The next unmanned Soyuz took flight only seven weeks later. Yet again the spacecraft suffered problems with navigation and guidance, which led to orientation and propellant issues. The third attempt at a Soyuz flight ended up way off course and came to an improbable end when it actually landed on an iceberg in the Aral sea, before sinking. The reason for the conversion to a sub marine was a hole in the heat shield. Had a crew been aboard they would have died, because Soyuz crews would not be wearing pressure suits. This particular depressurization problem was fixed, but the bigger threat to life, the lack of redundancy, was ignored.
Despite these setbacks it was decided to push ahead and try to launch a crew. The first test version of the N-1 had finally been assembled in February of 1967 and was looming over the gigantic new lunar launch facility at Baikonur. The Soyuz, the Soviet lunar vehicle, flown twice and failed twice was now about to take its first human into space. At this time “Go-Fever” seems to have infected both the Americans and the Soviets. Just three months earlier the Americans had suffered a major setback when their own lunar vehicle had claimed the lives of three astronauts in a routine simulation. While the U.S. seemed to falter, the Russians ignored the warnings of their own failures and pushed on with renewed vigor. Just as the Americans had chosen to launch Apollo on a smaller booster before moving up to the Saturn V. On April 23 1967 the R-7 booster, equipped with an upper third stage, a complete Soyuz spacecraft and the new launch escape system, carried its first passenger into space. His name was Vladimir Komarov, one of the veterans of Voskhod I This first manned flight was given the official distinction of being called Soyuz I. Incredibly, Komarov was supposed to actually dock with another Soyuz, carrying three cosmonauts, on this very first flight. However, Soyuz 2 would not leave Baikonur the following day as planned.
Soyuz 1 launch.
Almost immediately Komarov encountered problems when one of the large solar panels on his craft didn’t deploy, severely cutting into his available power. This shortage of power soon put a stop to the launch of the second target craft. This was just the beginning of Komarov’s problems. When it was decided to bring him home early, the de-orbit engine didn’t fire. As if that wasn’t bad enough, two of his orientation systems were not functioning. Komarov would have to orient the Soyuz and fire the engine manually. Once he had performed this difficult maneuver he was to be cursed with one more failure for which he had no recourse. The primary parachute system failed when the parachute got stuck in its container. The reserve chute deployed only to become entangled in the billowing primary drogue chute. Komarov had no chance and was killed when his Soyuz impacted the ground. The decision to not launch Soyuz 2 actually saved the other three men’s lives because the second vehicle had the same design prob lem with the primary parachute system. The death of Komarov not only revealed fundamental design flaws with the Soyuz but also put a final end to the race for the moon, There was simply no way to catch Apollo at this late stage. However, Mishin regrouped his team and work continued on the giant super booster and the L1 and L3 vehicles, while Chelomei continued to improve his UR-500.
Next: Part 11
Prev: Part 9
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