Trending that caught Doug’s eye… space tragedies

Opinion

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 15/11/2014 (3982 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

It couldn’t have come at a better time.

There were cheers of triumph, tears of joy and sighs of relief this week when, in an unprecedented moment for space exploration, a tiny robotic probe became the first craft to successfully land on the icy surface of a speeding comet 500 million kilometres from Earth.

“Everyone cried,” Paolo Ferri, head of mission operations for the European Space Agency, chirped after the Philae lander dropped from the agency’s Rosetta space probe and touched down on the forbidding landscape of a small comet known as 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko hurtling through space at 66,000 kilometres per hour.

It’s hoped the washing machine-sized lander will answer huge questions about the origin of the universe. Almost as important, the cosmic first brings fresh hope to a space industry battered in recent weeks by twin disasters.

On Oct. 28, an unmanned Antares rocket operated by Orbital Sciences, a company contracted by NASA to fly supplies to the International Space Station, blew up after launching from a pad in Virginia. There were no casualties.

Three days later, SpaceShipTwo, a space plane owned by Virgin Galactic, a firm that hopes to provide wealthy thrill-seekers with flights to the edge of space, tore apart during a test flight over the Mojave desert, killing the co-pilot. The pilot survived after he was thrown free and his parachute automatically deployed.

It was far from the first time reaching for the stars has proven deadly, as we see from this countdown of some of the worst space disasters in history:

 

5) The Soyuz 1 Tragedy — When Soviet cosmonaut Col. Vladimir Komarov’s problem-plagued Soyuz 1 capsule slammed into Russian soil on April 24, 1967, he became the first in-flight fatality in the history of manned spaceflight. It was a disaster that, by many accounts, should not have happened. It was the first manned flight of the new Soyuz spacecraft, and the first manned Soviet mission in over two years. According to online reports, engineers reported more than 200 design flaws prior to launch, but the warnings were ignored by party leaders determined to beat the U.S. in the space race. The first man in space, Yuri Gagarin, was the backup pilot and reportedly tried to bump Komarov from the mission, but Komarov, fearing the craft was doomed, refused to risk the life of a national hero. The flight was plagued by mishaps from the start — a solar panel failed to unfold, leading to a power shortage, and the manoeuvring and stabilization systems also failed. When the mission was aborted, Soyuz 1 re-entered the atmosphere and a drogue parachute was deployed to slow its descent. When Komarov deployed the main chute, a defect prevented it from unfolding, and the reserve chute became entangled in the drogue chute. The capsule hit the ground at about 140 km/h and exploded in flames, killing the cosmonaut on impact. Komarov received a state funeral and is commemorated in two memorials left on the surface of the moon.

 

4) The Soyuz 11 Horror — It was to have been the Soviet space program’s finest hour. It was early on June 30, 1971, and the nation was preparing to welcome three heroic cosmonauts — Georgi Dobrovolski, Vladislav Volkov and Viktor Patsayev — home from a record-breaking space mission in which they had spent more than 23 days in orbit and successfully boarded the world’s first true space station, Salyut 1. After its textbook touchdown, rescuers cheerfully made their way to the capsule. When they looked inside, it was a scene of horror — the crew was dead. It was another tragic Soviet first — the first human beings to have died outside the Earth’s atmosphere. The capsule’s landing had been entirely automatic, and did not require living pilots. According to online reports, an investigation showed a breathing valve had ruptured, asphyxiating the cosmonauts, who died at an altitude of 168 kilometres above the Earth. It appears the valve had been jolted open as the descent module separated from the service module, and the resulting loss of pressure was fatal within seconds. Craters on the moon have been named after the ill-fated trio.

 

3) The Apollo 1 Inferno — This tragedy had the potential to derail the space race entirely. On Jan. 27, 1967, Apollo 1 was sitting on the launch pad at Cape Canaveral atop a Saturn 1B rocket, set to perform a so-called “plugs-out” test in which there was no fuel in the spacecraft and the pyrotechnic systems were disabled. It was a simple test to prepare Apollo 1 for its first manned flight. Suddenly, according to space.com, an unexplained electrical arc ignited the command module’s pure, high-pressure oxygen atmosphere that was replicating conditions in orbit. In less than a minute, the three astronauts on board — Gus Grissom, the second American in space; Edward White II, the first American to walk in space; and Roger Chaffee, who was preparing for his first space flight — perished in the flash fire. They were the first fatalities in the history of the American space program. Six seconds after White reported the fire, a voice cried “There’s a bad fire,” followed by the hull rupturing and one of the astronauts screaming “I’m burning up.” In one terrible moment, the potential dangers of space travel had become a reality. Investigations later pointed to several lethal flaws, including the use of pure oxygen in the cabin, flammable Velcro strips and an inward-opening hatch that trapped the crew. Landmarks on the moon and Mars bear the names of the doomed men.

 

2) The Space Shuttle Columbia Explosion — In hindsight, it was the beginning of the end for the shuttle program. On Feb. 1, 2003, the Columbia was returning home after 16 days doing research in space. According to space.com, the seven-member crew — commander Rick Husband; payload commander Michael Anderson; mission specialist David Brown; specialist Kalpana Chawla; specialist Laurel Clark; pilot William McCool; and payload specialist Ilan Ramon — had spent 24 hours a day doing experiments in two shifts. The shuttle was making its landing approach to Kennedy Space Center when abnormal readings showed up at mission control. Twelve minutes after its final communication, when Columbia should have been making its final approach, mission control received a call stating a TV network was showing video of the shuttle disintegrating in the sky. It was later determined a hole on the left wing allowed atmospheric gases to bleed into the shuttle during its fiery re-entry, leading to the craft’s destruction. It all began about 82 seconds after the shuttle blasted off when a piece of foam fell from a fuel tank during launch, tearing a small hole in the wing and heat shielding. The search for debris, spread over 5,180 square kilometres, took weeks. A report later said the crew likely survived the initial breakup, but lost consciousness in seconds after the cabin lost pressure and died as it disintegrated. New safety rules were implemented and the next shuttle flight did not occur until 2006. Seven asteroids orbiting the sun now bear the names of the ill-starred crew.

 

1) The Space Shuttle Challenger Disaster — Almost everyone of a certain age, including this columnist, remember where they were the moment the Challenger was lost. On its 10th launch, on Jan. 28, 1986, just 73 seconds after liftoff, the shuttle exploded, killing all seven crew members in a tragedy that changed the space program forever. It was one of the most iconic news images of the era, and it played out on live television, broadcast over and over, traumatizing a world fascinated by space travel. It was especially horrible because one of the crew members, Christa McAuliffe, was the first teacher bound for space, and planned to give lessons while in orbit. Also killed were commander Francis Scobee; pilot Michael Smith; mission specialist Ronald McNair; specialist Ellison Onizuka; specialist Judith Resnik; and payload specialist Greg Jarvis. Temperatures dipped below freezing the morning Challenger blasted off, and some NASA staff had been worried about the integrity of the seals on the solid rocket boosters in cold weather, space.com recalls. An investigation confirmed “O-ring” seals failed due to the cold. After a lengthy search, the crew compartment was recovered from the ocean floor. It was believed several crew members survived the initial breakup, but the impact with the ocean was not survivable. In the wake of the disaster, which led to huge reforms, shuttle flights were grounded for almost three years and plans to fly more civilians were shelved for 22 years. The Challenger Center for Space Science Education is a permanent memorial to the crew.

 

As of today, Virgin Galactic is selling $250,000 tickets to space for thrill seekers, and news reports say “very few” of the company’s 700 customers have asked for their money back after last month’s crash. Hopefully no space tourist will ever have to pay the ultimate price for seeking the final frontier.

doug.speirs@freepress.mb.ca