Nationality Soviet Name Viktor Patsayev Other occupation Engineer Awards First space flight Soyuz 11 | Time in space 23d 18h 21m Space missions Soyuz 11 Status Died during mission Role Cosmonaut | |
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Born 19 June 1933
Aktyubinsk, Kazakh SSR, Soviet Union ( 1933-06-19 ) Selection 1968 USSR Civilian Specialist Group 3 Died June 30, 1971, Karaganda, Kazakhstan Similar People Georgy Dobrovolsky, Vladislav Volkov, Kliment Voroshilov, Andrei Grechko, Semyon Timoshenko | ||
Viktor Ivanovich Patsayev (Russian: Ви́ктор Ива́нович Паца́ев; 19 June 1933 – 30 June 1971) was a Soviet cosmonaut who flew on the Soyuz 11 mission and was part of the second crew to die during a space flight. On board the space station Salyut 1 he operated the Orion 1 Space Observatory (see Orion 1 and Orion 2 Space Observatories), he became the first man to operate a telescope outside the Earth’s atmosphere.
After a normal re-entry, the capsule was opened and the crew was found dead. 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. One of Patsayev's hands was found to be bruised, and he may have been trying to shut the valve manually at the time he lost consciousness.
Patsayev's ashes were inturned in the Kremlin Wall on the Red Square in Moscow. He was posthumously awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union, the Order of Lenin and the title of Pilot-Cosmonaut of the USSR. The lunar crater Patsaev and the minor planet 1791 Patsayev are named for him.