Date Incident Mission Fatalities Description 1967 - 04 - 24 Parachute failure Soyuz 1 Vladimir Komarov The one - day mission was plagued by a series of mishaps with the new spacecraft type, culminating with its parachute not opening properly after atmospheric reentry. Komarov was killed when the capsule hit the ground at high speed. The Soyuz 1 crash site coordinates are 51 ° 21 ′ 41 '' N 59 ° 33 ′ 44 '' E ﻿ / ﻿ 51.3615 ° N 59.5622 ° E ﻿ / 51.3615; 59.5622, 3 kilometres (1.9 mi) west of Karabutak, Province of Orenburg in the Russian Federation, about 275 kilometres (171 mi) east - southeast of Orenburg. In a small park on the side of the road is a memorial monument: a black column with a bust of Komarov at the top. 1971 - 06 - 30 Decompression Soyuz 11 Georgi Dobrovolski Viktor Patsayev Vladislav Volkov The crew of Soyuz 11 were killed after undocking from space station Salyut 1 after a three - week stay. A cabin vent valve accidentally opened at service module separation. The recovery team found the crew dead. These three are the only human fatalities in space (above 100 kilometres (62 mi)) thus far. The Soyuz 11 landing coordinates are 47 ° 21 ′ 24 '' N 70 ° 07 ′ 17 '' E ﻿ / ﻿ 47.35663 ° N 70.12142 ° E ﻿ / 47.35663; 70.12142, 90 kilometres (56 mi) southwest of Karazhal, Karagandy, Kazakhstan, and about 550 kilometres (340 mi) northeast of Baikonur, in open flat country far from any populated area. In a small circular fenced area at the site is a memorial monument in the form of a three - sided metallic column. Near the top of the column on each side is the engraved image of the face of a crew member set into a stylized triangle. 1986 - 01 - 28 Vehicle disintegration during launch -- Space Shuttle Challenger disaster STS - 51 - L Gregory Jarvis Christa McAuliffe Ronald McNair Ellison Onizuka Judith Resnik Michael J. Smith Dick Scobee The Space Shuttle Challenger was destroyed 73 seconds after lift - off on STS - 51 - L. The investigation found that cold weather conditions caused an O - ring seal to fail, allowing hot gases from the shuttle solid rocket booster (SRB) to impinge on the external propellant tank and booster strut. The strut and aft end of the tank failed, allowing the top of the SRB to rotate into the top of the tank. Challenger was thrown sideways into the Mach 1.8 windstream and broke up with the loss of all seven crew members. NASA investigators determined they may have survived the spacecraft disintegration, possibly unconscious from hypoxia; some tried to activate their emergency oxygen. Any survivors of the breakup were killed, however, when the largely intact cockpit hit the water at 320 km / h (200 mph), about 32 km (20 miles) east of Cape Canaveral at 28.64 degrees north, 80.28 degrees west. About half of the vehicle 's remains were never recovered, and fragments still wash ashore occasionally on the coast of Brevard County, Florida. 2003 - 02 - 01 Vehicle disintegration on re-entry -- Space Shuttle Columbia disaster STS - 107 Rick D. Husband William McCool Michael P. Anderson David M. Brown Kalpana Chawla Laurel B. Clark Ilan Ramon The Space Shuttle Columbia was lost as it returned from a two - week mission, STS - 107. Damage to the shuttle 's thermal protection system (TPS) led to structural failure of the shuttle 's left wing and the spacecraft ultimately broke apart. Investigation revealed damage to the reinforced carbon - carbon leading edge wing panel resulted from the impact of a piece of foam insulation that broke away from the external tank during the launch. The vehicle broke up over the southwestern United States and fell in fragments over eastern Texas and central Louisiana.
who was the first astronaut to die in space
Vladimir Komarov