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At least 126 technicians and cosmonauts were killed by accidents during the Soviet space program. It’s rumored that additional cosmonauts died on missions that

At least 126 technicians and cosmonauts were killed by accidents during the Soviet space program. It’s rumored that additional cosmonauts died on missions that the Soviets covered up.

hinkley 6y ago
We also lost all three astronauts in a test of the Apollo capsule which doesn’t count as flight but I think we would agree still counts in the buckets of blood both programs have spent. If you do more tests which kill more people before declaring the system good, you don’t get to not count those people like it’s a different color of money in some bureaucratic dystopia.
kens 6y ago
As far as technicians, I've always felt sad for the two Space Shuttle technicians who died in 1981 after entering a nitrogen-filled engine compartment (John Bjornstad and Forrest Cole).
- valuearb 6y ago
  Three died in that accident. The third lingered for a couple years before passing.
- hansthehorse 6y ago
  It's very sad but it's not a bad way to go. I was a nuclear plant supervisor for about 20 years. One day the temp started to increase in the control room. The 3 AC units were behind the control room so I headed there to check on things. Another guy said he'd go with me. These things are as big as locomotives. Well while we were in the room a refrigerant relief valve lifted with a huge roar. Turns out, amazingly, the relief was designed to vent into the room. We made it to the card reader to get back into the control room but my card kept being rejected. I felt myself sliding down the wall and next I knew I was sitting in a chair in the control room feeling better and better. If my buddy hadn't decided to come with me I would have died in that room. There was no panicky brain screaming "we need air" or any feeling of being O2 short. It was just normal breathing. If you're going to end it all that's the way to do it. I wrote an incident report with the obvious suggestion to vent the reliefs outside. It was modified the next outage.
  - snet0 6y ago
    "But what if we vent the toxic gas into the place where you go to see if there's a problem with the toxic gas..."
avmich 6y ago
That's likely to include the Nedelin catastrophe ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nedelin_catastrophe https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nedelin_catastrophe ) - "The most recent estimated death toll, released by Roscosmos on the 50th anniversary of the accident and originating with agency engineer Boris Chertok, was that 126 people had died, but the agency qualified the number by saying that the actual number could be anywhere from 60 to 150 dead."
- MichaelMoser123 6y ago
  The Nedelin catastrophe was an ICBM test run of a rocket with hypergolic fuel that exploded on the launch pad; there was the 1980 launch pad explosion of a (military) sattelite launcher that killed 44 people and injured 43. The Russian version of the article says that hydrogen peroxide filters were produced with catalytic materials, this was later fixed after another launch almost failed in the same manner (it doesn't say how that blast was avoided), initially they suspected an action of the ground crew to have causes the blast in 1980. Both blasts were kept secret until Perestroika in 1989. both explosions were on rockets with hypergolic fuel. The Russian wikipedia article also has a list of 'other failures' - these are fires in an ICBM silo in Russia in 1960 - eight dead; the US had a fire in a Titan II bunker in 1965 that killed 53 and another one in 1980 that killed one man; also Brazil had a fire of a liquid fueled rocket that killed 21, also on start preparations. (and another blast in Plesetsk in 1973 that killed seven http://www.plesetzk.ru/index.php?p=1973&d=doc/disaster http://www.plesetzk.ru/index.php?p=1973&d=doc/disaster - wikipedia doesn't list everything) Rocket fuel can be very dangerous stuff! At least liquid methane/oxygen aren't hypergolic. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1980_Plesetsk_launch_pad_disaster https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1980_Plesetsk_launch_pad_disas... https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%9A%D0%B0%D1%82%D0%B0%D1%81%D1%82%D1%80%D0%BE%D1%84%D0%B0_%D0%BD%D0%B0_%D0%BA%D0%BE%D1%81%D0%BC%D0%BE%D0%B4%D1%80%D0%BE%D0%BC%D0%B5_%D0%9F%D0%BB%D0%B5%D1%81%D0%B5%D1%86%D0%BA_(1980) https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%9A%D0%B0%D1%82%D0%B0%D1%81...
  - derivagral 6y ago
    I've always loved Ignition![0] for the perspective it gives on working with the chemistry of this stuff. [0] https://www.amazon.com/Ignition-Informal-Propellants-University-Classics/dp/0813595835 https://www.amazon.com/Ignition-Informal-Propellants-Univers...

At least 126 technicians and cosmonauts were killed by accidents during the Soviet space program. It’s rumored that additional cosmonauts died on missions that the Soviets covered up.

hinkley 6y ago

We also lost all three astronauts in a test of the Apollo capsule which doesn’t count as flight but I think we would agree still counts in the buckets of blood both programs have spent. If you do more tests which kill more people before declaring the system good, you don’t get to not count those people like it’s a different color of money in some bureaucratic dystopia.

kens 6y ago

As far as technicians, I've always felt sad for the two Space Shuttle technicians who died in 1981 after entering a nitrogen-filled engine compartment (John Bjornstad and Forrest Cole).

valuearb 6y ago
Three died in that accident. The third lingered for a couple years before passing.
hansthehorse 6y ago
It's very sad but it's not a bad way to go. I was a nuclear plant supervisor for about 20 years. One day the temp started to increase in the control room. The 3 AC units were behind the control room so I headed there to check on things. Another guy said he'd go with me. These things are as big as locomotives. Well while we were in the room a refrigerant relief valve lifted with a huge roar. Turns out, amazingly, the relief was designed to vent into the room. We made it to the card reader to get back into the control room but my card kept being rejected. I felt myself sliding down the wall and next I knew I was sitting in a chair in the control room feeling better and better. If my buddy hadn't decided to come with me I would have died in that room. There was no panicky brain screaming "we need air" or any feeling of being O2 short. It was just normal breathing. If you're going to end it all that's the way to do it. I wrote an incident report with the obvious suggestion to vent the reliefs outside. It was modified the next outage.
- snet0 6y ago
  "But what if we vent the toxic gas into the place where you go to see if there's a problem with the toxic gas..."

avmich 6y ago

That's likely to include the Nedelin catastrophe ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nedelin_catastrophe https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nedelin_catastrophe ) - "The most recent estimated death toll, released by Roscosmos on the 50th anniversary of the accident and originating with agency engineer Boris Chertok, was that 126 people had died, but the agency qualified the number by saying that the actual number could be anywhere from 60 to 150 dead."

MichaelMoser123 6y ago
The Nedelin catastrophe was an ICBM test run of a rocket with hypergolic fuel that exploded on the launch pad; there was the 1980 launch pad explosion of a (military) sattelite launcher that killed 44 people and injured 43. The Russian version of the article says that hydrogen peroxide filters were produced with catalytic materials, this was later fixed after another launch almost failed in the same manner (it doesn't say how that blast was avoided), initially they suspected an action of the ground crew to have causes the blast in 1980. Both blasts were kept secret until Perestroika in 1989. both explosions were on rockets with hypergolic fuel. The Russian wikipedia article also has a list of 'other failures' - these are fires in an ICBM silo in Russia in 1960 - eight dead; the US had a fire in a Titan II bunker in 1965 that killed 53 and another one in 1980 that killed one man; also Brazil had a fire of a liquid fueled rocket that killed 21, also on start preparations. (and another blast in Plesetsk in 1973 that killed seven http://www.plesetzk.ru/index.php?p=1973&d=doc/disaster http://www.plesetzk.ru/index.php?p=1973&d=doc/disaster - wikipedia doesn't list everything) Rocket fuel can be very dangerous stuff! At least liquid methane/oxygen aren't hypergolic. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1980_Plesetsk_launch_pad_disaster https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1980_Plesetsk_launch_pad_disas... https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%9A%D0%B0%D1%82%D0%B0%D1%81%D1%82%D1%80%D0%BE%D1%84%D0%B0_%D0%BD%D0%B0_%D0%BA%D0%BE%D1%81%D0%BC%D0%BE%D0%B4%D1%80%D0%BE%D0%BC%D0%B5_%D0%9F%D0%BB%D0%B5%D1%81%D0%B5%D1%86%D0%BA_(1980) https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%9A%D0%B0%D1%82%D0%B0%D1%81...
- derivagral 6y ago
  I've always loved Ignition![0] for the perspective it gives on working with the chemistry of this stuff. [0] https://www.amazon.com/Ignition-Informal-Propellants-University-Classics/dp/0813595835 https://www.amazon.com/Ignition-Informal-Propellants-Univers...