NOVA Online (click here for NOVA home)
Terror in Space
Site Map


Soyuz-11 Soyuz spacecraft
Mishaps of the Space Age
1971: Soyuz 11

At the end of their mission aboard Soyuz 11, cosmonauts Viktor Patsayev, Georgi Dobrovolsky, and Vladislav Volkov fired the explosive bolts to separate the re-entry capsule from the other stage of their spacecraft. The explosion knocked open a valve. One hundred miles above the Earth, the capsule was suddenly exposed to the surrounding low pressure of space. Patsayev tried to close the valve by hand but failed. Air inside the spacecraft quickly leaked away, causing an abrupt loss of pressure and the death of all three cosmonauts.

Soyuz-11 crash site Soyuz 11 crash site: rescuers giving CPR to cosmonauts.




Continue: 1986

Photos (1) NASA; (2) courtesy of the Ultimax Group, Inc. and VideoCosmos, Ltd.

Q&A | Tour of Mir | Day in the Life
Next Space Station | Mishaps | Resources
Teacher's Guide | Transcript | Site Map | Terror Home

Editor's Picks | Previous Sites | Join Us/E-mail | TV/Web Schedule
About NOVA | Teachers | Site Map | Shop | Jobs | Search | To print
PBS Online | NOVA Online | WGBH

© | Updated November 2000