Gagarin's vocal criticism of the Soyuz 1 spacecraft was repeated to anyone who would listen; it was not ready for manned spaceflight. The only thing the Soviets did was move Gagarin from the prime spot to a backup spot. Komarov knew full well this was a suicide mission, but he went anyways to save his friend (so the story says but neither are alive to confirm this).
The tough part of that Soyuz 1 mission was that Gagarin accompanied his friend, Komarov, to the rocket launch pad and then also relayed instruction to him from Mission Control when shit went south in the spacecraft upon re-entry.
That sentence near the end, "Back to flying plane. Is much safer" has to be read in a deep male Russian-accented voice.
(Russian voice) Is true! Flying not dangerous. Landing dangerous! (Deep Russian belly laugh)
Gagarin's vocal criticism of the Soyuz 1 spacecraft was repeated to anyone who would listen; it was not ready for manned spaceflight. The only thing the Soviets did was move Gagarin from the prime spot to a backup spot. Komarov knew full well this was a suicide mission, but he went anyways to save his friend (so the story says but neither are alive to confirm this).
The tough part of that Soyuz 1 mission was that Gagarin accompanied his friend, Komarov, to the rocket launch pad and then also relayed instruction to him from Mission Control when shit went south in the spacecraft upon re-entry.