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

Black and white photo of a smiling man in a spacesuit.

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 Soyuz 23 descent module, dragging its parachute, is lifted by helicopter out of the icy Lake Tengiz in October 1976. (Image credit: Roscosmos)