Soyuz 11 carried the first crew to orbit a space station, reaching the Soviet Salyut 1 in 1971.
The spacecraft launched on June 6, 1971, with Georgy Dobrovolsky, Vladislav Volkov, and Viktor Patsayev aboard. The crew docked with Salyut 1, the first space station, and lived there for 23 days—the first long-duration occupation of a space station.
Soyuz 11’s return ended in tragedy. During preparations for reentry on June 30, a cabin pressure valve opened prematurely, causing the crew to die from decompression before the capsule reached Earth. Because they wore no pressure suits, they could not survive the loss of cabin air.
Soyuz 10 had reached Salyut 1 earlier but failed to complete a crewed occupation after docking problems. The Soyuz spacecraft was subsequently redesigned so crews could wear pressure suits during critical launch and landing phases.