Soviet-era cosmonaut Vyacheslav Zudov, who survived only Soyuz splashdown, dies (2024)

Soviet-era cosmonaut Vyacheslav Zudov, whose failed docking with a Russian space station ended with the first and only emergency splashdown in a Soyuz spacecraft, has died at the age of 82.

Zudov's death on Wednesday (June 12) was reported by Roscosmos, Russia's federal space corporation.

"[His] two-day spaceflight became, without exaggeration, dramatic," read a statement from the space agency. "The landing of 'Radon' (the call sign that the cosmonaut chose for himself) turned out to be no less dangerous."

The Soviet Union developed the Soyuz to touch down on land, using a main parachute and braking thrusters to provide a "soft" landing. Cosmonauts did train for contingency water landings, but such a splashdown had yet to occur.

Soyuz 23 targeted a landing near its launch site at the Baikonur Cosmodrome (today in Kazakhstan), but the weather did not cooperate and the spacecraft came down 1.2 miles (2 kilometers) off the shore of Lake Tengiz, which, in mid-October, had already partially frozen over. Complicating matters, the Soyuz's main parachute did not separate and its reserve canopy inadvertently deployed. Once saturated, both chutes acted like an anchor, pulling the capsule below the water.

Although rescue teams were able to reach the site, the local conditions delayed their ability to access the capsule. Zudov and Rozhdestvensky had to power down and remain inside the spacecraft for several hours until their descent module could be hauled out of the water and onto solid land.

Zudov and Rozhdestvensky were cold but healthy. They logged a total of 2 days and 6 minutes in space.

Vyacheslav Dmitriyevich Zudov was born on Jan. 8, 1942 in Bor, a town on the left bank of the Volga River across from Nizhny Novgorod in Russia. He graduated from the Higher Military Pilot School in Balashov in 1963 and became a military transport pilot in the Soviet Air Force.

In addition to his own Soyuz 23 mission, Zudov served as backup commander for the Soyuz 15, Soyuz 21, Soyuz 35 and Soyuz T-4 missions before he retired from the cosmonaut corps on May 14, 1987.

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For his service to the space program, Zudov was named Hero of the Soviet Union and awarded the Order of Lenin, among other honors.

Zudov was married to Nina Nikitina and together they had two daughters, Natalya and Yelena. He was preceded in death by his Soyuz 23 crewmate, Rozhdestvensky, who died in 2011.

A memorial service for Zudov will be held Friday (June 14) at the Federal Military Memorial Cemetery, a national cemetery of Russia, located on the northeastern outskirts of Moscow.

Robert Z. Pearlman

collectSPACE.com Editor, Space.com Contributor

Robert Pearlman is a space historian, journalist and the founder and editor of collectSPACE.com, an online publication and community devoted to space history with a particular focus on how and where space exploration intersects with pop culture. Pearlman is also a contributing writer for Space.com and co-author of "Space Stations: The Art, Science, and Reality of Working in Space” published by Smithsonian Books in 2018. He previously developed online content for the National Space Society and Apollo 11 moonwalker Buzz Aldrin, helped establish the space tourism company Space Adventures and currently serves on the History Committee of the American Astronautical Society, the advisory committee for The Mars Generation and leadership board of For All Moonkind. In 2009, he was inducted into the U.S. Space Camp Hall of Fame in Huntsville, Alabama. In 2021, he was honored by the American Astronautical Society with the Ordway Award for Sustained Excellence in Spaceflight History.