The tragedies and failures of space exploration
The top 3 according to 0 votes from people: Vanguard TV3 (1957) · The Nedelin catastrophe (1960) · Apollo 1 (1967). (Updated Jun 20, 2026.)
The Apollo 1 fire, the Challenger and Columbia disasters, the Vanguard that exploded on the pad and the probes that never made it to Mars: the tragedies and failures etched into the history of spaceflight. What did we learn from them?
Automatically translated (original in 日本語). See the original
Top 14
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1
Vanguard TV3 (1957)
It rose about a metre, lost thrust and exploded on the pad.
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2
The Nedelin catastrophe (1960)
A rocket exploded at a Soviet launch site, killing more than 100 people.
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3
Apollo 1 (1967)
A fire during a ground test killed three astronauts.
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4
Soyuz 1 (1967)
The parachutes failed and cosmonaut Komarov was killed.
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5
The N1 rocket (1969)
The Soviet moon rocket failed on all four launches.
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6
Apollo 13 (1970)
An oxygen tank exploded, but all three came home safely: a "successful failure".
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7
Soyuz 11 (1971)
Depressurisation during re-entry killed three cosmonauts.
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8
Mars 2 (1971)
The first human-made object to reach Mars, but it crashed on landing.
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9
Challenger (1986)
It broke apart 73 seconds after launch, killing all seven crew.
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10
Mars Polar Lander (1999)
Contact was lost just before landing.
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11
Columbia (2003)
It broke up on re-entry, killing seven.
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12
Beagle 2 (2003)
It landed but its solar panels did not unfold, so it could not communicate.
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13
Phobos-Grunt (2011)
Its engines failed to fire and it never left Earth orbit.
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14
Schiaparelli (2016)
Conflicting data made it crash into the Martian surface.
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