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Fatal Spaceflight Accidents

Crew of Challenger STS-51L

Challenger STS-51L accident

Spacecraft Crew Launch Vehicle Launch Date Accident Date Description
Apollo 1 Grissom, Virgil Ivan (Gus)
White, Edward Higgins II.
Chaffee, Roger Bruce
Saturn-1B - 27.01.1967 Cabin fire killed crew during launch rehersal
Soyuz 1 Komarov, Vladimir Mikhailovich Soyuz 23.04.1967 24.04.1967 Pilot was killed when landing parachute failed to untangle.
X-15A #3-F65 Adams, Michael James X-15A 15.11.1967 15.11.1967 X-15 entered spin at Mach 5, after reaching peak altitude, lost control and disintegrated.
Soyuz 11 Dobrovolsky, Georgi Timofeyevich
Patsayev, Viktor Ivanovich
Volkov, Vladislav Nikolayevich
Soyuz 06.06.1971 30.06.1971 Crew was killed, when cabin pressure was lost prior reentry.
Challenger (STS-51L) Scobee, Francis Richard
Smith, Michael John
McNair, Dr. Ronald Erwin
Onizuka, Ellison Shoji (El)
Resnik, Dr. Judith Arlene
Jarvis, Gregory Bruce
McAuliffe, Sharon Christa Corrigan
Shuttle 28.01.1986 28.01.1986 A leak in the right SRB, caused by a failed O-ring, led to destruction of the ET and the spacecraft at T+73 sec.
Columbia (STS-107) Husband, Rick Douglas
McCool, William Cameron (Willie)
Anderson, Michael Philip (Mike)
Brown, Dr. David McDowell
Clark, Dr. Laurel Blair Salton
Chawla, Dr. Kalpana
Ramon, Ilan
Shuttle 16.01.2003 01.02.2003 Spacecraft disintegrated on reentry in 60 km height. Failure originated in the left wing, which was damaged by falling insulation foam from the ET.
SpaceShipTwo (PF04) Siebold, Peter (survived)
Alsbury, Michael T.
SpaceShipTwo 31.10.2014 31.10.2014 Spacecraft disintegrated during atmospheric test flight due to unlocked feather mechanism during propulsive flight. Alsbury was killed and Siebold was severly injured in the accident.

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