Space disasters and near misses
1960-1970
126 killed in Soviet launch-pad explosion
24 October 1960
An explosion on the launch pad at Baikonur Cosmodrome killed 126 people, in what is thought to have been the worst ever space-related disaster (see, however, 15 February 1996). Information about the accident was not made public until after the collapse of the Soviet Union in the 1990s, when it was revealed that a rocket had exploded during work on a new intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) system.
First confirmed cosmonaut fatality
23 March 1961
Although it is possible that other fatal accidents were covered up by the Soviet authorities and have still not been revealed, the first known fatality of someone intended to travel into space was that of 24-year-old cosmonaut Valentin Bondarenko in March 1961, the details of whose death were kept secret for more than two decades. In fact, prior to 1986, no Soviet publication mentioned his existence.
Bondarenko was being trained for space flight in a specially constructed pressurised chamber when he dropped a piece of cotton wool soaked in alcohol on to an electric hotplate. As with the Apollo 1 disaster six years later (see below), the resulting fire spread instantly in the oxygen-rich atmosphere. Bondarenko was unable to get out before receiving fatal burns. Later spacecraft would use a less combustible mixture of oxygen and nitrogen in their cabins.
First US space training fatality
31 October 1964
In what was probably the first US space training fatality, pilot Theodore Freeman died after his jet collided with a goose during a training flight. Other US training fatalities were later to include Elliott See and Charles Bassett, the intended crew of Gemini 9, who died in a jet crash on 28 February 1966 (their places were taken by Thomas Stafford and Eugene Cernan), and the first African-American astronaut, Robert Henry Lawrence, who died in a jet crash on 8 December 1967 before taking part in a space flight.
Apollo 1 destroyed during launch-pad
training exercise
27 January 1967
All three crew members chosen for the initial Apollo manned space mission were killed when fire swept through their craft during a training exercise. Command pilot Gus Grissom and his colleagues Ed White and Roger Chaffee died in a test countdown using an unfuelled rocket, in preparation for the launch due on 21 February.
A spark somewhere in the command module's cabling ignited highly flammable materials inside the module of the Apollo/Saturn 204 (AS-204) spacecraft, which is believed to have then burst into flames. Exacerbated by the oxygen-enriched atmosphere, the fire quickly spread out of control. Just 17 seconds after the first transmission from the cabin about the disaster – when Roger Chaffee called out: 'Fire, I smell fire!' – the crew had gone silent. They were almost certainly dead within 30 seconds. Certainly, by the time their bodies were recovered five minutes later, any attempts at resuscitation were futile.
Soyuz 1 crashes on landing
24 April 1967
Following its early successes in space, putting it ahead of the United States, the Soviet Union designed the Soyuz spacecraft, a new generation of spaceship intended to take cosmonauts to the next stage of space travel by landing one of them on the moon. By April 1967, the Soviets were ready to launch the first two craft into orbit around the Earth. The plan was that they would meet up and two crew members from Soyuz 2 would 'space walk' to Soyuz 1 and its single cosmonaut Colonel Vladimir Komarov.
It never happened. In fact, Soyuz 1 was dogged by technical problems almost from the outset. First, one of its two solar panels became stuck, then other problems materialised. An attempt by the Soyuz 2 cosmonauts to fix the solar panels on Soyuz 1 became impossible when heavy rain prevented Soyuz 2’s launch.
It was decided to return Soyuz 1 and Komarov to Earth. Further problems meant that Komarov had to fire the retro rockets and pilot the craft to its landing site manually. Remarkably, he accomplished this safely, only for the main landing parachute to fail. The reserve chute also failed when it became entangled, and at 7am on 24 April 1967, Soyuz 1 crashed in a field near the intended landing site, killing its pilot.
Experimental X-15 Flight 191 breaks up, killing pilot
15 November 1967
Aviator and NASA astronaut Michael Adams was killed following his seventh suborbital spaceflight, when the experimental X-15 aircraft he was piloting crashed in November 1967. It broke up 10 minutes following launch after performing, first, a spin and then a dive, which generated a 15-G vertical force, from which Adams was unable to recover.
It is arguable whether this counts as a space disaster as the X-15 only twice flew above the 100-kilometre (62-mile) altitude internationally defined as ‘space’. However, the X-15 – a joint NASA/US Air Force project – regularly flew above 80 kilometres (50 miles), the US definition of space.
First man in space killed in training crash
27 March 1968
Yuri Gagarin – who, in April 1961, had become the first man in space – was killed in the crash of a MiG-15 jet training flight as he prepared for the Soyuz 3 space mission. In 2003, it was revealed that the crash was the result of Gagarin being given incorrect weather information.
