Remembers

Astronaut / Cosmonaut Deaths
and Space Disasters

These brave United States Astronauts and Soviet Union and Russian Cosmonauts gave their lives for the sake of space exploration.

It is fitting that they all be remembered as pioneers in the quest for knowledge about the universe beyond earth. Canada salutes them one and all!

Lest We Forget

Aircraft Accidents

October 31, 1964 Theodore Freeman	February 28, 1966 Charles Bassett II	February 28, 1966 Elliot See
October 5, 1967 Clifton Williams, Jr	December 8, 1967 Robert Lawrence, Jr.	November 15, 1967 Michael J. Adams
March 27, 1968 Yuri Gagarin (USSR)	May 24, 1986 Stephen Thorne	April 5, 1991 Manley Carter, Jr.

Other Accidents

March 23, 1961

Valentine Bondarenko (USSR)
(fire in spacecraft simulator)

June 6, 1967

Ed Givens
(automobile accident)

The Apollo Fire

January 27, 1967

Apollo 1
(pre-flight training fire)
Virgil 'Gus' Grissom
Edward H. White II
Roger Chaffee

The Soyuz Accidents

April 24, 1967

Soyuz 1 (USSR)
(capsule chute failed on re-entry)
Vladimir Komarov

June 07, 1971

Soyuz 11 (USSR)
(de-pressurization during re-entry)
Georgi Dobrovolsky
Viktor Patsayev
Vladislav Volkov

The Challenger Disaster

January 28, 1986

SST-51L - Challenger
(destroyed during takeoff)
Francis Scobee
Michael Smith
Ellison Onizuka
Judith Resnik
Ronald McNair
Gregory Jarvis
Christa McAuliffe

The Columbia Disaster

February 01, 2003

STS-107 - Columbia
(disintigrated on re-entry)
Rick Husband
Willie McCool
Kalpana Chawla (India/USA)
Laurel Clark
Mike Anderson
David Brown
Ilan Ramon (Israel)

Other Space Program Deaths

While the following Astronauts and Cosmonauts were NOT executing a mission, training for a mission, or participating in official Space Agency business, they did lose their lives while active in the space program.

January 10, 1970
Pavel Belyayev (USSR)
complications during an operation
September 8, 1980
Oleg Kononenko (USSR)
plane crash

October 24, 1980
Leonid Ivanov (USSR)
plane crash

August 6, 1988
Anatoli Levchenko (USSR)
brain tumor
April 15, 1975
John McKay
aircraft injury
(leading to cancer)
Aug. 18, 1988
Aleksandr Shchukin (USSR)
plane crash

June 17, 1989
Dave Griggs
plane crash
September 9, 1990
Rimantas Stankyavichus (USSR)
plane crash
July 11, 1993
Sergei Vozovikov (Russia)
drowned

Sept. 9, 1995
Rheinhard Furrer (Russia)
plane crash
October 3, 1995
Lacy Veach
cancer

Other Major Fatal Losses/Disasters

126 Engineers and ground crew were killed on October 24, 1960 in a rocket refueling/repair explosion in Tyuratam, USSR.

On March 18, 1980 a Vostok rocket exploded on its launch pad while being refuled, killing 50+ at the Pletetsk Space Center, USSR.

Several other USSR/Russian personnel were reportedly killed in separate ground accidents.

On September 7, 1990 part of a U.S. Titan rocket fell from a crane and exploded at Edwards Air Force Base, sending flames 150 feet into the air, killing one contractor and injuring several others.

A new rocket exploded at Brazil's space centre on August 22, 2003 killing 21 ground workers and scientists. The 20-metre-high VLS-1 rocket was three days from its scheduled launch when it exploded on the launch pad. A fire caused by an unknown electrical discharge, began in the lower part of the rocket where the 4 solid-fuel boosters are located. Two small research sattelites were also destroyed. The fire was so intense that heat from the fire melted the steel structure , causing the entire launch pad to collapse.

A solid rocket motor caught fire at India's main space center on Monday February 23, 2004, triggering an explosion that killed at six people and injured three. The mishap occurred when a testing motor was being filled with highly inflammable fuel at the Solid Propellant Space Booster Plant (SPROB) on the Satish Dhawan Space Centre at Sriharikota.

1981: Five technicians were asphyxiated while setting up a ground test for the space shuttle Columbia, then in preparation for STS-1, the first operational shuttle mission. Two of them died.

Please visit our other Space Disasters - Page 2. CLICK HERE

This page is part of Knight's Canadian Info Collection
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January 10, 1970 Pavel Belyayev (USSR) complications during an operation	September 8, 1980 Oleg Kononenko (USSR) plane crash	October 24, 1980 Leonid Ivanov (USSR) plane crash
August 6, 1988 Anatoli Levchenko (USSR) brain tumor	April 15, 1975 John McKay aircraft injury (leading to cancer)	Aug. 18, 1988 Aleksandr Shchukin (USSR) plane crash
June 17, 1989 Dave Griggs plane crash	September 9, 1990 Rimantas Stankyavichus (USSR) plane crash	July 11, 1993 Sergei Vozovikov (Russia) drowned
Sept. 9, 1995 Rheinhard Furrer (Russia) plane crash		October 3, 1995 Lacy Veach cancer