1967 was not a good year for the manned space programs. After the Apollo 1 disaster on January 27, a similar fate befell the first Soyuz flight - Vladimir Komorov
Soyuz 1
On April 23, 1967, Soyuz 1 was launched with the astronaut Vladimir Komarov in it. The flight path was 201-224 km, the angle of inclination 51.7 degrees and the duration of the lap 88.6 minutes. Later Komarov raised his flight path. After the fifth lap he fell asleep for 8 hours. He put on his head a new helmet made partly of glass.
23 hours and 25 minutes after the launch, problems arose. The spaceship lost its stability and started spinning uncontrollably around its center of gravity. Communication with the control center went wrong, probably due to the incorrect adjustment of the antenna. Komarov reported that the directional control was consuming too much fuel. It was later reported that the reference control is also not working properly. It was decided to make a manual landing after the 17th lap. At the crucial moment, Komarov failed to put the spacecraft into the correct orbit. It was necessary to make another coffee. At the end of the lap, Komarov managed to accomplish the task.
The take-off and landing compartment separated from the orbit compartment and the rear compartment and entered the atmosphere. 26 hours and 25 minutes after liftoff, everything seems to be fine, although the spaceship is still spinning around an axis. At an altitude of 7 km the chute opened and it had to be deployed. The rotation of the spacecraft around an axis caused the entanglement of the parachute cords. The spacecraft continued to slow down due to the force of atmospheric friction, but its acceleration was stopped.
Komarov did everything to save the spacecraft. Another 15 minutes later, the spacecraft crashed at a speed of 450 km/h. The crash was in the hills of the city of Orenburg in the Ural Mountains. In total, Komarov spent 26 hours and 24 minutes in space. According to a statement by Radio Moscow, Komarov did everything he was assigned. He performed scientific experiments. Maneuvered the spacecraft and tested its systems under varying conditions.
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