Space Disasters in Mankind's History of Space Exploration

Home>>World

Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Sunday, February 02, 2003

Space Disasters in Mankind's History of Space Exploration

US space shuttle Columbia broke apart in flames before landing on Saturday with seven astronauts on board. It was the latest in a series of accidents since space exploration began.

DISCUSSION

CHINESE

SEND TO FRIEND

US space shuttle Columbia broke apart in flames before landing on Saturday with seven astronauts on board. It was the latest in a series of accidents since space exploration began.

The following is a chronology of astronauts and cosmonauts killed in the history of space exploration:

-- Jan. 27, 1967: Astronauts Gus Grissom, Edward H. White and Roger B. Chaffee die when a fire sweeps their command module during a ground test at Kennedy Space Center.

-- April 24, 1967: Soviet cosmonaut Vladimir Komarov became thefirst person to die in a space mission when his Soyuz I spacecraftcrashes on return to Earth.

-- June 29, 1971: Soviet cosmonauts Georgy Dobrovolsky, Vladislav Volkov and Viktor Patsayev die during re-entry of their Soyuz 11 spacecraft after 24 days in an orbiting space laboratory.

-- Jan. 28, 1986: The space shuttle Challenger explodes 73 seconds after launch, killing all seven astronauts aboard, including Christa McAuliffe, intended to be the first teacher in space.

-- Feb. 1, 2003: Space shuttle Columbia breaks apart in flamesabout 60,900 meters over Texas, 16 minutes before it was supposed to touch down in Florida. All seven aboard were killed. They were:William McCool, Rick Husband, Michael Anderson, Kalpana Chawla,David Brown, Laurel Clark and Ilan Ramon, Israel's first astronaut.

Questions?Comments? Click here

Beijing to Cancel 'Hotels for Hosting Foreign Visitors' ( 11 Messages)

Crazy Pursuit for Graduate Education, an Ailing Personnel System ( 2 Messages)

Chinese Experts Demand Return of Cultural Relics ( 30 Messages)

Chinese Bid Farewell to Outworn Doctrine of Egalitarianism ( 22 Messages)

Full Text of UN Security Council Resolution 1441 on Iraq ( 3 Messages)