Russian astronauts Died in Space

In the new edition of a book called "Starman" (Bloomsbury 2011) Jamie Doran and Piers Bizony tell the story of the first space fatality the tragic death of Russian cosmonaut Vladimir Komarov in 1967. The book doesn't hit stores until April 12, but NPR's Robert Krulwich got an advance copy, and covered its heart-wrenching account of the accident in a blog post two weeks ago. Unfortunately, in so doing, he may have publicized an inaccurate rewriting of history.

It was the height of the space race, Krulwich wrote, and the 50th anniversary of the Communist Revolution was approaching. The Soviet Union was eager to pull off a two-spacecraft rendezvous in low-Earth orbit just in time for the big event. The plan was for Komarov to park the Soyuz 1 space capsule next to another vehicle and then spacewalk between them .

That much is true, but historians say the rest of the story printed in "Starman" and recounted on Krulwich's blog is grossly inaccurate. Krulwich told Life's Little Mysteries he has come to believe there are errors in the tale he told, but urges readers to consider the informal nature of blogs even those labeled "NPR."

Death of a cosmonaut

According to "Starman, " Krulwich wrote, Komarov's Soyuz 1 was riddled with problems, and many within the Soviet space program knew it long before take-off. Yuri Gagarin, a national hero for having been the first man in space, supposedly sent a memo to a KGB officer named Venyamin Russayev telling him the rendezvous mission needed to be postponed. The memo was hushed up, though, and everyone who read it, along with Russayev, got demoted, fired or sent to Siberia.

The book's authors assert that Komarov knew he would die if the mission went forth, but he refused to back out of it. The backup pilot, Gagarin, was his beloved friend. Prior to the mission leaving the ground, Komarov supposedly told Russayev the KGB officer that he would take the fall to save Gagarin's life.