Back in 1967, the Soviet Union celebrated its 50th anniversary. As well as events on the ground, part of these celebrations involved a stunt to be carried out in space, which ultimately ended in the unnecessary death of cosmonaut Vladimir Komarov, who became known as “the man who fell from space”.
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.
There are claims – though heavily disputed – that months before the planned launch it became apparent that it would not go well. According to the book Starman: The Truth Behind the Legend of Yuri Gagarin, when Yuri Gagarin and other senior technicians inspected the craft, they found 203 structural problems, some of which would make it dangerous were the craft to be sent into space.
A 10-page memo was reportedly made listing the faults. Nobody, possibly for fear of adding their own name to the future death toll of the mission, would take the memo to leader Leonid Brezhnev.
According to the authors of Starman, who interviewed Venyamin Russayev, the KGB agent assigned to mind Gagarin, Komarov’s friends attempted to convince him to refuse to fly the craft, figuring that the consequences of that would be less severe than assured death (although, according to space historians, Russayev could have been exaggerating his accounts). However, Komarov knew that if he were to pull out, they would send his friend Gagarin. Komarov refused to pull out, knowing that it likely meant his death.
Instead, Komarov plotted a minor act of revenge on the people who were sending him to his death. He reportedly requested that should anything go wrong, he have an open-casket funeral.
On launch day, Gagarin did not act according to usual protocol, demanding a pressure suit before going down to the launchpad to talk with Komarov. It’s possible he was trying to delay the launch enough to get it canceled, but if that was his plan it didn’t work. Komarov was launched and made it to space inside the craft. Once there, however, things quickly went wrong when one of the solar panels failed to open, leaving his craft with little power.
The space agency ordered his descent, but his capsule began to spin. He had no way to control his altitude and couldn’t get the spacecraft’s bottom to face the ground, which meant the landing rockets couldn’t cushion the landing. Instead, he tumbled straight down and slammed into the ground with the force of a 2.8-ton meteorite.
According to Starman, Komarov’s final words were picked up by US radio outposts in Turkey, saying “This devil ship! Nothing I lay my hands on works properly,” as well as letting out cries of rage as he fell to his death.
Official Soviet transcripts, though not to be taken at face value, report that Komarov’s last words were: “I feel excellent, everything’s in order,” before adding “Thank you for transmitting all of that. [Separation] occurred.”
According to this version of events, Komarov fell to his death as ground control attempted to reestablish contact.
“Rubin, this is Zarya, how do you hear me? Over,” the transcript reads. “Rubin, this is Zarya, how do you hear me? Over. This is Zarya, how do you hear me? Over.”
An earlier version of this article was published in February 2024.
