When Soviet cosmonaut Vladimir Komarov was tapped to pilot the Soyuz 1 mission slated for April 23, 1967, he knew he was doomed. The craft had showed problems during testing and it was clear that the man put inside it would not come back alive.
Although the dangers were clear, no one was willing to back out and risk disappointing the Soviet high command. Even Komarov refused to back out because doing so would have doomed the next pilot in line, friend and fellow cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin.
Sure enough, upon re-entry, the craft’s parachute failed and Komarov burned to death as the Soyuz hurtled through the atmosphere at unthinkable speeds. With that, Komarov became the first human to ever die in space flight. Even before his fateful flight, he was so sure that he would die that he asked for an open casket funeral (pictured above) that’d force his superiors to see what
