How many people have died in space?

Much less than you think.

There’s no other definition other than: space is trying to kill you.

Space truly poses a threat to humans, and the airless void, radiation, and various rocks and space debris circling the Earth’s orbit are proof of this. Yet, we tirelessly continue to expand our habitat and explore this inherently dangerous place.

The most astonishing thing about all this is that in more than 50 years of human exploration, only three people have died.

Of course, the caveat here is that everything depends on the definition of «space» from the perspective of a person on planet Earth.

If you look at this question from a technical perspective, space begins beyond the Karman line. This imaginary line, the boundary between the Earth’s atmosphere and outer space, also serves as the upper boundary of states. It is located at an altitude of 100 kilometers above sea level.

By this formal definition, most spaceflight fatalities occurred not in space itself, but in the Earth’s atmosphere.

Nevertheless, three people did die in space, although they occurred during reentry to Earth, not during the mission itself.

The crew of Soyuz 11 perished on June 30, 1971, above the Karman line. This occurred due to depressurization of the descent module at high altitude. The spacecraft was not designed for spacesuits for the crew. The outer space killed the crew in less than a minute.

Meanwhile, the spacecraft itself performed a flawless automatic landing.

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