Komarov was selected to command the
Soyuz 1, in 1967, with [Yuri] Gagarin as his backup cosmonaut. During the preparations for the
spaceflight, both cosmonauts were working twelve- to fourteen-hour days. On orbital insertion, the solar panels of the Soyuz module failed to fully deploy thereby preventing the craft from being fully powered and obscuring some of the navigation equipment. Komarov reported: "Conditions are poor. The cabin parameters are normal, but the left solar panel didn't deploy. The electrical bus is at only 13 to 14
amperes. The HF (high frequency) communications are not working. I cannot orient the spacecraft to the sun. I tried orienting the spacecraft manually using the DO-1 orientation engines, but the pressure remaining on the DO-1 has gone down to 180."
[27] Komarov tried unsuccessfully to orient the Soyuz module for five hours. The craft was transmitting unreliable status information, and lost communications on orbits 13 through 15 due to the failure of the high frequency transmitter that should have maintained radio contact while the craft was out of range of the
ultra high frequency (UHF) ground receivers.
[27]
As a result of the problems with the craft, the Soviets did not launch the second Soyuz module, from which cosmonauts were to perform an
extra-vehicular activity (EVA) to the Soyuz 1, and cut the mission short.
Komarov was ordered to re-orient the craft using the ion flow sensors on orbits 15 to 17. The ion sensors failed. Komarov did not have enough time to attempt a manual re-entry until orbit 19. Manual orientation relied on using the equipped Vzor periscope device, but to do this, Komarov had to be able to see the Sun. To reach the designated landing site at Orsk, the retro-fire had to take place on the night side of the Earth. Komarov oriented the spacecraft manually on the dayside then used the gyro-platform as a reference so that he could orient the craft for a night side retro-fire.
[28] He successfully re-entered the Earth's atmosphere on his 19th orbit, but the module's drogue and main braking
parachute failed to deploy correctly. The module crashed into the ground, killing Komarov, at 6.24 a.m.
