Astronaut left terrifying last words in final transmission as he fell from space

An astronaut who holds the unenviable title of being the first known human to die during a spaceflight managed to make one final transmission before returning to Earth.

Vladimir Mikhailovich Komarov is considered a hero in his native Russia as well as around the world for his contributions to space exploration, but unfortunately, his distinguished career came to a tragic end.

He was somewhat of a pioneer in the Soviet space race against the United States, becoming the first man to fly into space twice, as well as commanding the Voskhod 1 flight in October 1964.

Komarov and his close friend Yuri Gagarin – the first man ever to go into space – were seen as a formidable duo and were thought to be pivotal in securing Russia's success in the solar system.

Unfortunately, the late astronaut is now known in history books as “the man who fell from space.” Listen to this:

So, for those who don't know this terrifying story, let us fill you in on it.

Soyuz 1 was a manned space flight of the Soviet space program that Komarov was in command of, while Gagarin was his backup cosmonaut – and before launch, both worked up to 14 hours each day to prepare everything.

But it seems the spacecraft may have been doomed from the start.

To begin with, previous uncrewed tests of the 7K-OK, Cosmos 133, and Cosmos 140 spacecraft had all failed previously.

But more importantly, historians have claimed that engineers working on the Soyuz 1 rocket raised concerns about flaws in its design – but these concerns were supposedly ignored due to “political pressure.”

The astronauts were said to have been aware that the spacecraft did not seem fit for purpose, and shared their concerns, but for some reason, no one stopped the test flight.

Although the dramatic story of Komarov's death is known around the world, the exact details remain very mysterious due to the strict secrecy the Soviet Union imposed on its projects.

Vladimir Komarov's last transmission was captured by US eavesdropping centers (Getty Images)

But what we do know is that on April 23, 1967, the 40-year-old aerospace engineer headed out on his final space mission.

This process took 24 hours, and it orbited the Earth 16 times.

The spacecraft was equipped with two solar panels, which provided the power needed to complete the maneuver, but one of them failed to deploy, preventing the astronaut from completing his mission.

He was ordered to return to Earth, but Komarov made two more orbits around the planet in an attempt to reenter the atmosphere and complete his mission.

But his last ill-fated attempt was not so lucky on the third try.

Soyuz 1 reached an altitude of 23,000 feet (7,010 meters) when it landed, but the parachute failed to open because the ropes became tangled after reentry problems.

This meant that there was only one way down for Komarov – and he was apparently fully aware of what was about to happen.

The astronaut was killed when the spacecraft's parachute malfunctioned (ullstein bild/ullstein bild via Getty Images)

American eavesdropping centers in Turkey heard the astronaut angrily discussing the problems he had encountered during the space flight with Alexei Kosygin, who was a high-ranking official in the Soviet Union at the time.

According to the controversial 2011 history book Starman, “This demon ship! Nothing I can lay my hands on is working properly,” Komarov screamed as the spacecraft began to crash.

Eventually, he fell to Earth in the spacecraft before dying in an explosion.

His charred remains were reported to resemble a “lump” and could only be identified by the heel bone.

Starman It is also claimed that Komarov's spacecraft suffered from “203 structural problems” that became apparent before the ill-fated flight.

However, despite the claims made in the book, The official version of Komarov's last moments from the Russian State Archives tells a completely different story.

He apparently told his teammates: “I feel great, everything is fine.”

After a few moments he said, “Thank you for passing all that on.” [Separation] It happened.

We'll leave it up to you to decide which one to believe.