A lookback at space disasters in the history of mankind

On February 1, 2003, space shuttle Columbia broke apart while re-entering the atmosphere over Texas, killing all seven crew members on board, minutes before Columbia was scheduled to land at Florida’s Kennedy Space Center. Here are the other space disasters in the history of mankind:


Challenger
January 28, 1986: The highly anticipated launch of Space Shuttle Challenger, which carried the first teacher-astronaut, Christa McAuliffe, was watched live by many around the world. But 73 seconds after takeoff, the shuttle erupted in a fireball that killed the entire crew. Five months later, the cause was made public: Two of the shuttle’s O-rings had failed during launch.

APOLLO 13
April 13, 1970: Four-fifths of the way to the moon, Apollo 13 is crippled when a tank containing liquid oxygen bursts. The three astronauts on board survive by moving into the lunar module until they are able to fly the main vessel safely back to earth.


APOLLO 1
January 27, 1967: A flash fire erupts aboard the Apollo 1 during a routine launch-pad test, killing the three astronauts aboard. The deaths of Virgil ‘Gus’ Grissom, Ed White and Roger Chaffee forced NASA to pause in its space race with the Soviet Union and make design and safety changes that were critical to the agency’s later successes.

Soyuz 1
April 24, 1967: The spacecraft was an advanced 3-person capsule, capable to automatically dock in space, and it was designed to withstand a reentry from Moon trajectory. It was launched on 23 April, 1967 with cosmonaut Vladimir Komarv on board. The capsule was plagued by an array of problems: failure to deploy a solar array and attitude control. The mission was aborted, and Komarov underwent a dangerous re-entry manual. He miraculously survived re-entry, but the parachute failed to deploy. With only the drogue chute deployed, the spacecraft slammed into the ground at tremendous velocity, instantly killing the cosmonaut on board.


The Russian Soyuz 11
June 30, 1971: It is best known for being the first mission to board a space station, Salyut 1. Tragically, it is also known as the first and only mission to result in human death in outer space. On their return mission, a critical valve blew and pressure in the capsule dove. As their oxygen flooded out into space, the cosmonauts were hit with high-altitude decompression and died in less than a minute. Autopsies found that within 60 seconds, the cosmonauts experienced brain hemorrhages, subcutaneous bleeding and bleeding of the middle ear. All three men would have survived—had they been provided with space suits.