An astronaut carried out a chilling and selfless final gesture before he was launched into space, aware he wouldn't come back alive. Space travel and exploration is a global endeavour regarded as a vital instrument in securing the long-term survival of humanity, while also delivering a more profound understanding of the universe and our place in it.
Space agencies and programmes across the globe are unified in their mission to obtain medical and environmental data, technological breakthroughs, solutions to crucial scientific questions, and more. There's also the hope space travel will reveal groundbreaking discoveries to further benefit mankind.
Throughout our journey into space travel and exploration, animals have been sent to their deaths as part of the research to enable humans to venture into space, and some astronauts have also perished.
Soviet test pilot, aerospace engineer and cosmonaut Vladimir Komarov was dispatched on a mission to space in a defective aircraft, becoming the first human to die in a spaceflight incident. After successfully commanding Voskhod 1, the first spaceflight to transport more than one crew member in October of 1964, he was bestowed the Order of Lenin and Hero of the Soviet Union.
Komarov was subsequently selected as the solo pilot of Soyuz 1, the Soviet space programme's first crewed test flight. His back-up cosmonaut was national hero, Yuri Gagarin.
On 24 April 1967, Komarov successfully re-entered the Earth's atmosphere on his 19th orbit but tragedy still awaited. His parachute failed to deploy, causing the Soyuz capsule to slam into the ground at full speed, killing Komarov instantly.
Komarov had worked alongside back-up pilot Gagarin and the pair were said to have been friends. According to former KGB agent Venyamin Russayev, the Soyuz spacecraft was fundamentally unsafe, and both Komarov and Gagarin were aware of this.
Russayev claims Komarov told him: "I'm not going to make it back from this flight." To which Russayev replied: "If you're so convinced you're going to die, then why don't you refuse the mission?" Komarov is said to have answered: "If I don't make this flight, they'll send the back-up pilot instead. That's Yuri, and he'll die instead of me. We've got to take care of him."
During a BBC interview in 1997, Russayev recounted this story, revealing it was at this moment that Komarov "burst into tears." He added: "He cracked. Maybe he just let out all the tension, and he began to cry."
The former KGB agent further alleged that Gagarin had attempted to have Komarov "bumped" from the mission, believing Soviet leadership would never risk sending him, a national hero, on such a fatally flawed flight. Yet Komarov refused to entertain the idea and, despite his firm belief the mission was doomed, he would not place Gagarin's life in jeopardy.
Russayev's claims have since been challenged by certain space historians, who dispute his account of events. Yuri Gagarin was a Soviet pilot and cosmonaut who made history as the first human to travel into outer space during the inaugural successful manned spaceflight.
