Soyuz 5, a Soviet Union mission using the Soyuz 7K-OK spacecraft, launched on January 15, 1969 on a successful mission that would be capped off by a dramatic re-entry.

Commander Boris Volynov was the pilot of Soyuz 5, which carried flight engineers Aleksei Yeliseyev and Yevgeny Khrunov as crew to be transferred to the Soyuz 4 for re-entry.

As planned, Soyuz 5 docked with Soyuz 4 in orbit, marking the first-ever docking of two manned spacecraft. This was also the first-ever transfer of crew from one space vehicle to another and the only time a transfer was accomplished with a spacewalk, two months before the Apollo 9 performed the first ever internal crew transfer.

Upon Soyuz 5’s re-entry, the craft’s service module did not separate. It entered the atmosphere nose-first, leaving Volynov hanging by his restraining straps.

When Soyuz 5 aerobraked, the atmosphere burned through the module. Luckily, the descent module was able to right itself before the escape hatch was burned through, with the heat shield forward to take the brunt of re-entry. Then, adding to the spectacle, the craft’s parachute lines tangled and the landing rockets failed, resulting in a hard landing – so hard that it broke Volynov’s teeth.

The capsule came down in the Ural Mountains, southwest of Kustani, near Orenburg, Russia, and far from its target landing site in Kazakhstan. Stepping out of the craft, Volynov found the local temperature at −38º C (−36º F). Knowing rescue teams were hours away, Volynov abandoned the capsule and walked to find shelter at a nearby house.

Volynov flew again on Soyuz 21 seven years later.

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Editor’s note: This article was originally posted on January 15, 2013 and edited on January 15, 2019.