I actually made a full video on the Apollo One Disaster some time ago. Here's a link in case you want to learn more: ruclips.net/video/3DV7cVJHUh4/видео.html
Tom Stafford, commander of Apollo 10 also served as one of the pallbearers at the funeral as an official representative of the US and NASA. The space race had gotten to a point where it was possible to show professional respect and courtesy in public.
You know what I appriciate? That you tell us what you are showing onscreen and when it's not an actual picture of what might be assumed. There is so much accidental misinformation when it comes to images in documentary type videos. Your little captions "an EXAMPLE of electrical damage" or "landing of a SIMILAR capsule" are so good and really add to your credibility as a channel.
I second that and I too appreciate the effort to be correct and accurate. Some originators such as the Dark Skies serie is often guilty of using stock footage without noting that it is an example and not of the original event.
@@jerseywalcott6408 In fact I think most channels do that. Actually lying has become so very common. So channels that don't actually lie feel like they are all virtuous, and anything they do is OK, in their minds.
Nothing but respect for the finer details. I don't think he gets nearly enough credit in just capturing these events small details. The story telling through the facts is top notch.
How crestfallen those rescuers must have been; everything looks like it ended successfully, the module is intact, a great milestone has been achieved but then….no one responds. You open the module to find three bodies…. RIP
It was a bit foreboding that they lost all comm before re-entry even started. I'm surprised they had no telemetry indicating capsule pressure, vital signs, or anything else that would have indicated what happened.
@@TheSpritz0Using that tank as an example of being ‘over engineered’ is a slight on the Soyuz. Russian tanks are becoming a lost species as we speak. On paper things always looked great. We also know there was alot of accidents back then with the CCCP space program. Even the first spacewalk wasn’t without a near death experience where their space suit was expanding like a balloon and almost couldn’t get back in the capsule. The USSR’s space program history was not honest with Russians or the world. The space race killed people on all sides.
Things really aren't much more robust now. Mostly in terms of electronic systems to panic about every little thing and abort. Not so much in terms of actual technological advancement, having a robust toolkit of technologies with backups and layers of safeguards. Which we still really don't have. SpaceX and Boeing didn't even design compatible spacesuits... and every launch and landing is still a hail mary.
The problem with space is that it is unforgiving. It’s similar to traveling to the deep depths of the ocean. It takes 101 things to go right to come back alive. You can get 100 of those things right and it only takes that 1 for it to go wrong. That’s why these tragedies happen. You can say “well it’s preventable” but it’s difficult to account for every scenario and possible point of failure.
@@rogersheddy6414 Yeah for some reason he decided "Fudge it wing it and blame everyone else who wanted him to build a safe submersible." Those wires on Titan exposed is a big yikes on trikes. the stern section of the Titanic is a twisted mass of metal. There's even twisted metal at the more famous bow section. that is why one look at the Titan told me "Nope not getting in that. It'll get tangled in a wreck or worse, The wires would get snapped."
This is a little off topic but that is why I hate the phrase, "There is no such thing as an accident" or "There is no such thing as luck." Every day is filled with millions of little things interacting with each other. You can't account or control for all of them. Now take going into a harsh environment and the is multiplied by a million!
@@takkycat 100%, thats why we've gotten so far in space, aviation, and maritime tech is taking those critical, and hard, looks at failures like this then applying controls. Soyez, Columbia, thousands of aircraft mishaps, tens of thousands of maritime mishaps, all deeply tragic but all moving us to better tech/processes. It makes any safety critical application MUCH more expensive but also MUCH more safe and we have reminders like OceanGate that you can't cut corners without consequence.
Haunting that Patsayev was the first human to celebrate his birthday in space, only to then become one of the only three humans to die beyond the Karman line (the boundary between earth and outer space)
If i remember correctly, they smuggled an onion into space for their friends birthday present. Mainly because astronaut food sucked, and an onion is easier to hide than a cake.
Apollo crews also didn't wear full pressure suits on reentry. They didn't wear the helmets. Also, during the early shuttle program, other than the first test flights, no pressure suits were worn at all. This changed after Challenger (not that it would have saved them, but it would have saved the astronauts in other potential failures). Even after this, it was common for them to keep the visors up on their helmets during landing. Given the size of the shuttle though, the size of a hole needed to allow air to leak out fast enough that they couldn't get their visors closed in time would have been a bigger issue than the loss of pressure.
I've read that the first Mercury flight also didn't have anything for the astronaut to use if he had to relieve himself, and they had to make adjustments for future spaceflights so that all astronauts would wear "urinary collection devices" (i.e. diapers).
Sometimes they did wear helmets because Wally Schirra infamously got in a fight over wearing his helmet during re-entry. He had a cold and wanted to clear the pressure in his ears but NASA insisted on the helmet. Wally still refused.
That photo of the capsule still haunts me. And another not shown here of the dead cosmonauts laid out in the grass. I was only 5 when this news broke, but I remember it.
i was about 8 yrs old when the Challenger exploded live on TV. I remember it like it was yesterday. Cheers from America, friend. We have far more in common than we are allowed to believe.
A tip for anglophones: most of the time, the 'o' in latinised Russian words is said like an 'a'. So if you say "sayuz" when you read soyuz, you'll sound perfect.
@@dosenfutter99 Stress placement is one of the biggest challenges for anglophones learning Russian and vice versa, so while that's true, it's probably not relevant at the beginner level
What progress is there to be gained by space exploration? At the expense of our tax dollars in the US, we are making multi billion dollar companies richer and with no gain to the common taxpayer. This whole space exploration bullshit has done nothing but risk and take innocent lives for absolutely no purpose. We weren't meant to live in space and on the other planets. When people accept that, maybe we can concentrate on doing things better here on earth. The amount of money wasted on space exploration is staggering.
@@thexan7234 how can you possibly trust the federal government at this point. They cover up human trafficking and racketeering on the daily how can you possibly think that they would ever be truthful about projects that have top secret or need to know clearance. It took them almost 70 years to admit they poisoned an entire village in France with LSD just to see what would happen. Your scope of reality is quite literally engineered by think tanks and people in board rooms who find it both funny and convenient to purposely subvert your learned dependence/ignorance. I guess it's easier to live in a world where you just blindly trust charlatans and liars rather than actually think for yourself and scream conspiracy like a toddler at everything too uncomfortable for you to try to understand.
These stone monuments tend to hold up a lot better over time than the metal ones, it's russia fss, do you expect anybody to actually maintain that thing 😭😭😭
John, you have *THE MOST* beautiful narrations on all of RUclips. They are some of the very few I can listen to at x1.0 speed. Most others require a reduction to x0.9 or 0.8. Your enunciation and emotional tone is always perfect. Well done and thank you.
It's very moving that the Apollo astronauts left a plaque for these three cosmonauts. For a moment, all the Cold War fervor and paranoia was forgotten in this one beautiful gesture.
There’s a very lovely Vonnegut short story, of two dads, one of an astronaut one of a cosmonaut, that wrote to each other giving sympathies for losing their sons to the space race
Peace to them, and to all the others who gave their lives in space exploration. It's heartbreaking how many of those deaths were avoidable beyond the already incredible risks, but it makes their sacrifices no less dear.
I heard that one of the reasons for the Soviets to broadcast the Soyuz 11 mission was in response to the recent successful return of Apollo 13 and the resulting positive publicity generated.
As tragic as it was with the loss of these brave cosmonauts, this has to be up there as one of the best videos on this channel. Bringing to light tragic stories like this one ensures that the three brave men lost in this tragedy will help keep their memories in remembrance
The "space race" induced a huge amount of technological innovation, some of which has greatly benefited humanity. However, because of its "we have to beat them before they have the time to do it first" nature it also caused a huge amount of recklessness, rushed decisions, rushed technology and bypassing a lot of safety tests that would have made the flights safer. It's actually a miracle that there were only the few casualties and incidents that there were.
Hats off for those courageous men who braved the dangers in pushing the boundaries into space. What a tragic end to what was an otherwise wildly successful mission.
A lot of these issues, like the module being too small to fit in pressure suits, is just a result of how hard the Soviets were pushing their (limited, even by the standards of the era) technology past its limits. Their rocket technology generally worked, but it was a lot less powerful than what the U.S. was able to make, so they had to cut every corner possible to save enough weight to actually make it into space. The culmination of this was the failed N1 rocket that was meant to get a cosmonaut to the moon. All three of them blew up on the launch pad, and that's probably a good thing. You'll note I said 'A' cosmonaut. Whereas Apollo had crews of three, the Soviet design was so stripped down it would have carried just one. Who, get this, would have had to do a spacewalk outside the capsule to transfer to the lunar lander, which would not have had an enclosed cabin or even a chair, the poor guy would have had to ride down to the lunar surface, outside, standing up, with just a rope tethering him to the vehicle. It's telling that the two cosmonauts who were in the running for the first mission (and who were friends) were each plotting to secretly take the others place by any means necessary, if the other was chosen, to save their friend's life.
In 1964 they had stuffed 3 cosmonauts into a Vostok capsule, which was originally designed for one man. They did it because they wanted to show up the US, which was soon to launch the first two man Gemini. The accident on Soyuz 11 could just as easily, or more easily, have happened with the Vostok only we probably wouldn't have heard about it till years later. They even gave the Vostok a new name, Voskhod, to fool the world into thinking they had developed a new space ship, but it was just a modified Vostok. It was a pure stunt and the type of thing that hindered the Soviet space program and allowed the US to surpass them.
Where are you getting your info on the N1 from? Afaik the final design was for 2 crew, one descending to the lunar surface inside a pressurized lander and the second piloting the command module in lunar orbit
I wondered how long it would be before an American soured this video with prejudice and anti Russian misinformation. You are not an expert and likely know nothing about what went on. There were plenty of deaths on the American side and plenty of mishaps, like the current one where 3 astronauts have been stranded in space. I was in England when the Americans had a great success with the shuttle and every one where I worked was saying this puts America ahead, which I also thought. I then saw the head of NASA interviewed on British TV and it was put to him that America was now in front in the space race. He said we are about ten years behind Russia, but we are catching up.
The only men to die outside the atmosphere which are verified and proven. There are still lots of things that happened in the Soviet Union in the early days of flight that have never been acknowledged, and never will be.
That's pretty neat, didn't know that. Or hadnt tought about it being that small of a number, but it must be because of the overall amount of people that have even been in space!
I always think about all the poor animals that were sent into space to die alone , scared , anxious and then they died most likely slowly from starvation. Imagine thinking someone loved you but they they shoved you ins weird metal box and then you just die slowly in the box never understanding what you did wrong to deserve the punishment. Just makes me bawl every time .
Same here. The dogs hurt my heart the worst. Rest in peace to all the named and unnamed animals who died in order to further Earths race to space. Amen
@@ilovemuskoka No flipping way! I wish I could believe your comment as fact, but it's only your opinion.. How in the world would you have any idea as to if those dogs weren't scared or anxious? According to heart monitors connected to dogs, also monkeys, their heartbeats per minute went so high to cause them to lose consciousness (thankfully) before freezing to death, suffocating due to lack of oxygen, g-force suffocation or countless other reasons why they died while flying on some test mission. Why would they ever tell the truth if it was an abusive death? I agree, those animals were the best of the best, but you can't guarantee their deaths weren't pain free nor terrifying. Unless you lived a past life as a dog being blasted into space, stop lying since your comment lacks truth, only opinion. Be safe and good day.
You have to have respect for those early pioneers of space exploration, they went out knowing full well how new and risky the technology they were using was- and they did it anyway. Their sacrifices ultimately brought about modern space technology.
For some reason this event made a big impression on me at the time - sad, creepy, unsettling. I imagined the capsule being opened to reveal, shockingly, that all three men were unexpectedly dead.
It's so awesome for these space crews to actually shared the entire scientific research for public to see. I wish more scientists would be more open to actually making science available for public.
Most scientists would LOVE to be able to freely share and publish their research. It's up to whoever is funding the research whether to make the findings accessible. So, you wish more governments and corporations would make research freely available. That's in no way on the scientists.
just to say, the original memorial looked much better than the modern one... though I guess the modern one is more somber and gravestone like... I feel the original shape much better conveyed both the spirit and tragedy of the crew (the soviet symbol on it, also I feel was actually appropriate in that it linked the ultimate responsibility over their deaths to the leadership which put pressure on cutting corners within the program - an important element of this tragedy and it's causal factors)
@@CyrilSneer123 not so much "Looted" as it got dismantled because of certain people disagreeing with it... as far as I know... and to be honest, I do understand the controversy, though, my reading of it is different.
@@stanislavkostarnov2157 No, it was stolen. It's in a very remote place, and someone made the effort to get out there to steal the bronze monument for scrap. The site sat empty for a few years before a replacement was built.
I remember this tragedy from my childhood. It wasn’t just the Soviet Union that followed them. It was the whole world, including the US. It was a world wide shock when they died, not just in the USSR.
Sadly, I think the video is a bit too generous about the safety gains this tragedy imparted, at least in terms of knowledge. Frankly, the Soviet Union was aware of the corners they were cutting, especially with regards to the cosmonauts not wearing pressure suits in the launch/descent capsule, and proceeded due to other priorities. At most, I would say the tragedy served to impose reduced corner cutting in order to limit the risks of a similarly high profile disaster in future. Thank you for telling their story and further preserving their memory!
When, as humans, will we ever learn to listen to the concerns of people who know. The Soyuz, Katrina, the Titanic, the Titan submersible. So many of these heroes' lives could have been saved. Thank you for this touching, well-told story.
Small semi-related critique, XI is the Roman numeral for 11, while II is the Roman numeral for 2. When I clicked on the video I thought it was the 'Vladimir Komarov' disaster (I would still be wrong as that was Soyuz 1 not Soyuz 2, so my bad) and not the Soyuz 11 disaster. Just a small note.
If you want to be REALLY nerdy, Komarov's flight didn't even have a designation. It was just 'Soyuz,' and has only been numbered retrospectively. And I only know that because someone else corrected me, a bit snottily, in the comments section of a RUclips video...
Maybe you should read more carefully or consider getting glasses, because the title clearly spells out “Soyuz 11” with numbers and not Roman numerals. There’s always gotta be that one smart a$$ who thinks they know it all. 🙄
Most vividly recalled childhood memory is the night with parents and brother standing in the front yard of house of origin, looking up into the star spankled sky to see sputnik appearing as big star silently glide overhead.
Let's not forget Komarov went up cursing everyone and their mother cause they knew the construction was rushed. But if he did not go Gagrin would have been forced (and Komarov arrested probably) so he went up knowing he will likely die. On the mission basically everything that could failed. Solar panel did not open which caused various failures, including radio failures. The craft could not be reoriented due to low fuel then due to drive failure. Then the solarpanel obscired navigation instruments, so a periscoe was to be used for navigation. The periscoe was to reference the sun, but the reentry burn was to be on the night side. Then the chute failed to open...
Today i learnt : cosmonaut vs. astronaut: What's the difference? Astronaut refers to a person engaged in or trained for spaceflight. Cosmonaut is the term used for a Russian or Soviet astronaut. Cosmonaut is a borrowing of the Russian word kosmonávt. Cosmo- comes from the Greek root kosmos-, meaning “universe,” while astro- comes from the Greek root astra- meaning “star.”
Thank you for this video! I remember this tragedy so well, when we heard on the news on TV that they had perished. I was 5 years old then, living in Germany.
To be the first to conquer space? Neither country has done that yet considering the farthest any human has traveled into space is to the moon. That can hardly be called conquering space.
Yes and no. In the vastness of space, going to the moon was not even dipping a toe in the ocean, but from the view of tens of thousands of years of human history, it was a massive achievement.
2:30...it's interesting to me, a Gen Xer, who once served a week of school detention, (imposed by pedos), for wearing an anti communism Tshirt....that you bring up this incident, which WASN'T taught in schools....
12:30 They were not outside athmosphere, when the valve cracked open. In fact, the deployed parachute damaged that valve to begin with, and it wasn't deployed out of the athmosphere. So they shared the same fate as the American challenger.
@@TheLegoman6969 0:08 "The soyus re-entered the earth's athmosphere". Right from the start. You know, first the heat-shield burns. When the capsule slowed down, inside the athmosphere the parachute is deployed. Just like the space-shuttle.
fascinating story, and sad of course. I think I was in elementary school when this happened and never knew the details. as a retired mechanical engineer, I can appreciate it all the more. thank you
One of your best ever. I remember all the events you mentioned happening, from Sputnik on, but did not remember - or, more likely, never learned - the reason for the deaths of these three cosmonauts. Thank you. Excellent work.
I have read a fascinating book about Soyuz 11 and Salyut 1 which tells the whole story from what happened before, during and afterwards, also alot of detail about Dobrovolsky, Volkov and Patseyev. Dobrovolsky was a military pilot (as a young boy the Nazis caught him with a gun and he only just escaped being executed!) while Volkov and Patseyev were both civilians. Someone mentioned trouble with the crew well Volkov had been into space before while the other two were rookies so naturally he thought he should be in charge which caused a bit of friction but eventually the crew announced that they decide things together as a crew. What also didn't help was the rather hectic workload they had, they didn't have much time to rest. The strange thing is they thought Kubasov had tuberculosis when he didn't yet they sent Patseyev up and it later transpired that he was suffering from a chronic kidney problem! Volkov was a real character (on his first mission his commander had a few issues with him) but he was hugely popular with the Cosmonauts' children who always had a great time with him and after those tv broadcasts he was quite popular with the ladies! Patseyev was very, very quiet, Volkov was completely the opposite and Dobrovolsky was somewhere in the middle, that's the best way of describing their characters. If the Soviets had shared information with the U.S it would have saved the lives of the Apollo 1 astronauts as just weeks before Vostok 1 took off a Cosmonaut died in a fire in an enclosed space with a 100% oxygen atmosphere. The Soyuz 11 disaster was not the fault of the 3 Cosmonauts on board, they're entirely innocent, it's the fault of the designers and the people who ran the space programme. The important thing to remember is that Dobrovolsky, Volkov and Patseyev all left widows and children who grew up without their fathers. May the Soyuz 11 crew rest in peace ❤xxx #Dobrovolsky #Volkov #Patseyev #Soyuz11
Another great film, but there was also a complete breakdown in relations between two of the cosmonauts which contributed to difficulties on the mission which is worth mentioning. I recall something about the pre-Soyuz capsules being designed for two but three were often sent up in shirtsleeves whereas with two they could be suited.
I don't remember where I heard this quote: "Yes, in space, where nobody can hear you scream" But I never expected for it to become true at some point in history. Thank you for bringing all these stories to us. History must be taught correctly, so mistakes are not repeated.
When i was a kid, being in space was dream all kids wanted to come true...now I'm an Adult, you wouldn't get me inside ANY spacecraft. FAR TOO DANGEROUS A JOB.
I didnt know about this story! Im pretty well versed in the space race. Surprising but not too much, the CCCP kept a lot to themselves, especially if it was seen as a soviet failure.
Hi Fascinating Horror excellent story. Thanks for sharing. As someone who works in a safety-sensitive industry - transportation - I can state that the sad and ugly fact that many, many safety practice methodologies have been written by the blood of victims of terrible accidents. May God take these brave heroes into His Kingdom. Amen 😢.
Both America and the Soviet Union had their tragedies. I’ll never forget when I first learned of the Challenger disaster. I felt like I was punched in the stomach.
There is one thing that I still can't understand, even to this day. Why did the Soviet space capsules land on land and American space capsules land in water? Where the Soviets were that paranoid?
@@_outofphase5480 There are people today still think that the "moon landing" was fake and was filmed on a Hollywood sound stage. One even confronted Buzz Aldrin and wanted him to swear on a bible to say it was real. I think Buzz punched him in the face.
It's just a matter of trade-offs, I think. American capsules can land on land and Russian capsules can land on water too, if needed, it's just a matter of planning and preparation. Re-entry isn't always super accurate (several missions on both sides have landed hundreds of kilometers off-target), so having a large area that's safe for landing is important. Water gives you a huge target where any location is just as good as any other (though you need to have ships ready to recover, the closer the better), though it has its own risks (some capsules have stabilized upside-down, and the landing of Liberty Bell 7 almost drowned Gus Grissom). Targeting land is best done with a flat, unpopulated area, otherwise you risk injury of inhabitants/damage to property/other terrain-related mishaps (as an example, Soyuz 18a nearly slid off a cliff after touchdown, but that was unplanned landing). Russia is huge and has a lot of nearly-unpopulated land that's probably suitable. The western US has some deserts that may be suitable, but they may not consider it enough space to be safe. As with all things engineering, there are tradeoffs to both and neither choice is strictly superior to the other. That's just my understanding, though.
@@barinzaya2551, I think you've got the main points. Also, the Atlantic ocean is readily accessible from the heavily populated east coast of the USA. The similarly "easy" Pacific coast of Russia is a very long way from the major population centers. The flat, relatively empty land of Kazakhstan seemed the better choice to the Soviets, and it continues to be used.
God, the original crew must've felt so frustrated that they couldn't go for ultimately a trivial reason - and then this. I wonder how different things would've been if they had went, or if things would've ended the same way.
Per Wikipedia, when the modules separated before re-entry, two explosive bolts which should have fired sequentially instead fired simultaneously. It was this shock that caused a seal to loosen and the valve to open.
I actually made a full video on the Apollo One Disaster some time ago. Here's a link in case you want to learn more: ruclips.net/video/3DV7cVJHUh4/видео.html
You should cover the crash of flight 5191 in Ky. The crash killed 49 people.
I would like to request the Marshall Football team plane crash, 1970.
Thank you for sharing! I’ll watch it
Russia has never been our enemy. It’s us that keeps screwing Russia over.
"11" and "II" on thumbnail are different numbers !
It is so nice that in the heat of cold war an US astronaut took personal efforts to make a small memorial for the lost pioneers, even for the "enemy"
Tom Stafford, commander of Apollo 10 also served as one of the pallbearers at the funeral as an official representative of the US and NASA. The space race had gotten to a point where it was possible to show professional respect and courtesy in public.
Yeah. Despite the obvious geopolitical tensions, NASA and their Soviet counterparts actually had a good professional relationship behind the scenes.
I didn't know about this.
Even now, US and Russia astronauts are friendly, at least while in space. Everyone on the ISS is ultimately on one mission.
They fly different colors but are still brothers.
You know what I appriciate? That you tell us what you are showing onscreen and when it's not an actual picture of what might be assumed. There is so much accidental misinformation when it comes to images in documentary type videos. Your little captions "an EXAMPLE of electrical damage" or "landing of a SIMILAR capsule" are so good and really add to your credibility as a channel.
Yes, fully agree. This channel does everything right imo. No over sensationalization, respect for the death and this
That's why this is my favorite channel of this kind. And the narrator's calm voice only adds to that.
I second that and I too appreciate the effort to be correct and accurate. Some originators such as the Dark Skies serie is often guilty of using stock footage without noting that it is an example and not of the original event.
@@jerseywalcott6408 In fact I think most channels do that. Actually lying has become so very common. So channels that don't actually lie feel like they are all virtuous, and anything they do is OK, in their minds.
Nothing but respect for the finer details. I don't think he gets nearly enough credit in just capturing these events small details. The story telling through the facts is top notch.
How crestfallen those rescuers must have been; everything looks like it ended successfully, the module is intact, a great milestone has been achieved but then….no one responds. You open the module to find three bodies….
RIP
It was a bit foreboding that they lost all comm before re-entry even started. I'm surprised they had no telemetry indicating capsule pressure, vital signs, or anything else that would have indicated what happened.
I actually think about the people back at base awaiting the report, and how their hearts must have sunk when they heard "1, 1, 1"...
Very sad. RIP.
That Russian spacecraft would have still looked great if it fell through 3 atmospheres they were over engineered built like T-62 Tank…
@@TheSpritz0Using that tank as an example of being ‘over engineered’ is a slight on the Soyuz. Russian tanks are becoming a lost species as we speak. On paper things always looked great. We also know there was alot of accidents back then with the CCCP space program. Even the first spacewalk wasn’t without a near death experience where their space suit was expanding like a balloon and almost couldn’t get back in the capsule. The USSR’s space program history was not honest with Russians or the world. The space race killed people on all sides.
Every astronaut is brave, but these early pioneers especially. They knew how little had to go wrong for everything to be over, and they went anyway.
and hundreds of nazi war criminals escaped justice to make it happen
Masonic actors.
@@MyFriendlyPupcool, anyway
Looking at how much could go wrong, it feels like relatively few deaths actually occurred.
Things really aren't much more robust now. Mostly in terms of electronic systems to panic about every little thing and abort. Not so much in terms of actual technological advancement, having a robust toolkit of technologies with backups and layers of safeguards. Which we still really don't have. SpaceX and Boeing didn't even design compatible spacesuits... and every launch and landing is still a hail mary.
The problem with space is that it is unforgiving. It’s similar to traveling to the deep depths of the ocean.
It takes 101 things to go right to come back alive. You can get 100 of those things right and it only takes that 1 for it to go wrong. That’s why these tragedies happen.
You can say “well it’s preventable” but it’s difficult to account for every scenario and possible point of failure.
Unless you're the guy building the Titan.
@@rogersheddy6414 Yeah for some reason he decided "Fudge it wing it and blame everyone else who wanted him to build a safe submersible." Those wires on Titan exposed is a big yikes on trikes. the stern section of the Titanic is a twisted mass of metal. There's even twisted metal at the more famous bow section. that is why one look at the Titan told me "Nope not getting in that. It'll get tangled in a wreck or worse, The wires would get snapped."
This is a little off topic but that is why I hate the phrase, "There is no such thing as an accident" or "There is no such thing as luck." Every day is filled with millions of little things interacting with each other. You can't account or control for all of them. Now take going into a harsh environment and the is multiplied by a million!
@@takkycat 100%, thats why we've gotten so far in space, aviation, and maritime tech is taking those critical, and hard, looks at failures like this then applying controls. Soyez, Columbia, thousands of aircraft mishaps, tens of thousands of maritime mishaps, all deeply tragic but all moving us to better tech/processes. It makes any safety critical application MUCH more expensive but also MUCH more safe and we have reminders like OceanGate that you can't cut corners without consequence.
True, but still many of this accidents could habe been prevented with ease. And thats a fact.
Haunting that Patsayev was the first human to celebrate his birthday in space, only to then become one of the only three humans to die beyond the Karman line (the boundary between earth and outer space)
I thought the same thing.😢
Read it in an old 70s book on Disasters, including Tenerife 1977 and the GFOL 1666.
RIP
Georgy Dobrovolsky
(1928-1971)
Vladislav Volkov
(1935-1971)
and
Viktor Patsayev
(1933-1971)
Brave explorer’s 🚀
@@d.b.1176 You said it DB.
I’ve always had a deliberate love for Russians. The problem deems to be white people won’t stop fighting wars.
Thanks
If i remember correctly, they smuggled an onion into space for their friends birthday present. Mainly because astronaut food sucked, and an onion is easier to hide than a cake.
I'm surprised they were able to do that. Onions are quite aggressive on the senses.
I dont want to know how it was smuggled :)
"what was the Soviet Onion?"
I bet he cried when they gave him his gift.
That's hilarious
Apollo crews also didn't wear full pressure suits on reentry. They didn't wear the helmets. Also, during the early shuttle program, other than the first test flights, no pressure suits were worn at all. This changed after Challenger (not that it would have saved them, but it would have saved the astronauts in other potential failures). Even after this, it was common for them to keep the visors up on their helmets during landing. Given the size of the shuttle though, the size of a hole needed to allow air to leak out fast enough that they couldn't get their visors closed in time would have been a bigger issue than the loss of pressure.
even after challenger they often didn’t put the gloves on either because it made it harder to use the controls on reentry
I've read that the first Mercury flight also didn't have anything for the astronaut to use if he had to relieve himself, and they had to make adjustments for future spaceflights so that all astronauts would wear "urinary collection devices" (i.e. diapers).
@@JCBro-yg8vd yeah alan shepard peed his suit
@@JCBro-yg8vdYup, see the movie “The Right Stuff”
Sometimes they did wear helmets because Wally Schirra infamously got in a fight over wearing his helmet during re-entry. He had a cold and wanted to clear the pressure in his ears but NASA insisted on the helmet. Wally still refused.
That photo of the capsule still haunts me. And another not shown here of the dead cosmonauts laid out in the grass. I was only 5 when this news broke, but I remember it.
i was about 8 yrs old when the Challenger exploded live on TV. I remember it like it was yesterday. Cheers from America, friend. We have far more in common than we are allowed to believe.
Me too. That it didn't get a dent in its rim
A tip for anglophones: most of the time, the 'o' in latinised Russian words is said like an 'a'. So if you say "sayuz" when you read soyuz, you'll sound perfect.
Huh? I learn something new everyday.
True, it depends if the „o“ is stressed or unstressed. If unstressed, its more or less pronounced as an „a“.
@@dosenfutter99 Stress placement is one of the biggest challenges for anglophones learning Russian and vice versa, so while that's true, it's probably not relevant at the beginner level
I love learning new things about the Russian language. It's such a wild language!!
@@comfyfern8363 How do we know if it " stressed " or not please .
i was wondering why i hadn't already watched this video, and then i realized that it is because you posted it 30 minutes ago 😅
I did the same thing about half an hour after you! 😅
absolutely 😅😅
🤣🤣🤣
Your powers of deduction are out of this world.
Great story
Every advance and safety regulations is paved with blood...
Yup.
Yup.
Written in Blood.
Ooooooooooo spooky
It's like there's a person assigned to write this on every one of this type of video. 🙄
The poineers of space exploration and travel paid a tragic price for humanity's progress. The final frontier. RIP.
Much more have died. Nasal just covers it up.
@vivigesso3756 oh boy fake conspiracies
What progress is there to be gained by space exploration? At the expense of our tax dollars in the US, we are making multi billion dollar companies richer and with no gain to the common taxpayer. This whole space exploration bullshit has done nothing but risk and take innocent lives for absolutely no purpose. We weren't meant to live in space and on the other planets. When people accept that, maybe we can concentrate on doing things better here on earth. The amount of money wasted on space exploration is staggering.
The Soviets knowingly put people's lives in danger to be first
@@thexan7234 how can you possibly trust the federal government at this point.
They cover up human trafficking and racketeering on the daily how can you possibly think that they would ever be truthful about projects that have top secret or need to know clearance.
It took them almost 70 years to admit they poisoned an entire village in France with LSD just to see what would happen.
Your scope of reality is quite literally engineered by think tanks and people in board rooms who find it both funny and convenient to purposely subvert your learned dependence/ignorance.
I guess it's easier to live in a world where you just blindly trust charlatans and liars rather than actually think for yourself and scream conspiracy like a toddler at everything too uncomfortable for you to try to understand.
Eternal memory to the Soyuz 11 crew, the conquerors of Space... Cosmonauts and Astronauts who laid their lives on the Altar of the universe...
Conquerors? They got wrecked lmao
@@JacksonKillroy why is that so funny to you?
@@JacksonKillroy and what ?
Every cosmonaut is the conqueror. So it was, so it is and so it will be for a long time.
A second much smaller tragedy is that incredible memorial being replaced with the new one! What a visual downgrade
These stone monuments tend to hold up a lot better over time than the metal ones, it's russia fss, do you expect anybody to actually maintain that thing 😭😭😭
the old one was vandalized and looted beyond repair, that’s why thy build a new one. but yes, the old one was definitely more beautiful ☹️
@@prinzchen17 Ah that’s a shame to hear, it had a great Soviet style and had real presence
@@proxcess4946 which might have been why it was vandalized and looted when the soviet union collapsed
John, you have *THE MOST* beautiful narrations on all of RUclips. They are some of the very few I can listen to at x1.0 speed. Most others require a reduction to x0.9 or 0.8.
Your enunciation and emotional tone is always perfect.
Well done and thank you.
It's very moving that the Apollo astronauts left a plaque for these three cosmonauts. For a moment, all the Cold War fervor and paranoia was forgotten in this one beautiful gesture.
There’s a very lovely Vonnegut short story, of two dads, one of an astronaut one of a cosmonaut, that wrote to each other giving sympathies for losing their sons to the space race
@@McSnezzly That sounds like something I'd love to read!
Peace to them, and to all the others who gave their lives in space exploration. It's heartbreaking how many of those deaths were avoidable beyond the already incredible risks, but it makes their sacrifices no less dear.
Sadly not just avoidable. To some extent predicted. 😕🤦♂
When we have so, So, SO MANY PROBLEMS on earth, it's insanity to spend so much money on space. Utterly ridiculous!
I heard that one of the reasons for the Soviets to broadcast the Soyuz 11 mission was in response to the recent successful return of Apollo 13 and the resulting positive publicity generated.
11 is one of the numbers for hoax, 7 is the other.
@@died4us590cool, anyway
@@died4us590 what does this even mean brother. how much lead and paint have you eaten in your life
@@EGPEVERYDAYSounds like a lot.
@@EGPEVERYDAY I think he’s a troll given his other comments
As tragic as it was with the loss of these brave cosmonauts, this has to be up there as one of the best videos on this channel. Bringing to light tragic stories like this one ensures that the three brave men lost in this tragedy will help keep their memories in remembrance
Always look forward to a Tuesday morning video by FH
The "space race" induced a huge amount of technological innovation, some of which has greatly benefited humanity. However, because of its "we have to beat them before they have the time to do it first" nature it also caused a huge amount of recklessness, rushed decisions, rushed technology and bypassing a lot of safety tests that would have made the flights safer. It's actually a miracle that there were only the few casualties and incidents that there were.
I agree.
It was about PR, not progress for mankind. The motive was military.
@@BalzarRitchin
Regardless of what the motivation was, it still resulted in technological innovation that has advanced humanity significantly.
Hats off for those courageous men who braved the dangers in pushing the boundaries into space. What a tragic end to what was an otherwise wildly successful mission.
A lot of these issues, like the module being too small to fit in pressure suits, is just a result of how hard the Soviets were pushing their (limited, even by the standards of the era) technology past its limits. Their rocket technology generally worked, but it was a lot less powerful than what the U.S. was able to make, so they had to cut every corner possible to save enough weight to actually make it into space. The culmination of this was the failed N1 rocket that was meant to get a cosmonaut to the moon. All three of them blew up on the launch pad, and that's probably a good thing. You'll note I said 'A' cosmonaut. Whereas Apollo had crews of three, the Soviet design was so stripped down it would have carried just one. Who, get this, would have had to do a spacewalk outside the capsule to transfer to the lunar lander, which would not have had an enclosed cabin or even a chair, the poor guy would have had to ride down to the lunar surface, outside, standing up, with just a rope tethering him to the vehicle. It's telling that the two cosmonauts who were in the running for the first mission (and who were friends) were each plotting to secretly take the others place by any means necessary, if the other was chosen, to save their friend's life.
In 1964 they had stuffed 3 cosmonauts into a Vostok capsule, which was originally designed for one man. They did it because they wanted to show up the US, which was soon to launch the first two man Gemini. The accident on Soyuz 11 could just as easily, or more easily, have happened with the Vostok only we probably wouldn't have heard about it till years later. They even gave the Vostok a new name, Voskhod, to fool the world into thinking they had developed a new space ship, but it was just a modified Vostok. It was a pure stunt and the type of thing that hindered the Soviet space program and allowed the US to surpass them.
Where are you getting your info on the N1 from? Afaik the final design was for 2 crew, one descending to the lunar surface inside a pressurized lander and the second piloting the command module in lunar orbit
@@emilyrobinson6080the same place most people get their information from when they "quote" stuff on youtube... made it up
Wrong.
There were 4 test launches of the N1, and only 1 exploded on the launch pad.
I wondered how long it would be before an American soured this video with prejudice and anti Russian misinformation. You are not an expert and likely know nothing about what went on. There were plenty of deaths on the American side and plenty of mishaps, like the current one where 3 astronauts have been stranded in space. I was in England when the Americans had a great success with the shuttle and every one where I worked was saying this puts America ahead, which I also thought. I then saw the head of NASA interviewed on British TV and it was put to him that America was now in front in the space race. He said we are about ten years behind Russia, but we are catching up.
Given the deaths and near-misses on both sides of the Space Race, “breakneck speed” is an apt term for the pace of development.
I am not sure what you are referring to, the pioneering era was remarkable safe considering what they didn't know about it.
The only men to die outside the atmosphere which are verified and proven. There are still lots of things that happened in the Soviet Union in the early days of flight that have never been acknowledged, and never will be.
Someone should be writing this book.😢
That's pretty neat, didn't know that. Or hadnt tought about it being that small of a number, but it must be because of the overall amount of people that have even been in space!
The existence of a "Soyuz-class starship" in "Star Trek" lore is suddenly more understandable.
americans rent Soyuz rockets to get into space up to this moment..
Space is fascinating and dangerous in equal measure
I always think about all the poor animals that were sent into space to die alone , scared , anxious and then they died most likely slowly from starvation. Imagine thinking someone loved you but they they shoved you ins weird metal box and then you just die slowly in the box never understanding what you did wrong to deserve the punishment. Just makes me bawl every time .
Same here. The dogs hurt my heart the worst. Rest in peace to all the named and unnamed animals who died in order to further Earths race to space. Amen
@@ilovemuskoka No flipping way! I wish I could believe your comment as fact, but it's only your opinion.. How in the world would you have any idea as to if those dogs weren't scared or anxious? According to heart monitors connected to dogs, also monkeys, their heartbeats per minute went so high to cause them to lose consciousness (thankfully) before freezing to death, suffocating due to lack of oxygen, g-force suffocation or countless other reasons why they died while flying on some test mission. Why would they ever tell the truth if it was an abusive death?
I agree, those animals were the best of the best, but you can't guarantee their deaths weren't pain free nor terrifying. Unless you lived a past life as a dog being blasted into space, stop lying since your comment lacks truth, only opinion.
Be safe and good day.
You have to have respect for those early pioneers of space exploration, they went out knowing full well how new and risky the technology they were using was- and they did it anyway. Their sacrifices ultimately brought about modern space technology.
For some reason this event made a big impression on me at the time - sad, creepy, unsettling. I imagined the capsule being opened to reveal, shockingly, that all three men were unexpectedly dead.
Rest in peace cosmonauts may you navigate the cosmos forever now
Resting in peace comes from salvation through Jesus
@@ChicagoMel23Amen 🙌🙏 That's absolutely right.
@@ChicagoMel23
Communists are atheists...
@@ChicagoMel23your sky god would not approve of your arrogance.
It's so awesome for these space crews to actually shared the entire scientific research for public to see. I wish more scientists would be more open to actually making science available for public.
Most scientists would LOVE to be able to freely share and publish their research. It's up to whoever is funding the research whether to make the findings accessible. So, you wish more governments and corporations would make research freely available. That's in no way on the scientists.
Love waking up randomly at 6am on a Tuesday to a brand new video
just to say, the original memorial looked much better than the modern one... though I guess the modern one is more somber and gravestone like... I feel the original shape much better conveyed both the spirit and tragedy of the crew (the soviet symbol on it, also I feel was actually appropriate in that it linked the ultimate responsibility over their deaths to the leadership which put pressure on cutting corners within the program - an important element of this tragedy and it's causal factors)
the old one got looted
@@CyrilSneer123 not so much "Looted" as it got dismantled because of certain people disagreeing with it... as far as I know...
and to be honest, I do understand the controversy, though, my reading of it is different.
@@stanislavkostarnov2157 No, it was stolen. It's in a very remote place, and someone made the effort to get out there to steal the bronze monument for scrap. The site sat empty for a few years before a replacement was built.
Thank you! I can see a part nicked from the Buran on my bookshelf while listening. Excellent work - well researched, presented and voiced!
/🇸🇪
Tuesday, my weekly home office day. And Fascinating Horror day!! 😅
I remember this tragedy from my childhood. It wasn’t just the Soviet Union that followed them. It was the whole world, including the US. It was a world wide shock when they died, not just in the USSR.
We were upset that they were dead
Sadly, I think the video is a bit too generous about the safety gains this tragedy imparted, at least in terms of knowledge. Frankly, the Soviet Union was aware of the corners they were cutting, especially with regards to the cosmonauts not wearing pressure suits in the launch/descent capsule, and proceeded due to other priorities. At most, I would say the tragedy served to impose reduced corner cutting in order to limit the risks of a similarly high profile disaster in future. Thank you for telling their story and further preserving their memory!
All who travel into space are heros. Its good to see all nations work together for a common goal.
This is so tragic. Thank you for keeping their memories alive.
When, as humans, will we ever learn to listen to the concerns of people who know. The Soyuz, Katrina, the Titanic, the Titan submersible. So many of these heroes' lives could have been saved. Thank you for this touching, well-told story.
I don't consider the passengers of the Titan to be heroes....they were wealthy thrill seekers.
4, 3, 2, 1, earth below us, drifting, falling...
Great video.
Small semi-related critique, XI is the Roman numeral for 11, while II is the Roman numeral for 2.
When I clicked on the video I thought it was the 'Vladimir Komarov' disaster (I would still be wrong as that was Soyuz 1 not Soyuz 2, so my bad) and not the Soyuz 11 disaster. Just a small note.
If you want to be REALLY nerdy, Komarov's flight didn't even have a designation. It was just 'Soyuz,' and has only been numbered retrospectively. And I only know that because someone else corrected me, a bit snottily, in the comments section of a RUclips video...
yeah but Soyuz 11 used arabic numerals, not roman numerals. using roman numerals for the apollo missions and stuff was what NASA did, not the soviets
Maybe you should read more carefully or consider getting glasses, because the title clearly spells out “Soyuz 11” with numbers and not Roman numerals. There’s always gotta be that one smart a$$ who thinks they know it all. 🙄
@@IAmPlaysWithSquirrel not to mention the Soyuz programme never used roman numerals for missions
Okay I take that back, I didn’t realize you were referring to the thumbnail and not the title. I’ve earned my dunce cap for this.
"One-upmanship" is my favourite word
Mine is "sparkley" lol
This is a timely posting, with Space X traveling to the ISS to rescue two American astronauts, and one of the Space X pilots being a cosmonaut.
Thanks for another great upload, Kristian! Just like on your other channel, your research, presentation, and narration are top-notch 👊👍
Maybe you should do a video about Laika.
THOSE WHO MADE THE ULTIMATE SACRIFICE
SO OTHERS COULD REACH THE STARS
AD ASTRA PER ASPERA
Beautifully poetic. o7.
Most vividly recalled childhood memory is the night with parents and brother standing in the front yard of house of origin, looking up into the star spankled sky to see sputnik appearing as big star silently glide overhead.
That’s so disheartening that something as small as a misdiagnosis had such a large impact
Space exploration is fascinating as well as dangerous. RIP Cosmonauts
Let's not forget Komarov went up cursing everyone and their mother cause they knew the construction was rushed.
But if he did not go Gagrin would have been forced (and Komarov arrested probably) so he went up knowing he will likely die.
On the mission basically everything that could failed.
Solar panel did not open which caused various failures, including radio failures.
The craft could not be reoriented due to low fuel then due to drive failure.
Then the solarpanel obscired navigation instruments, so a periscoe was to be used for navigation. The periscoe was to reference the sun, but the reentry burn was to be on the night side.
Then the chute failed to open...
Today i learnt : cosmonaut vs. astronaut: What's the difference?
Astronaut refers to a person engaged in or trained for spaceflight. Cosmonaut is the term used for a Russian or Soviet astronaut. Cosmonaut is a borrowing of the Russian word kosmonávt. Cosmo- comes from the Greek root kosmos-, meaning “universe,” while astro- comes from the Greek root astra- meaning “star.”
If you ever saw The Right Stuff, you know that "astronaut" means "star voyager." 😉
Thanks miss google
What's a Sinonaut then? The terms are from their respective countries, nothing else.
Cosmos also means outer space in general.
Very interesting !
The crew that were saved by that misdiagnosis happened to include the first man to walk in space: Alexei Leonov.
Real heroes. Our earliest steps in space. A genuine tragedy for us all.
Thank you for this video!
I remember this tragedy so well, when we heard on the news on TV
that they had perished. I was 5 years old then, living in Germany.
By now, the Soyuz is known as one of the space vehicles with the best track record regarding safety and reliability.
Thank you for your videos. They are incredibly interesting and informative.
To be the first to conquer space? Neither country has done that yet considering the farthest any human has traveled into space is to the moon. That can hardly be called conquering space.
Yes and no. In the vastness of space, going to the moon was not even dipping a toe in the ocean, but from the view of tens of thousands of years of human history, it was a massive achievement.
Fantastic work by you, as per your usual. TYVM and thumb's up for this respectful review of a terrible tragedy.
2:30...it's interesting to me, a Gen Xer, who once served a week of school detention, (imposed by pedos), for wearing an anti communism Tshirt....that you bring up this incident, which WASN'T taught in schools....
I'm sorry to hear that. It sounds like you had a rough time (zoomer here). But, yeah, screw communism.... Screw fascism.... And screw pedoes!
We always absolutely love your content! Thank you!
12:30 They were not outside athmosphere, when the valve cracked open. In fact, the deployed parachute damaged that valve to begin with, and it wasn't deployed out of the athmosphere. So they shared the same fate as the American challenger.
Really? That’s fascinating - where did you read that?
@@TheLegoman6969 0:08 "The soyus re-entered the earth's athmosphere". Right from the start. You know, first the heat-shield burns. When the capsule slowed down, inside the athmosphere the parachute is deployed. Just like the space-shuttle.
Awesome video. I always learn so much history from you. Thank you.
i see we were all waiting for this morning's video
I love these videos! Not only expertise in the narration, but also learning about history. Well done! ❤
I doubt Brezhnev shed tears for his political enemies dying in gulags. Smh
fascinating story, and sad of course. I think I was in elementary school when this happened and never knew the details. as a retired mechanical engineer, I can appreciate it all the more. thank you
It's thought by some that Yuri Gagarin wasn't the first human in space. Instead the first human to come back from space alive.
One of your best ever. I remember all the events you mentioned happening, from Sputnik on, but did not remember - or, more likely, never learned - the reason for the deaths of these three cosmonauts. Thank you. Excellent work.
Good morning from NY! 🤟🙌💙
I have read a fascinating book about Soyuz 11 and Salyut 1 which tells the whole story from what happened before, during and afterwards, also alot of detail about Dobrovolsky, Volkov and Patseyev.
Dobrovolsky was a military pilot (as a young boy the Nazis caught him with a gun and he only just escaped being executed!) while Volkov and Patseyev were both civilians. Someone mentioned trouble with the crew well Volkov had been into space before while the other two were rookies so naturally he thought he should be in charge which caused a bit of friction but eventually the crew announced that they decide things together as a crew. What also didn't help was the rather hectic workload they had, they didn't have much time to rest.
The strange thing is they thought Kubasov had tuberculosis when he didn't yet they sent Patseyev up and it later transpired that he was suffering from a chronic kidney problem!
Volkov was a real character (on his first mission his commander had a few issues with him) but he was hugely popular with the Cosmonauts' children who always had a great time with him and after those tv broadcasts he was quite popular with the ladies!
Patseyev was very, very quiet, Volkov was completely the opposite and Dobrovolsky was somewhere in the middle, that's the best way of describing their characters.
If the Soviets had shared information with the U.S it would have saved the lives of the Apollo 1 astronauts as just weeks before Vostok 1 took off a Cosmonaut died in a fire in an enclosed space with a 100% oxygen atmosphere.
The Soyuz 11 disaster was not the fault of the 3 Cosmonauts on board, they're entirely innocent, it's the fault of the designers and the people who ran the space programme.
The important thing to remember is that Dobrovolsky, Volkov and Patseyev all left widows and children who grew up without their fathers.
May the Soyuz 11 crew rest in peace ❤xxx
#Dobrovolsky
#Volkov
#Patseyev
#Soyuz11
*Hello from Australia*
Another great film, but there was also a complete breakdown in relations between two of the cosmonauts which contributed to difficulties on the mission which is worth mentioning. I recall something about the pre-Soyuz capsules being designed for two but three were often sent up in shirtsleeves whereas with two they could be suited.
Have you done a story on the Nedelin catastrophe?
I don't think he has. That would make for another good topic for sure.
@Thomas-J2024 ya I saw that one. I mentioned it because it has some parts left out. I was wondering if Fascinating Horror would review the incident
I don't remember where I heard this quote:
"Yes, in space, where nobody can hear you scream"
But I never expected for it to become true at some point in history.
Thank you for bringing all these stories to us. History must be taught correctly, so mistakes are not repeated.
That was in the advertising of the first Alien movie- "In space, no one can hear you scream"
When i was a kid, being in space was dream all kids wanted to come true...now I'm an Adult, you wouldn't get me inside ANY spacecraft. FAR TOO DANGEROUS A JOB.
Another excellent documentary film. Thanks for all you do.
I didnt know about this story! Im pretty well versed in the space race. Surprising but not too much, the CCCP kept a lot to themselves, especially if it was seen as a soviet failure.
excellent episode as always, thoughtful and well constructed. bravo
poor guys. So close to being home. They were heroes.
Hi Fascinating Horror excellent story. Thanks for sharing.
As someone who works in a safety-sensitive industry - transportation - I can state that the sad and ugly fact that many, many safety practice methodologies have been written by the blood of victims of terrible accidents.
May God take these brave heroes into His Kingdom. Amen 😢.
Salyut 1 was not part of the ISS. It was de/orbited 6 months after being launched.
Thank you and have a great week.
It’s 04:52, I woke up for this 🫠😍
You are very dedicated.👍
4:52 me too
Both America and the Soviet Union had their tragedies. I’ll never forget when I first learned of the Challenger disaster. I felt like I was punched in the stomach.
I do love your videos
That square wearing down to circle analogy was actually a brilliant one imo
There is one thing that I still can't understand, even to this day. Why did the Soviet space capsules land on land and American space capsules land in water? Where the Soviets were that paranoid?
@@_outofphase5480 There are people today still think that the "moon landing" was fake and was filmed on a Hollywood sound stage. One even confronted Buzz Aldrin and wanted him to swear on a bible to say it was real. I think Buzz punched him in the face.
It's just a matter of trade-offs, I think. American capsules can land on land and Russian capsules can land on water too, if needed, it's just a matter of planning and preparation. Re-entry isn't always super accurate (several missions on both sides have landed hundreds of kilometers off-target), so having a large area that's safe for landing is important.
Water gives you a huge target where any location is just as good as any other (though you need to have ships ready to recover, the closer the better), though it has its own risks (some capsules have stabilized upside-down, and the landing of Liberty Bell 7 almost drowned Gus Grissom).
Targeting land is best done with a flat, unpopulated area, otherwise you risk injury of inhabitants/damage to property/other terrain-related mishaps (as an example, Soyuz 18a nearly slid off a cliff after touchdown, but that was unplanned landing). Russia is huge and has a lot of nearly-unpopulated land that's probably suitable. The western US has some deserts that may be suitable, but they may not consider it enough space to be safe.
As with all things engineering, there are tradeoffs to both and neither choice is strictly superior to the other. That's just my understanding, though.
@@barinzaya2551, I think you've got the main points. Also, the Atlantic ocean is readily accessible from the heavily populated east coast of the USA. The similarly "easy" Pacific coast of Russia is a very long way from the major population centers. The flat, relatively empty land of Kazakhstan seemed the better choice to the Soviets, and it continues to be used.
@@barinzaya2551 Thanks for letting me know.
@@_outofphase5480oh god, another one!
Another great video, thank you
Imagine how quickly space might've been conquered if Russia and the yanks worked together.
Joking right?
@@NV555_82nd no I'm not
Good thing there's a wiki link on this video about the Apollo program to clarify things about the Soyuz program.
God, the original crew must've felt so frustrated that they couldn't go for ultimately a trivial reason - and then this. I wonder how different things would've been if they had went, or if things would've ended the same way.
Ken Marttingly probably has a few thoughts on that
Per Wikipedia, when the modules separated before re-entry, two explosive bolts which should have fired sequentially instead fired simultaneously. It was this shock that caused a seal to loosen and the valve to open.
Thanks for finally covering this!
These guys are Heroes because of the contributions they made to Science for all mankind
Finally got here early!