55 Facts About Vladimir Komarov

Vladimir Komarov became the first Soviet cosmonaut to fly in space twice when he was selected as the solo pilot of Soyuz 1, its first crewed test flight.

Vladimir Komarov was declared medically unfit for training or spaceflight twice while in the program but continued playing an active role.

Vladimir Komarov's father was a labourer who worked at various low-paid jobs to support the family.

In 1935, Vladimir Komarov began his formal education in the local elementary school.

In 1941, Vladimir Komarov left school because of World War II and the German invasion of the Soviet Union, and he became a laborer on a collective farm.

Vladimir Komarov showed an interest in aeronautics from an early age, and he collected magazines and pictures about aviation, in addition to making model aircraft and his own propeller.

At the age of fifteen in 1942, Vladimir Komarov entered the "1st Moscow Special Air Force School" to pursue his dream of becoming an aviator.

Shortly thereafter, his family learned that Vladimir Komarov's father had been killed in an "unknown war action".

World War II hostilities ended before Vladimir Komarov was called on to enter combat.

In 1946, Vladimir Komarov completed his first year of training at the Chkalov Higher Air Force School in Borisoglebsk in Voronezh Oblast.

Vladimir Komarov's mother died in 1948, seven months before his graduation in 1949, at which he received his pilot's wings and commission as a lieutenant in the Soviet Air Force.

In December 1949, Vladimir Komarov served as the pilot of a fighter plane with the 383rd Regiment of the 42nd North Caucasian Fighter Air Division that was based in Grozny.

Vladimir Komarov was promoted to senior lieutenant in 1952, and he was later assigned as the chief pilot of the 486th Fighter Aviation Regiment of the 279th Fighter Air Division in the Prikarpate Region.

Vladimir Komarov continued to fly in that position until 1954, and then he enrolled in an engineering course at the Zhukovsky Air Force Engineering Academy.

In 1959, Vladimir Komarov was promoted to the rank of senior engineer-lieutenant.

In September 1959, Vladimir Komarov was promoted to engineer-captain and invited to participate in the selection process for cosmonaut candidate along with approximately 3,000 other pilots.

Vladimir Komarov was one of twenty candidates selected for "Air Force Group One"; he and the others reported to the newly formed TsPK just outside Moscow for assignment on 13 March 1960.

Vladimir Komarov greatly influenced the design of the 'Vostok' and [the] 'Voskhod'.

Only two members of the first group, Pavel Belyayev and Vladimir Komarov himself, were graduates of the Soviet Air Force Academy.

Shortly after beginning his training Vladimir Komarov was hospitalised for a minor operation in May 1960, which left him medically unfit for physical training for approximately six months.

Since Vladimir Komarov already held engineering qualifications, he was allowed to remain in the program after assuring the administration he would be able to catch up.

Vladimir Komarov continued with the required academic studies while recovering.

Vladimir Komarov earned 528 rubles a month, with only cosmonauts 1 and 2, Yuri Gagarin and Gherman Titov, being more highly paid.

When Georgi Shonin demonstrated an unacceptable level of g-force susceptibility in the centrifuge, Vladimir Komarov replaced him in May 1962 for planned dual Vostok missions.

Vladimir Komarov was selected as back up for Pavel Popovich, but subsequent routine ECG testing of Vladimir Komarov revealed a heart irregularity and he was pulled from the program and replaced by Boris Volynov.

In 1963, cosmonaut training was conducted in six Groups, with Vladimir Komarov being selected in Group 2 with Valery Bykovsky and Volynov.

In May 1963, Alekseyev proposed to General Kamanin that Vladimir Komarov be named backup for Vostok 5 rather than Khrunov because his suit was ready.

Vladimir Komarov was later named in a further group for planned missions in 1964 with Belyaev, Shonin, Khrunov, Zaikin, Gorbatko, Volynov, and Leonov.

In December 1963, Vladimir Komarov was shortlisted for flight by Kamanin with Volynov and Leonov, having completed two years of training.

Vladimir Komarov was well liked by his peers, who referred to him as Volodya.

Kamanin played tennis with the Voskhod crew that evening and noted that Vladimir Komarov played poorly in comparison to his crew: Boris Yegorov and Konstantin Feoktistov.

Vladimir Komarov was the only member of the crew to have undertaken extensive training and was the only member with any flight experience; the two other crewmen being civilians.

Vladimir Komarov alone carried out tests with ion thrusters that had been attached to the Voskhod.

In December 1964, the RVSN requested that Vladimir Komarov be transferred from the VVS to the RVSN, in a move possibly motivated by the poor record of the RVSN in producing successful rockets compared to the VVS.

In 1965, Vladimir Komarov worked with Gagarin in supervising preparations for the flight of Voskhod 2, which carried out the first attempt of an extravehicular activity in outer space.

Vladimir Komarov visited Petropavlovsk Fortress with Valentin Glushko where Glushko had conducted early rocket experiments in the early 1930s.

Vladimir Komarov was assigned to the Soviet Soyuz program along with Gagarin and Leonov.

Vladimir Komarov was selected to command the Soyuz 1, in 1967, with Gagarin as his backup cosmonaut.

Vladimir Komarov was ordered to re-orient the craft using the ion flow sensors on orbits 15 to 17.

Vladimir Komarov did not have enough time to attempt a manual re-entry until orbit 19.

Manual orientation relied on using the equipped Vzor periscope device, but to do this, Vladimir Komarov had to be able to see the Sun.

Vladimir Komarov oriented the spacecraft manually on the dayside then used the gyro-platform as a reference so that he could orient the craft for a night side retro-fire.

Vladimir Komarov successfully re-entered the Earth's atmosphere on his 19th orbit, but the module's drogue and main braking parachute failed to deploy correctly.

Vladimir Komarov claimed that Yuri Gagarin was the backup pilot for Soyuz 1, and was aware of the design problems and the pressures from the Politburo to proceed with the flight, and that Gagarin attempted to "bump" Komarov from the mission, knowing that the Soviet leadership would not risk a national hero on the flight.

At 21:45 Kamanin accompanied Vladimir Komarov's remains to the Orsk aerodrome, where they were loaded on an Il-18.

Konstantin Vershinin's orders were that Vladimir Komarov's remains were to be photographed, then immediately cremated so that a state burial in the Kremlin wall could take place.

Vladimir Komarov was one of the first on this treacherous path.

Vladimir Komarov has shown us how dangerous the pathway to space is.

On 26 April 1967, Vladimir Komarov was given a state funeral in Moscow, and his ashes were interred in the Kremlin Wall Necropolis at Red Square.

Vladimir Komarov was posthumously awarded his second Order of Lenin and Hero of the Soviet Union.

Vladimir Komarov is commemorated with other prominent figures from the early Russian space program with a bust on Cosmonauts Alley in Moscow, and he is honored with a monument at the crash site near Orsk.

Vladimir Komarov's name appears on a commemorative plaque left at Hadley Rille on the Moon by David Scott, commander of Apollo 15, in memory of 14 deceased NASA astronauts and USSR cosmonauts, along with a small sculpture entitled Fallen Astronaut, on 1 August 1971.

The asteroid 1836 Vladimir Komarov, discovered in 1971, was named in the honor of Vladimir Komarov, as was a crater on the Moon.

The composition is named Vladimir Komarov's Fall, and it can be found on the EMI Classics Album of Simon Rattle's The Planets.

Vladimir Komarov is a character in the French science fiction series Missions.