Vladimir Mikhailovich Komarov

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Vladimir Komarov
Country: Soviet UnionSoviet Union Soviet Union
Organization: WWS
Call sign: Рубин (" ruby ")
selected on April 28, 1960
(1st cosmonaut group)
Calls: 2 space flights
Start of the
first space flight: 		October 12, 1964
Landing of the
last space flight: 		April 24, 1967
Time in space: 2d 3h 4min
retired on April 24, 1967
(fatal accident on landing)
Space flights
Vladimir Komarov with wife Valentina and daughter Irina (1967)

Vladimir Mikhailovich Komarow ( Russian Владимир Михайлович Комаров ; born March 16, 1927 in Moscow , †  April 24,  1967 in Orenburg Oblast ) was a Soviet cosmonaut and engineer colonel . He was the first person to die on a space mission.

Life

From 1942 to 1949 Komarov attended the Moscow Special School of the Air Force, then the Bataisk Military Aviation School . After successfully completing his training at the Air Force Engineering Academy in 1959 , he worked as a test pilot on the Chkalovsky military airfield .

On April 28, 1960 he was accepted into the first cosmonaut group in the Soviet Union . With his engineering degree and his experience as a test pilot, he was one of the best qualified cosmonaut aspirants. During his membership in the cosmonaut corps, he achieved the qualification as a 1st class military pilot.

He was married to Valentina Yakovlevna Kisseljowa and had two children with her.

Space flights

As a commander of spaceships, he was nicknamed "Rubin".

Vozhod 1

After he was the substitute for Pavel Popovich on Vostok 4 in 1962, the flight with Vozhod 1 became his first mission in space in 1964.

Soyuz 1

On April 23, 1967, the spacecraft Soyuz 1 (serial number 4) was launched with Komarov on board. Yuri Gagarin acted as a substitute . Another Soyuz spaceship ( Soyuz 2A , serial number 5) with a crew of three (Commander: Valeri Bykowski as well as Evgeni Chrunow and Alexei Yelissejew ) should follow the day after. A coupling and the switch from Chrunow and Jelissejew were planned.

However, after reaching orbit, Soyuz 1 showed a number of malfunctions. A solar boom did not open, a sensor for the sun-synchronous mode for aligning the spaceship or the solar panels did not work, the attitude control, the shortwave connection and the telemetry transmission worked unreliably or failed. All attempts to correct or circumvent the errors in the first five rounds failed and depleted the fuel supplies of the situation control. Despite the tense situation, Komarov read out a message of greeting to the Soviet people. The errors and in particular the lack of energy supply turned out to be too serious for the implementation of the ambitious flight program from the fifth round. Komarov was ordered to shut down all unnecessary equipment in order to save energy. The planned rendezvous and the coupling with Soyuz 2A had become impossible. As a result, the flight of Soyuz 2A was canceled on the instructions of the State Commission for the Conduct of Manned Space Flights and the fastest possible landing of Soyuz 1 was ordered. From the sixth to the twelfth orbit, Komarov was outside the radio range of the ground stations. From the 13th orbit, during which only the ground stations located in the Far East had contact with Komarov, various scenarios for an early landing were calculated, and from the 15th orbit the corresponding commands were prepared. These were sent to Komarow by Gagarin from the 16th circulation. It was only a matter of getting Komarov back to earth before the energy reserves were exhausted, which was expected for about the 20th or 21st orbit. The first automatically controlled attempt to land at the beginning of the 17th orbit failed. The orientation of the spaceship against the flight direction was not precise enough. Komarow finally managed to manually align the spaceship about 1000 km west of Papua New Guinea and thus initiate the landing process at the end of the 18th orbit in the first hours of April 24th.

Due to design and manufacturing errors, the main parachute remained in its container. The reserve parachute, which was automatically activated at a height of about 5000 m, did not unfold completely. Komarov was killed by the hard impact of the return capsule at about 40 m / s (144 km / h).

Awards and honors

Komarov on a Soviet postage stamp (1964)

Komarov received the Order of Lenin twice and the Hero of the Soviet Union twice (October 19, 1964 and April 24, 1967). Komarov's urn was buried on the Kremlin wall in Moscow. His name is listed on the metal plate of the artwork Fallen Astronaut , which was erected on the moon. The asteroid (1836) Komarov , which was discovered in 1971, and a crater on the moon received his name, as well as the communications ship Kosmonawt Vladimir Komarow .

The Fighter Wing 3 of the National People's Army of the GDR, which was stationed in Preschen , also received the children's and youth sports school (KJS) in Cottbus and polytechnic secondary schools in Wolfen (Bitterfeld district), in Karl-Marx-Stadt (today Chemnitz), in Hoyerswerda , in Boxberg (Oberlausitz), in Bergen on Rügen, in Leipzig, in Rostock, in Tribsees, in Magdeburg, in Schwerin, in Neustrelitz, in Schwarzheide, in Stendal, in Weidenhain, in Klütz and in Zwickau-Eckersbach as well as the extended secondary school in Elsterwerda the traditional name "Wladimir Michailowitsch Komarow". The children's and preschool home “W. Komarow ”in Lößnitz was named after him, in Frankfurt (Oder), Fürstenwalde, Leipzig, Schwerin and Zwickau there are streets named after Komarow.

Web links

Commons : Vladimir Komarov  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files
personal data
SURNAME Komarov, Vladimir Mikhailovich
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Комаров, Владимир Михайлович (Russian)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION soviet cosmonaut
DATE OF BIRTH March 16, 1927
PLACE OF BIRTH Moscow
DATE OF DEATH April 24, 1967
Place of death near Orenburg , Soviet Union