The man's face was filled with worry and uncertainty. Another member of the recovery team sat beside him and listened to the Soyuz 11 capsule landing after a record-breaking 23 day stay at the first space station. Both men had been eager to meet the return cosmonauts Georgi Dvorkovski, Vladislav Volkov and Viktor Patsayev, whose fame had swept Soviet Russia in June 1971 like a whirlwind. They were met with a sombre silence when they knocked on its capsule.They opened the hatch to discover an indescribable scene of horror. The three cosmonauts were found dead on their seats with blue marks and blood dripping from their ears and noses. Humankind had to deal with the first and only space-related deaths on June 30, 1971.Troubled MissionSoyuz 11 was a miserable assignment from the beginning. The Soviets abandoned their plans for a lunar landing after Neil Armstrong's first steps on the Moon. Instead, they chose to launch an Earth-orbiting station. Salyut 1 was launched on April 1971. However, the first crew failed to dock with station during the Soyuz 10 mission. It was then up to Alexei Leonov, Valeri Kubasov and Pyotrkolodin to attempt again with Soyuz 11.Three days before the launch, doctors discovered a swelling in Kubasov's right lung. The whole crew was evacuated due to tuberculosis. Kubasov's inflammation was due to a pollen allergy. However, the top brass stood firm to their decision. Kolodin, furious and frustrated, returned to his bedroom and got drunk. It was no easy feat for the backup crew who now had to complete the longest ever space mission.Leonov, in his memoir Two Sides of the Moon recalled the dread astronauts felt. He was a keen artist and did a sketch of Patsayev in pencil the night before his launch. This was to show that the quiet mechanical engineer was a Renaissance man of cosmonaut corps, who loved literature, music and whose father had died fighting Nazi Germany.Dobrovolski was the replacement commander for Soyuz 11. He is a parachutist and fighter pilot. His fingers were broken by Nazi thugs when he was a boy for providing ammunition and messages to resistance fighters. This dedicated family man carved a small wooden doll for his daughter years later during his cosmonaut training in an isolation chamber.Volkov, a young and energetic pilot, was the only member of the replacement crew to have flown before. The aeronautical engineer, a talented boxer and athlete, would become the first space journalist to be accredited. His rugged looks made him a Russian pinup for women during Soyuz 11.Manning a New Space StationSoyuz 11's one-day trip to Salyut 1 on June 6, 1971 was uneventful. The three cosmonauts boarded the space station without any problems. They carried out numerous experiments over the next three weeks. These included planting bulbs and cultivating Chinese cabbages, as well as taking spectrograms and photographs of snow and ice along the banks of River Volga. They were featured on Soviet evening television.Happiness was still elusive. Dobrovolski resentfully wrote about the monotony of his disjointed shift work in his ever-present journal. The station was also affected by smoke from an overheating device, which strained the nerves of the crew and tested their ability to work together. Some harmony was restored when Patsayev, the first man to celebrate his birthday in space, was treated to a surprise meal of veal and cookies by his crewmates.It would be Patsayev's last birthday.Soyuz 11 finally unloaded from Salyut 1 on June 29. The cosmonauts finally returned to Earth three hours later after their primary mission was completed. Volkov asked flight controllers to make sure that they had a supply cognac as a welcome-home gift at their landing site.Ninety-nine minutes prior to touchdown, at an altitude around 100 miles (160 kms), explosives were fired as planned to seperate Soyuz 11s instrument and orbital modules. The crew's only defense against the fiery furnace for re-entry was the bell-shaped capsule.After landing, the Soyuz 11 capsule looked unharmed. The capsule was silent when the recovery team approached it. (Credit NASA)Gruesome DiscoveriesThe next step was fast.The pressure inside the crew capsule plummeted as soon as all the modules had been removed. All the air was leaving Soyuz 11. Investigators determined that Dobrovolski, Volkov and their bodies were in a position to discover the leak. Their heart rates rose as they searched, according to health trackers. They were not able to wait for the right time. Patsayev's pulse fell to levels comparable to oxygen starvation within 50 seconds. Within 110 seconds, all three of the cosmonauts had died.Mission Control did not realize the gravity of the situation at this point. Although attempts to reach the crew via VHF radio were met by stony silence and a sigh of relief, there was a general feeling of unease in the room. Two minutes prior to touchdown, Soviet airspace was scanned by military radar and the capsule began to descend. Communications were impossible because the craft was still reentering the atmosphere and therefore shielded in super-heated Plasma.Three Russian cosmonauts attending their funeral in 1971. (Credit to Joachim Becker/SpaceFacts).As the minutes passed, the hopes of a happy ending were shattered when the capsules' drogue parachutes automatically blasted out. The main canopy followed suit. Helicopter crews saw the intact Soyuz 11 gently swinging under the beautiful parachute ten minutes before touchdown.Nevertheless, the crew did not respond to our request for information.Mission Control felt elated temporarily when the helicopter commander reported the capsule had landed. The recovery team was also setting down near the area. They were only minutes away from opening the hatch and introducing the cosmonauts home smells for the first time since three weeks. Two minutes after touchdown, Soyuz 11 was reached by search and rescue personnel. They made their presence felt by writing their greetings on Soyuz 11.The reply came from nowhere.They opened the hatch to find all three cosmonauts slumped down motionless. Their faces were covered in dark, bruised-looking spots and blood was seeping from the ears and noses. Dobrovolski was still alive, but there were no other options.Mission Control received three numbers as the first contact between rescuers and Mission Control. It was used to indicate each cosmonaut's health. The number 5 represented excellent condition. 4 meant that there were no injuries, 3 meant there were some, 2 meant there were severe injuries, and 1 meant there were fatal injuries. One after another, a string of one's instantly indicated to flight controllers that Dobrovolski and Volkov were dead.Later, investigators discovered that the reason for these first fatalities in space was a defective valve that burst during separation of the instrument and orbital modules. The cosmonauts were left without a way to repair the leak. This tragedy caused national grief throughout the Soviet Union. Even Premier Leonid Brezhnev, who was stone-faced, cried when he finally passed the men's coffins.Future Soyuz ships will be equipped with stronger valves and quick-action chokes to quickly plug any air leaks. Moreover, future crews will wear pressure suits during launch and landing.Every Soyuz crew have safely launched and landed since that fateful day fifty years ago.
