This predates the first manned space flight. Marshall Nedelin wants to be close to the rocket he's testing and every engineer and military personel follow suit. Stupid move. The rocket, filled with highly corosive fuels, explodes killing 72 people; half of whom did not leave their bodies to bury.
...guess what, they weren't. What is it with flying in space without spacesuits?
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#3
Suggested by
Cameron Halas
Soyuz 1, Soviet Union, 1967
20
Cameron Halas
8 years ago Report
The spacecraft has 203 documented faults that the cosmonauts and engineers knew about. But Brezhnev would not allow more time to fix it. Once Soyuz 1 gets into orbit everything that could go wrong does go wrong. On the emergency return to Earth, the parachute tangles and the spacecraft crashes. All they find of Komorov is a chared heal bone.
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#4
Suggested by
Cameron Halas
Apollo 1, United States, 1967
20
Cameron Halas
8 years ago Report
Will someone explain why you are trying to fly a space craft with 1 million untested parts, not ready to go, 600 alterations after delievery and constatly malfunctioning. During a test on this turkey of a spacecraft, a fire breaks out and kills the crew. This loss was a waste
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#5
Suggested by
Cameron Halas
Soyuz 11, Soviet Union, 1971
20
Cameron Halas
8 years ago Report
The first crew to visit a space station. For 24 days, Russians all across the country watch them on live television. Time to come home. Yeah, time to go home without wearing space suits. So when a pressure valve malfunctions, depressurizing the cabin and kills the crew, the Soviets loose the big gamble of having cosmonauts not wearing space suits.
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#6
Suggested by
Cameron Halas
The Columbia Disaster, United States, 2003
20
Cameron Halas
8 years ago Report
It's mandatory to film the shuttle with high speed cameras during launch. So if foam strikes the wing and a plume appears, shouldn't you be concerned? No, we'll ignore that, no worries. Really? It made a hole in the wing allowing the fire of re-entry to consume the shuttle and its crew in flames during re-entry
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#7
Suggested by
Cameron Halas
Scott Carpenter's Sightseeing, United States, 1962
20
Cameron Halas
8 years ago Report
Why should you waste almost all of your fuel to get home just so you can get a good view out the window. You might burn up on re-entry, or land so far off target that you would be lost at see. For an hour after begining re-entry Mercury control does not hear anny transmission from Carpenter. Then a search plane finally finds him.
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#8
Suggested by
Cameron Halas
Sergei Korolov's Fatal Surgery, Soviet Union, 1966
20
Cameron Halas
8 years ago Report
The only item to not be a spaceflight or test, but still a costly blunder. Sergei Korolov, the mastermind of the Soviet Space Program, went into the hospital for an over-the-weekend surgery. But the surgeon screwed it up and he died. His loss probably cost the Soviets the race to the moon.
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#9
Suggested by
Cameron Halas
Defunct Hubble Space Telescope, United States, 1990
20
Cameron Halas
8 years ago Report
When you need a high profile mission to put the Challenger disaster behind, you can't afford a screw up. So when that high profile mission deploys the $1.5 billion Hubble Space Telescope and it doesn't work, NASA's terminiation is on the table. Sure the repair mission 3 years later would fix it, but come on! Shouldn't you have checked the mirror to
Soviets to put the first man in space. Although if that hadn't happened, Kennedy might not have made the goal to land on the moon. So, that's something.
