1969: Two Soviet spacecraft rendezvous in orbit and transfer cosmonauts, marking the first time spacefarers go up in one craft and return to Earth in another.

Soyuz 4 lifted off from Baikonur Cosmodrome on Jan. 14 with Commander Vladimir Shatalov flying solo. Soyuz 5 followed a day later, carrying three cosmonauts: Boris Volynov, Aleksei Yaliseyev and Eugeni Khrunov.

The mission, with the docking and transfer as its centerpiece, was undertaken as part of the experimental run-up to a Soviet lunar mission, which never came off, and as a dress rehearsal for the establishment of a permanent space station, which did. Soyuz 4 was the active vehicle in the docking maneuver, which went off without a hitch.

After conducting various scientific experiments, running tests of both vehicles' on-board systems, and evaluating the docking procedure, Yaliseyev and Khrunov donned their space suits, bid Comrade Pilot Volynov a hearty farewell and joined Shatalov in Soyuz 4. They would be very glad they did.

The vehicles separated on Jan. 17, and Soyuz 4 enjoyed an uneventful return to Earth after making 48 orbits of our watery blue sphere. Volynov remained in orbit for another day and headed home on the 18th after notching 49 go-rounds.

To say that Volynov experienced one of the roughest re-entries in the history of space flight (at least by anyone who lived to tell the tale) is to say the least. Soyuz 5's service module failed to detach at retrofire, causing the vehicle to assume an aerodynamic position that left the heat shield pointed the wrong way as it re-entered the atmosphere. The only thing standing between Volynov and a fiery death was the command module's thin hatch cover.

The interior of Volynov's capsule filled with noxious fumes as the gaskets sealing the hatch started to burn, and it got very hot in there (which, a short time later was something he probably missed). Luckily for the cosmonaut, the stress and heat being generated outside the spacecraft caused the connecting struts on the service module to finally give way. When they did, Volynov's module, now freed, immediately corrected its position so that the heat shield faced in the right direction.

But wait. There's more.

In the chaos of re-entry, some of Soyuz 5's parachute cables fouled, resulting in only a partial chute deployment. Just to ice the cake a bit, the soft-landing rockets failed, too, so Volynov was very aware of impact when his hardy Soyuz module plowed into the earth. It hit the ground so hard, in fact, that Volynov broke his teeth.

But wait. There's more.

Given that the entire re-entry-and-landing process was pretty well botched, it's perhaps unsurprising that Volynov came down well short of the intended landing area. In fact, he landed in the Ural Mountains, where he was greeted by a local temperature measuring a brisk minus 36 degrees Fahrenheit With rescue several hours away at best, our intrepid cosmonaut decided to hoof it for safety. He plodded a few kilometers before finding a cheery fire and a brimming samovar in the cottage of a welcoming peasant.

But wait. There's still more.

You'd think that after all this, the guy might be tempted to call it a career. But no, not our Volynov. He returned to space seven years later as commander of Soyuz 21 and spent 18 days aboard the Salyut space station.

Source: Various