Fasten your seatbelts

I have been on bumpy rides, although never anything really scary. Not so for an early sixties cosmonaut:

Routine turned harrowing on reentry, however, when the Soyuz 5 service module failed to separate from the descent module after retrofire. The craft reentering the atmosphere was much larger than it should have been and as aerobraking began it sought the most aerodynamically stable position possible. Unfortunately for Volynov, that position was nose forward into the air stream, leaving only the light metal entry hatch between him and certain death. The heat generated by reentry began melting the gaskets sealing the hatch, filling the module with dangerous fumes.

Cliffhanger!