23 May 2026

In April 1967, Soviet cosmonaut Vladimir Komarov flew the Soyuz 1 spacecraft knowing engineers had flagged hundreds of design flaws. He reportedly volunteered because his backup was Yuri Gagarin, whom he refused to let die. When the parachutes failed on reentry, Komarov became the first human to die in spaceflight. The state held an open-casket funeral: photographs show a mass of charred bone.