and claim that it was edited to make it sensationalistic.
Meanwhile, few people realize that the Soviet Union was desperately trying to get their own cosmonauts to the moon before Apollo 11, and had to give up only when a last-minute test of the booster they'd developed for the mission blew up on the launching pad:
Now further information has emerged about Soviet space failures- and all I can say is "Wow."
At the time, the official story is that cosmonaut Vladimir Komarov died when the parachute on his Soyuz I capsule somehow became wrapped around the capsule instead of deploying and slowing his descent. But a new book claims out that Soyuz I had several design flaws that Komarov and others knew about before the flight even began- flaws so serious that Komarov did not expect to return alive! Apparently he agreed to go through with the mission only because his backup pilot was his best friend, the first human being in space, Yuri Gagarin. Had Komarov refused the mission, he believed that Gagarin would have died in his place.
Komarov, it is said, died cursing those whose negligence had sent him into space in a faulty vehicle. Others dispute this account of Komarov's last transmission, and claim that it was edited to make it sensationalistic.
Meanwhile, few people realize that the Soviet Union was desperately trying to get their own cosmonauts to the moon before Apollo 11, and had to give up only when a last-minute test of the booster they'd developed for the mission blew up on the launching pad:
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