On April 19, 1971, the Soviet Union successfully placed Salyut, the world’s first space station, into orbit marking a significant advancement in human spaceflight capabilities, as it was designed for a 6-month on-orbit operational lifetime. The mission took a tragic turn when the cosmonauts Georgi T. Dobrovolski, Vladislav N. Volkov, and Viktor I. Patsayev embarked on a record-setting 24-day mission but faced an end due to the sudden depressurization of their Soyuz 11 spacecraft just before reentry into the Earth’s atmosphere. Despite the loss of the crew, the legacy of…