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Catastrophic Disasters in Space Missions
(1940-2018)
Katherine D. Morillo García, estudiante UPV

Abstract—This paper talks about those catastrophic disasters
or accidents that have occurred throughout the history of space
missions, specifically talking about the most relevant events that
occurred between the years 1940 and 2018. Some of these
disasters have been truly tragic because they have cost the lives of
several people as crew members and operators and others deal
with failed launches that advantageously have not involved
human losses, but large economic losses because a space mission
requires a high investment for the technology involved in
building the rockets, shuttles and launch pads. In the accidents or
disasters that are discussed in this paper, we can see that like any
other project, space missions present complications despite the
high technology used in them but these complications have not
been an impediment for these projects and missions to continue
being carried out and many of them with successfully results, and
thus be able to continue with the investigations that bring us
closer to the space.
Index Terms— catastrophic disasters, launches, space
missions.
I. INTRODUCTION
I T can be said that the conquest of space is the most
ambitious human project, which has been developing for
decades, making the gap between space and Earth.
As all we know, several historical milestones have been
generated during this great journey, which is still ongoing,
such as the launch of the Sputnik 1, the first artificial satellite
in history that was sent into space; the story of Laika, the dog
who became the first living being to arrive in space, although
unfortunately she was also the first animal to die while being
in orbit aboard Sputnik 2; the first landing of man on the
moon, which despite the controversy generated by the
credibility of its images is one of the most relevant milestones
that made an important difference in space missions until the
current studies on signs of life on other planets such as Mars.
But unfortunately, not all space projects or missions have been
such a success, since going to space is always a risk, and just
as we have in history successful missions, we also have the
stories of the worst catastrophes or space accidents. So next, I
am going to talk about the most shocking disasters that have
occurred in the history of space missions.
II.DEADLY ACCIDENTS
At this point, a review will be made of the catastrophes or
accidents of space missions that have unfortunately claimed
human lives.

A. APOLO 1 – 1967
In January 1967 it was planned to carry out the first manned
space mission of the US program called "Apollo Program"
with which the objective was to carry out a lunar landing As in
many of the space missions, the respective tests are carried out
before executing the final launch, so on January 27, 1967 a
routine disconnection test of the space capsule systems is
carried out at 54m altitude in the Platform 34 at Cape
Canaveral Air Force Station, with the following crew on
board: Commander Virgil Ivan Gus Grissom, Senior Pilot
Edward H. White, and Pilot Roger B. Chaffee; which is shown
in Fig. 1.
Fig. 1. Apollo 1 crew and capsule.
The Apollo 1 accident is generated due to an internal short
circuit that causes fire on board, in the capsule the oxygen is
consumed in 17 seconds and by not being able to open the
hatch, which normally takes about 90 seconds to open, the
crew die asphyxiated, later the capsule provokes an explosion,
happening all the tragedy in less than a minute.
Reference [2] says that at NASA, there was strong concern
about a failsafe design and the Apollo program modules
destined to fly to the Moon incorporated radical
improvements. All flammable materials were removed, and
the suits were made from a flame retardant fabric. It was
decided that the cabin on the ground would be filled with a
mixture of 60% oxygen and 40% nitrogen, and that it would
only be replaced by pure oxygen once in space, when the
required pressure was lower. The hatch design was modified
so that it could be opened from the inside in just seven
seconds.
B. SOYUZ 1 PARACHUTE FAILURE - 1967
On April 23, 1967, months after the Apollo 1 catastrophe,
the Soviet Union, driven by its great desire to defeat its
American rivals, launched the Soyuz 1, with a single crew

member on board who was Colonel Vladimir Mikhailovich
Komarov, who a day later, on April 24 of the same year,
would become the first man to fall from space.
Fig. 2. Soyuz 1 crewman and ship.
Unlike Apollo 1, the launch of Soyuz 1 was successful, but
the problems began to appear while already in orbit, one of the
main failures was that the left solar panel that can be seen in
Fig. 2 did not open, causing a great decrease in the power of
the ship, which would imply presenting more technical
failures. Thanks to all the efforts and maneuvers made by
Colonel Komarov and despite the obstacles presented, he was
able to orient the ship towards the correct path for re-entry into
the atmosphere, but unfortunately one more system failed
which would claim Komarov's life, and that is that the
parachutes failed to open, and the ship crashed into the ground
at an approximate speed of 144km / h, this impact was the
cause of the death of Vladimir Komarov.
C.SOYUZ 11 - 1971
The Soyuz 11 launch was carried out on June 6, 1971, the
mission had the objective of docking with the Salyut 1 station
and thus breaking the record of permanence in space aboard
this station and this objective was successfully met. Inside the
Soyuz 11 were 3 cosmonauts Vladislav Volkov, Georgy
Dobrovolski and Víktor Patsáyev; who unfortunately on June
29 became the first people to die in space.
Fig. 3. Crew aboard Soyuz 11.
At the end of the mission in space, the crew was preparing
to return to the Earth on June 29 of the same year, even though
there were no problems at the time of the detachment of Salyut
2
1, a valve less than 1mm in diameter of the capsule was not
closed, causing an air leak, the cosmonauts showed their
concern in the communications they established with the base,
they followed their instructions, but the panorama was
becoming more and more sinister. One factor that influenced
the tragic outcome of this mission was the fact that the crew
were not wearing spacesuits, and this caused them to die of
asphyxiation after the capsule was depressurized. Upon
landing, the rescue teams realized that the crew had no signs
of life, they tried to revive them, but their efforts were in vain.
D.CHALLENGER 51-L SHUTTLE – 1986
The launch accident of the STS-51-L mission aboard the
shuttle called Challenger 51-L occurred on January 28, 1986,
just as the Apollo 1 the launch was made at the Cape
Canaveral base and it was being broadcast in live for all the
United States, because this mission had a peculiarity and it
was that on board the capsule was the first civilian to go to
space, it was Professor Christa McAuliffe whose objective
was to be the first person to teach science classes from outer
space.
Fig. 4. Challenger crew, left to right top row: Ellison Onizuka, Christa
McAuliffe, Greg Jarvis, Judith Resnik; bottom row: Mike Smith, Dick Scobee
and Ron McNair.
The Challenger catastrophe occurred 73 seconds after the
launch, reaching an approximate height of 14.6 km. The cause
of this was that the shuttle began to disintegrate due to the
failure of an O-ring on the right side of the booster rocket,
which occurred during takeoff, causing a gap to open causing
hot gas inside the engine out.
Reference [7] says that the ultimate cause of its
disintegration was the partial separation of the right solid fuel
propellant, produced by an ignition gas leak that burned its
lower support, weakening it until it broke, leaving the middle
propellant loose.

Fig. 5. Challenger shuttle launch.
E. COLUMBIA STS-107 - 2003
On January 16, 2003, the mission STS-107 was executed
through the launch of the shuttle Columbia, which had already
completed 27 missions prior to this one. This mission had a 7-
member crew: Commander Rick D. Husband, Pilot William C.
McCool, Cargo Commander Michael P. Anderson, Cargo
Specialist Ilan Ramon, Mission Specialist Kalpana Chawla,
mission David M. Brown, and mission specialist Laurel Blair
Salton Clark.
Fig. 6. Crew in charge of the STS-107 mission, left to right top row David M.
Brown, William C. McCool and Michael P. Anderson; bottom row: Kalpana
Chawla, Rick D. Husband, Laurel B. Clark, and Ilan Ramon,
The catastrophe or accident happened at the time of
returning to Earth, this was on February 1, 2003, according to
reports made by NASA the cause of the accident was a hole
that had been made in the front edge of the right wing of the
shuttle, which was due to a piece of foam insulation hitting the
wing after it had detached from the outer tank. As this hole
existed, the air began to leak and, due to its temperature,
destroyed the wing, causing the Columbia to experience
failures and thus the shuttle began to disintegrate, so that the
crew did not have time to react since they were immediately
unconscious.
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III. MISSED LAUNCHES WITHOUT VICTIMS
Before executing a manned or unmanned mission, the
respective tests must be carried out in order to have successful
missions, in these launch tests that have been carried out
throughout history there have been failures, advantageously
they have not claimed human lives and can say that they have
served to correct certain failures in the structure and handling
of satellites or ferries. Among the most known we have the
following projects:
 Launch of the VANGUARD TV3 in 1957.
 Launch of the JUNO 2 in 1959.
 Launch of the TITAN 1 in 1959.
 Launch of the ATLAS CENTAUR in 1962.
 Launch of the ATLAS CENTAUR 5 in 1965.
 Launch of the VOSTOK 2M in 1980.
 Launch of the ARIANE 5 in 1996.
 Launch of the DELTA II in 1997.
 Launch of the TITAN 4A in 1998.
 Launch of the PROTON-M in 2013.
 Launch of the ANTARES in 2014.
 Launch of the FALCON 9 in 2015.
In this type of launches, the main failures have been due to
small errors in the construction of the respective structures,
despite the economic losses generated by the respective
governments in charge, they have been helpful for continuous
improvement in each new project, although this it does not
mean that each mission is risk-free or accident-free.
The most recent accident happened on October 11, 2018,
when the Soyuz MS-10 failed just 2 minutes after the launch,
inside the rocket were 2 astronauts who advantageously
escaped unharmed, the failures were presented in the second
stage of the and the ship had to make an emergency landing.
IV. CONCLUSION
As mentioned at the beginning of this article, the fact of
going to space on a mission is always a big risk that must be
run, since, despite all the respective care being taken and
several previous tests are carried out Accidents can happen,
especially when it comes to projects as large as space
missions.
Regardless of the stumbles that occur throughout history,
the human being will never give up in the race to conquer
outer space, since as time passes and humanity advances in a
matter of technology and knowledge it begins to seem that the
world as we know it is short.
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REFERENCES He is currently studying a master’s degree in

Communication Technologies, Systems and Networks at the
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BIOGRAPHY

Katherine D. Morillo García was born in

Ibarra Ecuador in August 1989. She
graduated as an Engineer in Electronics and
Communication Networks from the
Technical University of the North in 2017,
in the same city of birth. For 2 years she
worked on the design of
telecommunications projects for the
company PMATELECOM in the city of Quito.