Tragic death of a cosmonaut

[MillCreek]

http://www.npr.org/blogs/krulwich/2011/03/21/134597833/cosmonaut-crashed-into-earth-crying-in-rage

An affecting story.  There have been rumors for years of other cosmonauts who perished and were never acknowledged.   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lost_Cosmonauts

[Boomhauer]

http://www.npr.org/blogs/krulwich/2011/03/21/134597833/cosmonaut-crashed-into-earth-crying-in-rage

An affecting story.  There have been rumors for years of other cosmonauts who perished and were never acknowledged.   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lost_Cosmonauts

The side of the story that DIDN'T get told when the media was deriding the US lagging behind in the race to space. Yeah, the Russians did it first, but they lost plenty of people in their space program, proceeding without any regard for human life.

We, on the other hand, tried to run a more cautious program (or at least as cautious as you can be when setting fire to ginourmous amounts of fuel and going into frickin' outer space) and had much lower casualties (we've lost 22 due to Apollo I, Challenger, Columbia, and training accidents)

[Perd Hapley]

If that ain't Russian communism in a nut shell...

[MicroBalrog]

Some of these 'lost cosmonauts' are hoaxes. THe idea that the Lunokhod was piloted is for example patently ridiculous.

Of course, the death of the men who fell is tragic, but it has little to do with Communism as such - they were, after all, volunteers. The Russians had an approach having to do with their vision of what exploration is - that some people will die here and there and that's part of their job as explorers. It's not only Communism that's to blame here.

[seeker_two]

When you consider human beings just another expendable resource, stuff like this happens.... 

[TommyGunn]

And even when you don't consider human life expendable .... it happens.

....we've lost 22 due to Apollo I, Challenger, Columbia, and training accidents

[Perd Hapley]

Some of these 'lost cosmonauts' are hoaxes. THe idea that the Lunokhod was piloted is for example patently ridiculous.

Of course, the death of the men who fell is tragic, but it has little to do with Communism as such - they were, after all, volunteers. The Russians had an approach having to do with their vision of what exploration is - that some people will die here and there and that's part of their job as explorers. It's not only Communism that's to blame here.

I'm talking about the specific events referred to in the article. Launching despite hundreds of unresolved problems with the equipment, all because everyone was afraid to tell Brezhnev that the launch could not go forward.

[Tallpine]

Launching despite hundreds of unresolved problems with the equipment

Oh, like Challenger 

Ok, so it was only one problem, but they knew about it and it was fatal. 

[TommyGunn]

I recall a story about the Apollo-Soyuz docking that took place a generation ago back when the USSR WAS the USSR.  It was basically a detente publicity stunt.  The two contry's space capsules would dock and there would be pleasantries exchanged and so forth going on and everyone would be happy.
The maneuver, however, required an adapter to be made because the two spacecraft's linkages were not compatable.  So a sort of tunnel device was designed that would attach, one side to the Soyuz, the other to the Apollo.  It was slated to be built by the Russkies.
Some of our engineers went over there and took a gander at their manufacturing facilities.
 
We built it here .... and it worked, too.

The Soviet stuff was bare minimum engineering.  At best.  If nothing broke, it managed to actually work.
OTOH I've read enough about our Apollo Program to be amazed we didn't have more problems than we did.  Apollo 1, with a pure oxygen atmosphere, a capsule hatch that was difficult to operate normally, and electrical wiring that.... well, ask Grissom, White and Chaffee. Oh wait.... never mind, you can't.

We did know better.  And we were capable of better.  But we were in a space race, and corners were cut.
 

[Pharmacology]

Some of these 'lost cosmonauts' are hoaxes. THe idea that the Lunokhod was piloted is for example patently ridiculous.

Of course, the death of the men who fell is tragic, but it has little to do with Communism as such - they were, after all, volunteers. The Russians had an approach having to do with their vision of what exploration is - that some people will die here and there and that's part of their job as explorers. It's not only Communism that's to blame here.

I remember when my brother, who does work for NASA, first brought up this topic with his wife and my fiance, who are from Tver and Balakovo, respectively.
They looked at us incredulously and told us that it wasn't true (or at least, that they'd never heard of it.)

P.S. they also disagreed when my brother told them that those dogs they sent up were killed as well

[DustinD]

You guys should watch  Space Race

It is a "four-part docudrama series revealing the untold true story behind the Cold War race to put man into space." It was produced by the BBC.

It starts with operation Paper Clip, and Von Braun's escape from Germany and the race for ballistic missiles, then the race for satellites, then human spaceflight, and finally the race to the moon. It shows the Russian's ill fated N1 moon rocket that blew up and killed a large number of people. It is pretty unique in that it tells the history of both counties space and rocket efforts.

The Chinese have also killed a large number of people with rocket crashes. They really need to stop flying untested crap over populated areas.

[Hawkmoon]

Oh, like Challenger 

Ok, so it was only one problem, but they knew about it and it was fatal. 

But the bean counters engineers determined that there was no risk involved.

Problem solved.

[Tallpine]

But the bean counters engineers determined that there was no risk involved.

Problem solved.

Yeah, they simply lowered the operating temperature requirement until it fit the weather forecast for the day that they just absolutely had to launch.