
Vladimir Komarov went on a space suicide mission to save his best friend, Yuri - n0pe_p0pe
https://twitter.com/DMOberhaus/status/1116939111368097792
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ignoramous
related discussions:

2011:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2342677](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2342677)

2016:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11072718](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11072718)

mirror:
[https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1116939111368097792.html](https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1116939111368097792.html)

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m0zg
Top post on the 2016 version of this repost, links to an NPR article that
debunks the whole thing:
[https://www.npr.org/sections/krulwich/2011/05/03/135919389/a...](https://www.npr.org/sections/krulwich/2011/05/03/135919389/a-cosmonauts-
fiery-death-retold)

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enoch_r
"Debunked" is a pretty strong word. The disputed elements of the story are
mostly based on the account of one person (Venyamin Russayev, the KGB minder
assigned to Yuri Gagarin) and they are contradicted by official transcripts
and the memoirs of the people involved.

But, this occurred in the USSR, so I don't think we really know what happened
with any high level of certainty.

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mdisc0rd
I highly doubt this spin on the story. Although the structural problems with
the Souz mission are well known in retrospect, none of these problems were
seen as a huge threat to the mission or the safety of its pilots, more than
any other mission. Every cosmonaut was an extreme asset that would never have
been disregarded with the discrepancy that this story portrays. Source:
Grandfather was one of members of the first cosmonaut squad. Kamarovs death
was a huge tragedy caused by a miscalculation, as opposed to neglect.

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ncmncm
This is the most tragically inspiring story of the modern era.

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FabHK
More on this informative site by a Russian space geek now living in the US:

[http://russianspaceweb.com/soyuz1.html](http://russianspaceweb.com/soyuz1.html)

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gigatexal
Damnit I hate crying to stuff I see on twitter.

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kzcqt
The Pence remark was completely unnecessary and infuriating. I thought this
was some educative chain of tweets and it ended in "orang man bad". Very
anticlimactic.

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dagenix
It's the _entire_ point of the piece. And it's not really all that much of a
political statement. The message is pretty clear: don't send people to die in
space for stupid-ass political reasons.

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tomatotomato37
As a counterpoint, sending people to space for stupid-ass political reasons
resulted in one of humanity's greatest technological achievements that allowed
us to put the plaque up there in the first place.

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Piskvorrr
Note the subtle difference between "sending people to space" and "sending
people to die in space". (As explained in the thread, Soyuz-1 was hurried to
launch for political reasons despite being unspaceworthy)

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nwienert
That doesn't counter GP's point, it reinforces it. The successful moon
missions were all launched for political reasons, too.

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x0054
He is pointing out that there is a difference between sending people to space
for political reasons and sending people to space for political reasons in
known to be unsafe aircraft knowing that the possibility of death is
significantly above average. One is risking someone’s life for achievement and
glory. The other is killing someone because your fragile ego can’t take the
hit of not being ready on time for some stupid political deadline.

~~~
nwienert
Yea, the point is why is there a random political shot at Pence? It makes no
sense. It’s shoehorning a totally petty and not relevant potshot. Every space
mission has been “political”, and of course everyone agrees you shouldn’t do a
bad job at it.

