Georgy Dobrovolsky, born June 1, 1928 in Odessa, Ukraine, was commander of the ill-fated Soyuz 11 mission. He and fellow cosmonauts Vladislav Volkov and Viktor Patsayev took off June 6, 1971 and became the first crew to successfully dock with Salyut 1. Unfortunately, he and his crew perished when a valve accidentally opened up during re-entry, suffocating the crew. Dobrovolsky and his comrades as of now are the only people to have died in space.
Salyut 1, the
first space station ever, was launched by the Soviet Union April 19, 1971.
After Apollo 11 landed on the moon in
July 1969, the Soviets shifted the emphasis of their space program to orbiting
stations, with a possible moon landing later in the 1970s.
They began construction of Salyut 1 in early 1970 and planned to launch on April 12 to
coincide with Yuri Gagarin’s history flight on Vostok 1 technical problems postponed the launch until April 19.
The first crew to arrive was aboard Soyuz 10, launched April 22 with Vladimir Shatalov, Aleksei
Yeliseyev and Nikolai Rikavishnikov.
They managed to ‘soft-dock’ with Salyut
1 but hard-docking had to be aborted due to technical malfunctions. However, after undocking, toxic fumes began
to fill the capsule during re-entry and Rukavishnikov lost consciousness, but
all crew members were recovered successfully.
The second crew, Georgy Dobrovolsky, Vladislav Volkov and
Viktor Patsayev, launched in Soyuz 11
June 6, 1971 and docked with Salyut 1
and transferred to the space station.
They were able to carry out some of their tasks but after 23 days, their
mission was cut short due to problems aboard the station. They transferred back to Soyuz 11 and re-entered Earth’s atmosphere. A pressure relief valve malfunctioned during
the descent, depressurizing the capsule, suffocating the crew.
The Soviets then moved Salyut
1 to a higher orbit to be sure it would not be destroyed too early through
orbital decay. While this maneuver was
being fulfilled, the Soviets worked on an effort to redesign the capsules so
pressure suits could be worn during launch, docking, re-entry, etc.
Their efforts took too much time and in September, Salyut 1 was running low on attitude
control gas. On October 11, 1971, the
Soviets fired the main engines for a deorbit maneuver and the space station
burned up over the Pacific Ocean.
Viktor Ivanovich Patsayev, born June 19, 1933, was a cosmonaut for the Soviet Space program. He died June 30, 1971 when the Soyuz 11 spacecraft depressurized prematurely, suffocating him and his fellow cosmonauts, Georgy Dobrovolsky and Vladislav Volkov. The moon crater Patsaev and the minor planet 1791 Patsayev are both named for him.
Soyuz 11, launched June 6, 1971, was manned by Commander Georgy Dobrovolsky, Flight Engineer Vladislav Volkov and Test Engineer Viktor Patsayev. They docked with Salyut 1 but had to replace part of the ventilation system before they could board her.
Upon re-entry, the capsule depressurized too early, killing the crew. They are the only known humans to have died in space.
