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See Again
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Man on the moon! - A famous speech given by John F. Kennedy in the early 1960s promised that, by the end of the decade, American astronauts would set foot on the moon.
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Conquering the Moon - What seemed a far off dream became reality in 1969: man had already reached space and one of the greatest feats of the space age was about to happen.
© Reuters
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Historic achievement - It was the Apollo mission which took a man to the moon for the very first time. The images of the spaceship flying over the surface of the moon became iconic.
© Reuters
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Mission
- But before arriving at this historic moment, the Apollo mission went through a terrible tragedy.
© Reuters/Getty Images
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Tragedy - During a launch test for Apollo 1, the cockpit caught fire, killing Edward White, Virgil Grissom, and Roger Chaffee.
© Reuters
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Theory - There is a conspiracy theory which questions whether humans ever really made it to the moon, or if the whole scene was filmed in a studio. One thing is certain: the tragedy went down in history.
© Reuters
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Soyuz 1 - Another terrible incident occurred in 1967 with a Soviet spaceship.
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The mission - Soyuz 1 took off from a Soviet base. Its mission was to circle the Earth and change crews with another ship that was already in Space: Soyuz 2. Cosmonaut Vladimir Komarov, however, said that there were several technical problems and so the mission was aborted.
© Shutterstock
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The accident - On returning to Earth, Vladimir Komarov tried to release the parachutes to slow down the vessel's return to the ground, but the attempt failed.
© Shutterstock
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Tragedy - The spaceship hit the ground at a speed of approximately 140 km per hour, killing its pilot.
© Shutterstock
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Vladimir Komarov - The tragedy earned Komarov numerous posthumous tributes.
© Shutterstock
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Soyuz 11 - Another tragedy struck Soviet Space project in 1971, with the spaceship Soyuz 11.
© Getty Images
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Crew - The crew of Soyuz 11 was made up of Georgi Dobrovolski, Viktor Patsayev, and Vladislav Volkov, who had been in space for about 23 days and were returning to Earth.
© Getty Images
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Tragic return - The crew began the procedure to re-enter the atmosphere, and appeared to have done it perfectly. However, once the ship had landed and been opened, the crew were found mysteriously dead.
© Getty Images
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Investigation - Their deaths were explained by a fault in the ventilation valve, which made their capsule completely depressurize while in Space.
© Getty Images
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Greif
- The ship had only managed to re-enter the Earth's atmosphere thanks to the automatic pilot. The deaths of the three cosmonauts caused much grieving in the Soviet Union.
© Reuters/Getty Images
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Challenger - The Challenger accident of 1986 is one of the most famous incidents of all.
© Reuters
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Crew - The crew who prepared to set off on the mission were: Greg Jarvis, Ronald McNair, Ellison Onizuka, Judith Resnik, Michael J. Smith, D i c k Scobee, and Christa McAuliffe.
© Reuters
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New passenger - This NASA mission was unique as it was the first time that a civilian had the chance to travel to space. Teacher Christa McAuliffe was part of the team of astronauts.
© Getty Images
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Live transmission - In January 1986 all eyes were on the launch of this space shuttle, which was broadcast live on TV.
© Getty Images
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Tragedy - About 72 seconds after the launch, a tragedy occurred as viewers watched.
© Getty Images
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Causes of the accident - The shuttle exploded due to an instability in the fuel tank insulation after it was exposed to colder temperatures.
© Reuters
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No survivors - The entire crew were killed in the explosion.
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Fight - NASA paused its space program for two years while it searched for ways to prevent tragedies like Challenger from happening again.
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Columbia - Another fatal accident occurred in 2003 with spaceship Columbia.
© Getty Images
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Accident - After 16 days in orbit, the space shuttle disintegrated on its return to Earth.
© Getty Images
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Crew - There were seven crew members: Rick D. Husband, William McCool, Michael P. Anderson, David M. Brown, Kalpana Chawla, Laurel B. Clark, and Ilan Ramon. None of them survived the accident.
© Getty Images
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Cause of the accident - An investigation later discovered that the cause of the accident was a rupture in the heat insulation foam on one of the wings during launch.
© Getty Images
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Exploring the universe
- These tragic incidents remind us of the fragility of human life in our pursuit for the meaning of the world and the origins of the universe.
© Getty Images
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© Getty Images
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Man on the moon! - A famous speech given by John F. Kennedy in the early 1960s promised that, by the end of the decade, American astronauts would set foot on the moon.
© Getty Images
1 / 30 Fotos
Conquering the Moon - What seemed a far off dream became reality in 1969: man had already reached space and one of the greatest feats of the space age was about to happen.
© Reuters
2 / 30 Fotos
Historic achievement - It was the Apollo mission which took a man to the moon for the very first time. The images of the spaceship flying over the surface of the moon became iconic.
© Reuters
3 / 30 Fotos
Mission
- But before arriving at this historic moment, the Apollo mission went through a terrible tragedy.
© Reuters/Getty Images
4 / 30 Fotos
Tragedy - During a launch test for Apollo 1, the cockpit caught fire, killing Edward White, Virgil Grissom, and Roger Chaffee.
© Reuters
5 / 30 Fotos
Theory - There is a conspiracy theory which questions whether humans ever really made it to the moon, or if the whole scene was filmed in a studio. One thing is certain: the tragedy went down in history.
© Reuters
6 / 30 Fotos
Soyuz 1 - Another terrible incident occurred in 1967 with a Soviet spaceship.
© Shutterstock
7 / 30 Fotos
The mission - Soyuz 1 took off from a Soviet base. Its mission was to circle the Earth and change crews with another ship that was already in Space: Soyuz 2. Cosmonaut Vladimir Komarov, however, said that there were several technical problems and so the mission was aborted.
© Shutterstock
8 / 30 Fotos
The accident - On returning to Earth, Vladimir Komarov tried to release the parachutes to slow down the vessel's return to the ground, but the attempt failed.
© Shutterstock
9 / 30 Fotos
Tragedy - The spaceship hit the ground at a speed of approximately 140 km per hour, killing its pilot.
© Shutterstock
10 / 30 Fotos
Vladimir Komarov - The tragedy earned Komarov numerous posthumous tributes.
© Shutterstock
11 / 30 Fotos
Soyuz 11 - Another tragedy struck Soviet Space project in 1971, with the spaceship Soyuz 11.
© Getty Images
12 / 30 Fotos
Crew - The crew of Soyuz 11 was made up of Georgi Dobrovolski, Viktor Patsayev, and Vladislav Volkov, who had been in space for about 23 days and were returning to Earth.
© Getty Images
13 / 30 Fotos
Tragic return - The crew began the procedure to re-enter the atmosphere, and appeared to have done it perfectly. However, once the ship had landed and been opened, the crew were found mysteriously dead.
© Getty Images
14 / 30 Fotos
Investigation - Their deaths were explained by a fault in the ventilation valve, which made their capsule completely depressurize while in Space.
© Getty Images
15 / 30 Fotos
Greif
- The ship had only managed to re-enter the Earth's atmosphere thanks to the automatic pilot. The deaths of the three cosmonauts caused much grieving in the Soviet Union.
© Reuters/Getty Images
16 / 30 Fotos
Challenger - The Challenger accident of 1986 is one of the most famous incidents of all.
© Reuters
17 / 30 Fotos
Crew - The crew who prepared to set off on the mission were: Greg Jarvis, Ronald McNair, Ellison Onizuka, Judith Resnik, Michael J. Smith, D i c k Scobee, and Christa McAuliffe.
© Reuters
18 / 30 Fotos
New passenger - This NASA mission was unique as it was the first time that a civilian had the chance to travel to space. Teacher Christa McAuliffe was part of the team of astronauts.
© Getty Images
19 / 30 Fotos
Live transmission - In January 1986 all eyes were on the launch of this space shuttle, which was broadcast live on TV.
© Getty Images
20 / 30 Fotos
Tragedy - About 72 seconds after the launch, a tragedy occurred as viewers watched.
© Getty Images
21 / 30 Fotos
Causes of the accident - The shuttle exploded due to an instability in the fuel tank insulation after it was exposed to colder temperatures.
© Reuters
22 / 30 Fotos
No survivors - The entire crew were killed in the explosion.
© Getty Images
23 / 30 Fotos
Fight - NASA paused its space program for two years while it searched for ways to prevent tragedies like Challenger from happening again.
© Getty Images
24 / 30 Fotos
Columbia - Another fatal accident occurred in 2003 with spaceship Columbia.
© Getty Images
25 / 30 Fotos
Accident - After 16 days in orbit, the space shuttle disintegrated on its return to Earth.
© Getty Images
26 / 30 Fotos
Crew - There were seven crew members: Rick D. Husband, William McCool, Michael P. Anderson, David M. Brown, Kalpana Chawla, Laurel B. Clark, and Ilan Ramon. None of them survived the accident.
© Getty Images
27 / 30 Fotos
Cause of the accident - An investigation later discovered that the cause of the accident was a rupture in the heat insulation foam on one of the wings during launch.
© Getty Images
28 / 30 Fotos
Exploring the universe
- These tragic incidents remind us of the fragility of human life in our pursuit for the meaning of the world and the origins of the universe.
© Getty Images
29 / 30 Fotos
These space missions went terribly wrong
The tragic incidents in space mission history
© Getty Images
Questioning the reason for our existence and exploring our universe are the key reasons why humans have traveled to space. Since the first efforts to get humans into space and on the Moon, there have been numerous space expeditions and technological advances. But not all have been successful, and many astronauts caught up in space experiments did not live to tell the tale. See the most tragic space missions in history.
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