Mysterious Death

Didn’t know he died from a Mig 15 crash and not a rocket faliure

He died while riding tandem in a MiG-15 UTI Midget.

He did, but even with "investigations" the cause has been questioned....Soviet officials never gave a reason so

I don't know exactly what the circumstances are, but MiG-15's have a pretty interesting habit of losing control and falling out of the sky, because their wings were too thick for the speed and altitude they were built to fly at. They addressed and fixed these problems with the MiG-17.

This is true, but, it's standard conspiracy theories about Soviets covering something up that inspired the meme

Also, I really wish the CIA would have leapt on the opportunity to play John Denver's Leaving on a Jet Plane to the USSR during that period of mourning. Yes, it would've been in extremely poor taste, but it would've been hilarious.