In 1967, Vladimir Komarov was sent up on the ill-fated Soyuz 1 mission and became the first in-flight fatality in the history of manned spaceflight when the parachutes failed to deploy correctly. Yuri Gagarin, the first man in space, was the assigned backup pilot. According to Gagarin biography Starman by Jamie Doran and Piers Bizony, Gagarin tried to muscle his way onto the flight because he knew the spacecraft was fundamentally flawed and he wanted to save his friend's life (the authors suggest that Gagarin tried to run the design flaws up the chain of command, but the Soviet hierarchy was only interested in getting the flight up for the 50th anniversary of the revolution and he was stonewalled at every step of the way).
Though there's been quite a bit of criticism of the work, let's pretend that it actually happens as presented — including Gagarin's ignored warnings to the Soviet bureaucracy — and Gagarin gets on the flight and dies just like Komarov did in OTL. What would be the result?
Though there's been quite a bit of criticism of the work, let's pretend that it actually happens as presented — including Gagarin's ignored warnings to the Soviet bureaucracy — and Gagarin gets on the flight and dies just like Komarov did in OTL. What would be the result?