Space disasters in mankind's history of space exploration

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 ◆ Space disasters in mankind's history of space exploration

US space shuttle Columbia broke apart in flames before landing on Saturday (Feb.1) with seven astronauts on board. It was the latest in a series of accidents since space exploration began.

The following is a chronology of astronauts and cosmonauts killed in the history of space exploration:

-- Jan. 27, 1967: Astronauts Gus Grissom, Edward H. White and Roger B. Chaffee die when a fire sweeps their command module during a ground test at Kennedy Space Center.

-- April 24, 1967: Soviet cosmonaut Vladimir Komarov became the first person to die in a space mission when his Soyuz I spacecraft crashes on return to Earth.

-- June 29, 1971: Soviet cosmonauts Georgy Dobrovolsky, Vladislav Volkov and Viktor Patsayev die during re-entry of their Soyuz 11 spacecraft after 24 days in an orbiting space laboratory.

-- Jan. 28, 1986: The space shuttle Challenger explodes 73 seconds after launch, killing all seven astronauts aboard, including Christa McAuliffe, intended to be the first teacher in space.

--Feb. 1, 2003: Space shuttle Columbia breaks apart in flames about 60,900 meters over Texas, 16 minutes before it was supposed to touch down in Florida. All seven aboard were killed. They were:William McCool, Rick Husband, Michael Anderson, Kalpana Chawla,David Brown, Laurel Clark and Ilan Ramon, Israel's first astronaut.