As more information about the death of Soviet Cosmonaut Vladimir Komarov filters out of Moscow, it becomes increasingly apparent that there were close parallels between the first fatalities in the U.S. and Russian space programs. Like Apollo, whose troubles may have stemmed partly from pressure to achieve a manned lunar landing by 1970, Komarov's Soyuz project was probably pushed into a manned mission to provide a space spectacular for the 50th-anniversary year of the Bolshevik Revolution. And like his Apollo counterparts, Cosmonaut Komarov may well have met a fiery death.
In a...
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