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Topics: Space, Science, Technology
Joshua Nair
Topics: Space, Science, Technology
A cosmonaut's chilling last words were heard in his final transmission before he tragically died.
He became the first known man to die from a space flight and is mourned to this day.
You can hear his final transmission here:
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Vladimir Mikhaylovich Komarov became known as the 'man who fell from space' when his spacecraft crashed and killed him in April 1967.
Soyuz 1 was a crewed spaceflight of the Soviet space program.
Despite his death being well-known, the details around it have been shrowded in secrecy since the incident, owing to the confidentiality that the Soviet Union had for their projects.
Komarov made several orbits around Earth in Soyuz 1, but then struggled to re-enter the planet's atmosphere following the mission, and he ultimately plummeted to the ground in the spacecraft before dying in an explosion.
Komarov's final space mission journey took place over 24 hours on 23 April, 1967, with the cosmonaut orbiting the Earth 16 times.
The spacecraft consisted of two solar panels that supplied energy for the manoeuvre, but one of them failed to deploy, stopping the cosmonaut from completing his mission.
He was instructed to make his way back to Earth, but Komarov took two prior trips around Earth in an attempt to re-enter the atmosphere before his fateful final attempt.
The spacecraft reached an altitude of 23,000 feet (7010 metres) when it made its descent, but the parachute failed to deploy as the lines had got tangled amid the re-entry issues.
The space explorer tragically knew he was going to die though, as US listening posts in Turkey caught him furiously speaking to Alexei Kosygin, then a high ranking official of the Soviet Union, as his aircraft came crashing down.
Controversial 2011 history book Starman claims he said: “This devil ship! Nothing I lay my hands on works properly.”
Despite these claims, the official transcript of Komarov’s final moments from the Russian State Archive states that one of the last things he told colleagues was: “I feel excellent, everything’s in order.”
Just a few moments later he reportedly said: “Thank you for transmitting all of that. [Separation] occurred.”
The Starman book also claims that Komarov’s spacecraft had ‘203 structural problems’ that became evident before the fateful flight.
Komarov’s backup pilot, the first ever man in space, Yuri Gagarin, allegedly argued for their mission to be postponed.
Sadly, the cosmonaut tragically plummeted to the ground and was killed in an explosion on 24 April 1967.
According to reports, his charred remains resembled a ‘lump’ and only his heel bone was recognisable.