Soyuz 11: Another Tragedy

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Salyut With the failed moon program, a new project grew up: space station. Soviet's astronautics focused on this new way to use space for researching (and often to spy the other countries). The first ever space station, Salyut 1 was launched in 1971. Four days later a crew of three was launched onboard Soyuz 10. Docking failed and the crew returtned to earth two days later. A new mission was planned: Soyuz 11, due to be launched in June and last up to 24 days.
	Soyuz 11 On June 6, 1971, Georgy Dobrovolsky, Viktor Patsayev and Vladislav Volkov boarded their Soyuz 11 spacecraft for a 24-day mission to the Salyut 1 space station. On June 29 the Soyuz landed. Recovery teams opened the hatch and found inside a dead crew. Few weeks later it was discovered that a valve opened accidentally during reentry and air escaped from the cabin.