<P> NASA astronauts who died on duty are memorialized at the Space Mirror Memorial at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in Merritt Island, Florida . Cosmonauts who died on duty under the Soviet Union were generally honored by burial at the Kremlin Wall Necropolis in Moscow . No Soviet or Russian cosmonauts have died during spaceflight since 1971 . </P> <P> Four fatal in - flight accidents have occurred on missions which were considered spaceflights under the internationally accepted definition of the term, as well as one on the ground during rehearsal of a planned flight . In each case, all crew were killed . To date, no individual member of a multi-member crew has died during a mission or rehearsal . </P> <Table> <Tr> <Th> Date </Th> <Th> Incident </Th> <Th> Mission </Th> <Th> Fatalities </Th> <Th> Description </Th> </Tr> <Tr> <Td> 1967 - 04 - 24 </Td> <Td> Parachute failure </Td> <Td> Soyuz 1 </Td> <Td> Vladimir Komarov </Td> <Td> 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 . <P> 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 . </P> </Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Td> 1971 - 06 - 30 </Td> <Td> Decompression </Td> <Td> Soyuz 11 </Td> <Td> Georgi Dobrovolski Viktor Patsayev Vladislav Volkov </Td> <Td> 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 . <P> 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 . </P> </Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Td> 1986 - 01 - 28 </Td> <Td> Vehicle disintegration during launch--Space Shuttle Challenger disaster </Td> <Td> STS - 51 - L </Td> <Td> Gregory Jarvis Christa McAuliffe Ronald McNair Ellison Onizuka Judith Resnik Michael J. Smith Dick Scobee </Td> <Td> 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 . </Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Td> 2003 - 02 - 01 </Td> <Td> Vehicle disintegration on re-entry--Space Shuttle Columbia disaster </Td> <Td> STS - 107 </Td> <Td> Rick D. Husband William McCool Michael P. Anderson David M. Brown Kalpana Chawla Laurel B. Clark Ilan Ramon </Td> <Td> 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 . <P> The vehicle broke up over the southwestern United States and fell in fragments over eastern Texas and central Louisiana . </P> </Td> </Tr> </Table> <Tr> <Th> Date </Th> <Th> Incident </Th> <Th> Mission </Th> <Th> Fatalities </Th> <Th> Description </Th> </Tr>

Who was the first astronaut to die in space