In the late 1960s, both the United States and the Soviet Union were developing a new spacecraft which each nation hoped would place the first human being on the moon.  The US was building the Apollo capsule and the USSR was building the Soyuz.

Following the tragic Apollo 1 fire on January 27, 1967, which cost the lives of three American astronauts; it appeared the USSR's Soyuz would fly first.  The American's were busy redesigning their capsule following their fatal test and the Russian's felt their's was ready to fly.

The plan was a 2 capsule flight.  Veteran cosmonaut Vladimir Komarov would fly solo in Soyuz 1 and rendezvous with Soyuz 2 (which was to be launched the day after Soyuz 1).  Two members of the 3 man Soyuz 2 crew would perform a spacewalk to join Komarov as members of Soyuz 1.  This would test the capsule, and new space suits all in one mission.

So, as planned, Komarov was launched onboard Soyuz 1 on April 23, 1967.  Almost as soon as he made it into orbit he began to have problems.  Not only had this capsule never been manned, but there had never even been an unmanned test of the Soyuz capsule.  Problems included one of the Soyuz's two main solar panels failed to deploy (so electrical power was limited), and maneuvering system malfunctions.  Due to these problems (and poor weather on the pad) it was decided to cancel the Soyuz 2 mission.

Once Soyuz 2 was cancelled, it was decided to bring Soyuz 1 home as soon as possible-it was simply having too many problems.  The spacecraft deorbited on April 24th, the next time it was over the USSR.  When the parachute deployed, it failed to unfold due to a sensor issue.  Komarov manually deployed the reserve chute only to see it tangle above him.  Soyuz 1 impacted the ground and was destroyed; Komarov perished inside his capsule.  Following the crash, the capsule burt in an intense fire.

Vladimir Komarov was given a state funeral and was buried at Red Square.



The investiation following the accident revealed a flaw in the design of the parachute system (among about 200 other flaws).  It was also noted that this was incoporated into all Soyuz capsules produced; therefore had Soyuz 2 launched as planned all 3 cosmonauts onboard would have perished as well.  The spacecraft was redesigned and was manned in 1969.  The original mission of Soyuz 1 & 2 was carried out by the flights of Soyuz 4 and Soyuz 5 in January of 1969.  

A couple interesing Soyuz 1 facts: 
-The backup commander was Yuri Gagarin-the first man to fly in space.  He had been requesting a mission for years but had been denied because they feared losing him would look very poorly.  After years or requesting, he was finally allowed back into the flight rotation and was assigned as backup on Soyuz 1.  

-The Soyuz is one of only 2 manned spacecraft ever manned without an unmanned test.  In the case of the Soyuz it was tragic, the other spacecraft launched having never flown unmanned was the Space Shuttle in 1981.  

-Vladimir Komarov became the first Soviet cosmonaut to make a second spaceflight-he also served as commander on the 3 man flight of Voskhod 1 in 1965 (the first nonsolo spaceflight in history).