The problem of Russian military aviation and Soyuz 1 incident in 1968 (Cosmonaut Vladimir Komarov death),
Soyuz launch at Baikonur (Picture I) |
Kimmo Huosionmaa
The major problem of Russian technology is was bureaucracy. Also, old-fashion military tradition makes sometimes the to confess that the innovation team has made mistakes. This means, that if there were some mistakes in equipment, were not dared to tell the leaders of the project. This caused the death of some cosmonauts, and at least one case the reason, why the parachute have not the reason was that the box of the parachute was too big in its space. And that caused the death of cosmonaut Vladimir Komarov (1927-1967), who crashed on the ground with 250 kilometers per hour in 1967.
Picture II |
There were some things, what caused the rumors that Komarov was murdered. First was that this man claimed to curse the Soviet leaders while dropping, and sometimes somebody has been asked, could Komarov feel or notice that the parachute was not open, or did somebody in control center told that to Komarov? But this kind of things are rumors, what are was not sent about many historical accidents. The case of Komarov made many people think that "how many cosmonauts were lost in space?". There are many stories in Russia, that some of those men, who sent to the sky ever returned. But when we are thinking about Soyuz program, we must notice that over 300 technical failures in one capsule Soyuz 7K-OK were not very good achievement from those engineers.
Soyuz I wreck (Picture III) |
And of course, the handling of the parachute was not like, what it should be. When Komarov went to capsule he said, that he was not want to risk Yuri Gagarin's (1934-1968) life. In that mission, Gagarin was as backup crew. But in this case, I must ask did Komarov afraid because of the life of Gagarin? And then the parachute failed in the last moments of that flight. There is one remarkable thing: also Gagarin died in the airplane accident during routine mission short after Komarov's death.
Vladimir Komarov (1927-1967) |
His MiG fighter was hit the ground in the middle of routine maneuver and Gagarin didn't send any emergency call, and there were rumors that this cosmonaut committed suicide in 1968. But this sad accident of Komarov is was the example of the dangers of authoritarian command in engineering work. The engineers are humans, who make mistakes. And if they don’t dare to tell that there are problems with production, the results will be sooner or later devastating. This is the reason, why the engineering team must talk freely and also dare to confess that they are made mistakes without fear of divorce or execution.
Soyuz capsule (Picture V) |
The most dangerous situation would be that somebody is hiding some errors in the product. And the Russian authoritative government, what would give punishments very easily would cause the situation, where rumors of assassinations keep the mouth shut by was errors like wrong size parachute because that would make the product the production slower, and the timetables would not match. This might cause the death of Komarov, and the death of this man was the accident, what was the reason for many mistakes in the process, where parachute of the Soyuz one was ordered. And only one question stays on the air: why that parachute was not denied and the spacecraft staff sends it back to the factory? And why the size of the room of parachute was not sent to the factory? Those questions still remain above Soyuz 1.
Sources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soyuz_1
http://www.spacesafetymagazine.com/space-disasters/soyuz-1/
https://vintagespace.wordpress.com/2012/01/13/soyuz-1-falling-to-earth/
Picture I
https://vintagespace.files.wordpress.com/2012/01/soyuz-launch.jpg
Picture II
https://i1.wp.com/www.xadara.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/509px-Soyuz-1-patch.png?resize=300%2C283
Picture III
https://strela-watch.de/wp-content/uploads/STRELA/blog/Vladimir_Komarov_Soyuz1_Crash_CCCP_0.jpg
Picture IV
https://media.npr.org/assets/img/2011/05/03/komorovportrait_custom-d2ea4d3fa9590ca676f1ca36d68fc94c56f81140-s300-c85.jpg
Picture V
http://www.spacesafetymagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/early-soyuz-capsule.gif
http://crisisofdemocracticstates.blogspot.fi/p/the-problem-of-russian-military.html
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