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Author Topic:   Soyuz 1: Death of Vladimir Komarov (Siddiqi)
Robert Pearlman
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posted 04-24-2020 02:33 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Robert Pearlman   Click Here to Email Robert Pearlman     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Soyuz 1: The Death of Vladimir Komarov
by Asif Siddiqi
A Newly Discovered Document Debunks Soviet Space Conspiracy Theories on Soyuz-1

In April 1967, the immediate futures of both the United States and the Soviet space programs were shrouded in mystery. NASA was still trying to understand the causes of the fire that killed the crew of Apollo 1 on the launch pad, and no one seemed to know how well Apollo would recover from this catastrophe. The Soviet Union's human space program had not been heard from for 25 months, but rumors were flying that something big was in the offing as the 50th anniversary of Russia's October Revolution approached. On April 23, the Soviet Union announced the launch of the first of a new generation of spacecraft called Soyuz with a veteran cosmonaut, Vladimir Komarov.

The next day there was an ominous silence until a sketchy news bulletin contained the shocking announcement that Komarov had become the first person to die during a spaceflight when his craft plunged to Earth after a parachute failure. Conjecture and rumors quickly filled in the vacuum created by the lack of hard information, and even as the Soviet space program recovered from this setback and moved on, the flight of Soyuz-1 and the death of Vladimir Komarov remained shrouded in controversy.

A recently discovered copy of an official Soyuz-1 Onboard Journal was discovered by the publisher of "Quest: The History of Spaceflight Quarterly" at auction. Inside was information not previously available to researchers or the public including the final hours of the Soyuz-1 flight.

In this book, noted Soviet space expert Asif Siddiqi, PhD, uses this information to debunk the various conspiracy theories that surrounded the Soyuz-1 mission and the death of cosmonaut Vladimir Komarov, the first fatality of a spacefarer during a space mission.

Now with the official journal from the mission, the true and complete story can finally be told.

A copy of the Soyuz-1 Onboard Journal (in Russian) is included.

Proceeds from this title benefit SPACE 3.0, a 501c3 charitable foundation, an organization with the mission to build an endowment to grant/fund projects focused on preserving space history, empowering entrepreneurs and visionaries, and helping to craft a vision for a space future.

  • Paperback: 80 pages
  • Spacehistory101.com Press (April 13, 2020)
  • ISBN-10: 1887022953
  • ISBN-13: 978-1887022958

RobertB
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posted 04-24-2020 02:40 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for RobertB   Click Here to Email RobertB     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
80 pages, some of them a Russian language document?

I wonder how much there is to read in this book.

dom
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posted 04-24-2020 02:44 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for dom   Click Here to Email dom     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
A much better alternative is to subscribe to Quest magazine - this is the cover story in the latest issue.

SpaceCadet1983
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posted 04-24-2020 02:50 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for SpaceCadet1983   Click Here to Email SpaceCadet1983     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Ordered a copy of the book about a week ago. Looking forward to reading it!

Lasv3
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posted 04-24-2020 11:57 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Lasv3   Click Here to Email Lasv3     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
What exactly is the "Soyuz-1 Onboard Journal"? I am confused by the word "onboard." It surely cannot be some handwritten journal written by Vladimir Komarov during the ill-fated flight — it would be a miracle if it survived the crash and subsequent fire.

Can somebody explain please?

Robert Pearlman
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posted 04-25-2020 12:29 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for Robert Pearlman   Click Here to Email Robert Pearlman     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Asif Siddiqi describes the Onboard Journal (Bortovoi zhurnal) as follows, excerpted from his introduction in the aforementioned issue of Quest magazine:
This 16-page document, divided into three parts, is essentially a real-time compilation of data on the mission prepared and signed by the shift directors of the Soviet version of "mission control." It was declassified only in 2019. The three parts correspond to the moments at which each part was prepared — about 8.5 hours into the mission, about 18.5 hours into the mission, and 13 days after Komarov's death, on 3 May 1967. The latter part contains information on the final hours of the flight. The information presented in each part is a mix of different types of data, including:
  • transcriptions of air-to-ground communications between Komarov and the Soviet ground tracking network;

  • detailed status of spacecraft systems at different points of the mission; and

  • summaries of various problems on the spacecraft as discovered by mission control in real time.

Lasv3
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posted 04-25-2020 04:00 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for Lasv3   Click Here to Email Lasv3     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Thanks for the explanation, this seems to be a very interesting reading.

David C
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posted 04-26-2020 05:07 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for David C     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
OK, I bought the Kindle version and read it all in a morning. I’m not sure how it differs from the Quest article, if at all. At one stage it even refers to itself as an article.

Those familiar with both Chertok’s and Siddiqi’s previous work will find very little that’s new. Yes, there’s some details, but they don’t really change the broad picture as known by serious historians. So far as the Onboard Journal is concerned, it’s barely legible on Kindle. I know it’s not really meant to be about 7K-OK no. 5, and as such Chertok provides more detail on that part of the planned combined flight than you get here.

Overall, I’d recommend it as being the most recent account, but it’s nothing really earth-shattering.

Lasv3
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posted 04-26-2020 06:16 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for Lasv3   Click Here to Email Lasv3     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
The "Onboard" Journal, is it there in the Russian original only or is it translated as well? And, is it typed or handwritten?

I still think about this document and in case it is the official document only recently declassified (2019) how´s that that it was "discovered at an auction"? Was it sold by some official Russian government agency or by some private person (which would be very strange)?

dom
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posted 04-26-2020 10:37 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for dom   Click Here to Email dom     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
I have the magazine here. The onboard journal is published in its original Russian form but the main points are translated in the article. According to Quest, the document was sold by Heritage Auctions on 11 May 2018. Lot number 50178.

Lasv3
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posted 04-26-2020 11:47 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for Lasv3   Click Here to Email Lasv3     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Thanks for the info on the sales. But, if it was sold in auction in 2018 it could not have been declassified in 2019 (unless there is a typo in the date).

For me then it looks more like a document kept in private hands (someone close to the Soviet manned spaceflight community?) maybe for a longer time and offered for sale in 2018.

David C
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posted 04-26-2020 12:28 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for David C     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
The book states that the copy is from the personal collection of Colonel-General Nikolai Kamanin. There is no information about how many such copies were produced. All sixteen pages are in Russian with no direct translation provided.

Robert Pearlman
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posted 04-26-2020 12:45 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Robert Pearlman   Click Here to Email Robert Pearlman     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Here is the provenance information from the auction listing:
Soviet Mission Soyuz 1: Official Copy of "Onboard Journal" (Transcript) for the Ill-Fated Flight, from the Collection of General Nikolai Kamanin. A sixteen-page typescript in Russian, 8" x 11.25" in size, documenting the April 23-24, 1967, voice transmissions between "Dawn" (ground control) and "Ruby" (cosmonaut Vladimir Komarov) who became the first in-flight fatality in the history of spaceflight. At the close of the last page is a handwritten notation by a KGB agent dated May 3, 1967. Its folder has "Soyuz 1" handwritten on the cover by Kamanin.

Lasv3
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posted 04-26-2020 01:17 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Lasv3   Click Here to Email Lasv3     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Thanks for the clarification of the document's origin, it's clear to me now.

Lasv3
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posted 04-26-2020 01:46 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Lasv3   Click Here to Email Lasv3     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
I had a look at the four pages from the auction catalogue and here is a very brief summary for those who are interested:
  • Page 2: Komarov informs that the left solar panel did not deploy, then there are just informations on the cabin pressure, etc.

  • Page 15: There are communication problems, Komarov hears the ground perfectly, the ground has problems to understand all he says, he has to repeat some statements.

    Besides that Komarov says everything's ok, he feels fine, he works according to the plan, no reason to worry.

  • Page 16: Komarov informs that he oriented the ship correctly, retrofire took 146 seconds as planned, he is in the middle couch with the harness locked, everything is ok, he feels fine.

    The last info is the ship's modules separated as planned, all is ok.

The last sentence I do not understand, I think it is Ground saying "let's calculate the landing zone target"? I can't read the handwritten comment.

Robert Pearlman
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posted 04-28-2020 02:57 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Robert Pearlman   Click Here to Email Robert Pearlman     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
The article/book's author, Asif Siddiqi, saw this thread and wanted to share some clarifications:
The article published in Quest is exactly the same as the stand-alone publication listed on Amazon. After I wrote the article for Quest, Scott Sacknoff, the publisher for Quest, approached me and asked me if I would object to publishing the article as a stand-alone publication for sale, with the proceeds going to charity. I had no objection and he put the whole thing together. I really had nothing to do with it (although I am very grateful to Scott for giving it wider dissemination). I actually haven’t even seen it yet!

As far as the provenance of the document (the so-called “on board journal’), it was from the private collection of Nikolai Kamanin, but as I note in the article in Quest, the copy was signed by Vladimir Pravetskii of the USSR Ministry of Health responsible for biomedical support. My guess is that Pravetskii gave Kamanin a copy which he kept in his private collection. It was auctioned for sale in May 2018 at Heritage Auctions.

And finally, there are indeed a few new revelations in the article, including details of air-to-ground communications unknown before, details of the single firing of the main engine (which we did not know about before), and the fact that there were three attempts at reentry, not two. Additionally, many other minor errors are corrected in the version published in Quest.

Ken Havekotte
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posted 04-28-2020 03:43 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Ken Havekotte   Click Here to Email Ken Havekotte     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Wow! It must had been a horrible flight for Komarov as I heard reports between him and his backup Gagarin (if even true of course), that both did not believe that Soyuz 1 was safe to fly yet.

I think political pressure from the very top, despite what their own space leaders were advising, took over in letting Komarov launch on that maiden but troublesome new spacecraft in April 1967. And now with three landing attempts and not just one or two! How very sad.

David C
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posted 04-29-2020 01:54 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for David C     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Interesting how a copy was sold before it was actually declassified. I guess there’s no repercussions when you’re dead.

randy
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posted 04-29-2020 07:55 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for randy   Click Here to Email randy     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Ordered a copy today. Can't wait to read it.

Lasv3
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posted 04-30-2020 12:11 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for Lasv3   Click Here to Email Lasv3     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Sold in 2018 and declassified in 2019 — that was exactly my point, it does not make quite sense. Therefore I thought the document was coming from private hands and not from the official state archive. Are there more informations available to explain this discrepancy?

David C
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posted 04-30-2020 08:44 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for David C     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
I think you've got the explanation there. I guess things got a bit messed up after the USSR broke up.

Lasv3
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posted 04-30-2020 10:14 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for Lasv3   Click Here to Email Lasv3     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
What I am interested in is the question where is the information on 2019 declassification coming from — is there e.g. some list of declassified documents published and made available regularly so that those who are interested can find it on web, or some other way? No special reason, just the matter of curiosity to understand the system.

Robert Pearlman
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posted 05-01-2020 09:01 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for Robert Pearlman   Click Here to Email Robert Pearlman     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
I asked Asif if he could provide more information about the 2019 declassification. As it turns out, it was a typo in the magazine. It should have read that the journal was declassified before 2019. Asif explains:
I have no direct knowledge of when it was declassified. Since it was offered at an auction in November 2018, it would strongly imply that the document was declassified earlier than that. My guess is that Kamanin's family (or perhaps the person representing Kamanin's family) received official permission from the Russian government within the past few years to auction the item.

For what it's worth, the document bears no visible stamp denoting declassification (which is very common to see in declassified Soviet-era documents) but that doesn't mean it didn't go through an official declassification procedure — the stamp could have been on a cover not included in the sale. I don't think this document was "accidentally" put on sale without declassification. There are serious risks to that for Russians which one can perhaps imagine.

Lasv3
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posted 05-01-2020 12:26 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Lasv3   Click Here to Email Lasv3     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Thank you very much, the document release sequence is logical now.

randy
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posted 05-09-2020 07:54 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for randy   Click Here to Email randy     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Got my copy Thursday. So far, very interesting. Learning a lot I didn't know about what really happened.

quest
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posted 06-11-2020 01:22 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for quest     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
quote:
Originally posted by dom:
...this is the cover story in the latest issue.
The SPACE 3.0 Foundation is republishing select articles found in Quest in order to make them available to the wider audience that the Amazon platform provides. All funds received go to building the non-profit's endowment.

Quest, of course, hopes that people who purchase the book and discover the journal will become subscribers. — Scott

quest
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posted 06-11-2020 01:27 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for quest     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
quote:
Originally posted by RobertB:
80 pages, some of them a Russian language document? I wonder how much there is to read in this book.
Dr. Asif Siddiqi's analysis of the events surrounding the Soyuz-1 flight are in English. Of the 80 pages, as an appendix, there are 16 pages in Russia from the Onboard Journal. These were provided for those fluent in Russian who want to read the original supporting materials.

quest
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posted 06-11-2020 08:12 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for quest     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
quote:
Originally posted by Lasv3:
...the document release sequence is logical now.
Sorry for any confusion. The document was not from an official state archive, it was in private hands and was sold at an auction. Technically it was "declassified" once it entered the public domain.

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