List of spaceflight-related accidents and incidents

Space Shuttle Challenger disintegrates 73 seconds after its 1986 launch, due to hot gases escaping through a compromised seal in an SRB leading to structural failure of the external tank. The accident resulted in the death of all seven crew members.

This article lists verifiable spaceflight-related accidents and incidents resulting in fatality or near-fatality during flight or training for manned space missions, and testing, assembly, preparation or flight of manned and unmanned spacecraft. Not included are accidents or incidents associated with intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) tests, unmanned space flights not resulting in fatality or serious injury, or Soviet or German rocket-powered aircraft projects of World War II. Also not included are alleged unreported Soviet space accidents, which are considered fringe theories by a majority of historians.

As of 2016, there have been 18 astronaut and cosmonaut fatalities.^[1][2] Astronauts have died while training for space missions, such as the Apollo 1 launch pad fire which killed all three men. There have also been some non-astronaut fatalities during spaceflight-related activities.

Astronaut fatalities

(In the statistics below, "astronaut" is applied to all space travellers to avoid the use of "astronaut/cosmonaut".)

Astronaut fatalities during spaceflight

As of 2016, in-flight accidents have killed 18 astronauts, in four separate incidents.^[2]

NASA astronauts who died on duty are memorialized at the Space Mirror Memorial at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in Merritt Island, Florida. Cosmonauts who died on duty under the Soviet Union were generally honored by burial at the Kremlin Wall Necropolis in Moscow. No cosmonauts have died during spaceflight since the Soviet Union dissolved in 1991.

There have been four fatal in-flight accidents on missions which were considered spaceflights under the internationally accepted definition of the term, plus one on the ground during rehearsal of a planned flight. In each case all crew were killed. To date, no individual member of a multi-member crew has died during a mission or rehearsal.

Incident	Date	Mission	Fatalities	Description
Parachute failure	24 April 1967	Soyuz 1	Vladimir Komarov	The one-day mission was plagued by a series of mishaps with the new spacecraft type, culminating with its parachute not opening properly after atmospheric reentry. Komarov was killed when the capsule hit the ground at high speed.[3] The Soyuz 1 crash site coordinates are 51°21′41″N 59°33′44″E / 51.3615°N 59.5622°E, 3 kilometres (1.9 mi) west of Karabutak, Province of Orenburg in the Russian Federation, about 275 kilometres (171 mi) east-southeast of Orenburg. In a small park on the side of the road is a memorial monument: a black column with a bust of Komarov at the top.[4][5][6]
Decompression	30 June 1971	Soyuz 11	Georgi Dobrovolski  Viktor Patsayev  Vladislav Volkov	The crew of Soyuz 11 were killed after undocking from space station Salyut 1 after a three-week stay. A cabin vent valve accidentally opened at service module separation. The recovery team found the crew dead. These are the only human fatalities in space (above 100 kilometres (62 mi)) thus far.[7][8] The Soyuz 11 landing coordinates are 47°21′24″N 70°07′17″E / 47.35663°N 70.12142°E, 90 kilometres (56 mi) southwest of Karazhal, Karagandy, Kazakhstan, and about 550 kilometres (340 mi) northeast of Baikonur, in open flat country far from any populated area. In a small circular fenced area at the site is a memorial monument in the form of a three-sided metallic column. Near the top of the column on each side is the engraved image of the face of a crew member set into a stylized triangle.[9][10][11]
Vehicle disintegration during launch – Space Shuttle Challenger disaster	28 January 1986	STS-51-L	Gregory Jarvis  Christa McAuliffe  Ronald McNair  Ellison Onizuka  Judith Resnik  Michael J. Smith  Dick Scobee	The Space Shuttle Challenger was destroyed 73 seconds after lift-off on STS-51-L. The investigation found that cold weather conditions caused an O-ring seal to fail, allowing hot gases from the shuttle solid rocket booster (SRB) to impinge on the external propellant tank and booster strut. The strut and aft end of the tank failed, allowing the top of the SRB to rotate into the top of the tank. Challenger was thrown sideways into the Mach 1.8 windstream and broke up with the loss of all seven crew members. NASA investigators determined they may have survived the spacecraft disintegration, possibly unconscious from hypoxia; some tried to activate their emergency oxygen. Any survivors of the breakup were killed, however, when the largely intact cockpit hit the water at 320 km/h (200 mph), about 32 km (20 miles) east of Cape Canaveral at 28.64 degrees north, 80.28 degrees west.[12][13] About half of the vehicle's remains were never recovered, and fragments still wash ashore occasionally on the coast of Brevard County, Florida.
Vehicle disintegration on re-entry – Space Shuttle Columbia disaster	1 February 2003	STS-107	Rick D. Husband  William McCool  Michael P. Anderson  David M. Brown  Kalpana Chawla  Laurel B. Clark  Ilan Ramon	The Space Shuttle Columbia was lost as it returned from a two-week mission, STS-107. Damage to the shuttle's thermal protection system (TPS) led to structural failure of the shuttle's left wing and the spacecraft ultimately broke apart. Investigation revealed damage to the reinforced carbon-carbon leading edge wing panel resulted from the impact of a piece of foam insulation that broke away from the external tank during the launch.[14] The vehicle broke up over the southwestern United States and fell in fragments over eastern Texas and central Louisiana.

There has also been an accident on a flight that was considered a spaceflight by those involved but not under the internationally accepted definition:

Incident	Date	Mission	Fatalities	Description
Control failure	15 November 1967	X-15 Flight 3-65-97	Michael J. Adams	During X-15 Flight 191, Adams' seventh flight, the plane had an electrical problem followed by control problems at the apogee of its flight. The pilot may also have become disoriented. During reentry from a 266,000 ft (50.4 mile, 81.1 km) apogee, the X-15 yawed and went into a spin at Mach 5. The pilot recovered, but went into a Mach 4.7 inverted dive. Excessive loading led to structural breakup at about 65,000 feet (19.8 km).[15] Adams was posthumously awarded astronaut wings, as his flight had passed an altitude of 50 miles (80.5 km), the U.S. definition of space.[16][17]

Fatalities during spaceflight training or testing

In addition to accidents during spaceflights, 13 astronauts, test pilots, and other personnel have died during training and test flights.

Incident	Date	Mission	Fatalities	Description
Fire in altitude chamber	23 March 1961		Valentin Bondarenko	First space-related fatality. During a 15-day endurance experiment in a low-pressure altitude chamber with at least 50% oxygen atmosphere, Vostok cosmonaut trainee Bondarenko dropped an alcohol-soaked cloth onto an electric hotplate. He suffered third-degree burns over most of his body and face, and died of his burns shortly after being hospitalized.[18]
Training jet crash	31 October 1964		Theodore Freeman	Freeman was in a T-38 jet trainer on landing approach to Ellington AFB near Houston, TX, when a goose smashed into the left side of the cockpit canopy. Shards of Plexiglas entered the engine intake and caused both engines to flame out. Freeman ejected too close to the ground for his parachute to open properly.[19][20]
Training jet crash	28 February 1966	Gemini 9	Elliot See Charles Bassett	See and Bassett attempted to land their T-38 at Lambert Field in St. Louis, Missouri in bad weather, and crashed into the adjacent McDonnell Aircraft factory, where they were going for simulator training.[21][22]
Fire during spacecraft test	27 January 1967	Apollo 1	Virgil "Gus" Grissom Edward H. White Roger Chaffee	An electrical fire in the cabin, spread quickly in a pure oxygen atmosphere, claimed the lives of all three Apollo 1 crew members during a "plugs-out" test in preparation for their planned February 21 launch.[23]
Training jet crash	5 October 1967		Clifton C. Williams	Williams, flying alone in a T-38 jet from Cape Kennedy, Florida to Houston, Texas, crashed due to an aileron control mechanical failure, about 15 miles (24 km) north of Tallahassee, Florida.[24] Williams ejected too low for the parachute to open properly.[25]
Training jet crash	8 December 1967		Robert Lawrence	The first US African-American astronaut, selected for the Air Force Manned Orbiting Laboratory program, was killed when his F-104 Starfighter jet crashed at Edwards Air Force Base, California, while practicing a series of high speed, quick descent landings as copilot with Major Harvey Royer. Both crewmen ejected; Royer survived with injuries, but Lawrence was found in his ejection seat, the parachute unopened.[26][27]
Training jet crash	27 March 1968	Soyuz 3	Yuri Gagarin Vladimir Seryogin	The first man in space was killed with flight instructor Vladimir Seryogin when their MiG-15UTI jet trainer crashed.[28] The likely cause was determined to be avoidance of a weather balloon.[29]
Drowned during water recovery training	11 July 1993		Sergei Vozovikov	Sergei Yuriyevich Vozovikov was a member of the Soviet Air Force Cosmonaut Training Group 11. His Cosmonaut training was from 1 October 1991 to 6 March 1992. He drowned 11 July 1993 during water recovery training in the Black Sea, near Anapa, Russia.[30][31]
Spaceship crash during test flight	31 October 2014		Michael Alsbury	Michael Alsbury was killed and Peter Siebold was seriously injured when SpaceShipTwo VSS Enterprise disintegrated during a powered atmospheric test flight over California due to premature deployment of the feathering system.[32]

Non-fatal incidents during spaceflight

Apart from actual disasters, a number of missions resulted in some very near misses and also some training accidents that nearly resulted in deaths.

Incident	Date	Mission	Description
Separation failure	12 April 1961	Vostok 1	During the flight of Vostok 1, after retrofire, the Vostok service module unexpectedly remained attached to the reentry module by a bundle of wires. The two halves of the craft were supposed to separate ten seconds after retrofire. But they did not separate until 10 minutes after retrofire, when the wire bundle finally burned through. The spacecraft went into wild gyrations at the beginning of reentry, before the wires burned through and the reentry module settled into the proper reentry attitude.[33]
Landing capsule sank in water	21 July 1961	Liberty Bell 7	After Liberty Bell 7 splashed down in the Atlantic, the hatch malfunctioned and blew, filling the capsule with water and almost drowning Gus Grissom, who managed to escape before it sank. Grissom then had to deal with a spacesuit that was rapidly filling with water, but managed to get into the helicopter's retrieval collar and was lifted to safety.[34] The spacecraft was recovered in 1999, having settled 300 nmi (560 km; 350 mi) southeast of Cape Canaveral in 15,000 ft (4,600 m) of seawater. An unexploded SOFAR bomb, designed for sound fixing and ranging in case the craft sank, had failed and had to be dealt with when it was recovered from the ocean floor in 1999.[35]
Spacesuit or airlock design fault	18 March 1965	Voskhod 2	The mission featured the world's first spacewalk, by Alexei Leonov. After his twelve minutes outside, Leonov's spacesuit inflated in the vacuum to the point where he could not reenter the airlock. He opened a valve to allow some of the suit's pressure to bleed off, and was barely able to get back inside the capsule after suffering side effects of the bends. Because the spacecraft was so cramped, the crew could not keep to their reentry schedule and landed 386 km off course in deep forest. They spent a night sheltering in the capsule from the cold, and a second night in a temporary hut built by rescuers before skiing with them to a clearing where a helicopter flew them to Perm.[36][37]
Engine shutdown at launch	12 December 1965	Gemini 6A	The first on-pad shutdown in the US Manned Program. Gemini 7 orbiting 185 miles directly over Missile Row witnessed the event and reported they could clearly see the momentary exhaust plume before shutdown.[38]
Equipment failure	17 March 1966	Gemini 8	A maneuvering thruster refused to shut down and put their capsule into an uncontrolled spin.[39] After the Gemini spun up to one revolution per second, Neil Armstrong regained control by switching from the main attitude control system to the reentry system. Mission rules required a landing as soon as possible once the reentry thrusters were used, causing an early end to the flight.[40]
Separation failure	18 January 1969	Soyuz 5	Soyuz 5 had a harrowing reentry and landing when the capsule's service module initially refused to separate, causing the spacecraft to begin reentry faced the wrong way. The service module broke away before the capsule would have been destroyed, and so it made a rough but survivable landing far off course in the Ural mountains.
Struck twice by lightning during launch	14 November 1969	Apollo 12	Astronauts Pete Conrad, Alan Bean, and Dick Gordon experienced two lightning strikes during the launch of Apollo 12. The first strike, at 36 seconds after liftoff, knocked the three fuel cells offline and the craft switched to battery power automatically. The second strike, at 52 seconds after liftoff, knocked the onboard guidance platform offline. Four temperature sensors on the outside of the Lunar Module were burnt out and four measuring devices in the reaction control system failed temporarily. Fuel cell power was restored about four minutes later. The astronauts spent additional time in earth orbit to make sure the spacecraft was functional before firing their S-IVB third stage engine and departing for the moon.[41][42]
Struck by camera during splashdown	24 November 1969	Apollo 12	Astronaut Alan Bean was struck above the right eyebrow by a 16mm movie camera when the Apollo 12 spacecraft splashed down in the ocean. The camera broke free from its stowage place. Bean suffered a concussion, and a 1.25 cm cut above the eyebrow that required stitches.[43]
Premature engine shutdown	11 April 1970	Apollo 13	During the launch of Apollo 13, its Saturn V second stage suffered a premature shutdown on one of its five engines. The center engine shut down two minutes early. The remaining engines on the second and third stages were burned a total of 34 seconds longer. It was later determined that the shutdown was caused by pogo oscillation of the engine.[44][45][46]
Equipment failure	13 April 1970	Apollo 13	The Apollo 13 crew came home safely after a violent rupture of a liquid oxygen tank[47] deprived the Service Module of its ability to produce electrical power, crippling their spacecraft en route to the moon. They survived the loss of use of their command ship by relying on the Lunar Module as a "life boat" to provide life support and power for the trip home.[48]
One of three main parachutes failed	7 August 1971	Apollo 15	During descent, the three main parachutes of Apollo 15 opened successfully. However, when the remaining reaction control system fuel was jettisoned, one parachute was damaged by the discarded fuel causing it to collapse. The Apollo 15 and its crew still splashed down safely, at a slightly higher than normal velocity, on the two remaining main parachutes. If a second parachute had failed, the spacecraft would probably have been crushed on impact with the ocean, according to a NASA official.[49]
Separation failure	5 April 1975	Soyuz 18a	The Soyuz 18a mission nearly ended in disaster when the rocket suffered a second-stage separation failure during launch. This also interrupted the craft's attitude, causing the vehicle to accelerate towards the Earth and triggering an emergency reentry sequence. Due to the downward acceleration, the crew experienced an acceleration of 21.3 g rather than the nominal 15 g for an abort. Upon landing, the vehicle rolled down a hill and stopped just short of a high cliff. The crew survived, but Lazarev, the mission commander, suffered internal injuries due to the severe G-forces and was never able to fly again.
Gas poisoning on board	24 July 1975	Apollo Soyuz Test Project	During final descent and parachute deployment for the Apollo Soyuz Test Project Command Module, the U.S. crew were exposed to 300 µL/L of toxic nitrogen tetroxide gas (Reaction Control System oxidizer) venting from the spacecraft and reentering a cabin air intake. A switch was left in the wrong position. 400µL/L is fatal. Vance Brand lost consciousness for a short time. The crew members suffered from burning sensations of their eyes, faces, noses, throats and lungs. Thomas Stafford quickly broke out emergency oxygen masks and put one on Brand and gave one to Deke Slayton. The crew were exposed to the toxic gas from 24,000 ft (7.3 km) down to landing. About an hour after landing the crew developed chemical-induced pneumonia and their lungs had edema. They experienced shortness of breath and were hospitalized in Hawaii. The crew spent two weeks in the hospital. By July 30, their chest X-rays appeared to return to normal except for Slayton; he was diagnosed with a benign lesion unrelated to the gas exposure which was later removed.[50]
Landing capsule sank in water	16 October 1976	Soyuz 23	The Soyuz 23 capsule broke through the surface of a frozen lake and was dragged underwater by its parachute. The crew was saved after a very difficult rescue operation.[51]
Engine malfunction	12 April 1979	Soyuz 33	Engine failure forced Soyuz 33 to be aborted. It was the first-ever failure of a Soyuz engine during orbital operations. The crew, commander Nikolai Rukavishnikov and Bulgarian cosmonaut Georgi Ivanov, suffered a steep ballistic re-entry, but were safely recovered.
Unexpectedly high SRB ignition shock wave overpressure reached design limits of orbiter structure	12 April 1981	STS-1	During the launch of STS-1, the Solid Rocket Booster ignition shock wave overpressure was four times greater than expected (2.0 psi measured vs 0.5 psi predicted). Some of the aft structures on Space Shuttle Columbia reached their design limits (2.0 psi) from the overpressure. The overpressure bent four struts that supported two RCS fuel tanks in the nose of Columbia and the orbiter's locked body flap was pushed up and down 6 in (15 cm) by the shock wave. John Young and Robert Crippen in the crew cabin received a 3 g jolt from the shock wave. An improved water spray shock wave damping system had to be installed on the launch pad prior to launch.[52][53][54][55]
Fire in launch vehicle	26 September 1983	Soyuz T-10-1	A fuel spillage before the planned liftoff caused Soyuz T-10-1 to be engulfed in flames. The crew was narrowly saved by the activation of their launch escape system, with the rocket exploding two seconds later.
Leaked hydrazine fuel fire and explosion	8 December 1983	STS-9	In the last two minutes of the STS-9 mission, during Space Shuttle Columbia's final approach to the Edwards AFB runway, hydrazine fuel leaked onto hot surfaces of two of the three onboard auxiliary power units (APU) in the aft compartment of the shuttle and caught fire. About 15 minutes after landing, hydrazine fuel trapped in the APU control valves exploded, destroying the valves in both APUs. The fire also damaged nearby wiring. The fire stopped when the supply of leaked fuel was exhausted. All of this was discovered the next day when technicians removed an access panel and discovered the area blackened and scorched. It is believed that hydrazine leaked in orbit and froze, stopping the leak. After returning, the leak restarted and ignited when combined with oxygen from the atmosphere. There were no injuries during the incident.[56][57]
Space Shuttle in-flight engine failure	29 July 1985	STS-51-F	Five minutes, 45 seconds into ascent, one of three main engines aboard Challenger shut down prematurely due to a spurious high temperature reading. At about the same time, a second main engine almost shut down from a similar problem, but this was observed and inhibited by a fast acting flight controller. The failed SSME resulted in an Abort To Orbit (ATO) trajectory, whereby the shuttle achieves a lower than planned orbital altitude. Had the second engine failed within about 20 seconds of the first, a Transatlantic Landing (TAL) abort might have been necessary. No bailout option existed until after mission STS-51-L, the Challenger disaster. But even with that option, a bailout (a "contingency abort") would never be considered when an "intact abort" option exists, and after five minutes of normal flight it would always exist unless a serious flight control failure or some other major problem beyond engine shutdown occurred.[58][59]
Sensor failure	6 September 1988	Mir EP-3	At the end of Mir EP-3, Soviet cosmonaut Vladimir Lyakhov and Afghan cosmonaut Abdul Ahad Mohmand undocked from Mir in the spacecraft Soyuz TM-5. During descent they suffered a computer software problem combined with a sensor problem. The deorbit engine on the TM-5 spacecraft which was to propel them into atmospheric reentry, did not behave as expected. During an attempted burn, the computer shut off the engines prematurely, believing the spacecraft was out of alignment.[60] Lyakhov determined that they were not, in fact, out of alignment, and asserted that the problem was caused by conflicting signals picked up by the alignment sensors caused by solar glare.[60] With the problem apparently solved, two orbits later he restarted to deorbit engines. But the engines shut off again. The flight director decided that they would have to remain in orbit an extra day (a full revolution of the Earth), so they could determine what the problem was. During this time it was realised that during the second attempted engine burn, the computer had tried to execute the program which was used to dock with Mir several months earlier during EP-2.[60] After reprogramming the computer, the next attempt was successful, and the crew safely landed on 7 September.[61]
Thermal tile damage	6 December 1988	STS-27	Space Shuttle Atlantis' Thermal Protection System tiles sustained unusually severe damage during this flight. Ablative insulating material from the right-hand solid rocket booster nose cap had hit the orbiter about 85 seconds into the flight, as seen in footage of the ascent. The crew made an inspection of the shuttle's impacted starboard side using the shuttle's Canadarm robot arm, but the limited resolution and range of the cameras made it impossible to determine the full extent of the tile damage. Following reentry, more than 700 tiles were found to be damaged including one that was missing entirely. STS-27 was the most heavily damaged shuttle to return to earth safely.
Spacesuit puncture	8 April 1991	STS-37	During an extravehicular activity on STS-37, a small rod (palm bar) in a glove of EV2 astronaut Jay Apt's extravehicular mobility unit punctured the suit. Somehow, the astronaut's hand conformed to the puncture and sealed it, preventing any detectable depressurization. During post-flight debriefings, Apt said after the second EVA, when he removed the gloves, his right hand index finger had an abrasion behind the knuckle. A postflight inspection of the right hand glove found the palm bar of the glove penetrating a restraint and glove bladder into the index finger side of the glove. NASA found air leakage with the bar in place was 3.8 SCCM, well within the specification of 8.0 SCCM. They said if the bar had come out of the hole, the leak still would not have been great enough to activate the secondary oxygen pack. The suit would, however, have shown a high oxygen rate indication.[62]
Explosive release device punctures cargo bay bulkhead	12 September 1993	STS-51	Aboard Space Shuttle Discovery, during the STS-51 mission, while releasing the Advanced Communications Technology Satellite from the payload bay, both the primary and backup explosive release devices detonated. Only the primary device was supposed to have detonated. Large metal bands holding the satellite in place were ripped away, causing flying debris. The debris punctured the orbiter's payload bay bulkhead leading to the main engine compartment, damaging wiring trays and payload bay thermal insulation blankets. The puncture in the bulkhead was 3 mm by 13 mm in size. The crew was uninjured and the damage was not great enough to endanger the shuttle. The satellite was undamaged.[63]
Eye injury from Mir exercise equipment	18 May 1995	Mir	While exercising on the Mir EO-18/NASA 1/Soyuz TM-21 mission, astronaut Norman E. Thagard suffered an eye injury. He was using an exercise device, doing deep knee bends, with elastic straps. One of the straps slipped off of his foot, flew up, and hit him in the eye. Later, even a small amount of light caused pain in his eye. He said using the eye was, "like looking at the world through gauze." An ophthalmologist at Mission Control-Moscow prescribed steroid drops and the eye healed.[64]
Fire on board	23 February 1997	Mir	There was a fire on board the Mir space station when a lithium perchlorate canister used to generate oxygen leaked. The fire was extinguished after about 90 seconds, but smoke did not clear for several minutes.
Collision in space	25 June 1997	Mir	At Mir, during a re-docking test with the Progress M-34 cargo freighter, the Progress freighter collided with the Spektr module and solar arrays of the Mir space station. This damaged the solar arrays and the collision punctured a hole in the Spektr module and the space station began depressurizing. The onboard crew of two Russians and one visiting NASA astronaut were able to close off the Spektr module from the rest of Mir after quickly cutting cables and hoses blocking the hatch closure.
Main engine electrical short and hydrogen leak	23 July 1999	STS-93	Five seconds after liftoff, an electrical short knocked out controllers for two shuttle main engines. The engines automatically switched to their backup controllers. Had a further short shut down two engines, Columbia would have ditched in the ocean, although the crew could have possibly bailed out. Concurrently a pin came loose inside one engine and ruptured a cooling line, allowing a hydrogen fuel leak. This caused premature fuel exhaustion, but the vehicle safely achieved a slightly lower orbit. Had the failure propagated further, a risky transatlantic or RTLS abort would have been required.
Toxic ammonia leak during EVA	10 February 2001	ISS/STS-98	During EVA 1 on the STS-98 mission, NASA astronauts Robert L. Curbeam and Thomas D. Jones were connecting cooling lines on the International Space Station while working to install the Destiny Laboratory Module. A defective quick-disconnect valve allowed 5% of the ammonia cooling supply to escape into space. The escaping ammonia froze on the spacesuit of astronaut Curbeam as he struggled to close the valve. His helmet and suit were coated in toxic ammonia crystals an inch thick. Mission Control instructed Curbeam to remain outside for an entire orbit to allow the Sun to evaporate the frozen ammonia from his spacesuit. When they returned to the airlock, the astronauts pressurized, vented and then repressurized the air lock to purge any remaining toxic ammonia. After they removed their spacesuits, the crew wore oxygen masks for another 20 minutes to allow life-support systems in the airlock to further filter the air. No injuries resulted from the incident.[65]
Ballistic reentry, injured shoulder	3 May 2003	Soyuz TMA-1	The Soyuz TMA-1 capsule had a malfunction during its return to Earth from the ISS Expedition 6 mission and performed a ballistic reentry. The crew was subjected to about 8 to 9 G's during reentry. The capsule landed 500 km from the intended landing target. In addition, after landing the capsule was dragged about 15 meters by its parachute and ended up on its side in a hard landing. Astronaut Don Pettit injured his shoulder and was placed on a stretcher in a rescue helicopter and did not take part in post-landing ceremonies.[66][67][68]
29 unplanned rolls during ascent	29 September 2004	SpaceShipOne-16P	While piloting SpaceShipOne on suborbital flight 16P, the first of two flights that won the X-Prize for exceeding 100 km in altitude, astronaut Mike Melvill experienced 29 unplanned rolls during and after powered ascent. The rolls began at 50 seconds into the engine burn. The burn was stopped 11 seconds early after burning a total of 76 seconds. After engine cutoff, the craft continued rolling while coasting to apogee. The roll was finally brought under control after apogee using the craft's reaction jets. SpaceShipOne landed safely and Mike Melvill was uninjured.[69][70]
Separation failure	19 April 2008	Soyuz TMA-11	Soyuz TMA-11 suffered a reentry mishap similar to that suffered by Soyuz 5 in 1969. The service module failed to completely separate from the reentry vehicle and caused it to face the wrong way during the early portion of aerobraking. As with Soyuz 5, the service module eventually separated and the reentry vehicle completed a rough but survivable landing. Following the Russian news agency Interfax's report, this was widely reported as life-threatening[71][72] while NASA urged caution pending an investigation of the vehicle.[73] South Korean astronaut Yi So-Yeon was hospitalized after her return to South Korea due to injuries caused by the rough return voyage in the Soyuz TMA-11 spacecraft. The South Korean Science Ministry said that the astronaut had a minor injury to her neck muscles and had bruised her spinal column.[74]
Aborted spacewalk after water leak in suit	16 July 2013	ISS Expedition 36	During EVA-23 of Expedition 36 to the International Space Station, European Space Agency astronaut Luca Parmitano reported that water was steadily leaking into his helmet. Flight controllers elected to abort the EVA immediately, and Parmitano made his way back to the Quest airlock, followed by fellow astronaut Chris Cassidy. The airlock began repressurizing after a 1-hour and 32 minute spacewalk, and by this time Parmitano was having difficulty seeing, hearing, and speaking due to the amount of water in his suit. After repressurization, Expedition 36 commander Pavel Vinogradov and crewmembers Fyodor Yurchikhin and Karen Nyberg quickly removed Parmitano's helmet and soaked up the water with towels. Despite the incident, Parmitano was reported to be in good spirits and suffered no injury.[75][76][77] By December, 2013, NASA had determined the leak to have been caused by a design flaw in the Portable Life Support System liquid coolant. The designers failed to take into account the physics of water in zero-g, which unintentionally allowed coolant water to mix with the air supply.[78]

Non-fatal incidents during training

Non-astronaut fatalities

Fatalities caused by rocket explosions

• See also Nedelin catastrophe (ICBM)

Date	Place	Death(s)	Rocket	Description
1930-05-17	Berlin, Germany	1		Max Valier killed by rocket engine explosion.[79]
1931-02-02	Mount Redoria near Milan, Italy	1		A liquid fueled, 132-pound meteorological rocket, that was constructed by American physicist, Dr. Darwin Lyon, exploded during tests, killing a mechanic and injuring three others. Dr. Lyon was not present when the explosion occurred.[80]
1933-10-10	Germany	3		Explosion in rocket manufacturing room of Reinhold Tiling[81]
1934-07-16	Kummersdorf, Germany	3		Ground test engine explosion
1944?	Tuchola Forest, German-occupied Poland	7	A4-rocket	An A4-rocket crashes at a test launch in a trench. Several soldiers that were in the trench were killed.
1964-04-14	Cape Canaveral, US	3	Delta rocket	The third stage of a Delta rocket had just been joined to the Orbiting Solar Observatory satellite in the spin test facility building at Cape Kennedy. Eleven workers were in the room when the 205 kg of solid fuel in the third stage ignited. Sidney Dagle, 29; Lot D. Gabel, 51, and John Fassett, 30, were severely burned and later died of their injuries. Eight others were injured, but survived. The ignition was caused by a spark of static electricity.[82][83][84]
1964-05-07	Braunlage, West Germany	3	Mail rocket	Mail rocket built by Gerhard Zucker exploded and debris hit crowd of spectators.[85]
1966-12-14	Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakh SSR	1	Soyuz	Second unmanned Soyuz test flight. Launch escape system fired 27 minutes after an aborted launch causing a fire and subsequent explosion when pad workers had already returned to the launch pad.[86]
1973-06-26	Plesetsk Cosmodrome, USSR	9	Kosmos-3M launch vehicle	Launch explosion of Kosmos-3M rocket
1980-03-18	Plesetsk Cosmodrome, USSR	48	Vostok-2M launch vehicle	Explosion while fueling up a Vostok-2M rocket[87]
1990-09-07	Edwards AFB, CA United States	1	Titan 4	A Titan 4 launch vehicle solid rocket booster was being hoisted by a crane into a rocket test stand at Edwards AFB, California. The bottom section of the booster broke free, hit the ground and ignited. One person, Alan M. Quimby, 27, a civilian employee of Wyle Laboratories, was killed and 9 others were injured in the accident.[88][89]
1991-08-09	Komaki, Aichi, Japan	1	H-II launch vehicle	Engineer Arihiro Kanaya, 23, was conducting a high pressure endurance test on a pipe used in the first stage rocket engine of the H-2 (H-II) launch vehicle when it exploded. The explosion caused a 14 cm thick door in the testing room to fall on Kanaya and fracture his skull, killing him. The accident happened at the Nagoya Guidance and Propulsion Systems Works Of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries in Komaki, Aichi, Japan.[90]
1993-02-27	Esrange, Sweden	1		Bror Thornéus, a technician from Sweden was killed when a sounding rocket ignited during testing of its ignition system at the European Sounding Rocket Range (Esrange), located outside the town of Kiruna in northern Sweden.[91][92]
1995-01-26	Xichang, China	6+	Long March rocket	Long March rocket veered off course after launch
1996-02-15	Xichang, China	6-500	Long March rocket	Intelsat 708 Satellite, a Long March rocket, veered off course immediately after launch, crashing in the nearby village only 22 seconds later. and destroying 80 houses. According to official Chinese reports there were 6 fatalities and 57 injuries resulting from the incident, but other accounts estimated 100 fatalities.[93]
2002-10-15	Plesetsk Cosmodrome, Russia	1	Soyuz-U	A Soyuz-U exploded 29 seconds after launch, killing a soldier, Ivan Marchenko, and injuring 8 others. Fragments of the rocket started a forest fire nearby, and a Block D strap-on booster caused damage to the launchpad.[94]
2003-08-22	Alcântara, Brazil	21	VLS-3	Explosion of an unmanned rocket during launch preparations (see Brazilian rocket explosion)[95]
2007-07-26	Mojave Spaceport, California	3		Explosion during a test of rocket systems by Scaled Composites during a nitrous oxide injector test[96]

Other non-astronaut fatalities

Date	Place	Deaths	Associated Space vehicle	Description
1968-05-16	Kennedy Space Center, US	1	Apollo 4	Pad worker William B. Bates, 46, was killed while hooking up an 8-inch (20 cm) high-pressure water line to the mobile service structure on Kennedy Space Center Launch Complex 39A, which should not have been pressurized at the time. The cap blew off with 180 psi pressure, striking him in the chest.[97][98]
1981-03-19	Kennedy Space Center, US	3	STS-1	Anoxia due to nitrogen atmosphere in the aft engine compartment of Columbia during preparations for STS-1. Five workers were involved in the incident. John Bjornstad died at the scene; Forrest Cole and Nick Mullon died later from injuries sustained.[99][100][101][102]
1981-05-05	Kennedy Space Center, US	1	STS-2	Construction worker Anthony E. Hill, 22, fell more than 100 feet (30 m) from the Kennedy Space Center Launch Complex 39B service structure. Workers were preparing LC-39B for a planned September 1981 launch of the Space Shuttle Columbia.[98]
1985-12-04	Vandenberg AFB, US	1		Carl Reich, 49, of Lompoc, CA, an iron worker employed by Hensel Phelps Construction of Greeley, CO, fell 18 stories from the mobile service structure of the SLC-6 Space Shuttle launch complex, while bolting a platform onto the structure.[103][104]
1988-05-04	Henderson, Nevada, US	2		PEPCON disaster, explosion of a factory that produced ammonium perchlorate for solid-fuel rocket boosters of the Space Shuttle and other launchers.
1989-12-22	Cape Canaveral, US	1		A worker refurbishing the 11th level of the Cape Canaveral, Atlas Launch Complex 36B launch tower, was killed when an air hose he was using was caught by the pad elevator. The hose wrapped around the worker and pulled him into the elevator shaft, crushing him. The pad was being refurbished for commercial satellite launches by General Dynamics starting in 1990.[105]
1995-05-05	Guiana Space Centre, French Guiana	2	Ariane 5	Two technicians died from Anoxia due to major nitrogen leak in confined area of umbilical mast at Ariane 5 launch area during cryogenic M1 main stage testing.[106][107]
2001-07-08	Cape Canaveral, US	1		Worker disconnecting a coupling on a temporary pipe used to purge a liquid oxygen system near Launch Complex 37. Unexpected buildup of pressure caused the coupling to break loose and strike the employee in the head.[108][109]
2001-10-01	Cape Canaveral, US	1		Crane operator Bill Brooks was killed in an industrial accident at Launch Complex 37.[109]
2002-05-12	Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan	8	Space Shuttle Buran	Workers repairing the roof of the Baikonur Cosmodrome N-1/Energia vehicle assembly building died when the roof suffered a total structural collapse and crashed 80 meters (260 ft) to the ground. Buran Shuttle was destroyed.[110]
2010-05-05	Redstone Arsenal, US	2		Ammonium perchlorate explosion in a solid rocket fuel test area.[111]
2013-11-09	Plesetsk, Russia	2		Two workers cleaning out a propellant tank died when exposed to poisonous nitrogen gases within the tank[112]

See also

• Space exposure
• Fallen Astronaut
• Lost Cosmonauts
• Criticism of the Space Shuttle program
• International Association for the Advancement of Space Safety
• Space shuttle

Notes

1. Harwood (2005).
2. Musgrave, Larsen, Tommaso (2009), p. 143.
3. Coleman, Fred (1967-04-24). "Soviet Cosmonaut Dies in Spacecraft". The Owosso Argus-Press (Owosso, Michigan). American Press. p. 1.
4. "Google Maps - Soyuz 1 Crash Site - Memorial Monument Location". Retrieved 2010-12-25.
5. "Google Maps - Soyuz 1 Crash Site - Memorial Monument Photo". Retrieved 2010-12-25.
6. "Google Maps - Soyuz 1 Crash Site - Memorial Monument Photo closeup". Retrieved 2010-12-25.
7. Butler, Sue (1971-07-01). "What Happened Aboard Soyuz 11? Reentry Strain Too Much?". Daytona Beach Morning Journal (Daytona Beach, Florida). p. 43.
8. Reuters (1973-11-03). "Space deaths detailed". The Leader-Post (Regina, Saskatchewan). p. 9.
9. "Google Maps - Soyuz 11 Landing Site - Monument Location". Retrieved 2010-12-25.
10. "Google Maps - Soyuz 11 Landing Site - Monument Photo". Retrieved 2010-12-25.
11. "Google Maps - Soyuz 11 Landing Site - Monument Photo closeup". Retrieved 2010-12-25.
12. "Shuttle explodes; crew lost", Frederick, OK - Daily Leader newspaper, January 28, 1986.
13. "Flight From Triumph to Tragedy Kills Challenger's 'Seven Heroes'", The Palm Beach Post, January 29, 1986.
14. "Space Shuttle debris rains across Texas", Ocala, FL Star Banner newspaper, February 2, 2003.
15. Check-Six.com - The Crash of X-15A-3
16. "Pilot Killed As X-15 Falls From Altitude Of 50 Miles", Toledo Blade newspaper, November 16, 1967.
17. Associated Press (1967-11-16). "Mystery death plunge of X-15 rocket plane". The Windsor Star (Windsor, Ontario). p. 72.
18. Associated Press (1986-04-06). "Soviets admit cosmonaut's death". Wilmington Morning Star (Wilmington, North Carolina). p. 6.
19. "Crash Kills Astronaut", Richland, WA - Tri City Herald, Nov. 1, 1964
20. "Goose Hit Jet, Killing Astronaut", The Miami News, Nov. 17, 1964
21. "2 Astronauts Die In Plane Crash", The Tuscaloosa News, Feb. 28, 1966
22. "See - Bassett Backup Crew Gets Gemini", Daytona Beach, FL - Morning Journal newspaper, Mar 1, 1966
23. "One Astronaut Cried 'Fire' Before All Died", Daytona Beach, FL News-Journal Newspaper, Jan 29, 1967
24. "Williams Wanted To Be First On The Moon", St. Petersburg, FL - Evening Independent newspaper, Oct. 6, 1967
25. "Board Pinpoints Astronaut's Death", Sarasota, FL - Herald-Tribune newspaper, Jun. 7, 1968
26. "Disasters and Accidents In Manned Spaceflight, By David Shayler; pgs 84, 85", Published by Springer, 2000
27. "Air Crash Kills Astro", Nashua, NH - Telegraph newspaper, Dec. 9, 1967
28. United Press International (1968-03-29). "Spaceman Gagarin Stayed With Plane to Save Village". Montreal Gazette (Montreal). p. 2. Retrieved 2013-03-18.
29. Agence France-Presse (2011-04-08). "Russia sheds light on Gagarin death". News.com.au (Sydney, Australia). Archived from the original on 2013-03-18.
30. "Vozovikov", Encyclopedia Astronautica
31. David Shayler (June 2000). Disasters and accidents in manned spaceflight. Springer. p. 470. ISBN 1-85233-225-5.
32. Clark, Stephen (31 October 2014). "Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo rocket plane crashes on test flight". SpaceflightNow. Retrieved 31 October 2014.
33. American Press (1996-03-06). "Report: First Man In Space Nearly Died In The Attempt". The Durant Daily Democrat (Durant, Oklahoma).
34. Webb Jr., Alvin B. (1961-07-21). "Space Cabin Sinks After Hatch 'Blows'". The Deseret News (Salt Lake City, Utah).
35. "The Liberty Bell 7 Recovery". Blacksburg, Virginia: UXB. 2011. Archived from the original on 2013-03-18. Retrieved 2013-03-18.
36. Rincon, Paul (2014). "The First Spacewalk How the first human to take steps in outer space nearly didn't return to Earth". BBC. Retrieved 2 February 2016.
37. McKie, Robin (9 May 2015). "Alexei Leonov, the first man to walk in space". The Observer (Guardian News and Media Limited). Retrieved 2 February 2016.
38. CBS News video for Gemini 6A Launch Abort
39. Volker, Al (1966-03-27). "Astronaut Feared 'Break-Up'". The Miami News.
40. "Gemini 8". National Space Science Data Center. NASA. Retrieved June 11, 2015.
41. "Apollo Hit Twice By Lightning", Salt Lake City, Utah - Deseret newspaper, Dec 17, 1969
42. "Apollo Struck Twice By Lightning", Hopkinsville, Kentucky - New Era newspaper, Nov 22, 1969
43. "Moon Men Healthy, Resting", The Fort Scott, KS - Tribune newspaper, Nov 25, 1969
44. "Third U.S. lunar mission leaves pad without hitch", Eugene, OR - Register-Guard newspaper, Apr 11, 1970
45. "Apollo 13 on way after engine fails", The Age newspaper, Apr 13, 1970
46. "Apollo 14 Tests Wait For Month", Youngstown Vindicator newspaper, Apr 29, 1970
47. NASA's official report (REPORT OF APOLLO 13 REVIEW BOARD) does not use the word "explosion" in describing the tank failure. Rupture disks and other safety measures were present to prevent a catastrophic explosion, and analysis of pressure readings and subsequent ground-testing determined that these safety measures worked as designed. See findings 26 and 27 on page 195 (5-22) of the NASA report.
48. "Magnitude Of Apollo 13 Damage Astounded Crew", Lodi, CA News-Sentinel, Apr. 18, 1970
49. "Rocket Fuel Gets Blame In Apollo Parachute Fluke", Lumberton, NC - The Robesonian newspaper, Aug 13, 1971
50. "Brand Takes Blame For Apollo Gas Leak", Florence, AL - Times Daily newspaper, Aug. 10, 1975
51. "Cosmonauts Land in Lake, Blizzard", Milwaukee Journal newspaper, Oct 18, 1976
52. "Shock Wave Doesn't Worry Shuttle Crew", Toledo Blade newspaper, Sep 16, 1981
53. "Shuttle shock wave problem still puzzles NASA", Richland, WA - Tri-City Herald newspaper, Sep 11, 1981
54. "Shuttle's Pressure Problem Studied", Toledo Blade newspaper, Jun 27, 1981
55. "Space Shuttle Columbia Nears Second Flight", Sarasota Herald Tribune newspaper, Oct 25, 1981
56. "Fuel Devices on Space Shuttle Were on Fire During Landing", Schenectady Gazette newspaper, Dec 12, 1983
57. "Engineers Study Blaze Aboard Columbia", Ocala Star-Banner newspaper, Dec 14, 1983
58. Dumoulin (2000).
59. United Press International (1985-07-30). "Shuttle OK after close call". Record-Journal (Meriden, Connecticut). p. 1.
60. Harland (2005), pp. 173—174.
61. Furniss, Shayler, Shayler (2007), p. 355.
62. "STS-37 Space Shuttle Mission Report May 1991 - NASA-CR-193062", Extravehicular Activity Evaluation, Page 16, accessed online 4 Jan, 2011
63. "Damage suffered by space shuttle", Portsmouth, OH - Daily Times newspaper, Oct 8, 1993
64. "NASA-1 Norm Thagard: An Ending and a Beginning", NASA History.Gov website, accessed online Jan 27, 2011
65. "A Toxic Leak Haunts the Shuttle Crew", New York Times, December 16, 2006
66. "Moscow, we have a problem: our spacecraft is lost", The London Sunday Times newspaper, May 5, 2003
67. "Soyuz misses its mark but still finds Earth safely", USA Today newspaper, May 4, 2003
68. "Space crew reach Kazakh capital". The New Zealand Herald. May 6, 2003. Retrieved October 15, 2011.
69. "Private rocket plane goes rolling into space", The Southeast Missourian newspaper, Sep 30, 2004
70. "SpaceShipOne Rolling Rumors: Rutan Sets the Record Straight", Space.com website - posted: 02 October 2004, accessed online 4 Jan, 2011
71. Russia probes Soyuz capsule's perilous re-entry, CNN', April 23, 2008
72. Eckel, Mike (2008-04-24). "Russian news agency says Soyuz crew was in danger on descent". Archived from the original on 2016-05-05. Retrieved 2016-05-05.
73. Morring, Frank, NASA Urges Caution On Soyuz Reports, Aviation Week & Space Technology, April 23, 2008
74. "South Korean Astronaut Hospitalized", Aviation Week, May 2, 2008
75. "EVA-23 terminated due to EVA-23 terminated due to Parmitano EMU issue", NASASpaceFlight, July 16, 2013
76. "Spacewalk aborted by spacesuit water leak", SpaceflightNow, July 16, 2013
77. "Tuesday Spacewalk Ended Early", NASA, July 16, 2013
78. ,"International Space Station (ISS) EVA Suit Water Intrusion",NASA,December 20, 2013
79. "German Rocket Motor Expert Loses His Life", Reading, PA - Eagle newspaper, May 18, 1930
80. "Science Rocket Explodes, Kills 1", Salt Lake City, Utah - Deseret News, Feb 2, 1931
81. "Blast Kills Maker of Rocket Airplane", Pittsburgh Press newspaper, Oct 12, 1933
82. "Cape Probes Reason For Tragedy", The Miami News, Apr 15, 1964
83. "Static Electricity Blamed For Fatal Rocket Mishaps", Reading, PA - Eagle newspaper, Apr 24, 1964
84. "Burns Kill Third Rocket Ignition Victim", Evening Independent newspaper, May 5, 1964
85. "German's 'air mail' idea goes up in smoke", Scotsman.com, Sep 16, 2005
86. Siddiq (2000), p. 874.
87. "Soviet rocket blast left 48 dead", BBC News, Apr 8, 2000
88. "1 killed, 9 hurt as rocket booster ignites", Salt Lake City - Deseret newspaper, Sep 8, 1990
89. "Man's body recovered after Titan explosion", Schenectady, New York - Sunday Gazette newspaper, Sep 9, 1990
90. "Pipe explosion sets back Japanese space program", Eugene, Oregon Register-Guard newspaper, August 11, 1991
91. "1 killed as rocket goes wild", Reading Eagle newspaper, February 28, 1993
92. Ted Cochran (1 July 2002). "Ignition! But only when you want it" (PDF). MASA Planet. Retrieved 1 November 2014.
93. Select Committee of the United States House of Representatives (3 January 1999). "Satellite Launches in the PRC: Loral". U.S. National Security and Military/Commercial Concerns with the People's Republic of China. Retrieved 6 December 2010.
94. "Russian Space Rocket Explodes, One Killed", Daily News newspaper, Oct. 17, 2002
95. "Rocket explosion kills 21 in Brazil", Boston Globe, Aug 23, 2003
96. Walker, Peter, "Three die in Branson's space tourism tests", Guardian Unlimited, July 27, 2007
97. "Cape Worker Dies", Daytona Beach, FL - Morning Journal newspaper, May 17, 1968
98. "Worker Plunges To Death At Cape", Sarasota, FL - Herald-Tribune newspaper, May 6, 1981
99. NASA - 1981 KSC Chronology Part 1 - pages 84, 85, 100; Part 2 - pages 181, 194, 195,
100. Sam Kean, The Disappearing Spoon (2010), p. 188
101. "One Dead In Shuttle Accident", Spartanburg, SC - Herald-Journal Newspaper, Mar 20, 1981
102. "Space shuttle worker dies in fall at launch pad", MSNBC.com - 3rd paragraph from bottom of article., 3/14/2011
103. "Worker on shuttle falls to death", Nashua, NH - The Telegraph newspaper, Dec. 5, 1985
104. "Shuttle worker fourth to lose life", Lakeland, FL - Ledger newspaper, Dec. 6, 1985
105. "Workman Killed In Accident On Launch Tower", Sarasota, FL - Herald-Tribune newspaper, Dec 23, 1989
106. "Fatal accident at the Guiana Space Centre", ESA Portal, May 5, 1993
107. "Submission of Enquiry Board's provisional report on fatal accident at Guiana Space Centre", ESA Portal, Nov 30, 1993
108. "Launch-pad Death Studied". Orlando Sentinel. July 10, 2001. Archived from the original on October 4, 2015. Retrieved 4 October 2015.
109. Young, Kelly (October 3, 2001). "Crane Accident Kills Boeing Worker at Cape". Space.com. Archived from the original on October 4, 2001. Retrieved 4 October 2015.
110. "Bodies found in cosmodrome debris", BBC News website, May 13, 2002
111. "Two men die from injuries in Redstone Arsenal explosion", WAFF.com, June 5, 2010
112. "2 Killed at Russian Rocket Launch Site". Sputniknews. Sputnik. November 12, 2013. Retrieved 20 October 2015.

References

Books & Journals

• Furniss, Tim; Shayler, David; Shayler, Michael Derek (2007). Praxis Manned Spaceflight Log 1961-2006. New York: Springer. ISBN 978-0-387-34175-0.
• Harland, David Michael (2005). The Story of Space Station Mir. Springer-Verlag. ISBN 978-0-387-23011-5.
• Musgrave, Gary Eugene; Larsen, Axel; Sgobba, Tommaso (2009). Safety Design of Space Systems. Butterworth–Heinemann. ISBN 978-0-08-055922-3.
• Siddiqi, Asif A (2000). Challenge To Apollo: The Soviet Union and the Space Race, 1945-1974 — Volume 4408 of NASA-SP (PDF). Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office. ISBN 978-0-16-061305-0.

Other Online Sources

• Harwood, William (2005-05-23). "Astronaut fatalities". spaceflightnow.com. Retrieved 2013-03-19.
• Dumoulin, Jim (2000). "Mission Events Summary: Ascent Abort Modes". NSTS 1988 News Reference Manual. Washington, D.C.: NASA.

External links

• The Encyclopedia Astronautica
• Manned space programs accident/incident summaries (1963 - 1969) - NASA report (PDF format)
• The Crash Site of the X-15A-3
• Manned space programs accident/incident summaries (1970 - 1971) - NASA report (PDF format)
• Interactive Space Shuttle Disaster Memorial
• Raw Video Reconstruction of Space Shuttle Columbia Re-entry and More