This was the first human to die in a space flight: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vladimir_Komarov https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vladimir_Komarov Apparently the

This was the first human to die in a space flight: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vladimir_Komarov https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vladimir_Komarov Apparently the USSR told the story as: he kept sending back scientific data up to the last moment. PS. They definitely hid some of their failures, but I don't think it would have been possible with loss of life involved.