Prime pilot Komarov had reason to be wary of the flight. There were known flaws in the spacecraft (203 to be exact) and engineers on the spacecraft’s development team knew it wasn’t ready for a manned flight. As the launch date approached, conscientious cosmonauts and engineers filed a ten page report outlining each of the flaws and arguing for the mission’s cancellation.

It’s not entirely clear what happened to that report, but it is clear that its message wasn’t heeded. The Soviet system had a tendency to blame and punish the messenger, so getting the report into the right hands was only part of the problem. Venyamin Russayev, Yuri Gagarin’s KGB escort and close friend, passed the report to a superior. The only result was his ban from ever engaging a cosmonaut or anyone affiliated with the space program in conversation again.

Days before launch, Russayev had dinner with Komarov and his wife. As the cosmonaut walked the KGB officer to the door, he turned to his guest and said plainly “I’m not going to make it back from this flight.” Komarov went on to explain that his hands were tied. If he refused the flight, the politburo would strip him of his military honors and send Gagarin in his place. He couldn’t send a close friend and national hero to his death.

The inevitable feeling that there would be a fatal end of the mission loomed in the air on launch day. Gagarin was particularly agitated, acting out and making strange demands. He wasn’t supposed to go to the launch pad with Komarov, but he did and demanded a pressure suit as well. Some see Gagarin’s actions as his attempt to elbow his way in to the cockpit to save his friend’s life while others suggest this was his way of getting a pressure suit for Komarov. It wasn’t much, but it would give the cosmonaut an added defense against a defective spacecraft. Another reading of Gagarin’s actions is that he was trying to disrupt launch procedures enough to cancel the mission.

Read more here, and see photo of his burnt body: http://motherboard.vice.com/blog/when-soyuz-1-fell-to-earth

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