Soyuz 1: The Death of Vladimir Komarov

A Newly Discovered Document Debunks Soviet Space Conspiracy Theories on Soyuz-1 In April 1967, the immediate futures of both the United States and the Soviet space programs were shrouded in mystery. NASA was still trying to understand the causes of the fire that killed the crew of Apollo 1 on the launch pad, and no one seemed to know how well Apollo would recover from this catastrophe. The Soviet Union’s human space program had not been heard from for 25 months, but rumors were flying that something big was in the offing as the 50th anniversary of Russia’s October Revolution approached. On April 23, the Soviet Union announced the launch of the first of a new generation of spacecraft called Soyuz with a veteran cosmonaut, Vladimir Komarov. The next day there was an ominous silence until a sketchy news bulletin contained the shocking announcement that Komarov had become the first person to die during a spaceflight when his craft plunged to Earth after a parachute failure. Conjecture and rumors quickly filled in the vacuum created by the lack of hard information, and even as the Soviet space program recovered from this setback and moved on, the flight of Soyuz-1 and the death of Vladimir Komarov remained shrouded in controversy. A recently discovered copy of an official Soyuz-1 Onboard Journal was discovered by the publisher of “Quest: The History of Spaceflight Quarterly” at auction. Inside was information not previously available to researchers or the public including the final hours of the Soyuz-1 flight. In this book, noted Soviet space expert Asif Siddiqi, PhD, uses this information to debunk the various conspiracy theories that surrounded the Soyuz-1 mission and the death of cosmonaut Vladimir Komarov, the first fatality of a spacefarer during a space mission. Now with the official journal from the mission, the true and complete story can finally be told. Praise for the book: I'm in awe of this report and the newly-assessed and profoundly radical documentation it's based on, it's probably the most significant breakthrough in historical 'Soviet space sleuthing' in decades. And it is fitting that in tribute to Vladimir Komarov it centers on the humanity, and the human cost, of space exploration and of carelessness in the conduct of it. –Jim Oberg, Space journalist and historian A copy of the Soyuz-1 Onboard Journal (in Russian) is included. Proceeds from this title benefit SPACE 3.0, a 501c3 charitable foundation, an organization with the mission to build an endowment to grant/fund projects focused on preserving space history, empowering entrepreneurs and visionaries, and helping to craft a vision for a space future.