#komarov

On April 24, 1967, cosmonaut Vladimir Komarov died aboard Soyuz 1 as his spacecraft crashed into the Earth.

Rumors and sensationalized stories of Komarov's death have portrayed the forty-year-old cosmonaut as "crying in rage" and "cursing" via radio transmissions during the final moments of his life. These rumors are a slap in the face to Komarov's memory and legacy, and have been debunked many times over by scholars including space historian Asif Siddiqi. As an experienced test pilot, Komarov was accepted into the cosmonaut corps precisely because of his ability to remain calm under pressure. Had he grasped the reality of his situation in the few seconds between the parachute failure and the crash, he most likely would have spent his final moments of consciousness attempting to fix the problem as best he could.

Crucially, Komarov could not have transmitted any communications during re-entry, let alone "cries of rage." In the early decades of the Space Age, both Soviet and American spacecraft experienced communications blackouts during re-entry due to the ionized air surrounding the craft as it tumbled through the atmosphere (Colin Burgess, Fallen Astronauts).

On this somber anniversary of Vladimir Komarov's death, we should look back on some of the lighter moments of Komarov's life. He was truly a brave man and a genuine hero who deserved so much better than what happened to him.

Photo 1: Vladimir Komarov in Cuba, 1965. Credit: "Kosmos: Pervaia Krov'" – Pervyi Kanal.

Photo 2: Vladimir Komarov and his daughter, 1965. Credit: RIA Novosti.

Photo 3: Vladimir Komarov, Pavel Belyayev, Alexei Leonov, and Yuri Gagarin at Chkalovsky Air Base, 1964. Credit: RIA Novosti.

Well anon, thanks to you I now have Komarov and Belyayev fanclones

Credits, left to right:

USSR Post, 1961, art by E. Komarov based on Pyotr Yershov's "The Little Humpbacked Horse"