It is very difficult to understand and comprehend what happened 60 years ago today, when space travel began to have a tourist value. During the years of the Cold War The US and the Soviet Union, who brought the competition at the front to orbit; meanwhile it began fierce competition by reason, science and intelligence to become the first country to reach space and then the moon, spending mind-boggling amounts of money.

Today’s space technologies, even the inventions that made these journeys possible, are still in our lives. Smartphones, which are indispensable in our daily lives, fast wireless connections that can download movies in 4K quality in minutes with a wireless connection… So what did all this cost? From the beginning of the space race, which has pushed the boundaries of the highest technology humanity has ever seen, to the present day. how many people died?

The answer to our questions is contained in the statements of Nigel Packham, NASA’s Deputy Director of Mission Assurance:

Packham, until now In 3 missions performed by NASA And In 2 missions carried out by the Soviets total 21 people confirmed that he had died. This number, of course, does not include the so-called missions and losses of the Soviets, who were recorded and especially kept the work as a state secret, and were said to have been done without the knowledge of the world public, and were often used as an aid to conspiracies.

So, what missions did these people who lost their lives in space take on these hazards, what were the mistakes that caused their deaths?

American teacher Christa McAuliffe would have been the first civilian to go into space if the rocket launched in 1986 had not exploded.

Jim Hermanson, of the University of Washington, said in a statement that “accidents are often caused by unexpected circumstances, equipment failures, human error and even policy and management issues”; in some cases these combination in case of stated to have happened.

Of course, this is a pretty superficial statement when it comes to all the deaths. But we understand that in the age of space competition, states are not just spies for rivals. their own scientists, pilots, astronauts or cosmonauts. They also applied pressure.

73 seconds after Challenger’s launch in January 1986, the rocket exploded along with the space shuttle on it, burying 7 people in mid-air:

After this event, NASA tightened its seatbelts in space studies and evaluated that perhaps it wouldn’t make much sense to pursue victory against the disintegrating Soviets.

The cause of the accident was at the Cape Canaveral spaceport where the rocket took off. they were unexpected cold weather conditions. For this reason, flexibility problems were experienced in some parts of the rockets and these problems could not be rectified when the rocket lifted off. The rocket’s fuel tank, which was leaking a large amount of gas, caught fire and was shattered by a massive explosion. However, an administrator who saw the cold weather conditions was able to prevent the start and prevent the deaths of people.

Another deadly space accident occurred more recently, in February 2003. The Columbia spacecraft actually lifted off without a hitch… But it exploded during reentry:

When the cause of this disaster, which killed all 7 crew members, was investigated, it turned out that the stages of entry into the atmosphere were not sufficiently understood and the problems that could be experienced during the transition from space to atmosphere were underestimated . Also during launch, the surface of the Columbia capsule damage in a small area had occurred. However, after launch, the rocket was allowed to carry the shuttle into space. Again, as with the previous disaster, this could have been prevented by a damaged administrator and people could not die.

Other fatal space accidents also occurred as follows:

Apollo 1, the year is 1967. The rocket explodes on takeoff from the ground. Below are the final speeches from the 3 astronauts in the cockpit:

Soyuz 1, again in 1967, this time in Russia. The Soviet rocket opens its parachutes to slow down as it descends, but unfortunately it does not open, the lone cosmonaut Vladimir Komarov dies:

In 1971, the Soviets built the first space station in history, the cosmonauts they sent with the Soyuz 11 mission spent 3 weeks in space. They would spin smoothly, but the pressure drop of the vehicle they were spinning meant they could no longer see Earth:

This accident has been recorded as the only fatal accident that occurred outside the Earth’s atmosphere. In other words, so far a total of 21 people have lost their lives in space missions, and 3 people have died outside the Earth, that is, in the space environment.