In article ,
says...

So was talking with some folks about the Soyuz leak and someone joked about
finding who made the hole and sending him to Siberia or something like that.
I joked, "No, it'll be more like, 'Congrats Comrade, you've just earned a
seat on the next Soyuz flight'"

This was invoked by a memory of Vokshod 1.
I knew it was a ballsy flight, basically a Vostok without the ejection seat,
3 seats, and no space suits.

But reading up at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voskhod_1 I came across a
detail I had not heard before (or had missed).
There was NO launch escape system during the first 3 minutes of the flight.

I guess the shuttle wasn't the first.

Interesting.

Yea, that flight was to make sure they were the first to fly three
crewmembers on one vehicle. Pure publicity stunt to show they were
ahead of the Americans.

Of course the US safety record during those early years of spaceflight
was not much better. The "waste anything but time" mantra also meant
glossing over safety issues when it was expediant. Knee jerk reactions
like making Apollo Block I's hatch open inward "solved" one safey issue
while creating another and that was hardly the only issue with the Block
I's. Also, using a pure O2 atmosphere for a ground test at a relatively
high pressure was insanity.

RIP Grissom, White, and Chaffee.

Jeff
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