Which Astronauts died in Space?
Who are the Astronauts that died in Space?
In 1971, the USSR's Salyut 1 became the first space station to orbit above Earth's atmosphere. On April 19 of that year, the unmanned spacecraft launched into space. Just a few days later, a crew of three Soviet cosmonauts on board Soyuz 10 attempted to dock with the space station and stay in orbit for a month. Despite successfully docking, the crew could not enter Salyut 1 due to issues with the entry hatch. During their return trip, a leak of toxic chemicals occurred in the air supply of Soyuz 10, causing one cosmonaut to lose consciousness. However, all three members of the crew returned home safely with no long-lasting effects.
Several months later, on June 6, the Soyuz 11 mission made a second attempt to access the space station. This time, the crew of three cosmonauts, Georgi Dobrovolski, Vladislav Volkov, and Viktor Patsayev, successfully entered Salyut 1. They spent the next three weeks conducting experiments to better understand the effects of extended weightlessness on the human body, setting a new record for the longest time spent in space.
On June 29, the Soyuz 11 spacecraft began its descent back to Earth with the cosmonauts on board. However, tragedy struck during the reentry process.
From the ground, the reentry of Soyuz 11 appeared to proceed smoothly, with the spacecraft successfully making it through the Earth's atmosphere and landing in Kazakhstan as intended. However, when recovery teams opened the hatch of the spacecraft, they found that all three crew members had perished
In Ben Evans' book Foothold in the Heavens, Kerim Kerimov, the chair of the State Commission, recalled that there was no visible damage to the Soyuz 11 spacecraft. When the recovery crew knocked on the side of the spacecraft, there was no response from within. Upon opening the hatch, they found all three crew members motionless in their seats with dark-blue patches on their faces and trails of blood from their noses and ears. Despite efforts to resuscitate them, the crew members were declared dead due to suffocation.
The cause of the fatal accident was determined to be a faulty valve seal on the spacecraft's descent vehicle that burst open during its separation from the service module. At an altitude of 104 miles (168 km), the vacuum of space combined with the leaking valve to rapidly suck all the air out of the crew cabin, resulting in a depressurization. The valve was located underneath the cosmonauts' seats, making it extremely difficult for them to fix the problem in time.
Following the tragic deaths of the Soyuz 11 crew due to decompression, the USSR implemented a new policy requiring all cosmonauts to wear pressurized space suits during reentry. This policy remains in effect today.
