20 Space Missions That Nearly Ended in Disaster
Space exploration represents humanity’s boldest adventure, but the cold vacuum beyond our atmosphere offers no mercy for mistakes. Behind every celebrated achievement lies a series of near-catastrophes, equipment failures, and split-second decisions that determined whether astronauts returned as heroes or became tragic footnotes in history. These close calls remind us just how thin the line between triumph and disaster truly is in space travel.
Here is a list of 20 space missions that came perilously close to ending in disaster, yet somehow pulled through.
Apollo 13
What began as a routine mission to the Moon in 1970 transformed into a fight for survival when an oxygen tank exploded 200,000 miles from Earth. The crew abandoned the command module for the lunar module, which wasn’t designed to support three astronauts for the extended journey home.
Their survival hinged on NASA’s remarkable ingenuity, including building makeshift carbon dioxide scrubbers from spare parts.
Soyuz 18a
The April 1975 Soviet mission experienced the only mid-launch abort in human spaceflight history. Just after second-stage separation, the rocket failed to separate properly, sending the capsule on a ballistic trajectory.
The cosmonauts endured forces up to 21G during their unexpected return to Earth, landing in the Altai Mountains nearly 1,000 miles off course and dangerously close to the Chinese border.
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STS-51-F
The Challenger shuttle mission in 1985 narrowly avoided disaster when one of its three main engines shut down during ascent, forcing the first-ever abort to orbit. The remaining engines had to burn longer than planned, pushing them dangerously close to their operational limits.
Had a second engine failed, the shuttle would have attempted a risky transatlantic landing or worse, an emergency ditching in the ocean.
Mir Collision
In 1997, an unmanned Progress supply ship crashed into the Mir space station during a practice docking maneuver. The collision punctured one module, causing rapid decompression and nearly forcing evacuation.
The crew sealed off the damaged section, but the station lost approximately 40% of its power generation capacity. The cosmonauts and one American astronaut lived with severely limited resources while repairs were conducted.
Apollo 11
The historic first lunar landing in 1969 nearly ended in failure when the landing computer began overloading with data during descent. Alarm codes flashed as Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin approached the surface, indicating the computer was struggling to process all its tasks.
Armstrong took partial manual control while Mission Control made the critical call to continue despite the alarms.
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Soyuz 5
Cosmonaut Boris Volynov faced a horrifying reentry in 1969 when his service module failed to separate completely from the descent module. This caused the capsule to reenter the atmosphere heat-shield forward, exposing the thinner front to temperatures of nearly 5,000°F.
The restraining straps holding the modules together finally burned through, allowing the capsule to right itself just in time.
Gemini 8
Neil Armstrong and David Scott faced potential disaster in 1966 when their spacecraft began spinning uncontrollably after docking with an Agena target vehicle. The rotation reached 60 revolutions per minute, putting the astronauts at risk of losing consciousness.
Armstrong made the split-second decision to undock and use the reentry control thrusters to stabilize the craft, requiring an emergency splashdown.
STS-107
The fatal Columbia mission in 2003 included a period when disaster might have been averted. NASA engineers spotted potential wing damage during launch but were denied requests for additional imagery that might have confirmed the severity of the problem.
Alternative rescue scenarios existed but were never implemented, as the true extent of the damage remained unknown until the tragic reentry attempt.
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Apollo 12
Just 36 seconds after liftoff in 1969, lightning struck Apollo 12, knocking out electrical systems and fuel cells. Flight controller John Aaron recognized the obscure pattern on his console from a simulation a year earlier and instructed the crew to switch to a backup power system.
His quick thinking, remembered as the SCE to AUX procedure, saved the mission from an emergency abort.
Soyuz MS-10
A booster separation failure during a 2018 launch triggered the abort system, subjecting astronauts Nick Hague and Alexey Ovchinin to forces of 6.7G as they were ripped away from the failing rocket. The capsule followed a ballistic trajectory, landing approximately 250 miles from the launch site.
Despite the violent separation and rough landing, both crew members walked away unharmed.
Soyuz 23
After an aborted docking with the Salyut space station in 1976, cosmonauts landed in partially frozen Lake Tengiz during a blizzard. The capsule broke through the ice but remained afloat with its hatch underwater.
Rescue helicopters couldn’t land due to weather conditions, leaving the crew trapped for hours in subzero temperatures as the capsule’s batteries drained and oxygen supplies diminished.
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STS-93
The 1999 Columbia mission commanded by Eileen Collins experienced multiple engine failures during launch. A hydrogen leak and an electrical short caused one engine to shut down early, while a second engine nearly failed from a different problem.
The shuttle reached orbit with just 15 seconds of fuel remaining, narrowly avoiding a risky emergency landing attempt.
Apollo 10
The lunar module on this 1969 dress rehearsal for the first Moon landing began spinning wildly during its ascent from low lunar orbit. Commander Tom Stafford realized they had accidentally activated the wrong flight control system and managed to regain control with just seconds before the situation would have become unrecoverable.
The craft came within a few moments of crashing into the lunar surface.
Voskhod 2
After performing the first spacewalk in 1965, cosmonaut Alexei Leonov nearly became stranded when his spacesuit ballooned, making it impossible to reenter the airlock. With oxygen supplies dwindling, he took the enormous risk of manually bleeding air from his suit to reduce its size.
The landing went equally wrong when the automated reentry system failed, forcing a manual landing that left the crew stranded in wolf-inhabited forests.
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STS-49
The first flight of Endeavour in 1992 faced potential failure when the satellite they were sent to retrieve proved impossible to capture by conventional means. After two failed attempts, NASA approved an unprecedented three-person spacewalk.
The astronauts ultimately had to capture the satellite by hand, inventing new procedures on the fly that had never been attempted or even simulated on Earth.
Soyuz TMA-11
During reentry in April 2008, the service module failed to fully separate from the descent module, similar to Soyuz 5 decades earlier. The capsule shifted to a steeper ballistic reentry, subjecting South Korean astronaut Yi So-yeon, American Peggy Whitson, and Russian Yuri Malenchenko to forces of up to 10G.
The capsule landed 260 miles off target, leaving the crew waiting hours for recovery.
The Unsung Heroes of Space Exploration
These near-disasters remind us that space exploration advances not just through bold vision but through the accumulated wisdom of close calls. Every mission that survives a brush with catastrophe adds vital knowledge to our collective understanding of space travel’s risks.
The engineers, flight controllers, and astronauts who transformed potential tragedies into hard-won successes represent humanity’s remarkable ability to solve problems even when the void of space offers no second chances.
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