Space disaster: Encyclopedia II - Space disaster - Astronaut fatalities

Space disaster - Astronaut fatalities

The history of space exploration has been marred by a number of tragedies that resulted in the deaths of the astronauts or ground crew. As of 2004, in-flight accidents had killed 18 astronauts, training accidents had claimed at least 11 astronauts and launchpad accidents had killed at least 70 ground crew.

Only the crew of Soyuz 11 died in space.

About 2% of the manned launch/reentry attempts have killed their crew, with Soyuz and the Shuttle having almost the same death rates. Except for the X-15 (which is a suborbital rocket plane), other launchers have not launched sufficiently often for reasonable safety comparisons to be made. For example, it seems likely that Apollo would have eventually had a similar fatality rate if the program had continued to the present day.

About 4% to 5% of the people that have been launched have died doing so (because astronauts often launch more than once). As of November 2004, 439 individuals have flown on spaceflights: Russia/Soviet Union (96), USA (277), others (66). Twenty-two have died while in a spacecraft: Apollo 1 (3), Soyuz 1 (1), X-15-3(1), Soyuz 11 (3), Challenger (7), Columbia (7).

If Apollo 1 and X-15-3 are included as spaceflights, 5% (or 22) of the 439 have died on spaceflights. This includes Roger Chaffee (who never flew in space) and Michael J. Adams (who reached space by the U.S. definition but not the international definition, see below) in the spaceflight total and Grissom, White, Chaffee (the crew of Apollo 1) and Adams in the killed total.

If Apollo 1 and the X-15-3 are excluded; 4% (or 18) of the 437 have died while on a spaceflight. This excludes Gus Grissom, Ed White, Roger Chaffee, and Michael J. Adams from the killed total and Chaffee and Adams from the spaceflight total.

The Soyuz system is often considered to be less reliable than the Shuttle, but the overall safety appears to be the same. Although there have been some lucky escapes, no deaths have occurred since 1971, and none with the current design of the Soyuz. Including the early Soyuz design, the average deaths per launched crew member on Soyuz are currently under 2%. However, there have also been several serious injuries, and some other incidents in which crews nearly died.

American astronauts that have lost their lives in the line of duty are memorialized by the Space Mirror Memorial at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in Merritt Island, Florida. Cosmonauts that have died in the line of duty under the auspices of the Soviet Union were generally honored by burial at the Kremlin Wall Necropolis in Moscow. It is unknown whether this remains tradition for Russia, since the Kremlin Wall Necropolis was largely a Communist honor and no cosmonauts have died in action since Communism fell.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Astronaut fatalities", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki