Portal:Space exploration/Biography/Week 50 2006

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Vladimir Mikhailovich Komarov (no picture available) (Russian: Владимир Михайлович Комаров; March 16, 1927 – April 24, 1967) was a Soviet cosmonaut. He was the first confirmed human to die during a space mission, on Soyuz 1, and the first Soviet cosmonaut to travel into space more than once.

He was selected to become a cosmonaut in 1960 with the first cosmonaut group. After being the backup for Pavel Popovich on Vostok 4, his first spaceflight was with the Voskhod 1 mission. On his second flight, Soyuz 1, he was killed during a return, when the spacecraft crashed owing to failure of the parachute.

Since Komarov's death it has emerged that the Soyuz 1 space flight had been dogged by problems from the beginning, and that the craft was not ready for manned flight.

But objections from the engineers were overruled by political pressures for a grand space flight to mark the anniversary of Lenin's birthday.