A sad day in Space History

Today marks the 37th anniversary of one of the saddest days in space history when the seemingly triumphant Soviet Soyuz 11 mission ended in the deaths of three cosmonauts.

In what appeared to be one last effort to get one over on the Americans, the Soviets had sent a three-man crew to the world's first space station, Salyut 1 where they had conducted experiments in earth orbit for 23 days.

The Soyuz craft separated successfully from Salyut and appeared to return to earth successfully to a soft landing on the Kazakh steppe.

However, the capsule was opened and the crew was found dead. Investigators later discovered that a valve had opened just prior to leaving orbit that had allowed the capsule's atmosphere to vent away into space, suffocating the crew. The three Cosmonauts who lost their lives were:

Commander Georgi Dobrovolski

Flight Engineer Vladislav Volkov; and
Test Engineer Viktor Patsayev.

Like the Americans before them (after the Apollo 1 crash), the Soviets were forced to completely re-engineer their Soyuz craft. For the ext nine years, until the Soyuz-T came into service, the craft would carry only two cosmonauts, each wearing a pressurised space suit.

Words of engagement

Literally hundreds of people have clicked through from the New Scientist's space blog to my piece on the Apollo 1 fire which is very gratifying. But of course, the main thrust of this blog is meant to be about organisational communication, so I've been looking for a link that brings the space programme and organisational/employee/internal communication together. And of course, there is a great example.

When President Kennedy stated to Congress in 1961 that America's intention was to send a man to the moon and return him safely before the end of the decade, he gave the clearest message possible to everyone involved in the space programme. From Mercury, through Gemini to Apollo, the US now had a clear route to the moon.

Over 400,000 people working in every aspect of the programme were engaged in achieving a tangible goal with a defined deadline. It was going to be hard; there would be immense problems along the way, and in the wake of the Apollo 1 fire, it looked as though the programme would fail.

But it didn't. People pulled together with a passion, dedication and tenacity not really seen in any single human endeavour since. The clear message was turned into outstanding success. The message was translated into activity for almost half a million people. Their collective effort put Armstrong, aldrin and the rest on the moon.

However, the Apollo 11 moon landing became an end-point not merely a milestone in the progress of the exploration of space. 38 years on, we've advanced little from that end point since no subsequent president has taken up and built on Kennedy's objective.

How often does that happen in our own business lives? How often do we rally to the call, only to see momentum lost as time goes by. We need the big goals - something tangible to reach. But once we get there, we need another. As soon as the goalposts stop moving, we begin to move back.

Apollo 1 fire: 40 years today

As I recall a few entries below, and on the New Scientist Space blog's most recent entry, today marks the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 1 fire. Three lives were lost that date, but their loss led to 12 men walking on the moon between 1969 and 1972.

For me, 40 years is almost a lifetime ago - I was not quite three years old when the accident occurred. But those Apollo missions stirred an interest in space exploration that has remained with me ever since.

It will be a sombre day at Kennedy today, with a special service to reflect on the lives, the bravery and the ultimate sacrifice of Chaffee, White and Grissom. The following weeks bring more anniversaries - Komorov, the first Russian to lose his life in the space race and, of course, the first Shuttle disaster.

But no exploration is without risk. I just with we'd fully drive for the rewards that exploration beyond our world will bring, rather than always putting political expediency above the sheer exhaustion of doing something completely new, extremely difficult and making a success of it.

New Scientist - here's hoping

It's now just two days until the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 1 fire - I'm hoping that my piece on it will feature on the New Scientist space blog. Even if it doesn't it's a blog well worth checking out.

Meanwhile, today I've received my personal tax bill for the year, my corporate tax bill for the year, a bill from my accountant and one from my book keeper - while also arranging my quarterly VAT payment.

No wonder this is officially classified as the most miserable time of the year! I feel poor, very poor..... so I'd better go and do some work.