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The Worst Astronaut Deaths Ever · The Mind of a Man

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Vladimir Komarov, Soyuz 1 On April 22, 1967, Vladimir Komarov
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: walked through the corridors of the Baikonur Cosmodrome, knowing he
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: was likely walking to his death. The 40-year-old Soviet cosmonaut
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: had been selected to pilot Soyuz 1, the first crewed
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: flight of the Soviet Union's new spacecraft designed to outpace
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: America's Apollo program. But Komarov knew what his superiors were
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: hiding from the public. His friend and fellow cosmonaut Yuri
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: Gagarin had desperately tried to convince mission planners to delay
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: the flight. Over 200 technical problems had been identified in
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: the Soyuz spacecraft during pre-flight testing, including critical failures in
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  Speaker 1: the parachute system, unstable attitude control, and faulty heat shield bonding.
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: Soviet engineers had submitted report after report documenting these dangerous defects,
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: but political pressure from the Kremlin overruled safety concerns. The
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  Speaker 1: mission was scheduled to coincide with Lenin's birthday and the
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  Speaker 1: May Day parade, giving Communist Party leaders a propaganda victory
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  Speaker 1: they desperately needed. Komarov understood the impossible situation. If he
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: refused to fly, his backup pilot Yuri Gagarin, the first
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: human in space and a Soviet hero, would take his place.
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  Speaker 1: Komarov couldn't let his friend die in a spacecraft he
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  Speaker 1: knew was defective. At 3.35 a.m. Moscow time on April 23,
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  Speaker 1: Soyuz 1 lifted off from Baikonur into the pre-dawn darkness.
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  Speaker 1: The problems began almost immediately. One of the spacecraft's two
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: solar panels failed to deploy properly, cutting power generation in
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  Speaker 1: half and making it impossible to properly orient the craft
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  Speaker 1: toward the sun. Without adequate solar panel positioning, the spacecraft's
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  Speaker 1: batteries began draining rapidly. The ion sensors that controlled the
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: craft's attitude became unreliable, causing Soyuz 1 to tumble uncontrollably
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  Speaker 1: through space. Komarov fought to stabilize his ship manually, using
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: precious fuel reserves to fire the attitude control thrusters. Ground
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  Speaker 1: control monitored the mounting problems with growing alarm. The planned
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: rendezvous with Soyuz 2 which was supposed to launch the
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: next day with three cosmonauts aboard, was immediately cancelled. After
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  Speaker 1: 18 increasingly desperate orbits, Mission Control ordered Komarov to attempt
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: an emergency re-entry over the Soviet Union. As Soyuz 1
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  Speaker 1: began its descent on April 24, Komarov manually oriented his
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: spacecraft for re-entry, knowing his life depended on systems that
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: had already proven unreliable. The descent through the upper atmosphere
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: proceeded normally at first, with the heat shield protecting the
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: crew compartment as designed. But as the spacecraft slowed to
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  Speaker 1: subsonic speeds at an altitude of 23,000 feet, the main
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  Speaker 1: parachute container failed to open properly due to a design
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: flaw that engineers had identified months earlier. The parachute became
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: tangled within its container, providing virtually no drag to slow
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  Speaker 1: the spacecraft's descent. Komarov deployed the backup parachute system, but
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  Speaker 1: it immediately became twisted with the partially deployed main chute
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  Speaker 1: and the drogue parachute, creating a tangled mess that was
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  Speaker 1: completely ineffective. Soviet listening posts on the ground recorded Komarov's
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  Speaker 1: final transmissions as he plummeted toward Earth at over 250
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: miles per hour. He cursed the engineers and officials who
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: had forced him to fly in a defective spacecraft, knowing
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: he had less than a minute to live. At 7.24 a.m.,
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  Speaker 1: Soyuz 1 struck the ground near Orenburg with tremendous force,
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: creating a crater and instantly igniting the spacecraft's remaining fuel.
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  Speaker 1: The impact was so violent that the spherical descent module
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  Speaker 1: was completely flattened into a disk barely a meter high.
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  Speaker 1: Komarov's body was burned beyond recognition, fused to the twisted
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  Speaker 1: metal of his spacecraft. It took recovery teams hours to
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: separate his remains from the wreckage. His death forced a
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  Speaker 1: complete overhaul of the Soviet space program, delaying crewed flights
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: for 18 months while engineers redesigned the parachute system and
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: addressed hundreds of other safety issues that political pressure had
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: forced them to ignore. Soyuz 11 crew. On June 6, 1971,
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  Speaker 1: Soviet cosmonauts Georgy Dobrovolsky, Vladislav Volkov, and Viktor Patsaev launched
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: aboard Soyuz 11 from Baikonur Cosmodrome, beginning what appeared to
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: be a routine mission to dock with Salyut 1, the
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  Speaker 1: world's first operational space station. The three men were experienced
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: spaceflight veterans, with Dobrovolsky serving as commander, Volkov as flight engineer,
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  Speaker 1: and Patsaev as research engineer. Their mission was to spend
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: three weeks aboard the space station conducting scientific experiments and
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  Speaker 1: proving that humans could live and work in space for
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  Speaker 1: extended periods. The launch proceeded flawlessly, and 24 hours later,
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  Speaker 1: Soyuz 11 successfully docked with Salyut 1, making the crew
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  Speaker 1: the first humans to occupy a space station. For the
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  Speaker 1: next 22 days, the cosmonauts conducted a wide variety of experiments,
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  Speaker 1: including astronomical observations, materials processing, biological research, and Earth photography.
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: They established new endurance records for spaceflight duration and proved
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: that humans could adapt to long-term weightlessness. Their daily communications
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: with ground control were upbeat and professional. with no indication
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: of any problems aboard the station. The crew exceeded all
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: their planned objectives and even requested additional experiments to fill
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: their remaining time. On June 29, after completing their highly
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  Speaker 1: successful mission, the crew sealed the hatches between Salyut 1
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: and their Soyuz 11 spacecraft and prepared for the journey home.
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: The undocking sequence proceeded normally at 2128 Moscow time, with
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  Speaker 1: the spacecraft separating cleanly from the space station. Forty minutes later,
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: the crew fired their service module engine for the deorbit burn.
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: beginning their descent toward a landing site in Kazakhstan. All
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: spacecraft systems appeared to be functioning normally as Soyuz 11
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: entered the upper atmosphere. The service module and orbital module
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  Speaker 1: separated from the descent module as planned, leaving the three
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: cosmonauts sealed inside the small spherical capsule that would carry
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: them through re-entry and landing. The heat shield performed perfectly,
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: protecting the crew compartment from the extreme temperatures generated by
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: atmospheric friction. The drogue parachute deployed at the correct altitude,
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: followed by the main parachute, which opened properly and slowed
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: the spacecraft to a safe descent rate. The soft landing
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  Speaker 1: rockets fired automatically just before touchdown, cushioning the impact as
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  Speaker 1: Soyuz 11 settled gently onto the Kazakhstan steppe at 2.17 a.m.
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: on June 30. Recovery helicopters were already circling overhead, and
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: ground crews rushed to the spacecraft expecting to congratulate three
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  Speaker 1: heroes who had just set a new spaceflight duration record.
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: When the recovery team opened the hatch of the descent module,
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: they found all three cosmonauts still strapped in their seats,
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: motionless and blue-faced. There were no signs of impact trauma
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: or fire, but the men were clearly dead. Medical examination
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: revealed that the crew had suffocated when a pressure equalization
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: valve had opened prematurely during the descent sequence, allowing the
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: cabin atmosphere to vent into the vacuum of space. The
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: valve was designed to equalize cabin pressure with the outside
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: atmosphere just before landing, but it had malfunctioned and opened
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: while the spacecraft was still above the Kármán line at
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: an altitude of 550,000 feet. The cabin depressurized in just
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  Speaker 1: 112 seconds, causing rapid decompression that the unprotected crew could
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  Speaker 1: not survive. Investigation revealed that the valve had been damaged
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: during the separation sequence when explosive bolts fired to jettison
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: the orbital and service modules. A bolt or piece of
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: debris had damaged the valve mechanism, causing it to open
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: at the wrong time. The crew had likely lost consciousness
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: within 15 to 20 seconds of decompression beginning and died
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: within a minute from hypoxia. the tragedy led to major
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: changes in Soviet spacecraft design, including reinforced pressure valves and
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: the requirement that crews wear pressure suits during all launch
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: and re-entry operations, a practice that continues today. Challenger Disaster,
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: STS-51-L On the morning of January 28, 1986, Space Shuttle
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: Challenger sat on Launch Pad 39B at Kennedy Space Center,
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  Speaker 1: ready for its 10th mission into space. The crew of
• 7:35
  Speaker 1: seven included Commander Francis Dick Scobie, Pilot Michael Smith, mission
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  Speaker 1: specialists Judith Resnick, Ellison Onizuka, and Ronald McNair, payload specialist
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: Gregory Jarvis, and Krista McAuliffe, a high school teacher from
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: New Hampshire, who had been selected as the first participant
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  Speaker 1: in NASA's Teacher in Space program. The launch had been
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  Speaker 1: delayed multiple times due to weather conditions and technical issues,
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: creating mounting pressure from NASA management and the media to
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: proceed with the mission. The night before launch, engineers at
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  Speaker 1: Morton Thiokol the company that manufactured the shuttle's solid rocket
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: boosters discovered that overnight temperatures had dropped to 18 degrees Fahrenheit,
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: far below the minimum temperature at which the rubber O-ring
• 8:15
  Speaker 1: seals in the rocket boosters had been tested. Senior engineers
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: Roger Boisjoli and Alan MacDonald strongly recommended postponing the launch,
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: warning that the cold-stiffened O-rings might not seal properly and
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: could allow hot gases to escape from the rocket motors.
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: During a heated teleconference that lasted until midnight, NASA officials
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  Speaker 1: challenged Thiokol's concerns, arguing that there was no conclusive proof
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  Speaker 1: that cold weather would cause seal failure. Under intense pressure
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  Speaker 1: to avoid another delay, Thiokol management overruled their own engineers
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  Speaker 1: and gave NASA permission to proceed with the launch. At 11.38
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  Speaker 1: AM EST, with hundreds of spectators watching, including McAuliffe's family
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: and students from her school, Challenger lifted off into a
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  Speaker 1: clear blue sky. The shuttle's three main engines and two
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: solid rocket boosters functioned normally during the first minute of flight,
• 9:03
  Speaker 1: accelerating the vehicle toward orbit. However, at 59 seconds after liftoff,
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: high-speed cameras captured a small flame appearing near the bottom
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: joint of the right solid rocket booster. The cold-stiffened O-rings
• 9:14
  Speaker 1: had failed exactly as the engineers had predicted, allowing superheated
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  Speaker 1: gas at 5,000 degrees Fahrenheit to escape and act like
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  Speaker 1: a blowtorch against the external fuel tank. The flame rapidly
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  Speaker 1: grew larger. burning through the strut that connected the right
• 9:27
  Speaker 1: booster to the external tank and weakening the tank's structural supports.
• 9:31
  Speaker 1: At 72 seconds into the flight, traveling at Mach 1.92
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  Speaker 1: at an altitude of 48,000 feet, the compromised external tank ruptured,
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  Speaker 1: releasing thousands of gallons of liquid hydrogen and oxygen that
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  Speaker 1: mixed explosively. The massive explosion didn't kill the crew immediately.
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: The crew compartment, built to withstand the forces of launch
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: and re-entry, was thrown clear of the explosion immediately. and
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  Speaker 1: began falling toward the Atlantic Ocean in a ballistic arc.
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  Speaker 1: Emergency oxygen systems activated automatically and at least some of
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: the crew members were likely conscious during the fall. Pilot
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: Michael Smith was heard saying, uh-oh, just before the vehicle
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  Speaker 1: broke apart, indicating that the crew was aware something had
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  Speaker 1: gone catastrophically wrong. The crew compartment fell for 2 minutes
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: and 45 seconds, reaching a speed of over 200 miles
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  Speaker 1: per hour before striking the ocean surface 18 miles offshore.
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  Speaker 1: The impact with the water was unsurvivable, killing all seven
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  Speaker 1: crew members instantly. NASA suspended shuttle flights for 32 months
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: while a presidential commission investigated the accident and implemented design
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: changes to prevent similar failures. The solid rocket boosters were
• 10:35
  Speaker 1: completely redesigned with improved O-ring seals and joint heaters to
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: ensure proper sealing in cold weather. Columbia Disaster, STS-107 On
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: January 16, 2003, Space Shuttle Columbia lifted off from Kennedy
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: Space Center, carrying a crew of seven astronauts on a
• 10:51
  Speaker 1: 16-day scientific research mission designated STS-107. The crew included Commander
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: Rick Husband, Pilot William McCool, Mission Specialists Kalpana Chawla, David Brown,
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: Laurel Clark, Michael Anderson, and Payload Specialist Aylan Ramon. The
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: mission was dedicated to scientific research, with the crew operating
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: over 80 experiments in a research module housed in Columbia's
• 11:14
  Speaker 1: cargo bay. During the launch, Cameras captured what appeared to
• 11:18
  Speaker 1: be a large piece of foam insulation breaking away from
• 11:20
  Speaker 1: the external fuel tank's bipod ramp area and striking Columbia's
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: left-wing leading edge. The impact occurred 81.7 seconds after liftoff,
• 11:29
  Speaker 1: when the shuttle was traveling at approximately 1,568 miles per
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: hour at an altitude of 65,000 feet. The foam piece
• 11:33
  Speaker 1: weighed approximately 1.67 pounds and measured about 21 by 27 inches,
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: making it much larger than typical debris that occasionally separated
• 11:47
  Speaker 1: from the external tank. NASA engineers reviewed the high-speed film
• 11:50
  Speaker 1: footage of the impact, but concluded that foam strikes were
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: a common occurrence that had never caused significant damage on
• 11:56
  Speaker 1: previous missions. The debris assessment team, composed of engineers from
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: NASA and Boeing, requested high-resolution images of Columbia's wing from
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: military satellites or telescopes to assess the extent of any damage. However,
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: shuttle program managers denied this request, stating that even if
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  Speaker 1: damage was found, Nothing could be done to repair it
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: since Columbia was not equipped for major repairs and could
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: not reach the International Space Station. This decision would prove
• 12:22
  Speaker 1: fatal as the foam strike had indeed caused serious damage
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: to the wing's thermal protection system. The impact had created
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: a hole approximately 6 to 10 inches in diameter in
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: one of the reinforced carbon-carbon panels that protected the wing's
• 12:35
  Speaker 1: leading edge during re-entry. For the next 16 days, the
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: crew conducted their scientific experiments completely unaware that their spacecraft
• 12:42
  Speaker 1: had been fatally damaged. They completed all planned research activities,
• 12:46
  Speaker 1: working in shifts around the clock to maximize the scientific
• 12:49
  Speaker 1: return from their mission. Their daily communications with mission control
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: were routine and upbeat, with no indication that anyone suspected
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: a problem with the shuttle. On February 1, 2003, Columbia
• 13:00
  Speaker 1: began its re-entry sequence over the Pacific Ocean, firing its
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: orbital maneuvering system engines to slow down and drop out
• 13:06
  Speaker 1: of orbit. As the shuttle descended through the upper atmosphere
• 13:09
  Speaker 1: at over 17,000 mph, it began encountering the first wisps
• 13:13
  Speaker 1: of atmospheric gas that would gradually slow it down through friction.
• 13:17
  Speaker 1: At first, the reentry proceeded normally, with the crew following
• 13:20
  Speaker 1: standard procedures for landing at Kennedy Space Center. However, as
• 13:24
  Speaker 1: Columbia descended through increasingly dense atmosphere, superheated plasma began flowing
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: through the hole in the left wing's leading edge. The
• 13:32
  Speaker 1: temperature inside the wing structure quickly reached over 2,500 degrees Fahrenheit,
• 13:37
  Speaker 1: far exceeding the melting point of aluminum and causing the
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: wing's internal framework to fail. Sensors throughout the left side
• 13:42
  Speaker 1: of the spacecraft began registering abnormal temperature readings and system failures,
• 13:47
  Speaker 1: but the crew was not immediately aware of the severity
• 13:49
  Speaker 1: of the situation. At 8.59 AM EST, while traveling over
• 13:54
  Speaker 1: Texas at an altitude of 207,000 feet, Columbia's left wing
• 13:58
  Speaker 1: finally separated from the fuselage due to the structural damage
• 14:01
  Speaker 1: caused by the superheated gas intrusion. The shuttle immediately became
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: uncontrollable and broke apart due to aerodynamic forces with debris
• 14:09
  Speaker 1: scattered across Texas and Louisiana. The crew compartment was destroyed
• 14:13
  Speaker 1: in the breakup, and all seven astronauts died instantly. The
• 14:16
  Speaker 1: accident investigation led to major changes in shuttle operations, including
• 14:20
  Speaker 1: detailed inspections of the thermal protection system on every mission
• 14:24
  Speaker 1: and the capability to repair minor damage while in orbit. X-15,
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: Flight 365-97 On November 15, 1967, U.S. Air Force Major
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: Michael J. Adams climbed into the cockpit of X-15-3 at
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: Edwards Air Force Base for what would be his seventh
• 14:40
  Speaker 1: flight in the experimental rocket plane. The 37-year-old test pilot
• 14:44
  Speaker 1: had been selected for the X-15 program based on his
• 14:47
  Speaker 1: exceptional skills flying high-performance aircraft, and he was being considered
• 14:51
  Speaker 1: for NASA's astronaut corps. The X-15 was designed to explore
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: the boundary between atmospheric flight and spaceflight, reaching altitudes above
• 14:59
  Speaker 1: 50 miles where conventional aircraft could not operate. Adams' mission,
• 15:03
  Speaker 1: designated Flight 365-97-10, called for him to reach an altitude
• 15:08
  Speaker 1: of 250,000 feet while testing a new ultraviolet stellar photography
• 15:12
  Speaker 1: experiment and evaluating the aircraft's reaction controls in the near
• 15:16
  Speaker 1: vacuum of space. The flight plan seemed routine by X-15 standards,
• 15:20
  Speaker 1: but several factors would combine to create a deadly situation.
• 15:24
  Speaker 1: At 10.30 a.m., Adams X-15 was released from the wing
• 15:27
  Speaker 1: of a modified B-52 bomber at 45,000 feet over the
• 15:31
  Speaker 1: Mojave Desert. He immediately ignited the XLR-99 rocket engine, which
• 15:36
  Speaker 1: produced 57,000 pounds of thrust and accelerated the aircraft to
• 15:40
  Speaker 1: over 3,800 miles per hour. As the X-15 climbed steeply
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: through the atmosphere, Adams reported normal engine performance and aircraft handling.
• 15:49
  Speaker 1: The rocket plane reached its planned altitude of 266,000 feet,
• 15:53
  Speaker 1: officially entering space and making Adams the first person to
• 15:57
  Speaker 1: die during a space flight. However, during the high-altitude portion
• 16:00
  Speaker 1: of the flight, something went wrong with the aircraft's attitude
• 16:03
  Speaker 1: control system. The X-15, began an inadvertent yaw motion that
• 16:08
  Speaker 1: Adams initially didn't recognize because the thin atmosphere at that
• 16:11
  Speaker 1: altitude provided almost no aerodynamic feedback. The spacecraft's reaction control system,
• 16:17
  Speaker 1: designed to provide control in space, was not functioning properly,
• 16:20
  Speaker 1: and Adams found himself in a slowly developing emergency that
• 16:24
  Speaker 1: would prove fatal. As the X-15 began its descent back
• 16:27
  Speaker 1: into the atmosphere, the yaw motion became more pronounced, causing
• 16:30
  Speaker 1: the aircraft to enter a spin. Adams attempted to correct
• 16:33
  Speaker 1: the problem using the aircraft's conventional aerodynamic controls, but at
• 16:37
  Speaker 1: such high altitude and speed, they were largely ineffective. Ground
• 16:41
  Speaker 1: controllers at Edwards Air Force Base tracked the aircraft's erratic
• 16:45
  Speaker 1: flight path on radar and tried to provide guidance, but
• 16:48
  Speaker 1: communications were intermittent due to the plasma sheath surrounding the
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: hypersonic aircraft. As the X-15 descended through 200,000 feet, it
• 16:56
  Speaker 1: began encountering thicker atmosphere, which should have allowed Adams to
• 16:59
  Speaker 1: regain control using conventional flight controls. the aircraft's angle of
• 17:04
  Speaker 1: attack had become so extreme that it was essentially flying
• 17:07
  Speaker 1: sideways through the air at over 3,000 miles per hour.
• 17:10
  Speaker 1: The aerodynamic forces on the aircraft were enormous and increasing
• 17:14
  Speaker 1: rapidly as it entered denser air. At approximately 65,000 feet altitude,
• 17:19
  Speaker 1: while traveling at Mach 3.5, the X-15 encountered G-forces that
• 17:24
  Speaker 1: exceeded the structural limits of both the aircraft and the
• 17:26
  Speaker 1: human body. The aircraft began to break apart under the
• 17:30
  Speaker 1: extreme aerodynamic loads with pieces separating from the main fuselage. Adams,
• 17:35
  Speaker 1: subjected to forces exceeding 15 Gs, likely lost consciousness before
• 17:39
  Speaker 1: the aircraft's final breakup. The main wreckage of X-15-3 impacted
• 17:43
  Speaker 1: the ground near Johannesburg, California, creating a crater several feet deep.
• 17:47
  Speaker 1: Adams' body was found still strapped in his ejection seat,
• 17:50
  Speaker 1: but the seat had never been activated. Investigation revealed that
• 17:54
  Speaker 1: the aircraft's adaptive flight control system had malfunctioned during the
• 17:57
  Speaker 1: high-altitude portion of the flight, initiating the yaw motion that
• 18:01
  Speaker 1: Adams was unable to correct. The tragedy led to improvements
• 18:04
  Speaker 1: in pilot training for high-altitude flight and better backup control
• 18:08
  Speaker 1: systems for spacecraft operating at the edge of the atmosphere.
• 18:11
  Speaker 1: Adams was posthumously awarded astronaut wings for his flight, becoming
• 18:15
  Speaker 1: the first person to earn them by dying in space.
• 18:17
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• 18:20
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