5 Horrific Space Disasters: A Parachute That Didn’t Work and a Poison Gas Leak

The Challenger shuttle disaster occurred on January 28, 1986 and became one of the most tragic pages in the history of space exploration. Literally a minute after the launch, a fire broke out due to a malfunction of the rubber seals separating the rocket boosters. Soon the flames spread throughout the rocket itself and the entire enormous structure began to literally fall apart.

There were no survivors from the tragedy. The shuttle launch was not broadcast on television, but the destruction of the spacecraft was visible from various points across the continent.

And although the engineering team warned of a possible problem and asked to postpone the flight, NASA insisted on launching the shuttle, since the launch had already been postponed several times before.

NASA

The Columbia disaster in February 2003 was the second in NASA’s space shuttle program after Challenger. The accident occurred during takeoff when a piece of foam designed to prevent ice from forming in the fuel tank broke off. The foam landed on the shuttle’s left wing and tore a hole in it, but due to poor camera quality, the crew on the ground were unable to accurately assess the extent of the problem and ordered the flight to continue, a fatal mistake.

When the shuttle Columbia attempted to reenter the atmosphere after its mission, a hole created by foam released gases and smoke into the left wing, causing it to break away and disintegrate the rest of the shuttle. The accident killed seven astronauts.

Despite the tragedy, the result of an experiment conducted in space was recovered from the wreckage of the ship. The experiment was aimed at studying the effect of weightlessness on the physiology of worms. Surprisingly, the insects remained alive.

Vladimir Komarov was one of the first Soviet cosmonauts selected to fly into space. The man even managed to visit orbit twice, but the second time was his last. During the flight of Soyuz-1, the first Soviet spacecraft designed to fly to the Moon, the spacecraft had to match its orbital speeds with Soyuz-2 to test the first step in docking the two spacecraft.

However, the plan failed to be followed. When Komarov was in orbit, one of the ship’s solar panels failed to deploy and suddenly stopped supplying energy to the ship. The equipment that required energy began to fail, so the team from Earth gave the cosmonaut the task of returning home. During the descent, the parachutes of Soyuz-1 opened incorrectly, which is why the ship was unable to slow down.

As a result, on April 24, 1967, Soyuz-1 with Vladimir Komarov on board crashed into the Earth. The cosmonaut’s death was the first such incident in the space sector.

In July 1975, the first joint flight of the USA and the USSR into space took place. Two ships, American and domestic, docked in orbit around the Earth and successfully carried out the assigned mission. And although the takeoff and the mission itself went without complaints, an accident occurred during the descent of the ships to the ground. At that moment, a malfunction was discovered in the American Apollo in the system responsible for flight control – poisonous nitrogen gas got into it.

The incident occurred without casualties: the cosmonauts did not receive fatal injuries, but they did get pneumonia caused by chemicals.

This extraordinary situation occurred during the second lunar expedition. When the Apollo 12 spacecraft began to lift off on November 14, 1969, two different lightning bolts were directed at the top of the shuttle, which could have endangered the spacecraft and the entire mission.

The first impact was noticeable even to spectators watching the takeoff from the ground, and therefore caused a huge stir and panic among the population. At the same time, when checking all the ship’s systems, it was established that the device itself was not damaged and could successfully continue moving towards the Moon.

But the story didn’t end there. The next setback occurred when Apollo 12 returned to Earth. While the spacecraft was floating in the ocean, a strong wave hit its hull, causing it to rock and become detached from its parachutes. Under the force of this wave, a movie camera fell on astronaut Alan Bean’s head, cutting him. Although his fellow astronauts quickly provided medical assistance to the man, the crew will remember this flight for a long time.