The biggest space disasters in history. The six most terrible space disasters (photo, video)

In the mid-1980s, the American space program was at the height of its power. After winning the “moon race”, the United States has established itself in the opinion of its unconditional leadership in space.

Another proof of this was the space exploration program with the help of the Space Shuttle reusable vehicles. The space shuttles, which began operating in 1981, made it possible to put into orbit a large number of payload, return failed vehicles from orbit, and also fly with a crew of up to 7 people. No other country in the world had such technologies at that time.

Unlike the USSR, the US manned program did not know of accidents with human casualties during flights. More than 50 expeditions in a row ended successfully. Both the leadership of the country and ordinary people it was believed that the reliability of American space technology is an absolute guarantee of safety.

The idea arose that under the new conditions, anyone with normal health and a not too difficult and lengthy training course could fly into space.

"Teacher in Space"

At US President Ronald Reagan there was an idea to send an ordinary school teacher into space. The teacher had to conduct several lessons from orbit to increase the children's interest in mathematics, physics, geography, as well as science and space exploration.

In the United States, the "Teacher in Space" competition was announced, which received 11,000 applications. There were 118 candidates in the second round, two from each state and subject territories.

The final results of the competition were announced solemnly in the White House. US Vice President George Bush July 19, 1985 announced: the winner was 37-year-old Sharon Christa McAuliffe, the second place was taken by the 34-year-old Barbara Morgan. Christa became the main candidate for the flight, Barbara became her understudy.

Christa McAuliffe, mother of two who taught at high school history, English language and biology, during the announcement of the results of the competition, she cried with happiness. Her dream came true.

To those close to her, whose pride in Krista alternated with anxiety, she explained: “This is NASA, even if something goes wrong, they can fix everything at the last moment.”

After completing a three-month training program, Christa McAuliffe was included in the crew of the Challenger spacecraft, which was supposed to go into orbit in January 1986.

Anniversary start

The Challenger flight was supposed to be the 25th anniversary launch under the Space Shuttle program. Specialists sought to increase the number of expeditions into orbit - after all, fabulous money for the implementation of the project was allocated with the expectation that over time the "shuttles" would pay off and begin to make a profit. In order to achieve this, it was planned to reach the figure of 24 flights per year by 1990. That is why the program managers were extremely annoyed by the words of experts about the serious shortcomings in the design of the ships. Minor malfunctions had to be eliminated almost before each start, and there were fears that sooner or later everything could end in big trouble.

The crew of the STS-51L expedition, in addition to Christa McAuliffe, included the commander Francis Scobee, first pilot Michael Smith as well as astronauts Allison Onizuka, Judith Resnick, Ronald McNair and Gregory Jarvis.

The crew of the Challenger. Photo: www.globallookpress.com

In addition to school lessons from orbit, the mission program included launching satellites into orbit and observing Halley's Comet.

Initially, the launch from the Cape Canaveral spaceport was scheduled for January 22, but then was postponed several times until new date did not become the day of January 28.

That morning, there was also suspicion that the flight would have to be rescheduled - it got very cold in Florida, the temperature dropped below zero, and icing appeared on the launch site. The management decided not to cancel the start, but simply postpone it for a couple of hours. At a new inspection, it turned out that the ice began to melt, and the go-ahead for the start was received.

"Critical situation"

The final launch was scheduled for 11:38 local time on January 28, 1986. Relatives and friends of the astronauts, colleagues and students of Christa McAuliffe gathered at the spaceport, waiting for the moment when the first teacher will go on a space journey.

At 11:38 a.m., the Challenger lifted off from Cape Canaveral. In the stands, where the audience was, jubilation began. television camera close-up showed the faces of the parents of Christa McAuliffe, who saw off their daughter on the flight - they smiled, rejoicing that their girl's dream had become a reality.

Everything that happens at the cosmodrome was commented on by the announcer.

52 seconds after the launch, the Challenger began its maximum acceleration. The ship's commander, Francis Scobie, confirmed the start of acceleration. These were last words sounded from the board of the "shuttle".

At the 73rd second of the flight, viewers watching the launch saw the Challenger disappear in a white cloud of explosion.

The audience at first did not understand what had happened. Someone was frightened, someone applauded admiringly, believing that everything was going according to the flight program.

It seemed that the announcer also thought that everything was in order. “1 minute 15 seconds. The speed of the ship is 2900 feet per second. Flew a distance of nine nautical miles. The height above the ground is seven nautical miles, ”the presenter continues to say.

As it turned out later, the announcer did not look at the monitor screen, but read the previously compiled launch script. After a couple of minutes, he announced " critical situation", and then said terrible words:" "Challenger" exploded.

No chance of salvation

But by this point, the audience had already understood everything - fragments of what had recently been the most modern spacecraft in the world fell into the Atlantic Ocean from the sky.

A search and rescue operation was launched, although it was originally called a rescue operation only formally. The ships of the Space Shuttle project, unlike the Soviet Soyuz, were not equipped with emergency rescue systems that could save the life of astronauts during launch. The crew was doomed.

The operation to lift the debris that fell into the Atlantic Ocean continued until May 1, 1986. In total, about 14 tons of debris were raised. About 55% of the shuttle, 5% of the cabin and 65% of the payload remained on the ocean floor.

The cabin with the astronauts was raised on March 7. It turned out that after the destruction of the ship's structures, the more durable cabin survived and continued to rise for several seconds, after which it began to fall from a great height.

It was not possible to establish the exact moment of the death of the astronauts, but it is known that at least two - Allison Onizuka and Judith Resnick - survived the very moment of the disaster. The experts found that they had turned on personal air supply devices. What happened next depends on whether the cabin was depressurized after the destruction of the "shuttle". Since personal devices do not supply air under pressure, the crew soon lost consciousness during depressurization.

If the cabin remained airtight, then the astronauts died when they hit the surface of the water at a speed of 333 km / h.

American "maybe"

America has experienced the deepest shock. Flights under the Space Shuttle program have been suspended indefinitely. To investigate the crash, US President Ronald Reagan appointed a special commission led by Secretary of State William Rogers.

The findings of the Rogers Commission were no less a blow to NASA's prestige than the disaster itself. Shortcomings were cited as the decisive factor leading to the tragedy. corporate culture and decision-making procedures.

Destruction aircraft was caused by damage to the sealing ring of the right solid fuel booster at launch. Damage to the ring caused a hole in the side of the accelerator to burn out, from which towards the outer fuel tank was a jet stream. This led to the destruction of the tail attachment of the right solid propellant booster and the supporting structures of the external fuel tank. The elements of the complex began to shift relative to each other, which led to its destruction as a result of the action of abnormal aerodynamic loads.

As the investigation showed, NASA had known about defects in o-rings since 1977 - long before the first flight under the Space Shuttle program. But instead of putting necessary changes NASA accepted the problem as a tolerable risk of equipment failure. That is, to put it simply, the specialists of the department, hypnotized by past successes, relied on the American “maybe”. This approach cost the lives of 7 astronauts, not to mention billions in financial losses.

21 years later

The Space Shuttle program was resumed after 32 months, but there was no longer any confidence in it. There was no longer any talk of payback and profit. The record for the program remained in 1985, when 9 flights were made, and after the death of the Challenger, plans to increase the number of starts to 25-30 per year were no longer remembered.

After the disaster on January 28, 1986, NASA closed the Teacher in Space program and Christa McAuliffe's stunt double, Barbara Morgan, returned to teaching at the school. However, everything experienced made the teacher dream of finishing the work she had begun. In 1998, she was again enlisted in the astronaut corps and in 2002 she was assigned as a flight specialist to the crew of the STS-118 shuttle, whose mission to the ISS was planned for November 2003.

However, on February 1, 2003, the second shuttle crash occurred - during the descent from orbit, the Columbia spacecraft with 7 astronauts on board died. Barbara Morgan's flight has been delayed.

And yet she went into space. On August 8, 2007, 21 years after the Challenger's death, teacher Barbara Morgan reached orbit on the Endeavor. During her flight, she held several communication sessions with school classes, including the McCall-Donnelly School, where she taught. long time. Thus, she completed the project, which was not destined to be realized in 1986.

For a relatively short history of astronautics, crashes and accidents spacecraft occurred both in orbit and not far from the Earth. There were depressurizations and even collisions in the vastness of space.

Juno. 50/50

Every second attempt by the Americans to launch a launch vehicle from the Juno series ended in failure. So, on July 16, 1959, Juno-2 was supposed to deliver the Explorer S-1 satellite into low Earth orbit. The Juno mission lasted several seconds: after launch, it almost immediately turned 180 degrees and began moving in the opposite direction, moving exactly towards the launch pad. The rocket was blown up in the air, thereby preventing numerous human casualties. In fairness, we note: with the help of Juno-1, the Americans managed to launch their first artificial satellite of the Earth.

black date

June 30 is a "black" date in the history of space exploration. On this day in 1971, the Soyuz 11 crew returned to earth just in time after 23 days of work in space. The bodies of the ship's commander Georgy Dobrovolsky, flight engineer Vladislav Volkov and test engineer Viktor Patsaev were found in the cabin of the ship, which slowly descended on a parachute and landed on the ground.

According to eyewitnesses, the bodies of the crew members were still warm, but attempts by doctors to resuscitate the astronauts did not give any results. It was later established that the tragedy occurred as a result of cabin depressurization. The pressure drop at an altitude of 168 kilometers, in the absence of special spacesuits not provided for by the design of the ship, doomed the crew to terrible death. Only such a tragedy forced us to radically reconsider the approach to ensuring the safety of Soviet cosmonauts during the flight.

The collapse of the "upsnik"

Reporters of the largest mass media were invited to the launch pad on December 6. They were supposed to record "achievements" and report them to the public, which was in a dejected state after the victories of the Land of the Soviets. After the launch, Avangard gained a height of just over a meter and ... fell to the ground. powerful explosion destroyed the rocket and severely damaged the launch pad. The next day, the front pages of the newspapers were full of headlines about the collapse of the "upsnik" - that's how the journalists called "Vanguard". Naturally, the demonstration of failure only increased the panic in society.

Satellite collision

First Encounter artificial satellites- the Russian "Cosmos-2251" and the American "Iridium-33" - happened on February 10, 2009. As a result of the complete destruction of both satellites, about 600 debris began to pose a threat to other devices operating in space, in particular, to the ISS. Fortunately, a new tragedy was avoided - in 2012, the maneuver of the Russian Zvezda module helped the ISS to evade the wreckage of Iridium-33.

no casualties

Cynically talk about the "spectacle" of the explosion is possible, perhaps, only in cases where we are not talking about human casualties. One of the "successful" examples could be an attempt to launch a Delta-2 launch vehicle with a military GPS satellite at Cape Canaveral.

The launch scheduled for January 16, 1997 had to be postponed for a day, and despite the fact that on the 17th weather did not improve, the rocket was still launched. She stayed in the air for only 13 seconds, after which she exploded. Fiery sparks, reminiscent of fireworks, rained down on the surroundings for some time. Fortunately, human casualties were avoided. Most of rocket fragments fell into the ocean, others damaged the bunker of the launch control center and about 20 cars in the parking lot.

Tragedy of the Titan

The question of which of the countries in the history of space exploration has suffered great financial losses, remains open today. The fact is that 1986 was a black year for NASA. The whole world has not yet had time to recover from tragic death crew of the shuttle Challenger, which occurred on January 28, as on April 18, a Titan 34D-9 rocket exploded during launch.

Her mission was to be part of the implementation of a multi-billion dollar program to create a network of reconnaissance satellites. Additional funding was also required to eliminate the accident due to the spread of poisonous self-igniting fuel components. Well, Russia lost about 90 million dollars last year alone due to the unsuccessful July launch of the Proton-M rocket at the Baikonur cosmodrome.

Brazilian disaster

The launch of the VLS-3 rocket could take the leading positions in three ratings at once: “The largest number of victims”, “Unjustified hopes” and “ Mysterious reasons". Appointed on August 25, 2003, he could turn Brazil into the number one space power in Latin America.

However, on August 22, at the stage of final testing, one of the engines inadvertently turned on, which led to a fire and explosion of fuel tanks. The catastrophe not only destroyed the rocket and the grandiose launch complex, but also claimed the lives of 21 people, almost completely paralyzing the country's space program. As a result of a full-scale investigation, the exact causes of the explosion could not be established. According to the official version, the tragedy happened due to "a dangerous concentration of volatile gases, damaged sensors and electromagnetic interference."

The history of space exploration also has a tragic side. In total, about 350 people died during unsuccessful space flights and preparations for them. In addition to astronauts, this number also includes locals and spaceport personnel who died as a result of falling debris and explosions. In this article, we will look at five disasters where the pilots of spacecraft directly became victims. The saddest thing is that most accidents could have been avoided, but fate decreed otherwise.

Apollo 1

Death toll: 3

Official reason: spark from behind short circuit in poorly insulated wiring

The world's first space disaster fatal occurred on January 27, 1967 with American astronauts during training in the command module of the Apollo 1 mission.

In 1966, the moon race between the two superpowers was in full swing. Thanks to spy satellites, the United States knew about the construction of spacecraft in the USSR that could possibly take Soviet cosmonauts to the moon. The development of the Apollo spacecraft, therefore, was carried out in great haste. Because of this, of course, the quality of technology also suffered. The launch of two unmanned versions, AS-201 and AS-202, was successfully launched in 1966, and the first manned flight to the Moon was scheduled for February 1967. For crew training, the command module of the Apollo spacecraft was delivered to Cape Canaverall. The problems started from the very beginning. The module was seriously flawed, and dozens of engineering adjustments were made right on the spot.

On January 27, the planned simulation training in the module was supposed to take place to test the performance of all on-board instruments of the ship. Instead of air, oxygen and nitrogen were filled into the cabin in a ratio of 60% to 40%. The training started at 1pm. It took place with constant malfunctions - there were communication problems, and the astronauts constantly smelled of burning, as it turned out as a result - due to a short circuit in the wiring. At 18:31, one of the cosmonauts shouted over the intercom: “Fire in the cabin! I'm on fire! Fifteen seconds later, unable to withstand the pressure, the module burst. The cosmodrome employees who came running could not help - astronauts Gus Grissom, Ed White and Roger Chaffee died on the spot from numerous burns.

Soyuz-1

Death toll: 1

Official reason: failure of the brake parachute system / flaws in production spaceship

On April 23, 1967, a grand event was scheduled - the first ever launch of a Soviet spacecraft of the Soyuz series. According to the plan, Soyuz 1 was the first to launch, piloted by Vladimir Komarov. Then it was planned to launch the Soyuz-2 spacecraft with Bykovsky, Eliseev and Khrunov on board. In open space, the ships were to dock, and Eliseev and Khrunov were to transfer to Soyuz-1. In words, everything sounded big, but from the very beginning something went wrong.

Immediately after the launch of Soyuz-1, one solar battery did not open, the ion orientation system was unstable, and the solar-stellar orientation sensor failed. The mission had to be terminated urgently. The Soyuz-2 flight was canceled and Vladimir Komarov was ordered to return to Earth. Here, too, arose serious problems. Due to the failure of the systems and the displacement of the center of mass, it was impossible to orient the ship for braking. Due to his professionalism, Komarov almost manually oriented the ship and successfully entered the atmosphere.

After the ship left orbit, a braking impulse was applied and an emergency detachment of the compartments was made. However, on last stage landing of the descent vehicle, the main and reserve drogue parachutes did not open. At a speed of about 150 km / h, the descent vehicle crashed into the Earth's surface in the Adamovsky district of the Orenburg region and caught fire. The apparatus was completely destroyed in the collision. Vladimir Komarov died. The reason for the failure of the brake parachute system could not be established.

Soyuz-11

Death toll: 3

Official reason: premature opening of the ventilation valve and further depressurization of the cabin

1971 The USSR lost the lunar race, but in response created orbital stations, where in the future it was possible to stay for months and do research. The world's first expedition to the orbital station was successfully completed. The crew consisting of Georgy Dobrovolsky, Vladislav Volkov and Viktor Patsaev stayed at the station for 23 days, however, after a serious fire at the OS, the cosmonauts were ordered to return to Earth.

At an altitude of 150 km. separation has occurred. At the same time, the ventilation valve opened involuntarily, which was supposed to open at an altitude of 2 km. The cabin began to fill with fog, which condensed due to pressure drop. After 30 seconds, the astronauts lost consciousness. After another 2 minutes, the pressure dropped to 50 mm. rt. Art. Since the astronauts did not have spacesuits, they died from suffocation.

Despite the fact that the crew did not respond to MCC questions, re-entry, braking and landing were successful. After this tragic incident, the Soyuz pilots began to without fail supply spacesuits.

Shuttle Challenger

Death toll: 7

Official reason: gas leak in the elements of the solid fuel booster

The mid-1980s was a real triumph for American program"Space Shuttle". Successful missions took place one after another at unusually short intervals, sometimes no more than 17 days. The Challenger mission STS-51-L was significant for two reasons. Firstly, she broke the previous record, as the interval between missions was only 16 days. Secondly, the Challenger crew included a school teacher whose task was to conduct a lesson from orbit. This program was supposed to generate interest in space flight, which in last years calmed down a bit.

On January 28, 1986, the Kennedy Space Center was packed with thousands of spectators and journalists. About 20% of the country's population watched the live broadcast. The shuttle soared into the air to the cries of the admiring audience. Everything went well in the beginning, but then puffs of black smoke were visible coming out of the right solid rocket booster, and then a torch of fire appeared from it.

A few seconds later, the flame became significantly larger due to the combustion of the leaked liquid hydrogen. Approximately 70 seconds later, the destruction of the external fuel tank began, followed by a sharp explosion and detachment of the orbiter's cabin. During the fall of the cabin, the astronauts remained alive and conscious, they even made attempts to restore the power supply. But nothing helped. As a result of the impact of the orbiter cabin on the water, at a speed of 330 km / h, all crew members died on the spot.

After the shuttle exploded, numerous cameras continued to film what was happening. The faces of shocked people got into the lenses, among which were the relatives of all seven dead astronauts. Thus was filmed one of the most tragic reports in the history of television. After the disaster, a ban was imposed on the operation of shuttles for a period of 32 months. The system of solid-fuel boosters was also finalized, and a parachute rescue system was installed on all shuttles.

Shuttle Columbia

Death toll: 7

Official reason: damage to the heat-insulating layer on the wing of the device

On February 1, the shuttle Columbia successfully returned to Earth after a successful space mission. Initially, reentry into the atmosphere proceeded normally, but later a thermal sensor on the left wing transmitted an anomalous value to the MCC. A piece of thermal insulation broke off from the outer skin, as a result of which the thermal protection system failed. After that, four sensors of the ship's hydraulic system went off scale, and literally 5 minutes later the connection with the shuttle was cut off. While the MCC personnel were trying to contact Columbia and find out what happened to the sensors, one of the employees saw live the shuttle already falling to pieces. The entire crew of 7 people died.

This tragedy dealt a serious blow to the prestige of American space exploration. Shuttle flights were once again banned for 29 months. In the future, they performed only critical tasks for the repair and maintenance of the ISS. In fact, this was the end of the existence of the Space Shuttle program. The Americans were forced to ask Russia to transport cosmonauts to the ISS on Russian Soyuz spacecraft.

There are only about 20 people who gave their lives for the benefit of world progress in space exploration, and today we will tell about them.

Their names are immortalized in the ashes of cosmic chronos, burned into the atmospheric memory of the universe forever, many of us would dream of remaining heroes for humanity, however, few would like to accept such a death as our astronaut heroes.

The 20th century became a breakthrough in mastering the path to the expanses of the Universe, in the second half of the 20th century, after long preparations, a person was finally able to fly into space. However, there was also back side such rapid progress death of astronauts.

People died during pre-flight preparations, during takeoff of a spacecraft, during landing. Total during space launches, flight preparations, including cosmonauts and technical personnel who died in the layers of the atmosphere more than 350 people died, only astronauts - about 170 people.

We list the names of the cosmonauts who died during the operation of the spacecraft (the USSR and the whole world, in particular America), and then we will briefly tell the story of their death.

Not a single cosmonaut died directly in space, basically all of them died in the Earth's atmosphere, during the destruction or fire of the ship (the Apollo 1 cosmonauts died in preparation for the first manned flight).

Volkov, Vladislav Nikolaevich ("Soyuz-11")

Dobrovolsky, Georgy Timofeevich ("Soyuz-11")

Komarov, Vladimir Mikhailovich ("Soyuz-1")

Patsaev, Viktor Ivanovich ("Soyuz-11")

Anderson, Michael Phillip (Columbia)

Brown, David McDowell (Columbia)

Grissom, Virgil Ivan (Apollo 1)

Jarvis, Gregory Bruce (Challenger)

Clark, Laurel Blair Salton (Columbia)

McCool, William Cameron (Columbia)

McNair, Ronald Ervin (Challenger)

McAuliffe, Christa (Challenger)

Onizuka, Allison (Challenger)

Ramon, Ilan (Columbia)

Resnick, Judith Arlen (Challenger)

Scobie, Francis Richard (Challenger)

Smith, Michael John (Challenger)

White, Edward Higgins (Apollo 1)

Husband, Rick Douglas (Columbia)

Chawla, Kalpana (Colombia)

Chaffee, Roger (Apollo 1)

It is worth considering that we will never know the stories of the death of some astronauts, because this information is secret.

Soyuz-1 disaster

Soyuz-1 is the first Soviet manned spacecraft (KK) of the Soyuz series. Launched into orbit April 23, 1967. There was one cosmonaut on board the Soyuz-1 - Hero Soviet Union engineer-colonel V. M. Komarov, who died during the landing of the descent vehicle. Komarov's understudy in preparation for this flight was Yu. A. Gagarin.

Soyuz-1 was supposed to dock with the Soyuz-2 spacecraft to return the crew of the first ship, but due to malfunctions, the Soyuz-2 launch was canceled.

After entering orbit, problems began with the operation of the solar battery, after unsuccessful attempts to launch it, it was decided to lower the ship to Earth.

But during the descent, 7 km to the ground, the parachute system failed, the ship hit the ground at a speed of 50 km per hour, the hydrogen peroxide tanks exploded, the cosmonaut died instantly, the Soyuz-1 almost completely burned out, the cosmonaut's remains were badly burned so that it was impossible to determine even fragments of the body.

"This crash was the first in-flight death in the history of manned spaceflight."

The causes of the tragedy have not been fully established.

Soyuz-11 disaster

Soyuz-11 is a spacecraft whose crew of three cosmonauts died in 1971. The reason for the death of people is the depressurization of the descent vehicle during the landing of the ship.

Just a couple of years after the death of Yu. A. Gagarin (the famous cosmonaut himself died in a plane crash in 1968), having already gone, it seems, outer space, several more astronauts have passed away.

Soyuz-11 was supposed to deliver the crew to the Salyut-1 orbital station, but the ship was unable to dock due to damage to the docking port.

Crew composition:

Commander: Lieutenant Colonel Georgy Dobrovolsky

Flight Engineer: Vladislav Volkov

Research Engineer: Victor Patsaev

They were between 35 and 43 years old. All of them were posthumously awarded awards, diplomas, orders.

What happened, why the spacecraft was depressurized, could not be established, but most likely we will not be told this information. But it is a pity that at that time our cosmonauts were "guinea pigs", which they began to release into space after the dogs without much reliability, security. However, probably, many of those who dreamed of becoming astronauts understood what a dangerous profession they were choosing.

Docking took place on June 7, undocking on June 29, 1971. There was an unsuccessful attempt to dock with the Salyut-1 orbital station, the crew was able to go on board the Salyut-1, even stayed at the orbital station for several days, a TV connection was established, however, already at the first approach to the station, the cosmonauts turned their footage for some smoke. On the 11th day, a fire began, the crew decided to descend on the ground, but problems were revealed that disrupted the undocking process. Space suits were not provided for the crew.

On June 29, at 21.25, the ship separated from the station, but after a little more than 4 hours, communication with the crew was lost. The main parachute was deployed, the ship landed in a given area, and the soft landing engines fired. But the search team found at 02.16 (June 30, 1971) the lifeless bodies of the crew, resuscitation measures were unsuccessful.

During the investigation, it was found that the astronauts tried to the last to eliminate the leak, but mixed up the valves, fought not for the broken one, in the meantime they missed the opportunity to save. They died from decompression sickness - air bubbles were found during the autopsy of the bodies, even in the valves of the heart.

The exact reasons for the depressurization of the ship have not been named, more precisely, they have not been announced to the general public.

Subsequently, engineers and creators of spacecraft, crew commanders took into account many tragic mistakes of previous unsuccessful flights into space.

Shuttle Challenger disaster

“The Challenger shuttle disaster occurred on January 28, 1986, when the Space Shuttle Challenger at the very beginning of the STS-51L mission was destroyed as a result of an external fuel tank explosion at the 73rd second of flight, which led to the death of all 7 crew members. The crash occurred at 11:39 AM EST (16:39 UTC) over Atlantic Ocean near the coast of the central part of the Florida peninsula, USA.

In the photo, the crew of the ship - from left to right: McAuliffe, Jarvis, Reznik, Scobie, McNair, Smith, Onizuka

All of America was waiting for this launch, millions of eyewitnesses and viewers on TV watched the launch of the ship, it was the climax of the conquest of space by the West. And so, when there was a grand launch of the ship, seconds later, a fire began, later an explosion, the shuttle cabin separated from the destroyed ship and fell at a speed of 330 km per hour on the surface of the water, seven days later the astronauts will be found in a breakaway cabin at the bottom of the ocean. Until the last moment, before hitting the water, some crew members were alive, trying to supply air to the cabin.

There is an excerpt in the video below the article live broadcast with the launch and death of the shuttle.

“The crew of the shuttle Challenger consisted of seven people. Its composition was as follows:

The crew commander is 46-year-old Francis "Dick" R. Scobee. Francis "Dick" R. Scobee. US military pilot, US Air Force lieutenant colonel, NASA astronaut.

The co-pilot is 40-year-old Michael J. Smith. Test pilot, US Navy captain, NASA astronaut.

The scientific specialist is 39-year-old Allison S. Onizuka. Test pilot, US Air Force lieutenant colonel, NASA astronaut.

The scientific specialist is 36-year-old Judith A. Resnick. NASA engineer and astronaut. She spent 6 days in space 00 hours 56 minutes.

Scientific specialist - 35-year-old Ronald E. McNair. Physicist, NASA astronaut.

The payload specialist is 41-year-old Gregory B. Jarvis. NASA engineer and astronaut.

The payload specialist is 37-year-old Sharon Christa Corrigan McAuliffe. The Boston teacher who won the competition. For her, this was her first flight into space as the first participant in the “Teacher in Space” project.”

Last photo of the crew

Various commissions were created to establish the causes of the tragedy, but most of the information was classified, according to assumptions - the reasons for the crash of the ship were poor interaction between organizational services, violations in the fuel system that were not detected in time (the explosion occurred at launch due to burnout of the wall of the solid fuel booster) and even. . terrorist attack. Some have said that the shuttle explosion was staged to hurt America's prospects.

Columbia shuttle disaster

“The shuttle Columbia disaster occurred on February 1, 2003, shortly before the end of its 28th flight (mission STS-107). The last flight of the Space Shuttle Columbia began on January 16, 2003. On the morning of February 1, 2003, after a 16-day flight, the shuttle returned to Earth.

NASA lost contact with the spacecraft at approximately 14:00 GMT (09:00 EST), 16 minutes before the expected landing on runway 33 at the John F. Kennedy Space Center in Florida, which was scheduled to take place at 14:16 GMT. Eyewitnesses filmed the burning wreckage of the shuttle flying at an altitude of about 63 kilometers at a speed of 5.6 km / s. All 7 crew members were killed."

Pictured is the crew - From top to bottom: Chawla, Husband, Anderson, Clarke, Ramon, McCool, Brown

The Columbia shuttle was making its next 16-day flight, which was supposed to end with a landing on Earth, however, as the main version of the investigation says, the shuttle was damaged during launch - a piece of thermal insulation foam came off (the coating was intended to protect oxygen tanks from ice and hydrogen) as a result of the impact damaged the coating of the wing, as a result of which, during the descent of the apparatus, when the most heavy loads on the body, the device began to overheat and, subsequently, destruction.

Even during the shuttle expedition, engineers repeatedly turned to NASA management in order to assess damage, visually inspect the shuttle body with the help of orbital satellites, but NASA specialists assured that there were no fears and risks, the shuttle would safely descend to Earth.

“The crew of the Columbia shuttle consisted of seven people. Its composition was as follows:

The crew commander is 45-year-old Richard "Rick" D. Husband. US military pilot, US Air Force colonel, NASA astronaut. Spent 25 days 17 hours 33 minutes in space. Prior to Columbia, he was commander of the STS-96 Discovery shuttle.

The co-pilot is 41-year-old William "Willie" C. McCool. Test pilot, NASA astronaut. Spent 15 days 22 hours 20 minutes in space.

The flight engineer is 40-year-old Kalpana Chawla. Researcher, the first female NASA astronaut of Indian origin. Spent 31 days 14 hours 54 minutes in space.

Payload Specialist - 43-year-old Michael F. Anderson (Eng. Michael P. Anderson). Scientist, NASA astronaut. Spent 24 days, 18 hours, 8 minutes in space.

Specialist in zoology - 41-year-old Laurel B. S. Clark (Eng. Laurel B. S. Clark). US Navy Captain, NASA Astronaut. Spent 15 days 22 hours 20 minutes in space.

Scientific specialist (physician) - 46-year-old David McDowell Brown. Test pilot, NASA astronaut. Spent 15 days 22 hours 20 minutes in space.

Scientific specialist - 48-year-old Ilan Ramon (Eng. Ilan Ramon, Heb.אילן רמון‏‎). First Israeli NASA astronaut. Spent 15 days 22 hours 20 minutes in space.

The shuttle descended on February 1, 2003, landing on Earth was supposed to occur within an hour.

“On February 1, 2003 at 08:15:30 (EST), the space shuttle Columbia began its descent to Earth. At 08:44 the shuttle began to enter the dense layers of the atmosphere. However, due to damage, the leading edge of the left wing began to overheat badly. From the period of 08:50, the ship's hull endures strong thermal loads, at 08:53, debris began to fall off the wing, but the crew was alive, there was still communication.

At 08:59:32 the commander sent last message, interrupted in mid-sentence. At 09:00 eyewitnesses have already filmed the explosion of the shuttle, the ship fell apart into a lot of debris. that is, the fate of the crew was a foregone conclusion due to the inaction of NASA, but the destruction itself and the death of people occurred in a matter of seconds.

It is worth noting that the Columbia shuttle was operated many times, at the time of its death the ship was 34 years old (in operation with NASA since 1979, the first manned flight in 1981), flew into space 28 times, but this flight turned out to be fatal.

In space itself, no one died, in the dense layers of the atmosphere and in spacecraft - about 18 people.

In addition to the catastrophes of 4 ships (two Russian - Soyuz-1 and Soyuz-11 and American - Columbia and Challenger), in which 18 people died, there were several more disasters during the explosion, fire in pre-flight preparation , one of the most famous tragedies- a fire in an atmosphere of pure oxygen in preparation for the Apollo 1 flight, then three American cosmonauts died, in a similar situation, a very young USSR cosmonaut, Valentin Bondarenko, died. The astronauts just burned alive.

Another NASA astronaut, Michael Adams, died while testing the X-15 rocket plane.

Yuri Alekseevich Gagarin died during an unsuccessful flight on an airplane during a routine training.

Probably, the goal of the people who stepped into space was grandiose, and it’s not a fact that even knowing their fate, many would renounce astronautics, but still you always need to remember at what cost we paved the way to the stars ...

In the photo is a monument to the fallen astronauts on the moon

September 11, 2013 when astronauts return from the International space station(ISS) of the Soyuz TMA-08M spacecraft. Part of the way the astronauts "flyed to the touch." In particular, the crew did not receive parameters about their altitude and only learned from the reports of the rescue service at what altitude they were.

May 27, 2009 The Soyuz TMA-15 spacecraft was launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome. On board the ship were Russian cosmonaut Roman Romanenko, an astronaut of the European space agency Frank De Winne and Canadian Space Agency astronaut Robert Thirsk. Temperature control problems occurred inside the Soyuz TMA-15 manned spacecraft during flight, which were corrected with a thermal management system. The incident did not affect the well-being of the crew. On May 29, 2009, the spacecraft docked with the ISS.

August 14, 1997 during the landing of the Soyuz TM-25 with the crew of EO-23 (Vasily Tsibliyev and Alexander Lazutkin), the soft landing engines fired prematurely, at an altitude of 5.8 km. For this reason, the landing of the SA was hard (landing speed was 7.5 m/s), but the astronauts were not injured.

January 14, 1994 after the undocking of the Soyuz TM-17 with the crew of EO-14 (Vasily Tsibliyev and Alexander Serebrov), during a flyby of the Mir complex, an off-design rendezvous and collision of the spacecraft with the station occurred. The incident did not have serious consequences.

April 20, 1983 Soyuz T-8 spacecraft with cosmonauts Vladimir Titov, Gennady Strekalov and Alexander Serebrov on board took off from the 1st site of the Baikonur Cosmodrome. For the spacecraft commander Titov, this was the first trip to orbit. The crew had to work for several months on board the Salyut-7 station, to conduct a lot of research and experiments. However, the astronauts were in for a failure. Due to the non-disclosure of the antenna of the Igla rendezvous and docking system on the ship, the crew failed to dock the ship to the station, and on April 22 the Soyuz T-8 landed on Earth.

April 10, 1979 Soyuz-33 launched with a crew of Nikolai Rukavishnikov and Bulgarian Georgy Ivanov. When approaching the station, the ship's main engine failed. The cause of the accident was a gas generator that feeds the turbopump unit. It exploded, damaging the backup engine. When issuing (April 12) a braking impulse, the backup engine worked with a shortage of thrust, and the impulse was not completely issued. However, the SA landed safely, albeit with a significant overflight.

October 9, 1977 Soyuz-25 was launched, piloted by cosmonauts Vladimir Kovalenko and Valery Ryumin. The flight program provided for docking with the Salyut-6 DOS, which was launched into orbit on September 29, 1977. Due to an emergency situation, it was not possible to perform docking with the station the first time. The second attempt was also unsuccessful. And after the third attempt, the ship, having touched the station and pushed off by spring pushers, retreated 8-10 m and hovered. The fuel in the main system ran out completely, and it was no longer possible to move away with the help of engines. There was a possibility of a collision between the ship and the station, but after a few orbits they separated to a safe distance. The fuel for issuing the braking impulse was taken from the reserve tank for the first time. the true reason Docking failures could not be established. Most likely, there was a defect in the Soyuz-25 docking station (the serviceability of the station's docking station was confirmed by subsequent dockings with the Soyuz spacecraft), but it burned out in the atmosphere.

October 15, 1976 during the flight of the Soyuz-23 spacecraft with the crew of Vyacheslav Zudov and Valery Rozhdestvensky, an attempt was made to dock with the Salyut-5 DOS. Due to the off-design mode of the rendezvous control system, the docking was canceled and a decision was made to return the cosmonauts to Earth ahead of schedule. On October 16, the ship's SA splashed down on the surface of Lake Tengiz, covered with pieces of ice at an ambient temperature of -20 degrees Celsius. Salty water got on the contacts of external connectors, some of which remained energized. This led to the formation of false chains and the passage of a command to shoot the cover of the container of the reserve parachute system. The parachute left the compartment, got wet and turned the ship over. The exit hatch was in the water, and the astronauts almost died. They were saved by the pilots of the search helicopter, who, in difficult weather conditions, were able to detect the SA and, having hooked it with a cable, dragged it to the shore.

April 5, 1975 The Soyuz spacecraft (7K-T No. 39) was launched with cosmonauts Vasily Lazarev and Oleg Makarov on board. The flight program provided for docking with the Salyut-4 DOS and work on board for 30 days. However, due to an accident during the activation of the third stage of the rocket, the ship did not enter orbit. The Soyuz made a suborbital flight, landing on a mountain slope in a deserted region of Altai not far from the state border with China and Mongolia. On the morning of April 6, 1975, Lazarev and Makarov were evacuated from their landing site by helicopter.

June 30, 1971 During the return to Earth of the crew of the Soyuz 11 spacecraft, due to the premature opening of the respiratory ventilation valve, the descent vehicle was depressurized, which led to a sharp decrease in pressure in the crew module. As a result of the accident, all the astronauts on board died. The crew of the spacecraft, launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome, consisted of three people: the spacecraft commander Georgy Dobrovolsky, research engineer Viktor Patsaev and flight engineer Vladislav Volkov. During the flight, a new record was set at that time, the duration of the crew's stay in space was over 23 days.

April 19, 1971 the first Salyut orbital station was launched into orbit, and April 23, 1971 TPK Soyuz-10 launched to it with the first expedition consisting of Vladimir Shatalov, Alexei Eliseev and Nikolai Rukavishnikov. This expedition was supposed to work at the Salyut orbital station for 22-24 days. TPK "Soyuz-10" docked to the orbital station "Salyut", but due to damage to the docking unit of the manned spacecraft during docking, the cosmonauts could not board the station and returned to Earth.

April 23, 1967 while returning to Earth, the parachute system of the Soyuz-1 spacecraft failed, resulting in the death of cosmonaut Vladimir Komarov. The flight program planned the docking of the Soyuz-1 spacecraft with the Soyuz-2 spacecraft and the transition from ship to ship through outer space Aleksey Eliseev and Yevgeny Khrunov, but due to the non-disclosure of one of the solar panels on Soyuz-1, the launch of Soyuz-2 was canceled. "Soyuz-1" made an early landing, but at the final stage of the descent of the ship to Earth failed parachute system and the descent vehicle crashed east of the city Orsk, Orenburg region, the cosmonaut died.

The material was prepared on the basis of information from RIA Novosti and open sources