Georgy Dobrovolsky
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Georgy Timofeyevich Dobrovolsky (Template:Langx; 1 June 1928Template:Spaced ndash30 June 1971)<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> was a Soviet cosmonaut who commanded the three-man crew of the Soyuz 11 spacecraft. They became the world's first space station crew aboard Salyut 1, but died of asphyxiation because of an accidentally opened valve. They were the first and only humans to have died in space.
Biography
Dobrovolsky, Viktor Patsayev and Vladislav Volkov flew on the Soyuz 11 mission and were the world's first and last three crew to die during a space flight.
After a normal re-entry, the capsule was opened and the crew was found dead.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> It was discovered that a valve had opened just prior to leaving orbit that had allowed the capsule's atmosphere to vent away into space, suffocating the crew.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Dobrovolsky's ashes were placed in an urn in the Kremlin Wall Necropolis on Red Square in Moscow.<ref name=ivanovich>Template:Cite book</ref> Among the pallbearers were Alexei Leonov (who had been the prime-crew commander scheduled to launch on Soyuz 11), Vladimir Shatalov, Andriyan Nikolayev, and American astronaut Thomas P. Stafford.<ref name=ivanovich/> Dobrovolsky was posthumously awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union, the Order of Lenin, and the title of Pilot-Cosmonaut of the USSR.