He knew that he would fall from space to the ground and die, but he still performed the mission. As a result, he was buried in a sea of flames. What kind of mission was this dangerous mission? Today we talk about the first person to fall from space: Vladimir Komarov.
Komarov was born in Moscow on March 16, 1927. He showed his fascination with aviation and airplanes as a child. At the age of 15, joined the Soviet Air Force. By 1949, he had become a pilot. He once said: “Whoever flies once, who has flown an airplane, no one wants to leave the airplane, nor the sky.” It is this enthusiasm that he graduated from Zhukovsky in 1959 with a score close to full marks. Air Force Engineering Academy. Soon, the Soviet Union recruited astronauts. He became one of 18 candidates. After years of training, Komarov became an excellent astronaut.
On April 12, 1961, the Soviet Union successfully launched a manned rocket, and Yuri Gagarin became the first astronaut in history. At that time, it was during the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union. The two powers had already competed into space. After getting the first manned rocket. The Soviet Union plans for the next mission to be the moon landing. Before the moon landing, they need to build a space capsule between the earth and the moon in order to pick up the astronauts returning to the moon. Time came to 1967, which was the 50th anniversary of the Soviet Communist Revolution. The Soviet Union was determined to realize the dream of going to the moon on this special day. The experienced Komarov was selected as the astronaut for this mission. His task is to transport the space capsule to a designated location, and then return to Earth through the return capsule. This seemingly simple task is actually full of unknowns. At that time, the Soviet Union was eager to prove that it was stronger than the United States. Researchers were under pressure from many aspects and kept compressing scientific research time to implement this task. It is written in Shadow of the Spacecraft Soyuz 1 piloted by Komarov that there are 203 structural problems that have not been resolved, and these problems have been checked out before the flight. Unfortunately, facing tremendous political pressure, the Soviet Union needed a new space miracle, and Soyuz 1 was put into use urgently.
Gaga, a good friend of Komarov, has long asked the country to postpone the mission. Allegedly, he even wrote a 10-page application, hoping to persuade superiors to delay the departure time. But this application was eventually ignored by the state. At that time, Komarov himself was also aware of this series of things. He himself believed that if he continued to perform the mission, he would die, but he still boarded the rocket. According to official records (from the Russian National Archives), the last words he said to his colleagues on the ground were: “Thank you for the love you convey. It makes me feel good and everything will be fine.” April 1967 On the 23rd, Komarov began his ill-fated space journey. Although he succeeded in placing the space capsule in its original position, his landing module lost control, and only one of the two solar panels that provided energy to the landing module was deployed. Although Komarov was skilled, he encountered great difficulties in maneuvering. He swam around the earth twice in space. When he reached an altitude of 23,000 feet, the parachute he was supposed to deploy failed to open. Soyuz 1 hit hard near Orenburg on April 24, and Komarov died on the spot. He became the first person to die in space flight. In 1971, the Soviet Union finally successfully landed on the moon and left a commemorative plaque on the moon to commemorate Komarov and 13 other Soviet astronauts.
The first person to fall from space
Although I don’t know how Komarov faced his fear of losing his life in the landing pod, his spirit of selflessness and selfless dedication to the country was regarded as a national hero by the Soviet Union, and perhaps even more popular after death. Respect. Many Soviet officials stared at the charred body of the fallen astronaut before cremating him, even though there was not much to see. Komarov’s body was later buried in the Kremlin.
There is no doubt that Komarov died tragically as “the first person to fall from space.” However, many similar incidents occurred during the Soviet era, and most of the stories are still shrouded in undisclosed archives.
