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CREDIT: Soviet Academy of Sciences photo via NASA
In the new edition of a book called "Starman" (Bloomsbury 2011) Jamie Doran and Piers Bizony tell the story of the first space fatality — the tragic death of Russian cosmonaut Vladimir Komarov in 1967. The book doesn't hit stores until April 12, but NPR's Robert Krulwich got an advance copy, and covered its heart-wrenching account of the accident in a blog post two weeks ago. Unfortunately, in so doing, he may have publicized an inaccurate rewriting of history.
It was the height of the space race, Krulwich wrote, and the 50th anniversary of the Communist Revolution was approaching. The Soviet Union was eager to pull off a two-spacecraft rendezvous in low-Earth orbit just in time for the big event. The plan was for Komarov to park the Soyuz 1 space capsule next to another vehicle and then spacewalk between them.
That much is true, but historians say the rest of the story printed in "Starman" and recounted on Krulwich's blog is grossly inaccurate. Krulwich told Life's Little Mysteries, a sister site to SPACE.com, that he has come to believe there are errors in the tale he told, but he urges readers to consider the informal nature of blogs — even those labeled "NPR."
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