The darkest days of space exploration: Five worst disasters in history

Space Mission launch

With astronauts Sunita Williams and Butch Williams starting their earth-bound journey, the interest among space enthusiasts have increased manifold regarding upcoming space odysseys. However, as with all scientific forays, there exist a risk to both- human lives and the mission itself.

The astronauts departed this morning from the International Space Station on the Dragon spacecraft after being "stranded" for nine months on the orbital hub. They are expected to complete its return journey in another 14 hours. Their return has been made possible by the launch of SpaceX Crew-10, which lifted off from Kennedy Space Center on Friday night as part of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program.

Until now,  more than 700 astronauts took the flight to the space and 15 astronauts and 4 cosmonauts out of them couldn’t make it back.

 Here is a rundown of five worst space tragedies: 

• Vladimir Komarov – The USSR astronaut was the first one to lose his life during the space mission in April, 1967. Komarov was on one day Soviet Soyuz 1 space mission, during his space re-entry the parachute didn’t open properly which led to the mishap.
• Michael J. Adams – On November 15, 1967, during Adam’s seventeen flight, X-15 Flight 3-65-97, the plane had an plane had electrical problem followed by control problem led to the crash of the plane. He was one of the only 12 twelve pilots who flew the North American X-15, an experimental spaceplane jointly operated by the Air Force and NASA.
• Soyuz 11 Disaster:On June 11, 1971, the Soviet spacecraft Soyuz 11 took off, carrying cosmonauts Georgy Dobrovolsky, Viktor Patsayev, and Vladislav Volkov on the mission. After spending three weeks at the Salyut 1 space station, during the return journey on June 30, a flaw in the cabin vent valve caused it to open during the separation of the service module. Leading to a fatal loss of cabin pressure which lead to the death of the crew members.
• Space Shuttle Challenger Disaster - On January 28, 1986, the NASA space shuttle Challenger exploded just 73 seconds after liftoff, bringing a tragic end to its 10th mission. The disaster claimed the lives of all seven astronauts on board, marking one of the most devastating incidents in space exploration history.
• Space Shuttle Columbia Disaster- NASA’s space shuttle Columbia broke apart on February 1, 2003 as it returned to Earth from a 16-day science mission. All seven astronauts who boarded the mission on January 16, 2003 were killed. Kalpana Chawla Indian American astronaut and aerospace engineer who was the first woman of Indian origin to fly to space too lost her life in this mission.

In the period between 1961 to 2025, 14 US, 4 USSR and 1 Israeli astronaut died. In addition to these incidents, 11 astronauts, test pilots, and other personnel have been killed during training or tests.