#Cosmonaut Vladimir Komarov

[mudwerks]

The Remains of Cosmonaut Vladimir Komarov, The man who fell from space (1967)

"In his diary, Nikolai Kamanin recorded that the Soyuz 1 capsule crashed into the ground at 30–40 metres per second (98–131 ft/s) and that the remains of Komarov's body were an irregular lump 30 centimetres (12 in) in diameter and 80 centimetres (31 in) long."

I guess his remains probably have a pretty good shelf-life.

[thatsrightice]

The story of these two men is my Roman Empire.

Yuri Gagarin and Vladimir Komarov were highly decorated Cosmonauts, both of which made firsts in the history of space flight.

Yuri Gagarin famously became the first man in space on April 12, 1961.

Vladimir Komarov piloted Voshkod 1 on October 12, 1964 on the first space mission to carry multiple crew members. He flew again aboard Soyuz 1 on April 23, 1967, becoming the first Russian man to make two spaceflights.

Yuri Gagarin and Vladimir Komarov were close.

The Soyuz 1 was described as being “a piece of shit” and a “devil ship” as issues plagued the spacecraft throughout development and failed testing. Yuri had done everything he could to get the launch postponed, including writing a ten-page memo detailing the 203 structural problems he had discovered during inspection of the Soyuz 1. Any person who had laid eyes on the memo would be fired or demoted.

Komarov knew of these issues, but refused to step down from the missions. In March of 1987 he met with Venyamin Russayev, a then-recently-demoted KGB agent who had been assigned to "mind" Yuri Gagarin.

He met with Russayev and said, "I'm not going to make it back from this flight." Russayev asked, “Why not refuse?” Komarov answered: "If I don't make this flight, they'll send the backup pilot instead." That was Yuri Gagarin. Komarov couldn't do that to his friend. "That's Yura. And he'll die instead of me. We've got to take care of him." Komarov then burst into tears.

Yuri, nicknamed Yura by friends and family, showed up on the day of the launch “demanding to be put into a space suit,” "demanding this and this and this...", doing anything and everything he could to be the one on that spacecraft instead of Vladimir. Unfortunately, his attempts were be futile.

Soyuz 1 would launch on April 23, 1967 and faced serious issues throughout the flight. The parachutes failed to deploy during reentry and the spacecraft burned up while Vladimir screamed and cried and cursed out those responsible.

Yuri Gagarin was grounded from future space flights and denied permission to pilot military jets. This was devastating for the already deeply depressed man and everyone knew it. Even his favorite hairdresser said that “Yuri couldn't live without flying. It was his whole life. A man can't live without his trade. He can't survive.”

He eventually convinced them to let him fly, but on March 28, 1968, less than a year since Komarov’s accident, he was tragically killed during a routine-training flight aboard a MiG-15. The cause of the accident is unclear, though many speculate that the accident was an assassination on the cosmonaut as he had a falling out with several high-ranking officials following the death of his close friend.

Both Yuri Gagarin and Vladimir Komarov’s names are featured on the memorial for fallen US Astronauts and USSR Cosmonauts left on the moon by the Apollo 11 crew.

[thererisesaredstar]

Long live Soviet science! (1964)

[pavelbelyayev]

"Why is it that cosmonauts always have girls (daughters)?"

"Maybe because girls are cool."

Most of the pioneering cosmonauts were parents of girls, so here are the proud dads (and mom) and their girls! Happy International Women's Day! 👩🏻‍🚀💐💫

[ladamedusoif]

Hi Rose!

In your list of 5 topics you could speak for an hour on with no preparation, one stands out to me as quite different from the rest…

Apollo 11

How did that fascination start? What about the Apollo 11 mission interests you most? Any fun facts I may not know? (I will warn you that I have spent family vacations the past three years at various air and space museums lol)

*stretches, flexes fingers*

KAT. What a great ask. And yes, my love of the Apollo 11 mission - and the entire space race in general - is probably a little at odds with most of my special interests. I'm also very aware of the inherent problems in the space program, as Gil Scott Heron so beautifully articulated at the time in 'Whitey On The Moon'. But it absolutely fascinates me. Warning: nerding out incoming.

I was always aware of little things about the race for space - I share a birthday with poor Laika's ill-fated launch, so all the 'on this day' stuff I devoured as a kid on my birthday involved a poor little Russian dog going off into space and not returning. Definitely not traumatising or weird. (I have a Laika brooch and fridge magnet, though, as a little nod to this.) And I saw Apollo 13 in cinemas, and was always fascinated by the aesthetic of the program.

With the fiftieth anniversary of the Moon landing in 2019 the BBC launched an utterly brilliant podcast series called Thirteen Minutes to the Moon, which had me hooked. (They did a sequel about Apollo 13, too - highly recommended). I found the narrative fascinating and compelling - not a straightforward tale of heroism and American triumph, nor of absolute loathing of their Soviet cosmonaut rivals and colleagues. (A favourite Apollo 11 detail is that Armstrong and Aldrin left a commemorative medal on the surface of the moon for Yuri Gagarin, first man in space, and Vladimir Komarov, another Soviet space pioneer who died tragically young. Hardly the actions of hardcore Cold Warriors...)

After that I read everything I could lay my hands on about the mission and the space program in general. Michael Collins's extraordinary memoir Carrying the Fire confirmed him as my absolute favourite astronaut: erudite, a Francophile, utterly hilarious (he had a tendency to use slang terms like "that cat" and "baby" casually in his communications during the mission) and with a really insightful understanding of his colleagues. He also designed the initial concept for their mission badge - notably refusing the inclusion of their names, as this would have erased the contribution of so many others, and insisting on the olive branch in the eagle's claws as a sign of peace and goodwill for all mankind.

I also adore Andrew Chaikin's A Man on the Moon, which covers the entirety of the Apollo missions. The Smithsonian/Air and Space Museum (of which Collins was the first director!) also made available countless digitised and scanned items linked to the missions, including these natty purses in the shape of the command module from Apollo 11 that were gifted to the wives of the crew. (Yes, I want one.)

The final thing that hooked me? Todd Douglas Miller's beautiful, powerful Apollo 11 documentary, with a score by Matt Morton that is still on my go-to writing soundtracks list. I can't recommend it enough if you haven't seen it. It's an extraordinary piece of work, one that blends the humanity of the people involved with the epic scale of what was being undertaken.

And I think that's what appeals or interests me about it: the risks, the fears, the hopes, the criticisms, the sense of a world waiting and watching to see how this would play out. And that's why I've got a full Saturn V rocket Lego model on top of one of my bookshelves and a Lunar Lander set waiting to be built...

Thank you so much for asking - and apologies for all this nerding out! (I'm guessing you've seen For All Mankind on Apple + - if not, it's a great counterfactual telling of the story.)

[worker-and-soldier]

October 12th, 1964 - a historic day for the Soviet Union and its space program. The spacecraft Voskhod, meaning 'Sunrise', was launched into Earth orbit, returning on the 13th as the first multi-manned space flight - as well as being the first without spacesuits.

"The crew on board consisted of the commander, pilot, and cosmonaut Vladimir Mikhailovich Komarov, the researcher and cosmonaut Konstantin Petrovich Feoktistov, and the physician and cosmonaut Boris Borisovich Yegorov."

(Tsiolkovsky State Museum of the History of Cosmonautics. “The Voskhod Three.” Google Arts & Culture)

Photo by Owen Llewellyn.

[letsgethaunted]

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Episode Seven: The Phantom Cosmonaut Conspiracy Photodump

Image 1: Vladimir Ilyushin, who supposedly spent a year in a Chinese rehabilitation facility after being in a “car crash” Image 2: A 1963 photo of the original cosmonaut team. The bottom shows the original photo (now declassified), the top shows the published version of the photo with Grigori Nelyubov (the guy who got in a fight, then killed himself) photoshopped out Image 3: Close-up of Image 2, showing Nelyubov’s removal Image 4: Valentin Bondarenko, who perished during a cosmonaut training exercise when the pressure chamber he was inside caught on fire Image 5: Yuri Gagarin with Nelyubov, original photo left, photoshopped version right with Nelyubov removed Image 6: Photoshopped vs unphotoshopped versions of the 16 man cosmonaut team, with “disgraced and deceased” members removed Image 7: 1960 photo of Yuri Gagarin and other cosmonauts, with unknown cosmonaut completely removed from published version (second from the right) Image 8: TRIGGER WARNING!!! Do not continue to swipe if you are sensitive to death Image 9: The open casket of Vladimir Komarov, who crashed to Earth in the botched Soyuz 1 in 1967 Image 10: Nedelin catastrophe at Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, workers can be seen asphyxiating as they run

[brookstonalmanac]

Events 4.24 (after 1930)

1932 – Benny Rothman leads the mass trespass of Kinder Scout, leading to substantial legal reforms in the United Kingdom. 1933 – Nazi Germany begins its persecution of Jehovah's Witnesses by shutting down the Watch Tower Society office in Magdeburg. 1944 – World War II: The SBS launches a raid against the garrison of Santorini in Greece. 1953 – Winston Churchill is knighted by Queen Elizabeth II. 1955 – The Bandung Conference ends: Twenty-nine non-aligned nations of Asia and Africa finish a meeting that condemns colonialism, racism, and the Cold War. 1957 – Suez Crisis: The Suez Canal is reopened following the introduction of UNEF peacekeepers to the region. 1963 – Marriage of Princess Alexandra of Kent to Angus Ogilvy at Westminster Abbey in London. 1965 – Civil war breaks out in the Dominican Republic when Colonel Francisco Caamaño overthrows the triumvirate that had been in power since the coup d'état against Juan Bosch. 1967 – Cosmonaut Vladimir Komarov dies in Soyuz 1 when its parachute fails to open. He is the first human to die during a space mission. 1967 – Vietnam War: American General William Westmoreland says in a news conference that the enemy had "gained support in the United States that gives him hope that he can win politically that which he cannot win militarily". 1970 – China launches Dong Fang Hong I, becoming the fifth nation to put an object into orbit using its own booster. 1970 – The Gambia becomes a republic within the Commonwealth of Nations, with Dawda Jawara as its first President. 1980 – Eight U.S. servicemen die in Operation Eagle Claw as they attempt to end the Iran hostage crisis. 1990 – STS-31: The Hubble Space Telescope is launched from the Space Shuttle Discovery. 1990 – Gruinard Island, Scotland, is officially declared free of the anthrax disease after 48 years of quarantine. 1993 – An IRA bomb devastates the Bishopsgate area of London. 1994 – A Douglas DC-3 ditches in Botany Bay after takeoff from Sydney Airport. All 25 people on board survive. 1996 – In the United States, the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996 is passed into law. 2004 – The United States lifts economic sanctions imposed on Libya 18 years previously, as a reward for its cooperation in eliminating weapons of mass destruction. 2006 – Bombings in the Egyptian resort city of Dahab kill 23 people and injure 80. 2005 – Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger is inaugurated as the 265th Pope of the Catholic Church taking the name Pope Benedict XVI. 2011 – WikiLeaks starts publishing the Guantanamo Bay files leak. 2013 – A building collapses near Dhaka, Bangladesh, killing 1,129 people and injuring 2,500 others. 2013 – Violence in Bachu County, Kashgar Prefecture, of China's Xinjiang results in death of 21 people.

[rebeleden]

Watch "Vladimir Komarov: the Cosmonaut who DIED in space #morbid" on YouTube

[un-ionizetheradlab]

A tribute to Soviet cosmonaut Vladimir Komarov, on the occasion of the 55th anniversary of his death (April 24, 1967). 

He truly deserved so much better. 💔 I hope this tribute will be worthy of his memory. 

[charlesherbertlightoller]

Cosmonauts, courtesy of NeuralBlender

[arionvulgaris]

Established canonical ages for A Headfull of Dreams, a fic series set in 2019.

Pavel Belyayev - 39 (the token GenX)

Vladimir Komarov - 34

Andriyan Nikolayev - 33

Konstantin Feoktistov - 32

Alexei Leonov - 30

Yuri Gagarin, Valery Bykovsky, Boris Yegorov - 27

Valentina Tereshkova, Gherman Titov - 26

@tiggerpilot @cosmo-naute @bewareofdragon @lyonyaonthemoon

[pavelbelyayev]

Tried entering the names of some cosmonauts (Gagarin, Titov, Tereshkova, Komarov, Belyayev and Leonov) using that one Pokémon generator AI. The results were…interesting.

Also sort of a rough sequel to this.

[whattheendoftheworldlookedlike]

Russia, 1967

[tuggerpilot]

Восход-1, Союз-1

Владимир Комаров — лётчик-космонавт №7 позывной: "Рубин" __________ [ВК] [Instagram] [Twitter] [COMMISSIONS OPEN]

[bow-echo]

Vladimir Komarov and son Yevgeny