The right stuff

Having drawn the short straw on one of Khrushcev's vanity missions Cosmonaut Vladimir Komarov confessed to a bad feeling in his water prior to blast off into space, september 1967.

Sure enough, 5 hours into the flight his capsule devoloped a nasty barrel-roll. Unable to correct the roll, re-entry was attempted.

The parachute getting wound around the hull surprised no-one, least of all Vladimir. Free falling through the atmosphere he said goodbye to his wife and read the dial all the way down before pile-driving into a potato field outside of Borsch. Just before impact, then premier Kosygin told Kormarov his country was proud of him - an American NSA listening post in Istambul noted Komarov's reply was inaudible.

The landing was officially reported a success with Vladimir Kormarov's unfortunate death the result of a 'failure of the heart muscle'.

Vladimir Komarov went on be awarded the Hero of the Soviet Union and the Order of Lenin, each twice by two seperate administrations.