Video: 'Soyuz 11 - Death Of Three Astronauts'

(Monday, June 7, 1971, 10:45 a.m. Moscow Standard Time) — The three Soyuz 11 cosmonauts (Georgy Dobrovolsky, Vladislav Volkov, and Viktor Patsayev) became the first humans in history to step aboard an orbiting space station today after their capsule successfully docked with Salyut 1.

Upon first entering the station, the crew encountered a smoky and burnt atmosphere and after replacing part of the ventilation system spent the next day back in their Soyuz until the air cleared.

The cosmonauts remained on board for 22 days, setting space endurance records that would hold until the American Skylab 2 mission in May–June 1973.

After the crew departed on June 29, 1971, the mission ended in disaster when the crew capsule depressurized during preparations for re-entry into Earth’s atmosphere, killing the three-man crew. The three crew members of Soyuz 11 are the first (and only) humans known to have died in space.