Only Three People Have Died in Space

On April 19th, 1971, the Soviet Union launch history’s first ever space station, Salyut 1. Days later the Soyuz 10 mission failed after a problem with the docking hatch meant the crew couldn’t actually board the station. Unwilling to let Salyut languish, Soyuz 11 launched on June 6 and Georgi Dobrovolski, Vladislav Volkov, and Viktor Patsayev became the first men to live aboard an Earth orbiting station. Their mission wasn’t without its problems, but the problems were just beginning when the crew was brought home a week early. A valve opened early during the descent, and the crew, exposed to the vacuum of space, died from decompression.