Have any astronauts/cosmonauts died in space?

Question

After some casual reading around on the internet I got to the accidents that have occurred over the years in space exploration.

I got to wondering that while I know that astronauts have died during launch or return I could not find any that happened in orbit. The deaths that I could find were either during launch or the return descent.

My question is : Have any astronauts/cosmonauts died in space?

There were no astronauts at all at a high earth orbit. All Apollo astronauts on their way to the Moon and back did not enter a high Earth orbit. — Uwe, Mar 18 '19 at 15:43
@Uwe Is there a way to reword it in my question so it's clearer? — Tom Sol, Mar 18 '19 at 16:17
You should avoid the words "high earth orbit" if you think of a different orbit at a much lower altitude than above 35,786 km. A high earth orbit is defined above a geosynchronous orbit. Orbits with some hundreds of kilometers are desiginated as low Earth orbits between 160 and 2000 km height. You may just remove the word high if you think of any Earth orbit. — Uwe, Mar 18 '19 at 16:38
@Uwe adapted it to space so it's also still concurrent with the answer already posted. — Tom Sol, Mar 18 '19 at 16:43
@DavidRicherby: I am also sure I have read this before on this or any other related stack aswell. Got it deleted? Or am I remembering wrong? I think I read it like 1~1.5 years ago. The question was a bit diferent but the premise of answers it got were the same. — Zaibis, Mar 19 '19 at 13:05

score 29 · Accepted Answer · answered Mar 18 '19 at 15:34

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The only casualties in space (above the Kármán line) are the crew of Soyuz 11 who were still in orbit when they died but about to reenter the atmosphere. All other casualties like Komarov in Soyuz 1 or the Columbia Space Shuttle disaster were during reentry well below the Kármán line.

The Soyuz 11 was about to land so you may count that as "during return descent" if you want to. So far no one died while in orbit and not about to land, luckily.

answered Mar 18 '19 at 15:34

DarkDust

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"Luckily" well part of it is luck, I suppose. Most of it, I'd say, is incredible detail in engineering and quality assurance. – corsiKa Mar 18 '19 at 22:06
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@corsiKa - even with all that engineering, when compared to other transport methods we have, there's a fair helping of luck here I'd suggest. – The_Sympathizer Mar 19 '19 at 03:59
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@The_Sympathizer I'd say it's a fair helping of highly-trained-professional cautiousness and expertise compared to other transport methods. – Alex Mar 19 '19 at 09:36
@DarkDust: Well, speaking of Soyuz 11, I might be a bit nitpicky about the wording here. But still in the sense of this question Soyuz11 wouldn't really count either. As the part already was broken way before. It was the stress to the damaged part, due to initiating the reentry, that made it brake and hence killed the crew. So it clearly was due to stress exerted by the atmosphere. And so I'd in the scope of OP wouldn't clearly consider it a casuality in space. Even the event might have happened in space by definition. – Zaibis Mar 19 '19 at 13:24
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@Zaibis: I don't understand what you mean regarding some broken part (the valve that opened during separation?). The question is about whether people have died in space. The answer is: according to the international definition of space being above the Kármán line, three people have died above that height, thus in space. They were dead before the Soyuz descended below the Kármán line. That was during return descent so whether OP wants to consider this as an answer to their question as phrased is up to OP (which is what my last paragraph was about). – DarkDust Mar 19 '19 at 13:44
@DarkDust: Could you send me a valid reference for this? The german article of your linked wiki page says they died DURING reentry. And the english wiki page has no citation for the lethal event having already taken place WHILE preparing the reentry. And in fact, I doubt that it had happened during the preparation, as otherwise the vessel wouldn't have reentered according to plans.I also remember having read sources, that it is uncertain if the casualitie happened already before reentry or while entering the atmosphere. As there wasn't any communication about having problems been sent. – Zaibis Mar 19 '19 at 14:01
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@Zaibis: A valve opened during separation of the Soyuz because explosives fired at the same time instead of one after another. The cosmonauts died within at most 2 minutes after the valve opened. This happened in 168km height. For reference a landing profile of TMA-19: from separation in 140km to 100km takes about 3 minutes. If you have further questions, please ask a question to get more details, comments here are not intended for discussions like these. – DarkDust Mar 19 '19 at 14:31
@DarkDust: I am not discussing, I am informing you that your source isnt trustworthy. And thats nothing I need to ask a seperate question about – Zaibis Mar 19 '19 at 14:35
@The_Sympathizer True for take off and landing - not getting killed in those is a good helping of luck, but that's off topic. When you're in orbit, there's not that many things that will kill you. You're not going to fall and break your neck; you're not going to get hit by the other crazy driver who's doing their hair ... – UKMonkey Mar 19 '19 at 18:01
@Alex: True, but again the safety of a transport method is measured by the actual counts of fatalities that do or do not happen. And in that regard, it is not as safe as terrestrial methods ... although on the other hand, such an average necessarily extends over history, and space travel technology has evolved rapidly over that time. – The_Sympathizer Mar 19 '19 at 19:41
@The_Sympathizer Yes, but that doesn't mean that a fair helping of luck is involved. On the contrary, if you take an average that extends over history, luck becomes less and less of a factor, because you would need ever-increasing amounts. – Alex Mar 21 '19 at 06:12
@The_Sympathizer By a "fair helping of luck" I mean compared to other methods. It's another way of saying that it's still the most dangerous method of transport in terms of odds to die on a particular trip (thus you have to be much luckier to survive). Yes, with improvements, of course - (provided they are made at greater rate than to the other methods) - that helping will diminish, i.e. it will become safer. – The_Sympathizer Mar 21 '19 at 09:39
@The_Sympathizer I know what you meant, but I still disagree. It's not luck, it's expertise that makes the difference, because luck evens out over time. – Alex Mar 22 '19 at 14:11

score 17 · Answer 2 · answered Mar 18 '19 at 20:25

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If you count nonhuman astronauts, then yes, many animals have died in space.Laika was not the first, but was probably the most famous.

answered Mar 18 '19 at 20:25

Ross Presser

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what do you mean, "not the first"? – Hobbes Mar 18 '19 at 20:27
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@Hobbes read animals in space, the link is in the Laika article. – Uwe Mar 18 '19 at 20:46
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If you want to expand the definition to include microbes, there's probably some still living (and dying) aboard the Voyager probes... – Darrel Hoffman Mar 19 '19 at 13:28
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There's also the bunch of plants sent into space. – Nav Mar 19 '19 at 15:12

user45266 · Answer 3 · 2019-03-19T17:24:40.570

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Well, no. I mean, technically, yes, a few have perished on the outer side of the limits of what we define as "space", as User Darkdust notes, but no one's died except during launch and reentry. Definitely no "lost in space" incidents. It all depends on how one defines "space", namely how far the boundary is from the surface (50 miles was considered at at least one point: https://www.livescience.com/63166-outer-space-border-karman-line.html), but no deaths occured in a way that people imagine when they imagine dying in space.

Interestingly, I believe there is one super-deadly week at the end of February and beginning of March that has seen a bunch of fatalities, if I remember correctly.

edited Mar 19 '19 at 17:24

answered Mar 19 '19 at 05:21

user45266

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Can you add some more detail and some sources for these claims? At the moment, it's just "Trust me, I'm an anonymous person on the internet!" Who are these "few" who have "technically" died in space? How might one define "space". If you found some actual data, we wouldn't have to care about the quality of your memory about late February and early March. – David Richerby Mar 19 '19 at 13:13
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Don't worry, just extend the answer with facts and references what you can hunt on the Internet anywhere. – peterh Mar 19 '19 at 13:52
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@DavidRicherby My answer was ruined by a glitch halfway through writing it, and when I rewrote it, I forgot to recite that claim. – user45266 Mar 19 '19 at 17:25

Have any astronauts/cosmonauts died in space?

3 Answers3