This Year's Space Junk: Soyuz 1 Soyuz 1 Where to begin? This peice of space trash was launched on April 23, 1967. The Soviet "spacecraft" might just get the "Worst Junker Ever" prize, and rightfully so, for killing its pilot Vladimir Mikhailovich Komarov on impact with the ground after reentry. Among the problems encountered before Komarov's death, a solar panel failed to unfold as planned leaving the ship with little power, orientation detectors failed, the automatic stabilization system totally died in-flight, and the manual system was only marginally effective. After orbit 18, retrorockets deorbited the "spacecraft" and it was brought down with little to no control. It may have actually succeeded in landing if not for a faulty pressure sensor which failed to deploy the parachute. The backup chute deployed manually but became tangled and did little to break the fall. Breaking retrorockets failed to fire to slow the descent. Soyuz 1 and Komarov both hit the ground at 400 miles per hour in a farmer's field where the craft exploded and caught fire. Vladimir Mikhailovich Komarov was the first person in history to be killed in-flight in a spacecraft.   [ Back to Subtopia Studios ][ Old Space Junk ]