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KOMAROV
Vladimir Mikhailovich

Pilot-cosmonaut of the Soviet Union   CLASSIFICATION: 7/11.
NUMBER OF MISSIONS: 2.
SPACEFLIGHT HOURS: 2 days 03 hours 04 min. 55 sec.
WORLD PRECEPENCE: a commander of the first multi-seater space vehicle in the world (Voshkod, 1964); a participant of the first space flight without spacesuits in the world (Voskhod, 1964).
DATE AND PLACE OF BIRTH: March 16, 1927, the RSFSR (Russia), Moscow.
NATIONALITY: Russian.
EDUCATION:
1935 - 1941 – studied at secondary school No.235 in Moscow;
1945 – finished Air Force Moscow specialized school No.1;
1946 – completed the first-year course at the Borisoglebsk Higher Air Force School;
1949 – graduated from the Bataysk Higher Air Force School named after A.K. Serov;
1959 – graduated from the N.Y. Zhukovsky Air Force Engineering Academy, the faculty of air armament.
OCCUPATION BEFORE JOINING COSMONAUT CORPS:
from December 31, 1949 – a pilot, from November 28, 1951 – a senior pilot of Air Force FAR 328 of FAD 42, the North Caucasian AD, Grozny city;
from October 27, 1952 – August 1954 – a senior pilot of FAR 486 of FAD 279 of AA 57;
from September 3, 1959 –an assistant leading engineer, a test-pilot of section 3 of department 5 at the Central Scientific Research Institute of the USSR Ministry of Defense, Chkalovsky village.
DATE OF ENROLLMENT IN COSMONAUT CORPS (GROUP NUMBER, DATE):
March 7, 196 – was enrolled as a student-cosmonaut (group 1) in the cosmonaut corps of the Air Force Cosmonaut Training Center by the Air Force Commander-in-Chief order;
from April 5, 1961 – a cosmonaut of the cosmonaut department of the Cosmonaut Training Center.
RATING: October 12, 1964 – a first-class military pilot, October 15, 1964 – a third-class cosmonaut.
BACK-UP ACTIVITY:
June 1962 – a back-up man to the Vostok-4 vehicle pilot;
August 12, 1962 – a back-up man to the Vostok transport vehicle pilot P. Popovich;
September 1962 – May 1963 – a back-up pilot of the Vostok-5 transport vehicle.
SPACEFLIGHTS PERFORMED:
Flight 1 – October 12-13, 1964 – a commander of the Voskhod transport vehicle together with K. Feoktistov and B. Yegorov.Flight duration: 1 day 00 hours 17 min. 03 sec. Call sign: “Rubin-1”;
Flight 2 – April 23-24, 1967 – a commander of the Soyuz-1 transport vehicle. The flight program stipulated Soyuz-1 and Soyuz-2 docking and the transfer of A. Yeliseev and Ye. Khrunov from one vehicle into the other in outer space, but the failure of Soyuz-1 solar array deployment caused the cancellation of the Soyuz-2 launch. Soyuz-1 performed advance return at the final stage of which the parachute system failed and the descent module crashed. Cosmonaut V. Komarov was lost.Flight duration: 1 day 02 hours 47 min. 52 sec. Call sign: “Rubin-1”.
DISCHARGE FROM COSMONAUT CORPS:
1967 – was remanded from the officer staff of the USSR Armed Forces because of his death (from October 12, 1964 – Engineer-Colonel).
AWARDS:
Two Medals “Gold Star” of Hero of the Soviet Union (October 19, 1964, 1967 – awarded posthumously),
Order of Lenin (October 19, 1964),
Order of the Red Star (1961),
Medal of Service-in-battle Merit (1956),
Medal “For Virgin Lands Development” (1964),
5 commemorative medals,
Medal “Gold Star” of Hero of Labour (1964),
K.E. Tsiolkovsky Gold Medal of the USSR Academy of Sciences,
Gold Star “Space” (September 1965) and FAI Medal de Lavo,
Order “Wind-rose” with a diamond (the International aeronautics and space flight committee).
DATE AND CAUSE OF DEATH: April 24, 1967 – deceased at the completion of the Soyuz-1 transport vehicle test flight due to the vehicle parachute system failure. Buried in the Kremlin Wall on Red Square in Moscow.

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