Vladimir Komarov

Russian soviet cosmonauts. (RIA Novosti archive (Alexander Mokletsov))

Vladimir Komarov was a Soviet test pilot, aerospace engineer and cosmonaut. In 1959 Komarov was invited to participate in the selection process for cosmonaut candidate. Apart from him there were 3000 candidates. He was eventually selected to command Voskhod 1 spacecraft. His spaceflight on Soyuz 1 made him the first Soviet cosmonaut to fly into outer space more than once. He could have lived a long life and tell his grandchildren what he saw on board the spacecraft. But the spaceflight on Soyuz 1 also made him the first human that died on a space mission.

Gagarin and Komarov. (RIA Novosti (Alexander Mokletsov))

And now I want to tell you a great story of friendship between two cosmonauts - Vladimir Komarov and National Hero Yuri Gagarin. In 1967 both men were assigned to the same mission, and both knew that the space capsule was not safe to fly. Komarov told that he would probably die. But he did not cancel the flight. If he had done that, Gagarin would have died. Gagarin was his replacement. Then Komarov said, "He'll die instead of me. We've got to take care of him".

Why Komarov? In fact, it is believed that if at that time Sergey Korolev had been alive, it would have been the contrary: Gagarin would have been captain, and Komarov - his replacement. Knowing the dangers of the flight, Yuri Gagarin tried to stop it. He was ready to fly instead of Komarov, but everybody called that a foolish whim. The Soyuz left Earth with Komarov on board. He perished when the Soyuz 1 space capsule crashed after re-entry on 24 April 1967. Komarov was burned in the atmosphere. The cosmonaut was only 40 years old. His comrades almost couldn't say goodbye to him. Yuri Gagarin died in a plane accident in 1968, a year after his friend.