Launch from Baikonur; landing near Orenburg (40 km from Novoorsk / 3 km of Karabutak).

First manned test of the Soyuz-spacecraft. It was planned, that a second Soyuz-spacecraft should be launched short after Soyuz 1and that two cosmonauts of Soyuz 2 should travel in space from one spacecraft to another. But launch of Soyuz 2 was officially scrubbed due to heavy rain over Baikonur.

Problems in this mission began shortly after launch. A solar panel could not be unfold and so the spacecraft had a shortage of power for its systems. The spacecraft also could not be manoeuvred (problems with orientation detectors). Later on the stabilization system was down and the manual system could be used only partially. So the mission was aborted and that may probably the reason, why Soyuz 2 never launched.

The problems onboard ended in a precipitated landing. The first automatically controlled retrofire in the 16. orbit failed, so Komarov tried it again (successful) in the 18th orbit. Although Komarov had only little control, he might have survived, but the main parachute, which was put out in a height of 6,5 km did not deploy due to a failure of a pressure sensor and the manually deployed reserve chute became tangled with the drag chute. The capsule felt to Earth unbraked and Komarov was deadly injured at landing.

It is told, that his dispairing calls for help have been heard from western radio amateurs. It is also said, that he was infuriated by the balky spacecraft, and went out cursing those who had sent him in such an unready piece of equipment. But that might only have been "wild stories" of the newspapers.