Astronauts died 104 miles up in space and then completed perfect landing back on earth
WARNING: DISTRESSING CONTENT Three astronauts died on their return from Salyut 1 – the world’s first space station with the horrifying discovery made only after they made a flawless landing back on earth in 1971
Ukranian-born Soviet cosmonaut Georgi Dobrovolsky died on June 30 1971 aboard the Soyuz 11 spacecraft(Image: Rolls Press/Popperfoto via Getty Images)
A haunting discovery was made when a space ship of dead astronauts made a perfect landing on earth – after they had already died more than 100 miles up in the sky.
On 30 June 1971, commander Georgi Dobrovolsky, flight engineer Vladislav Volkov and research engineer Viktor Patsayev suffered a grim fate that no one could foresee for the space heroes.
The astronauts were discovered dead in their seats aboard the Soyuz 11 spacecraft following what appeared to be a perfect landing back on Earth.
Soyuz 11 was the sole crewed mission to reach the world’s first space station, Salyut 1, launching on 6 June 1971. In a tragic twist of fate, the crew on board were actually the reserve astronauts for this mission — stepping up after a medical X-ray examination four days before launch indicated that original flight engineer Valery Kubasov might have tuberculosis.
In line with mission protocol, the prime crew was swapped out for the back-up crew — yet it later emerged that Kubasov did not have TB at all.
The reserve crew had clocked up 24 days in space, which at the time stood as the longest anyone had ever spent beyond Earth’s atmosphere — but it came to a devastating end.
NASA confirmed that shortly before their re-entry into the Earth’s atmosphere, “tragedy struck” and “the cosmonauts died as a result of the sudden depressurisation of their spacecraft”.
Explosive bolts “separated the Soyuz into its three components, with the crew inside the middle bell-shaped descent module”.
Miraculously, the spacecraft’s automated flight computer remained perfectly in tact meaning the ship could still carry out an almost flawless re-entry and landing.
It deployed its parachutes and touched down perfectly in the fields of Kazakhstan. However, the horror of what had happened only dawned on the investigative team who opened the hatch doors.
“On opening the hatch, they found all three men in their couches, motionless, with dark-blue patches on their faces and trails of blood from their noses and ears… Dobrovolski was still warm. The doctors gave artificial respiration”, an Investigative Report Excerpt said.
Tragically, as Dobrovolski’s body was still warm to the touch despite dying 30 minutes earlier, rescue doctors frantically performed CPR for nearly an hour in a desperate attempt to revive him.
In an eerie twist of fate the haunting last words of the dead mean were transmitted from inside their spacecraft.
Soviet Air Force representative to the space programme Nikolai Kamanin officially spoke with the crew at 12.16am, signing off by wishing them good luck for a smooth landing.
However, space historian Peter Smolders later claimed in 1971 that Dobrovolsky made one last transmission to confirm he was “beginning the descent procedure.”
Adding to the confusion was Soviet cosmonaut Alexei Yeliseyev, who had been in contact with the crew from the Yevpatoria control centre in Crimea and had previously assisted them in resolving an earlier problem with the hatch door of the Soyuz 11 descent module.
Yeliseyev recorded that Volkov had made a two-word request, jokingly asking flight controllers to “prepare cognac”, which was regarded as a traditional welcome-home gift, before signing off with “see you tomorrow!”.
Tragically, the entire crew perished inside the spacecraft.
Regarding the crew’s deaths, NASA explained: “The shock from the explosive bolts jarred open a pressure equalisation valve that normally opened only once the spacecraft was descending on its parachute, well inside the atmosphere.
“But in this case, the valve opened to the vacuum of space and the capsule’s air escaped in less than one minute. There’s evidence the cosmonauts tried to respond to the emergency by manually closing the valve, a process that took several minutes.
“They rapidly lost consciousness as the pressure continued to drop and died [within] two minutes. Not wearing pressure suits, they had no hope of surviving.”
