The Tragedy Of Failed To Land Soviet Astronaut Vladimir Komarov

Vladimir Komarov (Wikimedia Commons)

JAKARTA - The 70's was the era of the competition to "show off" the ability of space exploration between the two superpowers at that time: the Soviets and the United States. Despite the dangers of the mission, the ambitions between the two countries have never been extinguished.

For example, on events that occurred today, April 24, 53 years ago or in 1967. At that time, a Soviet astronaut Vladimir Komarov was killed when his parachute failed to soar on his way back to earth.

As quoted by History.com, Komarov's mission at that time was to test the Soyuz I spacecraft in the middle of the space race between the United States and the Soviet Union. Prior to Komarov, in 1967 incidents that cost lives had occurred in the stronghold of the United States.

Gus Grissom, Edward White and Roger Chafee, NASA astoronauts on the Apollo program died in a fire during the test run. Komarov himself is a fighter pilot and flight engineer.

His first successful space trip was in 1964. But three years later his luck did not repeat itself.

After 24 hours in space and 16 hours in orbit, Komarov is scheduled to re-enter the atmosphere. Unfortunately, in the middle of the road problems arise.

At first, he had difficulty handling the ship and was unable to fire the rocket brakes. In fact, the journey still has to go through two more stages of the journey before it can return to earth.

By the time Soyuz I was 23,000 feet, a parachute should have been installed and brought Komarov safely to earth. However, the folds of the parachute suddenly tangled when opened.

Komarov is in danger. There was no spare parachute on his body, he then fell to the ground and was killed.

His death is a mourning for the Moscow public. A large funeral ceremony was held there. Meanwhile, his cremated ashes are buried on the Kremlin wall.

Ironically, Komarov's wife had not been informed about the launch of the Soyuz I plane. His wife only found out that her husband was not on earth after Komarov was already in orbit. She did not have time to say goodbye to her husband.

Despite the dangers of the space mission, both the Soviet and US ambitions to continue their numerical space exploration program did not stop. Two years after the incident, the US managed to land a man on the moon.