April 24, 1967: Less than 3 months after the American space program has its 1st tragedy, the Soviet space program suffers the world's 1st in-mission spaceflight fatality.
The plan was to launch Soyuz 1 and unmanned Soyuz 2, have them link up, and have each craft's cosmonauts (the Soviet term for astronauts) switch, and land in the opposite craft. This was considered essential for any future manned landing on the Moon. Colonel Vladimir Komarov, a 40-year-old Air Force engineer from Moscow, was chosen for Soyuz 1. For Soyuz 2, the crew was Valery Bykovsky, Yevgeny Krunov and Aleksei Yeliseyev.
But things began going wrong quickly. The Soyuz (meaning "Union") craft, had lots of design flaws. After the fall of the Soviet Union, a former KGB Agent, claimed that the government wanted the flight to go forward anyway. He also claimed that Yuri Gagarin, the 1st man in space, was aware of these flaws, and tried to "bump" Komarov for the mission, knowing that he could then tell officials that the flaws made the flight too dangerous, and that they would never risk their country's greatest living hero on what amounted to a suicide mission.
Nevertheless, with Komarov aboard, Soyuz 1 was launched on April 23, from the usual Soviet launch site, the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. But one of its solar panels failed to unfold, leading to a shortage of power. By orbit 13, the automatic stabilization system was completely dead, and the manual system was only partially effective.
The crew of Soyuz 2 modified their mission goals, preparing themselves for a launch that would include fixing the solar panel of Soyuz 1. But thunderstorms at Baikonur affected the booster's electrical system, causing the mission to be postponed: One way or another, Soyuz 1 was coming back to Earth without linking up with Soyuz 2.
The flight director decided to abort Soyuz 1. After 18 orbits, the retrorockets were fired, and the craft re-entered the Earth's atmosphere. At first, it seemed like Komarov might return safely: In contact with Gagarin on the ground, he said, "Everything is going fine! The ship was oriented correctly."
To slow the descent, first the drogue parachute was deployed, followed by the main parachute. However, due to a defect, the main parachute did not unfold. Komarov then activated the manually deployed reserve chute, but it became tangled with the drogue chute, which did not release as intended. As a result, the descent module fell to Earth in Karabutak, Kazakhstan, at about 89 miles per hour, and it exploded. Komarov was killed instantly, and his body was burned beyond recognition. His ashes were interred in the Kremlin Necropolis.
Gagarin the national hero died soon, anyway, in the crash of a plane's test flight the following year. The Soyuz 1 tragedy delayed the launch of Soyuz 2 and Soyuz 3 until October 25, 1968. The original mission of Soyuz 1 and Soyuz 2 was ultimately achieved by Soyuz 4 and Soyuz 5, on January 15, 1969. But that delay, with the addition of the explosion of an uncrewed N-1 rocket on July 3, 1969, and the American landing of Apollo 11 on the Moon 17 days after that, led the Soviets to decide that landing a cosmonaut on the Moon was no longer worth it, and they called it off. From that point onward, they concentrated on space stations, including the Salyut and Mir programs.
Khrunov and Yeliseyev were part of the Soyuz 4/5 mission, which turned out to be Khrunov's only spaceflight. He died in 2000. Bykovsky flew 3 missions, and died in 2019. Yeliseyev also flew 3 missions. As of April 24, 2022, he is still alive.
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April 24, 1967 was a Monday. Croatian basketball star Dino Rađa (his name usually written in English as Dino Rajda) was born on this day.
The NBA Championship was won on this day. The Philadelphia 76ers beat the San Francisco Warriors, 125-122 at the Cow Palace in Daly City, California, just south of the San Francisco city line. This was Game 6 of the Finals, and it capped one of the greatest seasons in NBA history. I have a separate entry for this event.
The Sixers got off to a 41-3 start, and set an NBA record with 68 wins, and had 5 Hall-of-Famers: Wilt Chamberlain (finally winning his 1st NBA title, after being the best player in the league since his arrival in 1959), Hal Greer, Chet Walker, Larry Costello, and "sixth man" Billy Cunningham. Head coach Alex Hannum and general manager Jack Ramsay were also elected.
Cunningham would coach their 1983 NBA Champions. Matt Guokas Jr., whose father Matt Sr. was a member of the Philadelphia Eagles' 1948 and '49 NFL Champions, was a reserve on the '67 76ers, and a broadcaster for the '83 76ers. The team has never won an NBA title without Cunningham and Gukoas being involved.
The Warriors had won the NBA Championship in 1947 and 1956, while playing in Philadelphia. Chamberlain played for them from 1959 to 1965, including their 1962 move to San Francisco. The Syracuse Nationals, who had won the NBA Championship in 1955, moved to become the 76ers in 1963. The Warriors changed their name to the Golden State Warriors in 1971, and have won the Championship in 1975, 2015, 2017, 2018 and 2022. So the Warriors have won 7 titles, the 76ers have won 3, and Philadelphia has won 4 -- but none since 1983.
The Stanley Cup Finals were between Games 2 and 3. The series was tied, 1-1, and the Toronto Maple Leafs ended up beating the Montreal Canadiens in 6 games.
And there were 3 games played in baseball:
* The Boston Red Sox beat the Washington Senators, 7-4 at District of Columbia Stadium in Washington. (It was renamed Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium in 1969.) Carl Yastrzemski went 1-for-5.
* The Cincinnati Reds beat the Houston Astros, 3-1 at the Astrodome in Houston. Pete Rose went 2-for-2 with 2 walks.
* And the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the St. Louis Cardinals, 6-5 at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles. Lou Johnson singled Wes Parker home in the bottom of the 13th inning. Lou Brock went 3-for-6 with a walk, 3 stolen bases, and 2 RBIs.
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