April 23, 2013
Categories: History, Russia, Soyuz

April 23, 1967 – Soyuz-1 spacecraft was launched into orbit. Hero of the Soviet Union Vladimir Komarov was a test pilot.

Vladimir Mikhaylovich Komarov was born in Moscow on March 16, 1927, where he grew up along with his sister Matilde. At the age of fifteen in 1942, Komarov entered the “1st Moscow Special Air Force School” to pursue his dream of becoming an aviator.

In September 1959, Komarov was promoted to engineer-captain and invited to participate in the selection process for cosmonaut candidate along with approximately 3,000 other pilots. He was one of only 20 candidates selected for “Air Force Group One”.

Unfortunately Vladimir Komarov didn’t enter the group of six, trained for the first ever mission to space. And nevertheless he became the first. He was the first to test Voskhod-1 spacecraft in October 1964.

And in 1966 Komarov was assigned to the Soviet  Soyuz program along with Yuri Gagarin and Alexey Leonov. Vladimir was selected to command the Soyuz-1, in 1967, with Gagarin as his backup cosmonaut. And on April 23 Soyuz-1 was launched into orbit. After completion of variuos checks ant tests he successfully re-entered the Earth’s atmosphere on his 19th orbit, but the module’s drogue and main braking parachute failed to deploy correctly and the module crashed into the ground, killing Komarov.

On April 26, 1967, Komarov was given a state funeral in Moscow, and his ashes were interred in the Kremlin Wall Necropolis at Red Square. After this flight Vladimir Komarov was posthumously awarded his second Order of Lenin and also the Order of Hero of the Soviet Union.

More from this category:
March 1, 2021

The 36 spacecraft of OneWeb – the company jointly owned by the UK Government and Bharti Global – arrived at Ignatievo airport (Blagoveshchensk) by an…

full story
February 14, 2019

Having successfully passed the exams on manual control of transport manned and cargo spaceships, the main crew of the ISS this Monday continued to pass…

full story
July 31, 2020

On July 31, 2020 at 00:25:19 Moscow time, the Proton-M carrier rocket with the Briz-M upper stage and the Russian telecommunications spacecraft Express-103 was launched…

full story
July 18, 2018

Today, July 17, 2018, “Roskosmos” State Corporation has signed a state contract with RSC “Energia” for the creation of a new-generation middle class space rocket…

full story
March 31, 2021

Prelaunch processing of the Soyuz MS-18 crewed spacecraft under the program of Expeditions 65 and 66 to the International Space Station continues at the Baikonur…

full story
August 18, 2019

On August 16, 2019, the main crew of the ISS-61/62 passed the exam for manual control of the approach of the “Soyuz – MS” spacecraft…

full story
May 18, 2015

Off-nominal situation leading to the loss of Proton-M booster with Mexican MexSat-1 satellite happened at 08.59, Moscow time, May 16, 2015 one minute before the…

full story
July 9, 2013

2 GLONASS satellites will be launched from Plesetsk spaceport (Arkhangelsk region) in September and October 2013, –  Director General and Chief Designer of JSC Reshetnev…

full story