You’re certainly familiar with the story of Yuri Gagarin, who became the first human to travel to space on April 12, 1961. Gagarin’s career in the Soviet space program was far from done, even though he never flew again. In 1967, his expertise was sought for a mission by his colleague and friend, Vladimir Komarov, on which he was to serve as a backup cosmonaut in the event that any of the crew members were unable to fly.
The Soviet Union was approaching its 50th anniversary, and they thought that balloons and cake weren’t quite enough to commemorate the occasion. They’d have to put numerous cosmonauts’ lives on the line unnecessarily. Two spacecraft were supposed to be sent into orbit. Soyuz 1, carrying Komarov, would be the first to launch, followed by the unimaginatively titled Soyuz 2. After that, the ships would collide, and Komarov would do a spacewalk, climbing out of his own spaceship and onto Soyuz 2. Before both spacecraft left for Earth, one of the two cosmonauts onboard Soyuz 2 would enter Soyuz 1.
However, it became clear months before the intended debut that things would not proceed as planned. Over 200 structural flaws were discovered during the inspection of the craft, faults that they both knew would lead to the pilot’s death. According to reports, a 10-page document detailing the flaws was written. Nobody would take the message to Leonid Brezhnev, perhaps for fear of adding their name to the mission’s potential death toll.
Gagarin’s KGB acquaintance, on the other hand, was apparently barred from speaking with anybody involved in the space program. Komarov’s friends tried to persuade him to decline to pilot the ship, reasoning that the repercussions would be less serious than certain death. However, Komarov was well aware that if he backed out, his pal Gagarin would be sent. Komarov refused to back down, despite the fact that doing so would very certainly result in his death.
Instead, Komarov planned a modest act of retaliation against the people who were about to execute him. He allegedly desired an open-casket funeral in the event that something went wrong. On the day of the launch, Gagarin broke protocol by requesting a pressure suit before proceeding to the launchpad to speak with Komarov. It’s conceivable he was attempting to postpone the launch in order to have it canceled, but if that was his goal, he failed miserably. Komarov was sent into space and survived the journey. Things rapidly went awry as he arrived, when one of the solar panels failed to open, leaving his ship without electricity.
His descent was ordered by the space agency, but his capsule began to spin, leaving him with little control over his landing. As a result, the Soviet Union commemorated its 50th anniversary by listening to a man yell and scream as he hurtled to his completely avoidable death, followed by a state burial with his burnt body on display for everyone to see.
